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ROAS Calculator

Revenue per unit of ad spend, the ACOS that is the same figure inverted, and the spend a target ROAS allows.

✓ Recalculates as you type✓ The formula is printed on the page✓ Your figures never leave the tab

Campaign totals

Use the same period for both figures, and the same currency throughout.

Revenue attributed currencyAd spend currency

Target ROAS×

Method

The arithmetic

Return on ad spend is one division: attributed revenue over the spend that produced it. ACOS — advertising cost of sale — is the same relationship read the other way round, as the percentage of revenue the advertising consumed, so the two always multiply to 100. The third figure inverts the question: at this revenue, the most you could spend and still land on your target ROAS.

ROAS = revenue ÷ ad spend · ACOS% = 100 ÷ ROAS · spend allowed = revenue ÷ target ROAS

Worked example

One run through the numbers

A campaign attributed with 18,000 of revenue on 4,500 of spend returns a ROAS of 4.0, which is an ACOS of 25%: a quarter of the revenue went back into the ads. Aiming for a ROAS of 5.0 on the same revenue would mean holding spend to 3,600.

Swap in your own figures — the result recalculates as you type.

Before you act on this

Where this number misleads

ROAS is measured on revenue, so it cannot tell you whether the campaign made money. A ROAS of 4.0 is a loss at a 20% gross margin and a profit at 40%. The threshold that answers the question is the break-even ROAS, which comes straight from your margin.
ROAS and ACOS are the same number. If a platform quotes 25% ACOS and a report quotes 4.0 ROAS, nobody is disagreeing — the product of the two is always 100, so there is no extra information in the second figure.
The word doing the work is attributed. Change the attribution window or the model and the revenue figure moves without a single thing changing in the campaign itself. Two ROAS figures are only comparable if they were measured the same way.
Blended ROAS — all revenue over all spend — and platform-reported ROAS answer different questions and rarely agree. Platform figures claim credit for conversions the visitor might have made anyway; blended figures credit the ads with sales that came from elsewhere.
A high ROAS on a tiny spend is not a finding. It usually means the campaign is capturing people who were already going to buy, and it often falls as soon as the budget scales — which is exactly what the ad budget calculator is for testing before you commit.

Asked often

ROAS Calculator: questions that come up

What is the difference between ROAS and ROI?

ROAS divides revenue by ad spend. ROI divides profit by total cost, so it takes the cost of goods, fulfilment, and everything else out first. ROAS is the faster number to read and the easier one to misread, because it is always the larger of the two.

Is ROAS a ratio or a percentage?

Both conventions are in use. A ROAS of 4.0 and a ROAS of 400% mean the same thing. This tool shows the ratio, because it makes the comparison to break-even — also a ratio — a direct one.

How do I turn ACOS into ROAS?

Divide 100 by the ACOS. An ACOS of 25% is a ROAS of 4.0, and an ACOS of 50% is a ROAS of 2.0. The relationship is fixed, so no other input is needed.

Should returns be taken out of the revenue figure?

Yes, if you can. Revenue that comes back as a refund was never revenue, and on categories where returns are common, leaving them in can move the figure enough to flip a campaign from profitable to not.

Carry on

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