Shopify Facebook Ad ROI Calculator

1. Choose Actual if you already have campaign results, or Forecast to estimate them from cost per click, conversion rate and average order value.
2. Enter the ad spend, then either the revenue and orders (Actual) or the click and conversion figures (Forecast).
3. Enter your product cost as a percentage, your own fee rate and any per-order costs. Read ROAS, ROI, break-even ROAS and profit per order.

Here is what each result means:

Ad ROI is the profit an ad campaign earns compared with what it costs. For an online store, that means the money left after product cost, payment and platform fees, shipping and the ads themselves.

Ad platforms usually report ROAS, which counts revenue, not profit. A campaign with a 2x ROAS doubles its spend in sales, but if the products and fees eat 60 percent of each sale, the campaign still loses money. ROI and break-even ROAS turn the platform figure into a profit answer.

This page is for store owners who run paid social ads, including Shopify stores advertising on Facebook, but the same maths works for any store and any ad channel.

It finds revenue and orders, subtracts every variable cost you enter, and compares what is left with the ad spend.

1. Revenue and orders. Actual mode uses your figures. Forecast mode works out clicks = spend / CPC, orders = clicks x conversion rate and revenue = orders x average order value.
2. Variable costs. Product cost and fees are percentages of revenue; fixed fees and shipping are amounts per order.
3. Contribution margin. Revenue minus those variable costs is the contribution each sale makes toward ad spend and profit.
4. Break-even ROAS. Ads break even when ad spend equals contribution. Since contribution = revenue x margin, the break-even point is revenue / spend = 1 / margin.

Suppose a store spends $1,000 on ads and gets 40 orders worth $3,200. Product cost is 35%, fees total 4% of revenue (an example figure), and shipping and packaging cost $6 per order.

Variable costs: 3,200 x 35% = $1,120, plus 3,200 x 4% = $128, plus 40 x $6 = $240, for $1,488. Contribution: 3,200 - 1,488 = $1,712, a 53.5% margin.

Results: ROAS = 3,200 / 1,000 = 3.20x. Profit = 1,712 - 1,000 = $712, so ROI = 71.2% and profit per order = $17.80. Break-even ROAS = 1 / 0.535 = 1.87x, and the break-even CPA is $42.80 against an actual CPA of $25.00.

Now a weaker campaign: $500 of spend, 15 orders, $900 of revenue and a 45% product cost. ROAS is 1.80x, which looks positive, but break-even is 2.44x, so the campaign loses $131.

Break-even ROAS depends only on margin, so anything that changes margin moves the target.

Product Cost

Higher product cost lowers contribution and raises break-even ROAS. At a 70% contribution margin, break-even is 1.43x; at 30%, it is 3.33x. The margin calculator helps find your gross margin per product.

Fees and Shipping

Payment, platform and app fees, plus shipping you do not charge the customer, all come out of every sale. Enter the rates from your own statements rather than a typical figure.

Average Order Value

Per-order costs such as shipping weigh more on small orders. Raising average order value with bundles spreads them over more revenue.

Attribution

Ad platforms credit sales using their own attribution windows and rules. Revenue reported by the platform can be higher or lower than the sales your store records for the same period.

ROAS measures sales efficiency, ROI measures profit, and break-even ROAS tells you which ROAS is good enough for your margins.

A campaign is profitable when ROAS beats break-even ROAS, or when CPA is below break-even CPA; the two tests always agree. For a wider view across projects, the profit calculator works from total revenue and costs.

Checking a Live Campaign

Pull spend, orders and revenue from your reports for the same dates and run Actual mode. The verdict shows whether the campaign is above break-even.

Planning a Test Budget

Forecast mode shows what cost per click and conversion rate you need before spending. Try a lower conversion rate to see how much room for error you have.

Setting a Target for Your Ad Manager

Give the break-even ROAS, plus a margin for profit, as the minimum target. The markup calculator helps if you need to reprice products to make the ads work.

1. Treating ROAS as Profit

A 2x ROAS is not a 100% profit. After product cost and fees, a 2x ROAS can still be a loss.

2. Using One ROAS Target for Every Product

Each product has its own margin, so each has its own break-even ROAS. A target that works for a high-margin item can lose money on a low-margin one.

3. Forgetting Fees and Shipping

Leaving out payment fees, app costs or free shipping inflates contribution and lowers the break-even ROAS you think you need.

4. Mixing Date Ranges

Spend from one week and revenue from another give a false ROAS. Use the same dates for every figure.

5. Trusting Platform Revenue Alone

Attribution rules differ between platforms, so compare platform revenue with store sales before deciding.

6. Ignoring Repeat Purchases

A first order that just breaks even can still pay off if customers buy again. This calculator covers the first order only.

The calculator is exact for the figures entered, but its answer is only as good as the revenue and costs you attribute to the ads.

A good ROAS is any ROAS above your own break-even ROAS. With a 53.5 percent contribution margin that is anything over 1.87x; with a 30 percent margin you need more than 3.33x.

Divide 1 by your contribution margin. Contribution margin is revenue minus product cost, fees and per-order costs, divided by revenue.

ROAS divides revenue by ad spend and ignores costs. ROI subtracts product cost, fees and ad spend first, then divides the profit by ad spend.

Yes. A ROAS of 1.8x loses money whenever break-even ROAS is higher, for example 2.44x on a 41 percent contribution margin.

Enter the combined rate from your own statements, including payment processing, platform and app fees. Rates differ by plan, country and provider, so the tool has none built in.

Use Forecast mode. Clicks are spend divided by CPC, orders are clicks times conversion rate, and revenue is orders times average order value.

Yes. The maths is the same for any ad channel, as long as you use spend, revenue and orders from the same dates.

Break-even CPA is the contribution per order: the most you can spend in ads to win one order before that order loses money.

Ad platforms use their own attribution windows and may count revenue differently from your store. Research from the Kellogg School notes there is no single standard ROAS method.

No. The calculation runs entirely in your browser. Nothing is sent to our servers, and anything you choose to Save stays in this browser only.

• Return on ad spend (ROAS): formula and pitfalls (Corporate Finance Institute).
• Return on investment (ROI) formula (Corporate Finance Institute).
• Contribution margin ratio and break-even analysis (Corporate Finance Institute).
• Are your ads truly paying off? ROAS methods differ (Kellogg Insight, Northwestern University).