Andrew Nave
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Is your ad spend actually profitable?

ROAS measures revenue, not profit, so a "good" ROAS can still lose money once margin and incrementality are accounted for. Enter three numbers to see your real break-even ROAS and what's actually left after ad spend. No email, no signup.

60%
Advanced: incrementality
0%

Discounts revenue the ads didn't truly cause (existing demand, brand searches, repeat buyers). Raises your true break-even ROAS.

Profitable
You're 80% above break-even. Every $1 of spend returns $1.80 in gross profit.
Current ROAS
3.00×
revenue ÷ ad spend
Break-even ROAS
1.67×
1 ÷ margin
Profit after ad spend
$16,000
/ month · gross
Headroom to break-even
+80%
how far above (or below)

Gross contribution before fixed costs and creative/agency fees, a planning estimate, not accounting. The honest caveat: platform-reported revenue usually over-credits ads, which is exactly what the incrementality slider and server-side tracking are for.

How to read these numbers

Break-even ROAS = 1 ÷ gross margin. At a 60% margin, you need a 1.67× return on every ad dollar just to cover the cost of the goods you sold. Anything above that contributes profit; anything below quietly loses money even if the dashboard shows a "positive" ROAS.

Why ROAS alone misleads

ROAS is a revenue ratio, so it ignores margin entirely. A 4× ROAS on a 20% margin product is underwater (break-even is 5×), while a 2× ROAS on an 80% margin product is comfortably profitable (break-even 1.25×). Always compare current ROAS to your break-even, not a generic benchmark.

The incrementality gap

Ad platforms count conversions they touched, including buyers who'd have purchased anyway. If 20–40% of "attributed" revenue isn't incremental, your true break-even ROAS is meaningfully higher than the textbook formula. The advanced slider lets you stress-test that, and it's the single biggest reason rising ad spend stops turning into revenue, covered in Why your ad spend isn't turning into revenue.

Fixing this is core to paid media management and attribution & reporting, making the reported number match the real one.