Marketing OS
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Break-even ROAS calculator

The return on ad spend below which every sale loses money.

Break-even ROAS

1.60×

Every $1 of ad spend has to bring back $1.60 in revenue before you make a cent. Below that, every sale costs you money.

Contribution per order

$75.00

What one order leaves behind for ads and profit.

Contribution margin

62.5%

Break-even cost per order

$75.00

The most you can pay to acquire one order.

This covers the product only. Add your fixed monthly costs and ad spend above to get the ROAS that keeps the whole business above water.

Knowing the number is the easy half

Marketing OS holds this break-even as a floor your campaigns are graded against every day — and refuses any budget change or new campaign that would push spend below it, before the call is even made.

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How this is worked out

Break-even ROAS is AOV ÷ (AOV − cost of goods). If an order brings in $120 and costs $45 to fulfil, $75 is left for advertising and profit, so you need $120 back for every $75 you can afford to spend — 1.6×.

Adding fixed monthly costs multiplies that by 1 + (fixed costs ÷ ad spend). Rent and salaries do not scale with orders, so the more of them advertising has to carry, the higher the return each ad has to clear.

This is the same function Marketing OS uses internally — it is what a campaign’s colour coding is graded against, and it is the floor a spend guardrail refuses to cross.

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