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POAS calculator

Find out what your ads return in profit, not just revenue. POAS above 1.0 means the ads pay for themselves out of your margin.

Order revenue credited to your campaigns, after discounts and refunds
What the sold products cost you
Shipping labels, packaging, pick and pack
Card and PayPal fees, marketplace fees, per-order apps
What you paid the ad platforms in the same period
POAS
1.75
Profit after ads
4,500
Gross profit
10,500
ROAS
3.33
Break-even ROAS
1.90

Every 1 you spend on ads brings back 1.75 in gross profit, so these ads are profitable.

How to calculate POAS

POAS (profit on ad spend) divides the margin your ads earned by what they cost:

Gross profitRevenue − product costs − shipping and handling − payment fees
POASGross profit ÷ ad spend
Profit after adsGross profit − ad spend
Break-even ROASRevenue ÷ gross profit

With the example numbers above, the ads brought 20,000 in revenue. After 7,000 in products, 1,800 in shipping and 700 in fees, 10,500 is left. That is a POAS of 10,500 ÷ 6,000 = 1.75: each 1 of ad spend returned 1.75 in margin, and the campaigns made 4,500 after ads.

What is a good POAS?

Break-even is exactly 1.0: the margin covers the ad spend and nothing more. Above 1.0 the ads add profit; below it they lose money before you pay for staff, software and rent. A first order can sit below 1.0 on purpose if repeat purchases make up for it, which is why it helps to look at lifetime value next to POAS.

POAS vs ROAS

ROAS only looks at revenue. Two campaigns with the same ROAS can have very different POAS if one sells low-margin products or ships heavy parcels. Read more in What is POAS? or check your revenue numbers with the ROAS calculator.

Track POAS automatically

ROASaurus calculates POAS per campaign from your real orders, product costs, shipping rules and payment fees, and can send each order's profit before ads to Meta so it optimises for profit instead of revenue. See profit analytics.

FAQ

Questions, answered

What is the POAS formula?

POAS = gross profit ÷ ad spend, where gross profit is revenue minus product costs, shipping and handling, and payment fees.

What POAS do I need to break even?

A POAS of 1.0. At that point the margin from the orders exactly pays for the ads. Anything above 1.0 is profit before fixed costs.

Is POAS the same as ROAS?

No. ROAS divides revenue by ad spend. POAS divides the margin left after variable costs by ad spend, so it shows whether ads make money.

Should I include fixed costs?

Not in POAS. Salaries, software and rent do not change per order. Leave them out so POAS shows what each campaign contributes, then cover fixed costs from the total.

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