Is Your Google Ads ROAS Actually Profitable?
Most luxury brands are optimising for the wrong number. The ROAS in your Google Ads dashboard doesn't account for cost of goods, returns, payment processing, or shipping, which means campaigns that look profitable often aren't. This calculator strips all of that back and gives you the one number that matters: the ROAS you need to beat before you make a single pound of real profit.
How to Use Your Break-Even ROAS
Once you know your true break-even, you have a defensible benchmark to hold your campaigns — and your agency, accountable to. A healthy buffer is 30% above break-even. If your reported ROAS is below that threshold, the priority is understanding why before spending more.
If you're not sure where your margins or return rates are going, a Google Ads account audit is usually the fastest way to find out. No7. Digital works exclusively with premium and luxury e-commerce brands — we don't take on accounts we can't improve.
Why Standard ROAS Benchmarks Don't Apply to Luxury Brands
A mass-market retailer running at 4x ROAS might be highly profitable. A fine jewellery brand at the same number could be breaking even or worse. The difference is margin structure — luxury products carry higher AOVs but also higher return handling costs, lower conversion rates, and often more complex fulfilment. The benchmarks in this calculator are built specifically for premium categories, not pulled from generic industry reports.
"The number in your Google Ads dashboard is a signal. Your break-even ROAS is the truth."
FAQs
What is break-even ROAS?Break-even ROAS is the minimum return on ad spend you need to cover every cost associated with an ad-driven sale, including product cost, shipping, returns, payment processing, and ad spend itself. Anything below this number means you're losing money on every order you generate through paid search.
Why is my true break-even higher than I expected?Most calculators ignore returns. For premium fashion or homeware brands, a 15–20% return rate with unrecoverable stock can add significantly to your per-order cost. When you factor in payment processing and outbound shipping on top, the gap between reported ROAS and true break-even can be 0.5–1.5x wider than most brands realise.
Should I include my agency fee?Yes — toggle on Advanced Settings. Your agency fee is a real cost of acquiring each customer through paid search. Including it gives you the true all-in break-even and prevents you from scaling campaigns that are profitable on paper but loss-making in practice.