What Is a Good ROAS for Google Ads?
There is no single good number. A good ROAS is any figure above the break-even point set by your profit margin. Here is how to find yours.
ROAS in one line
Return on ad spend tells you how much revenue each unit of ad cost brings back.
If you spend 1,000 and the ads bring in 4,000 in sales, your ROAS is 4x. That sounds strong, but the number only means something once you compare it with your margin.
Why "4x" is not always good
Advice like "aim for 4x" ignores how much of each sale you keep. Revenue is not profit. A shop that keeps 20% of every sale needs a much higher ROAS than one that keeps 60%.
Profit margin here means what is left from a sale after product cost, shipping and fees, but before ad spend. Below this ROAS you lose money on every click.
| Profit margin | Break-even ROAS | ROAS for 30% profit on ad spend |
|---|---|---|
| 10% | 10.00x | 13.00x |
| 20% | 5.00x | 6.50x |
| 30% | 3.33x | 4.33x |
| 40% | 2.50x | 3.25x |
| 50% | 2.00x | 2.60x |
| 60% | 1.67x | 2.17x |
The third column uses (1 + 0.30) ÷ margin. Swap in the return you want and the table updates the same way.
A worked example
Example store, one month
- Ad spend
- 3,000
- Revenue from ads
- 9,600
- ROAS
- 3.20x
- Profit margin
- 40%
- Break-even ROAS
- 2.50x
- Profit before ads
- 3,840
- Profit after ads
- 840
A 3.2x ROAS clears the 2.5x break-even point, so this store earns 840 after ad cost. At a 25% margin the same 3.2x would lose money, because break-even there is 4x.
Three ways to raise ROAS
- Lower your cost per click. Add negative keywords, tighten match types and improve ad relevance so your Quality Score rises.
- Raise your conversion rate. Match the landing page to the search, load fast on mobile and make the next step obvious.
- Raise order value. Bundles, minimum-spend shipping offers and upsells lift revenue from the same click.
What to do next
Work out your own break-even ROAS from the formula above, then compare it with your account's real ROAS over the last 30 days. If you are under, fix CPC or conversion rate before raising budget. If you are comfortably over, scaling spend is usually the next move.
Skip the manual maths: put your numbers into the Google Ads ROAS & Break-Even Calculator. Then read How to Calculate Break-Even CPA and compare your cost per click with the CPC benchmarks by industry.