Help & formulas

AdMargins only uses standard, well-known formulas. Nothing is estimated or guessed. If a number can’t be calculated from what you entered, you’ll see “—” and the reason.

Brand profit (imported ad data)

Ad spend: From the ad platform: amount spent / cost
What was spent on ads in this period.
Revenue: From the ad platform: purchase / conversion value
Revenue the ad platform attributes to these ads, before refunds.
Purchases: From the ad platform: purchases / conversions
Orders the ad platform attributes to these ads.
ROAS: Revenue ÷ Ad spend
Revenue for every 1 spent on ads. It ignores costs, so compare it with break-even ROAS.
Break-even ROAS: 1 ÷ Contribution margin
The ROAS where profit is exactly zero after product costs, fees, refunds and fulfilment.
Target ROAS: 1 ÷ (Contribution margin − Target margin × (1 − Refund rate))
The ROAS needed to keep the brand’s target profit margin.
POAS: Contribution ÷ Ad spend
Gross profit generated for every 1 spent on ads. Above 1× the ads make money; below 1× they lose money.
Refunds & returns: Revenue × Refund rate
Revenue expected to be refunded.
Net revenue: Revenue − Refunds
Revenue actually kept after refunds.
Product costs: Net revenue × Product cost %
What the products sold cost. Returned items are assumed to go back into stock.
Payment fees: Revenue × Payment fee %
Processor fees on all orders. Most processors keep them when an order is refunded.
Fulfilment: Purchases × Fulfilment per order
Shipping, packing and handling for every order.
Gross profit: Net revenue − Product costs − Payment fees − Fulfilment
What the sales leave to pay for ads and profit (contribution).
Profit: Gross profit − Ad spend
What these ads actually earned after every variable cost.
Profit margin: Profit ÷ Net revenue
How much of every sale is kept as profit.
Contribution margin: Gross profit ÷ Revenue
Share of each unit of revenue left to pay for ads and profit.
AOV: Revenue ÷ Purchases
Average value of one order.
CPA: Ad spend ÷ Purchases
What the ads cost, on average, to get one order.
Max CPA: Gross profit ÷ Purchases
The most the ads can cost per order before orders lose money.
CPM: Ad spend ÷ Impressions × 1,000
What 1,000 ad views cost.
CPC: Ad spend ÷ Clicks
What one click to the site cost.
CTR: Clicks ÷ Impressions
Share of people who saw the ad and clicked.
Conversion rate: Purchases ÷ Clicks
Share of clicks that became orders.

True profit check

Store revenue: From your store: all orders in the period, before refunds, without tax
Every sale in the period, including sales that didn’t come from ads.
Revenue claimed by platforms: Σ Purchase value reported by each ad platform
What the ad platforms say their ads brought in. The same order can be claimed by more than one platform.
Claimed by platforms: Revenue claimed by platforms ÷ Store revenue
Above 100%, the platforms claim more sales than your store made, so their ROAS and profit are overstated.
MER: Store revenue ÷ Total ad spend
What your store sold for every 1 spent on all ads. Also called blended ROAS. Platform attribution can’t inflate it.
Break-even MER: 1 ÷ (Store gross profit ÷ Store revenue)
The MER at which the whole store’s profit after ads is exactly zero.
Store profit: Store gross profit − Total ad spend − Other costs
Profit on everything the store sold, after product costs, fees, shipping, refunds, all ad spend and other costs. Uses the same costs as the rest of the dashboard.
Profit by platform numbers: Gross profit of claimed revenue − Ad spend − Other costs
The profit shown in the rest of the dashboard, which trusts what the ad platforms report.
Difference: Store profit − Profit by platform numbers
Negative means the platforms make the ads look more profitable than they really are.

Calculator: ad performance

CPM: Ad spend ÷ Impressions × 1,000
What you pay for your ad to be shown 1,000 times.
CPC: Ad spend ÷ Link clicks
What you pay, on average, for one person to click your ad.
CTR: Link clicks ÷ Impressions × 100%
Out of everyone who saw your ad, the share who clicked.
Conversion rate: Sales ÷ Link clicks × 100%
Out of everyone who clicked, the share who bought.
CPA: Ad spend ÷ Sales
What you paid in ads, on average, to get one sale.
CPL: Ad spend ÷ Leads
What you paid in ads, on average, to get one lead.
Lead rate: Leads ÷ Link clicks × 100%
Out of everyone who clicked, the share who became a lead. Leads from instant forms don’t need a link click, so this can exceed 100% for those campaigns.
Lead-to-sale rate: Sales ÷ Leads × 100%
Out of all your leads, the share who bought.

Calculator: revenue & profit

Revenue: Sales × Average order value (or as entered)
Total money customers paid you from these ad sales, before refunds.
ROAS: Revenue ÷ Ad spend
Revenue for every 1 spent on ads. 3× means 3 back for every 1 spent. This is revenue, not profit.
Refunds: Revenue × Refund rate
Revenue you expect to refund. Refunded products are assumed to go back into stock; payment fees and shipping are not recovered.
Cost of sales: Sales × Cost per sale
What all the sales cost you: product (refunded items go back to stock), shipping, other per-sale costs and payment fees.
Gross profit: Revenue − Refunds − Cost of sales
What is left from sales after refunds, product, shipping and payment fees, before ad spend.
Profit: Gross profit − Ad spend − Other fixed costs
Your real profit after product costs, ad spend and other fixed costs.
Profit margin: Profit ÷ (Revenue − Refunds) × 100%
How much of the revenue you keep, after refunds, is profit.
ROI: Profit ÷ (Ad spend + Other fixed costs) × 100%
Profit for every 1 put into marketing. 50% means 0.50 profit for every 1 invested. Negative means a loss.

Calculator: break-even

Payment fee per sale: Price × Payment fee %
What the payment fee costs you on one sale.
Cost per sale: Product cost × (1 − Refund rate) + Shipping + Other cost per sale + Price × Payment fee %
Everything one sale costs you before advertising.
Margin before ads: Break-even CPA ÷ Price × 100%
The share of each sale’s price left to pay for ads and profit.
Break-even CPA: Price − Refund per sale − Cost per sale
The most you can spend on ads to get one sale before that sale becomes unprofitable.
Break-even ROAS: Price ÷ Break-even CPA
If your ROAS is below this, your ads lose money. Above it, they make money. Excludes other fixed costs.
Target CPA: Break-even CPA − Target margin × Price × (1 − Refund rate)
The most you can spend on ads per sale and still keep your target profit margin.
Target ROAS: Price ÷ Target CPA
The ROAS you need to hit your target profit margin.
Break-even conversion rate: CPC ÷ Break-even CPA × 100%
At your cost per click, the share of clickers who must buy for your ads to break even.
CPA headroom: Break-even CPA − CPA
How much more you could pay per sale before losing money. Negative means each sale already loses money.

Calculator: customer lifetime

Lifetime revenue: Average order value × Purchases per customer
Total a typical customer spends with you over time.
CLV: Break-even CPA × Purchases per customer
Profit before ad costs from a typical customer over all their purchases. Simple margin-based CLV: no discounting or churn modelling.
LTV:CAC: CLV ÷ CPA
How many times over a customer pays back what it cost to acquire them. Above 1× means customers are profitable over their lifetime.
Max profitable CAC: Purchases per customer × Target CPA
The most you can spend to win one new customer and still keep your target margin across all their purchases.
Required conversion rate: CPC ÷ Max profitable CAC × 100%
At your cost per click, the share of clickers who must buy for you to hit your target margin.

Where to find your numbers

Ad spend: Ads Manager → “Amount spent” column.
Impressions: Ads Manager → “Impressions” column.
Link clicks: Ads Manager → “Link clicks” column (not “Clicks (all)”).
Leads: Ads Manager → “Leads” column, or leads from your CRM for the same dates.
Sales: Ads Manager → “Purchases” column, or real orders from your store for the same dates.
Revenue: Ads Manager → “Purchases conversion value” (Google Ads: “Conv. value”). Leave it empty to use sales × average order value.
Average order value: Your average selling price per order. If you entered revenue, it’s calculated as revenue ÷ sales.
Product cost per sale: Your supplier or manufacturing cost for one order. Enter 0 for services with no product cost.
Shipping per sale: Average shipping cost per order that you pay, not the customer. Enter 0 if customers pay shipping.
Other cost per sale: Any other cost you pay for every single sale: packaging, fulfilment, handling.
Payment fee: Your payment processor’s percentage fee, e.g. 2.9.
Refund rate: Out of every 100 orders, how many you refund on average (5 = 5%). Refunded products are assumed to go back into stock; fees and shipping are not recovered.
Other fixed costs: Costs for this period that don’t depend on the number of sales.
Purchases per customer: On average, how many times one customer buys from you. Use 1 if unsure.
Target profit margin: The share of each sale price you want to keep as profit after all costs, including ads.

Good to know

Brand profit uses the purchase value reported by the ad platform as revenue. Refunds are taken off first; product costs apply to what’s kept; payment fees apply to all revenue; fulfilment applies per order.
POAS (profit on ad spend) above 1× means the ads made money after product costs. Below 1× they lost money.
ROAS is about revenue, not profit. A 3× ROAS can still lose money if your margins are thin. That’s why we show break-even ROAS next to it.
ROI here is profit ÷ (ad spend + fixed costs): the return on the money you put into marketing.
Break-even numbers ignore fixed costs because those don’t grow with each sale. Profit and ROI include them.
Totals across campaigns are added up, and rates like ROAS are recalculated from the totals, never averaged.
Numbers are calculated at full precision and rounded only for display (half away from zero), so 4.225 shows as 4.23.
CLV is the simple margin-based version: profit per order × orders per customer. It doesn’t discount future purchases.