PPC ROI Calculator
Your PPC numbers
Results
How to Use the PPC ROI Calculator
- Ad spend — total budget spent on Google Ads, Meta Ads, or any paid channel.
- Revenue generated — revenue attributed to those clicks via UTM tracking or platform conversions.
- Cost of goods — optional. Subtract COGS to get profit-based ROI instead of revenue-based ROI.
Most businesses target 200–400% ROI on PPC (every $1 spent returns $3–$5 in revenue). Below 100% ROI means you are spending more than you earn from the campaign.
Last reviewed: July 25, 2026. Formula: ROI = (Revenue minus Ad Spend) divided by Ad Spend, times 100.
How to use the PPC ROI calculator
- Enter monthly ad spend — what the platforms actually charged you (Google Ads, Meta, Microsoft, TikTok).
- Add management and tool costs — agency or freelancer fees, landing page software, call tracking. Leaving these out is why most "ROAS reports" overstate profit.
- Enter revenue attributed to ads — from your conversion tracking or CRM, not platform-reported estimates if you can help it.
- Set your gross margin — the % of that revenue left after product/delivery costs. Ecommerce is often 30–60%; services 60–90%.
- Compare ROAS against break-even ROAS — the single number that says whether campaigns actually make money.
PPC ROI vs. ROAS — the difference that decides profitability
Platforms report ROAS (revenue ÷ ad spend), and a 3x ROAS sounds great — until margin enters the picture. If your gross margin is 30%, break-even ROAS is 3.33x, and that "great" campaign loses money on every click. This calculator does the honest math: it takes your spend, your management overhead, your tracked revenue, and your real margin, and returns true ROI.
Break-even ROAS: the number to memorize
Break-even ROAS = 100 ÷ gross margin %. At 50% margin you need 2.0x. At 25% margin you need 4.0x. This is why two businesses can run identical campaigns and one prints money while the other bleeds — the margin behind the click decides everything. The calculator shows your break-even ROAS next to your actual ROAS so the gap is visible instantly.
Costs PPC reports always forget
Ad platforms only see ad spend. Real PPC cost includes agency or freelancer management (typically 10–20% of spend or $500–$2,000 flat), landing page builders, call tracking, and your own hours. On a $2,000/mo account, $300 of overhead moves ROI by double digits. Include it — the field is there for a reason.
Improving the number
Three levers, in order of typical impact: conversion rate (a landing page improvement flows straight to revenue at zero extra spend), margin mix (push ads toward your higher-margin products), negative keywords and dayparting (cut the spend that never converts). Re-run the calculator after each change — month-over-month ROI trend beats any platform dashboard.
Related tools
Compare channel efficiency with the SEO ROI calculator and email marketing ROI calculator, or roll everything up in the marketing ROI calculator. Not sure what volume you need to cover overhead? Run the break-even calculator.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good ROI for PPC campaigns?
After all costs and margin, healthy accounts run 20–100% monthly ROI. Anything consistently negative after 90 days of optimization signals a margin problem or unqualified traffic, not just a tuning problem.
What's the difference between ROI and ROAS?
ROAS is revenue ÷ ad spend and ignores margin and overhead. ROI is profit ÷ total cost. A 4x ROAS at 20% margin is a money-loser (break-even is 5x); ROI catches this, ROAS hides it.
What is break-even ROAS?
The ROAS at which you make zero profit: 100 ÷ gross margin %. At 40% margin, break-even ROAS is 2.5x — below that, every conversion costs more than it earns.
Should I use platform-reported revenue?
Platforms over-attribute (view-through conversions, overlapping channels). When possible, use CRM or store revenue matched to ad-driven orders. If you must use platform numbers, treat the ROI here as a ceiling, not a floor.
Does this work for lead generation, not ecommerce?
Yes — revenue = leads × close rate × average deal value, and margin = your service delivery margin. The service business break-even calculator pairs well for capacity planning.