A good ROAS is any ROAS above your break-even, which is 1 ÷ your margin. At a 40% margin you need 2.5× just to break even. The median Meta ROAS across 40,000+ brands was 1.88×1, so plenty of ads run below break-even.
Meta ROAS benchmarks by category
These are Triple Whale’s medians across more than 40,000 brands, August 2025 to July 20261.
| Category | Median ROAS | Median cost per purchase |
|---|---|---|
| All brands | 1.88× | |
| Apparel | 2.24× | US$36.98 |
| Home and garden | 2.25× | US$47.93 |
| Beauty | 1.54× | US$39.31 |
| Health and wellness | 1.44× | US$40.53 |
Your break-even ROAS
Break-even ROAS = 1 ÷ margin, where margin is what you keep from a sale after product, shipping, fees and discounts.
| Margin | Break-even ROAS |
|---|---|
| 60% | 1.7× |
| 50% | 2.0× |
| 40% | 2.5× |
| 30% | 3.3× |
| 20% | 5.0× |
Compare that with the medians above. A beauty brand with a 40% margin and a 1.54× ROAS loses money on every ad-driven sale, even though the ads “work”.
Why Ads Manager’s ROAS can mislead you
- It counts revenue, not profit. Two ads with the same ROAS can make very different money if they sell different products.
- It includes some sales that would have happened anyway, such as existing customers who were already going to buy.
- Attribution windows mean the same sale can look different in Ads Manager and in your store.
What to do with ads below break-even
- Turn off ads that stay below break-even after a fair test.
- Put more budget behind ads well above it, a step at a time.
- Raise your margin where you can: bundles, higher order values and fewer discounts move break-even down.
Questions
Is 2× ROAS good?
At a 50% margin it’s break-even; at 60% it’s profitable; at 40% it loses money. Work out your break-even first.
Should I count repeat purchases?
For brands with strong repeat buying, yes: a first purchase below break-even can still pay back over a customer’s lifetime. Be honest about how many actually come back.
What is a good cost per purchase?
Anything below the profit on that order. The medians above range from about US$37 to US$481.
See what your own ads are worth
Tony checks every live ad each morning and tells you which to turn off, which to scale and why, using your numbers. The first audit is free and takes four minutes.
Sources. Dollar figures from studies are shown in your currency, converted at Reserve Bank of Australia rates for 9 October 2026 and rounded; each source has the original. Example amounts are the same number in your currency.
- Triple Whale, Facebook ads benchmarks: medians across 40,000+ brands, August 2025 – July 2026. www.triplewhale.com/blog/facebook-ads-benchmarks