Short answer: A good ROAS is one that clears your break-even ROAS (1 divided by your gross margin) by enough to cover fixed costs and profit. For a store with a 50% margin, break-even is 2, so a ROAS of 3 or more is usually healthy. Published platform data puts average returns at roughly 2 to 4 times spend, but those figures are measured in different ways and can't be compared directly.

Ask ten media buyers what a good ROAS is and you'll hear "4x" more than any other answer. It's a fine rule of thumb for some stores and a loss-maker for others. A ROAS of 4 on a product with a 20% margin loses money. A ROAS of 2 on a product with a 70% margin makes plenty.

So this guide answers the question in two parts. First, how to work out what a good ROAS is for your own store. Then what the published benchmarks for Meta, Google, TikTok and Pinterest actually say, where they come from, and why you should be careful with all of them.

Why There's No Universal Good ROAS

ROAS (return on ad spend) is revenue from ads divided by ad spend. If you need the formula and worked examples, start with our guide on how to calculate ROAS, which includes a free calculator.

Three things decide whether a given ROAS is good:

• Your margin. The thinner your margin, the higher the ROAS you need just to break even.

• The attribution window. The same campaign shows a higher ROAS when the platform gets to count sales over 30 days instead of 7.

• What the campaign is for. Retargeting returning customers almost always shows a higher ROAS than finding new ones, partly because many of those people would have bought anyway.

A benchmark from another store ignores all three. That's why the first number to know is your own.

What Is a Good ROAS for Your Store? Start With Break-Even

Your break-even ROAS is the point where ad spend eats your entire gross margin:

Break-even ROAS = 1 ÷ gross margin

Gross margin is what's left of each order after product cost, shipping, payment fees and other variable costs. A few examples:

The target column is an illustration, not a rule. How far above break-even you need to be depends on your fixed costs and on how much profit you want from the first order. Brands investing in growth often accept a ROAS near break-even on new-customer campaigns, because repeat purchases pay back the acquisition cost later. You can work out your own break-even in a few seconds with our break-even ROAS calculator.

Once you know your break-even, a good ROAS is simply one that sits above it, consistently, on numbers you trust.

ROAS Benchmarks by Platform: What the Published Data Says

Plenty of blogs list a single "average ROAS" per platform without saying where it comes from. We only included figures with a named source and year. Most of them are published or commissioned by the platforms themselves, which is worth keeping in mind.

Meta

In May 2025, Meta published an economic impact study claiming that US advertisers see an average of $3.71 in revenue for every dollar spent on its ads, and that advertisers using its AI-driven tools such as Advantage+ see $4.52, a 22% improvement (Meta Newsroom, 2025). Treat it as Meta's own top-down estimate. It's an average across advertisers of every size and industry, and Meta defines the revenue. Meta reports ROAS on a 7-day click, 1-day view window by default, and you can find the full cost side in our Meta ads cost guide.

Google

Google's economic impact reports assume that businesses get about $2 back for every $1 they spend on Google Ads. The figure comes from research by Hal Varian, Google's chief economist, and Google calls it conservative (Google Economic Impact methodology). It's a modelling assumption for an economic report, so don't treat it as a target for your Shopping or Performance Max campaigns. Google Ads uses a 30-day click conversion window by default (Google Ads Help), which tends to make Google's reported ROAS look higher than a 7-day platform's. See the Google ads cost guide for the CPC side.

TikTok

A Nielsen meta-analysis of marketing mix models in Canada, commissioned with TikTok, found advertisers saw an average return of about $2 for every $1 spent, with ROAS improving 30% in 2022 compared with 2021 (TikTok for Business, 2023). It covers consumer packaged goods brands, which sell mostly offline, so it says more about TikTok's overall sales effect than about what a Shopify store should see in Ads Manager. TikTok's default attribution window is 7-day click and 1-day view. More in our TikTok ads cost guide.

Pinterest

A 2026 study by Ekimetrics, commissioned by Pinterest, analysed 115 marketing mix models from 85 retail brands in Germany, the UK, France, Italy and Spain. It found Pinterest's short-term incremental ROAS was 14% higher than the total media average and 12% higher than other paid social, and its long-term ROAS was 21% higher than total media (Pinterest Business, 2026). These are relative numbers, so they tell you how Pinterest compares with other channels rather than what ROAS to expect. Pinterest's default window counts conversions up to 30 days after a click, and sales often come later than on other platforms. See the Pinterest ads cost guide.

How to Read These Benchmarks

Put together, the platforms' own figures land roughly between 2 and 4 times spend. That's a useful sense of scale and not much more. The studies use different methods (economic modelling, marketing mix models, platform-reported averages), different markets and different years, and every one is published by the platform being measured. None of them knows your margin.

Use benchmarks to spot a number that's way out of line. Use your break-even to decide whether a campaign is good.

Why the Attribution Window Changes What Good Means

Each platform counts conversions over its own window by default:

• Meta: 7-day click, 1-day view

• Google Ads: 30-day click

• TikTok: 7-day click, 1-day view

• Pinterest: 30-day click

A longer window credits the ad with more sales, so the same campaign shows a higher ROAS. A view window also credits sales from people who only saw the ad, some of whom would have bought anyway. When you compare ROAS across platforms, or against a benchmark, check the windows first. A 3.0 on a 30-day click window and a 3.0 on a 7-day window are not the same result.

The same goes for the attribution model behind the number. Our guide to switching from last-touch to data-driven attribution explains how the model shifts credit between channels.

Never Add Platform ROAS Together

Each platform reports the sales it believes it caused. A shopper who watches a TikTok video, clicks a Meta ad two days later and buys through a Google search can be counted by all three. Add up the revenue each platform reports and it often comes out higher than what Shopify booked.

That's why you should never sum or average platform ROAS to judge your marketing as a whole. For that, use blended ROAS, also called MER: total store revenue divided by total ad spend. Our marketing efficiency ratio guide covers how to calculate it and how to set a break-even MER. A healthy setup usually shows platform ROAS above break-even for the campaigns you scale, and a blended ROAS that also clears your store-level break-even.

Good ROAS Depends on the Campaign's Job

Different campaigns should hit different numbers, even in the same account.

• Prospecting (new customers): lower ROAS is normal, because you pay to reach people who don't know you yet. Judge it against break-even and against new-customer revenue, not total revenue.

• Retargeting and returning customers: ROAS looks high, but some of those buyers would have come back on their own. If your best ROAS comes from people who already bought, you may be paying for sales you'd get anyway. We explain how to spot this in how to stop wasting Meta ad budget on returning customers.

• Scaling: ROAS usually drops as budgets grow, because the platform has to reach less likely buyers. A small drop that stays above break-even can still mean more total profit. See scaling Facebook ads without losing ROAS.

Splitting results by new vs returning customers is the quickest way to tell a genuinely good ROAS from one that's flattered by loyal buyers.

Is Your ROAS Even Right?

All of this assumes the platform sees your sales. Often it doesn't. Browser pixels miss around 30-60% of conversions because of ad blockers, iOS privacy settings, Safari's cookie limits and consent banners. When the pixel misses a sale, your reported ROAS drops and the platform's bidding learns from a smaller, skewed set of buyers.

So a ROAS that looks below break-even might be a tracking problem rather than a campaign problem. Before you cut a campaign, check whether the platform's purchase count roughly matches Shopify for the same period.

Server-side tracking closes most of that gap. TrackBee sends every Shopify purchase to Meta, Google, TikTok, Pinterest, GA4 & Klaviyo server-side and enriches it with first-party data, so each platform counts the sales a browser pixel would miss. And with ecommerce attribution you see each channel's real contribution next to what each platform claims.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a good ROAS?

A good ROAS is one above your break-even ROAS, which is 1 divided by your gross margin. With a 50% margin you break even at 2, so 3 or more is usually healthy. The often-quoted 4x is a rule of thumb, not a universal target.

Is a ROAS of 2 good?

It depends on your margin. With a gross margin above 50%, a ROAS of 2 covers your costs per order and leaves a little profit. With a 30% margin, a ROAS of 2 loses money on every order your ads bring in.

What is a good ROAS for Meta ads?

Meta's own 2025 study puts the US average at $3.71 in revenue per dollar spent. For your account, a good Meta ROAS is one above your break-even, measured on Meta's default 7-day click, 1-day view window and checked against your Shopify orders.

What is a good ROAS for Google Ads?

Google's economic model assumes about $2 back for every $1 spent, but that's not a campaign benchmark. Judge Google campaigns against your break-even, and remember that Google's default 30-day click window makes its ROAS look higher than platforms with shorter windows.

Why is my ROAS high on every platform but my profit low?

Platforms often claim the same sale, so their ROAS figures overlap. Check your blended ROAS (MER): total revenue divided by total ad spend. If it's below your break-even, your marketing loses money overall, even when each platform looks healthy.

Is ROAS or MER more important?

You need both. Platform ROAS tells you which campaigns to scale or cut. MER tells you whether your marketing as a whole pays off. Never add platform ROAS figures together to get a total.

Know Your Real ROAS

To judge your ROAS you need two things: your break-even and numbers you can trust. TrackBee makes sure your ad platforms see every Shopify sale, so you judge campaigns on what actually happened. Try TrackBee for free.