The metrics every Shopify advertiser lives by
If you run Facebook or TikTok ads to a Shopify store, four numbers tell you whether you are building a business or burning cash. They are simple to calculate but easy to confuse, so here is what each one means and when to reach for it.
- ROAS answers "how much revenue did this ad bring back per dollar spent?" It is the headline number in every ad dashboard, but it counts revenue, not profit. Use the ROAS calculator.
- Break-even ROAS (BEROAS) answers "what ROAS do I need just to not lose money?" This is the dropshipping-native metric most generic calculators skip. It is your margin turned into a target: break-even ROAS = 1 / profit margin. Use the BEROAS calculator.
- CPA answers "what did one conversion cost me?" Good for judging a single campaign or ad set. Use the CPA calculator.
- CAC answers "what does it cost to win one new customer across everything I spend?" A business-level view that pairs with lifetime value. Use the CAC calculator.
Read them together. A 4x ROAS looks great until you learn your break-even ROAS is 4.5x, which means the campaign is quietly losing money on every order. That gap is why we built break-even ROAS as its own tool.
To fill these calculators with real numbers, you need your competitors' pricing and product data. Koala Inspector is the Chrome extension media buyers use to see the live ads, best-selling products, and pricing on any Shopify store, so you can model a campaign before you spend a dollar. For the wider toolkit, see our list of Shopify spy tools.
