ROAS Calculator

ROAS = revenue ÷ ad spend. It differs from ROI, which measures profit: ROI = (revenue − spend) ÷ spend, so a ROAS of 1.5 equals an ROI of 50% only if revenue were pure profit — which it never is. Apple and Google take 15–30% commission, payment processing and refunds take more, and your own costs sit underneath. If gross revenue is $100 and only $55 survives as contribution margin, that campaign at $60 spend shows ROAS 1.67 but loses $5.

Hence break-even ROAS = 1 ÷ contribution margin. At a 70% margin you break even at ROAS 1.43; at 40% you need 2.5. Working this out once per app — and pinning it next to your dashboards — prevents the classic mistake of scaling a “ROAS-positive” campaign that quietly loses money on every install.

The trap in app ROAS is time. Subscription and IAP revenue arrives over weeks or months, so day-0 ROAS is always tiny and comparing spend today against revenue today mixes cohorts. The clean approach is cohort ROAS: revenue generated by users acquired in a period, measured at fixed windows — D7 ROAS, D30 ROAS, D90 ROAS. Many subscription apps target something like 30–50% D7 ROAS knowing renewals will carry the cohort past break-even by D90–D180.

Second trap: gross vs net. App store dashboards often show gross customer billings, while your bank receives proceeds after commission. Compute ROAS on net proceeds (or apply your margin to the break-even threshold — either works, just don’t mix conventions). And keep brand campaigns separate from prospecting: brand ROAS is inflated by users who would have installed anyway.