1 Jan – 28 May 2026
€95,470.88 in Meta ad spend. €573,222.05 in tracked sales.
Tracked in Meta Ads Manager.
Facebook & Instagram ads · Measuring
A good ROAS
for Meta ads?
Work out yours.
A good ROAS is one that leaves a profit after your product costs and ad spend, so it depends on your margins. Work out your break-even ROAS by dividing 1 by your gross margin: at a 40% margin, break-even is 2.5. Anything comfortably above that is good for you, as long as the tracked sales are real.
By Malta Digital · Published · Updated · 5 min read
In this article
The meaning
What ROAS means.
ROAS stands for return on ad spend. It is the sales value tracked from your ads divided by what you spent on them. If Meta reports €3,000 in sales from €1,000 of ad spend, the ROAS is 3, sometimes written as 3x or 300%.
It is a quick way to compare campaigns and ads. On its own it says nothing about profit, because it ignores what the products cost you to make, buy or deliver.
Break-even
How to work out your
break-even ROAS.
Your break-even ROAS is the point where the gross profit on the sales just covers the ad spend.
01
Find your margin
Gross margin is what is left from a sale after the cost of the product, packaging and delivery, as a percentage of the price.
02
Divide 1 by it
At a 50% margin, break-even ROAS is 2. At 40%, it is 2.5. At 25%, it is 4.
03
Add your fees
Include management fees and other campaign costs in the spend if you want a full picture.
04
Set a target
Aim comfortably above break-even, to leave a profit after everything else.
An example, not a benchmark. A shop with a 40% margin spends €1,000 and tracks €3,000 in sales. Gross profit is €1,200, so €200 is left after ad spend. The same ROAS for a shop with a 25% margin would lose money.
VAT in Malta
Why VAT changes
the numbers.
If the purchase values sent to Meta include VAT, the ROAS in Ads Manager is higher than your real return. VAT is collected for the government, not earned by your business.
Malta’s standard VAT rate is 18%. If your tracked sales include it, divide by 1.18 to get the value before VAT. A reported ROAS of 3 becomes about 2.54 before VAT.
A worked example
A worked example
with VAT.
An illustration with round numbers. Use your own figures.
Ad spend
€1,000 in a month.
Tracked sales, including VAT
€3,540, so Meta shows a ROAS of 3.54.
Sales before 18% VAT
€3,540 divided by 1.18 is €3,000, so the ROAS before VAT is 3.
Gross profit at a 40% margin
€1,200.
Left after ad spend
€200, before management fees and other costs.
The same campaign looks much better in Ads Manager than in your accounts. Neither number is wrong. They answer different questions.
Reading Meta’s numbers
How to read Meta’s
ROAS with care.
Attribution windows
Meta credits sales within a set time after someone clicks or views an ad. Longer windows credit more sales to ads.
Platform-attributed value
Meta reports the sales it can connect to its ads. Some of those people might have bought anyway.
Missing data
Blocked tracking means some sales are not reported. A Conversions API setup reduces the gap.
Overall return
Total sales divided by total ad spend across all channels, from your own accounts. A useful check on what the platforms report.
Use Meta’s ROAS to compare campaigns and ads inside the account. Use your own sales figures to decide whether advertising is paying overall.
By campaign type
ROAS differs by
campaign type.
Do not expect the same ROAS from every campaign in the account.
Finding new customers
Usually a lower ROAS, because these people did not know you. This is where future customers come from.
Retargeting
Usually a higher ROAS, because these people already visited. But some would have come back anyway.
Past customers
Often the highest ROAS, with the smallest audience.
Judging each campaign by the same target pushes budget towards retargeting until the pool of new visitors dries up. Judge the account as a whole, and give new-customer campaigns their own, lower target.
Beyond one sale
When a low ROAS
can still be good.
- Customers often buy again, so the first sale is worth more than it looks.
- A campaign may introduce people who buy later through Google, email or in store.
- New product launches often run at a lower return while you learn.
- Some businesses accept break-even on the first order to build a customer list.
These are deliberate choices. Make them knowing your numbers, not because nobody checked.
Improving ROAS
How to improve
your ROAS.
Better creative
New images, video and angles are usually the biggest lever. Test them regularly.
Higher order value
Bundles, free-delivery thresholds and add-ons make each sale worth more.
Better landing pages
Faster pages, clearer prices and fewer steps to checkout turn more clicks into sales.
Accurate tracking
Missing purchase data makes campaigns optimise worse. Fix it first.
Past customers
Offers for people who already bought usually return more than cold audiences.
Cutting the budget often raises ROAS, because you only reach the easiest buyers. It can also mean fewer sales and less profit overall. Watch both.
Leads, not sales
What if you sell
through enquiries?
Many service businesses in Malta do not sell online. Their ads bring enquiries, and the sale happens later by phone, in a meeting or in the clinic.
In that case, track enquiries in Meta, then record in your CRM which enquiries became customers and what they spent. Sending those outcomes back to Meta through the Conversions API helps it find more people who actually buy.
Real figures
Tracked results
for context.
For context, these are results from campaigns we manage, as tracked in Meta Ads Manager.
2025
€217,048 in tracked sales. 9,384 website sales.
Tracked across the year in Meta Ads Manager.
1–9 June 2026
€6,523.92 in spend. €38,550.54 in tracked sales.
Nine days of campaigns, tracked in Meta Ads Manager.
Platform-attributed purchase value is not profit. These examples are not a guarantee of future results.
A few straight answers
What you might be wondering.
What is a good ROAS for Meta ads?
One that is comfortably above your break-even ROAS, which is 1 divided by your gross margin. There is no single number that suits every business.
How do I calculate break-even ROAS?
Divide 1 by your gross margin as a decimal. A 40% margin gives a break-even ROAS of 2.5.
Does Meta’s ROAS include VAT?
It includes whatever value your tracking sends. If that includes Malta’s 18% VAT, divide the sales value by 1.18 to compare with your revenue before VAT.
Why does my ROAS in Meta differ from my shop’s figures?
Attribution windows, sales Meta cannot track, people who would have bought anyway, VAT and delivery charges all cause differences. Check both.
Is ROAS the best measure for a service business?
Often not. For enquiries, track the cost of enquiries and how many become customers, using your CRM.
Keep reading
Related guides.
Facebook ads for online shops
Tracking, catalogue ads, new customers, retargeting and what to measure for an online shop.
Are Facebook ads worth it?
When Facebook and Instagram ads pay off, when to wait, and how to judge results honestly.
Meta Pixel and Conversions API explained
What the Pixel and the Conversions API do, why the Pixel alone misses sales, and how to check your setup.
A useful first step
Check what your ads
really return.
Send us your Ads Manager results and margins. We’ll explain what the numbers mean for profit. Initial review at no charge.