Target CPA & ROAS Calculator

Pro v1.0.0 1 view

Calculate optimal target CPA and ROAS for paid advertising campaigns based on business economics. Computes break-even thresholds, profit-optimized targets at various margins, and scaling strategies.

What You Get

Set scientifically-backed bid targets that maximize profitability while avoiding unprofitable campaigns or leaving revenue on the table.

The Problem

Marketers often set CPA and ROAS targets based on industry benchmarks or guesswork rather than their actual business economics. This leads to either unprofitable campaigns that lose money on every customer, or overly conservative targets that leave growth on the table.

The Solution

This calculator uses fundamental unit economics to determine optimal advertising targets. It computes customer lifetime value (LTV) from subscription or transaction data, subtracts all costs (COGS, operating, tools), and calculates the maximum CPA before losing money. It then applies your desired profit margin to recommend sustainable targets, provides a phased scaling strategy for new campaigns, and shows how conversion rate improvements affect your bidding flexibility.

How It Works

  1. 1 Gather business economics: revenue metrics (price, LTV, AOV), cost metrics (COGS, operating, tools), and target margin
  2. 2 Run the calculator with subscription or transactional model parameters
  3. 3 Review break-even thresholds to understand maximum affordable CPA
  4. 4 Set campaign targets using recommended CPA and ROAS at desired margin
  5. 5 Follow phased scaling strategy: start loose (10% margin) to build data, then tighten to target margin

What You'll Need

  • Accurate customer lifetime value data (monthly price and lifetime for subscription, or AOV and purchases for transactional)
  • Cost breakdown including COGS, operating costs, and marketing tool costs
  • Python 3.9+ runtime (via uv or direct python3)

Get This Skill

Requires Pro subscription ($9/month)

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Examples

E-commerce with Tight Margins

Calculate targets for an e-commerce business with $200 AOV, 3 purchases per customer, $80 COGS, plus operating and tools costs. Reveals challenging unit economics requiring 80x ROAS - a critical insight before launching campaigns.

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SaaS Subscription CPA Targets

Calculate target CPA and ROAS for a subscription SaaS business with $49/month pricing, 12-month customer lifetime, and $10/month COGS. Shows break-even thresholds, recommended targets at 30% margin, and phased scaling strategy.

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Unprofitable Business Model Detection

Detects when costs exceed lifetime value, making paid advertising impossible. Shows $310 loss per customer before any ad spend and provides required actions to fix unit economics before launching campaigns.

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