What Is a Good ROAS for Influencer Marketing?

The short answer

There is no single universal "good" ROAS for influencer marketing — it depends entirely on your gross margin. The real floor is break-even ROAS = 1 ÷ gross margin (as a decimal): at a 40% margin, ROAS needs to be at least 2.5 before the campaign makes money at all. A ROAS that looks strong in a generic benchmark table found online can still be a loss on a low-margin product — and a "low" ROAS can be a great decision at high margin. Below: the formula, the break-even calculation, and a full worked example.

What ROAS actually is

ROAS — Return on Ad Spend — is revenue divided by what you spent to generate it. For an influencer campaign, the "ad spend" isn't necessarily a paid media budget: it's the total campaign cost — upfront fees, commission, UGC and usage rights, plus product cost or ad spend if the content is reused as paid ads.

ROAS = Tracked revenue ÷ Total campaign cost

Per Google Ads' own Target ROAS documentation, Google Ads expresses ROAS as a percentage, not a ratio: $5 in sales for every $1 in ad spend is written as "500% target ROAS" — not "5x" or "5:1", even though it's the same number. Both conventions are used interchangeably across the industry, so check which one your source or tool is using before comparing figures.

Why there's no universal "good" number

ROAS is blind to three things that actually decide whether a campaign makes money: gross margin, fixed costs, and customer lifetime value. Two brands can post the identical ROAS and be in opposite financial positions — one profitable, one losing money. Generic benchmark tables circulating online typically account for none of the three. Influencer marketing ROI solves the same problem by putting gross margin directly into the formula — ROAS doesn't, which is exactly why a ROAS figure can never stand alone.

Break-even ROAS — the real floor

Instead of hunting for an industry number, calculate your own floor:

Break-even ROAS = 1 ÷ Gross margin (as a decimal)

Gross margin here is (revenue − cost of goods and direct variable costs like shipping and payment fees) ÷ revenue — not a company-wide overhead margin.

Gross margin	Break-even ROAS
20%	5.0
25%	4.0
30%	3.33
40%	2.5
50%	2.0
60%	1.67

If your actual ROAS sits below the number for your own margin, the campaign is losing money — no matter how good that number looks in a table found online.

From break-even to a target

Break-even is the floor, not the goal. Want a real profit margin on top? Add it into the denominator:

Target ROAS = 1 ÷ (Gross margin − Desired profit margin), both as decimals.

Gross margin	Break-even ROAS	Target ROAS for a 10-point profit margin
30%	3.33	5.0
40%	2.5	3.33
50%	2.0	2.5
60%	1.67	2.0

Worked example

All numbers below are hypothetical and for illustration only. This is not a real Make Influence customer case, and none of the figures are benchmarks. Replace every number with your own.

A brand works with one creator: a DKK 4,000 upfront fee and 10% commission on tracked sales. The campaign generates DKK 50,000 in tracked revenue.

• Commission = 10% × 50,000 = DKK 5,000
• Total campaign cost = 4,000 + 5,000 = DKK 9,000
• ROAS = 50,000 ÷ 9,000 = 5.56 (roughly 556%)

Is that good? It depends entirely on the gross margin:

Scenario	Gross margin	Break-even ROAS	Actual ROAS	Net profit
A: high margin	40%	2.5	5.56	50,000 × 0.40 − 9,000 = DKK 11,000
B: low margin	15%	6.67	5.56	50,000 × 0.15 − 9,000 = −DKK 1,500

Scenario B is the whole point of this article: ROAS is identical in both scenarios — 5.56, comfortably inside most generic "good ROAS" tables found online. The campaign still loses DKK 1,500 in scenario B, because a 15% gross margin could never carry a DKK 9,000 cost. ROAS looked equally "good" both times. Only the break-even calculation revealed the difference.

ROAS and business model: when below break-even is still the right call

Break-even ROAS assumes all the customer's value comes from the first purchase. That isn't always true. If you sell a subscription product or have a high repeat-purchase rate, a lower first-purchase ROAS than break-even can still be the right decision, because the customer's total lifetime value (LTV) covers what the first order doesn't.

Illustrative example: A subscription product at 50% gross margin has a break-even ROAS of 2.0 on the first order alone. But the average customer stays subscribed for 6 months and re-purchases monthly. Calculated over the full customer relationship instead of just the first order, a first-purchase ROAS as low as 0.5–1.0 can still be a profitable investment — because the following five months of gross margin were never part of the original ROAS calculation. That's a decision about which time horizon you're calculating over, not an exception to break-even logic.

This kind of LTV-based math requires actually knowing your average customer lifetime and repeat-purchase rate — don't guess a number, use your own data. For the full framework on turning that into a CAC-vs-LTV decision, see are influencer-acquired customers worth more: thinking about LTV.

Common mistakes when using ROAS to judge influencer marketing

• Comparing ROAS across products with different gross margins without naming the margin — see scenario B above for how large the gap can be.
• Using a generic online benchmark table as the target instead of your own break-even ROAS.
• Leaving fixed costs out of the denominator — an upfront fee is a real cost even though it isn't "ad spend" in the traditional sense.
• Using ROAS alone to decide whether the channel is worth it. ROAS measures return on what you just spent — not whether the campaign actually made money. For that, see is influencer marketing worth it for ecommerce brands and how to calculate influencer marketing ROI.
• Calculating only first-purchase ROAS on a subscription product without accounting for LTV.

Make Influence's operational perspective

In Make Influence's experience, the most common mistake is a brand comparing its influencer ROAS directly against its paid social ROAS without adjusting for how differently "ad spend" is structured. A Google Ads campaign typically has only paid media in the cost line. An influencer campaign can carry a fixed upfront fee that dominates the cost at low volume and barely matters at high volume — that shifts the break-even point materially, even when the underlying margin is identical.

We recommend calculating break-even ROAS once per product line, not per campaign, and then using the right KPIs for the campaign's objective to check whether ROAS is even the relevant metric — for an awareness campaign, it rarely is.

Checklist before you judge a ROAS number

• Do you know your gross margin on the products actually sold — not a company-wide average?
• Have you calculated your own break-even ROAS (1 ÷ gross margin)?
• Does the denominator include the upfront fee and commission, not just paid media spend if any?
• Are you comparing like with like — same margin, same business model?
• Have you considered whether LTV makes a lower first-purchase ROAS acceptable?
• Are you using reliable tracking to get an accurate revenue figure to calculate from?

FAQ

Is a high ROAS always a good sign?

No. ROAS is blind to gross margin and fixed costs. A ROAS of 5 can be deeply unprofitable at low margin and highly profitable at high margin — see the worked example above.

What's the difference between ROAS and ROI?

ROAS is revenue divided by cost. ROI uses profit — revenue multiplied by gross margin, minus cost — instead of revenue, which is why ROI actually shows whether a campaign made money, while ROAS only shows revenue per unit spent. See how to calculate influencer marketing ROI for the full formula.

Is there an industry-standard "good" ROAS?

No, and any source giving you one universal number hasn't adjusted for your gross margin. Use the break-even formula to calculate your own instead.

Can a ROAS below 1 ever be the right call?

Yes, if the customer buys again. For a subscription or high-frequency product, first-purchase ROAS can sit below break-even if the customer's total lifetime value covers the rest. That requires actually knowing your repeat-purchase rate — see the business model section above.

Should I use ROAS or the KPIs set for the campaign's objective?

ROAS is relevant for sales-driven campaigns. For awareness or consideration campaigns, it's rarely the right metric — see influencer campaign KPIs by objective.