What each input in the ad budget calculator means
Pick a platform first. It fills in a starting CPM and click-through rate, and you can overwrite both.
Monthly ad spend
What you pay the platform for media. It does not include creative, agency fees or creator fees. On TikTok the floor is over $50 a day per campaign and $20 a day per ad group, but a useful test usually needs more.
CPM
What 1,000 impressions cost. It moves with season, category and campaign objective, so treat the preset as a first guess and swap in your own CPM after a week of spend.
Click-through rate
The share of impressions that click through to your page. Use link click-through, not "all clicks", which also counts likes, profile taps and other clicks that never reach your site.
Landing page conversion rate
The share of visitors who buy. This is the number your page, offer and checkout control, and it is often the cheapest one to move.
Average order value and gross margin
Order value is revenue per sale. Gross margin is what is left after product cost, shipping and payment fees. Margin does not change sales or ROAS; it sets your break-even cost per sale and your profit.
The formulas behind the ROAS calculator
Impressions = ad spend ÷ CPM × 1,000. Clicks = impressions × click-through rate. Sales = clicks × conversion rate. Put together: sales = ad spend ÷ CPM × 1,000 × CTR × conversion rate.
Revenue = sales × average order value. ROAS = revenue ÷ ad spend. Cost per sale = ad spend ÷ sales, and cost per click = ad spend ÷ clicks. Ad spend for 100 sales is simply cost per sale × 100.
Break-even cost per sale = order value × gross margin. That is the gross profit one order brings in, so it is the most a sale can cost in ads before you lose money. Gross profit after ad spend = revenue × gross margin, minus ad spend.
One number the calculator does not print but you can work out: your break-even ROAS is 1 ÷ gross margin. At a 60% margin that is 1.67x. At a 30% margin it is 3.33x. A 1.5x ROAS can be a win for one brand and a loss for another.
Platform presets: where the CPM and CTR defaults come from
The presets are starting points drawn from the 2026 ranges on our platform and cost guides. The sales column uses the other defaults: $3,000 spend, 2% conversion and a $60 order.
| Platform | CPM | CTR | Implied cost per click | Sales from $3,000 | Where the numbers come from |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TikTok | $6 | 0.7% | $0.86 | 70 | CPMs typically run $4 to $10 in the US (TikTok ads cost guide). Lebesgue's ecommerce benchmark puts CTR at 0.61% |
| Meta (Facebook and Instagram) | $12 | 1% | $1.20 | 50 | CPMs of about $7 to $18 in 2026 benchmarks, with Q4 at $30 or more. Influee's 2026 roundup puts median CTR near 1.5%; link CTR runs lower, so we start at 1% |
| YouTube Shorts | $5 | 0.5% | $1.00 | 60 | Shorts CPMs of about $3 to $8. Published Shorts CTR figures disagree widely, so 0.5% is a cautious planning number |
| $12 | 1% | $1.20 | 50 | Conversion objectives run about $11 to $18 CPM (awareness is $3 to $6), so the preset sits in the conversion band. The implied click cost sits inside Pinterest's typical $0.50 to $1.50 CPC range | |
| $50 | 0.6% | $8.33 | 7 | CPMs of about $30 to $90. The implied click cost sits inside LinkedIn's typical $5 to $12 CPC range |
Implied cost per click = CPM ÷ (CTR × 1,000). For TikTok, Pinterest and LinkedIn it lands inside each platform's published CPC range, a useful sanity check. All ranges are third-party 2026 benchmarks; your own account data replaces them within a week or two.
Worked example: $3,000 a month on TikTok
These are the calculator's default numbers, run line by line.
| Line | Math | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Impressions | $3,000 ÷ $6 × 1,000 | 500,000 |
| Clicks | 500,000 × 0.7% | 3,500 |
| Cost per click | $3,000 ÷ 3,500 | $0.86 |
| Sales | 3,500 × 2% | 70 |
| Revenue | 70 × $60 | $4,200 |
| ROAS | $4,200 ÷ $3,000 | 1.40x |
| Cost per sale | $3,000 ÷ 70 | $42.86 |
| Break-even cost per sale | $60 × 60% | $36.00 |
| Gross profit after ad spend | $4,200 × 60%, minus $3,000 | -$480 |
Each sale costs $6.86 more in ads than it earns in gross profit, so this plan loses $480 a month. Break-even ROAS at a 60% margin is 1.67x, and the plan delivers 1.40x.
What to change when cost per sale is above break-even
Fix the page or the offer before you raise spend. Here is what each lever does to the TikTok example, with everything else held at the defaults.
Lift conversion from 2% to 2.5%
About 88 sales, $34.29 per sale and $150 profit. Faster pages, clearer offers and fewer checkout steps do this. It is usually the first thing we fix on campaign landing pages.
Raise order value from $60 to $72
A bundle or upsell lifts break-even to $43.20. Same 70 sales, now $24 in profit instead of a $480 loss.
Lift click-through from 0.7% to 0.9%
90 sales at $33.33 each and $240 profit. New hooks move this number more than bid changes. Price the extra videos with the UGC cost calculator.
Do not just double the budget
At $6,000 the math stays the same: $42.86 per sale and a $960 loss. More spend on a losing funnel only loses faster.
From the calculator to a real social media ad budget
Ad spend is one line of the bill. Budget for creative too: TikTok ads in particular wear out fast, and we plan for 6 to 12 new videos a month. Agency management is a third line. Ours starts at $3,500 a month for always-on campaigns, with ad spend paid to the platforms directly. See the full numbers on pricing.
If you want the whole plan run for you, our paid social advertising team sets up the campaigns, makes the creative and builds the page the ads point to, then tests weekly against cost per sale. For platform detail, see how we run Facebook and Instagram ads. Selling to an audience you already have? The creator income calculator models a launch instead of paid traffic.