Break-even ROAS comes before any benchmark
Work out contribution margin per order after COGS, shipping, payment fees and returns. Divide 1 by that margin. A 30% margin means break-even sits at 3.33x. Anything below that loses money on every order, however good the platform dashboard looks.
Then set a target above break-even that funds overheads and profit. Most brands add 30% to 50% on top. If break-even is 3x, a 4x target gives room. Repeat purchase brands can run closer to break-even because the second order carries no acquisition cost.
Platform ROAS and blended ROAS are different numbers
Meta reports on a 7-day click and 1-day view window. TikTok defaults to the same. Google claims the same conversions again. Add the three dashboards together and you will often see 120% to 160% of your actual order volume. Never budget against that total.
Blended ROAS is total revenue divided by total ad spend, taken from your commerce platform. It cannot be inflated. Track it weekly alongside MER and new-customer CAC. If blended ROAS holds while platform ROAS falls, the media is fine and the reporting has drifted.
Benchmarks by category, used with care
Public benchmarks put average ecommerce ROAS in a 2x to 4x band, with beauty and supplements at the higher end and furniture and electronics lower on thin margins. Treat any published figure as a range, because average order value and margin move it more than media skill.
Subscription and high-LTV brands should be judged on payback period instead. A 1.5x first-order ROAS works when the customer pays back inside 60 days. A 4x looks strong and still fails if half those orders come back as returns.