Take the gross profit the campaign produced, subtract what you spent, and divide by the spend. RM9,000 of sales at a 40% margin is RM3,600 gross profit. After RM2,000 of spend that leaves RM1,600, an 80% ROI.
Marketing ROI Calculator
ROI, ROAS, CPM and Conversion Rate in One Place
Enter what you spent and what came back. See whether the campaign made money after your product costs, not just how much revenue it drove.
| ROI (on gross profit) | 80.0% |
|---|---|
| Profit after ad spend | RM1,600.00 |
| ROAS | 4.50x |
| Break-even ROAS | 2.50x |
| CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions) | RM13.33 |
|---|---|
| CTR (click-through rate) | 2.0% |
| CPC (cost per click) | RM0.67 |
| Conversion rate | 2.0% |
| Cost per conversion (CPA) | RM33.33 |
Leave a field at 0 if you do not have it. The figures that need it show 0.
The Formulas
| Metric | Formula |
|---|---|
| ROI | (revenue × gross margin − spend) ÷ spend |
| ROAS | revenue ÷ spend |
| Break-even ROAS | 1 ÷ gross margin |
| CPM | spend ÷ impressions × 1,000 |
| CTR | clicks ÷ impressions |
| CPC | spend ÷ clicks |
| Conversion rate | conversions ÷ clicks |
| CPA | spend ÷ conversions |
Why ROI uses profit, not revenue
Revenue includes the money you spend on the product. If a RM100 sale costs you RM60 to fulfil, only RM40 is available to pay for the ad. ROI on gross profit tells you whether the campaign added money to the business. Revenue-based "ROI" is just ROAS minus one, and it makes every campaign look better than it is.
Use break-even ROAS as your floor
Break-even ROAS is the ROAS at which ad spend exactly equals gross profit. At a 40% margin it is 2.5x. A campaign below that line loses money on the first sale. It can still be worth running if customers buy again, so compare it with what a customer is worth over a year, not only the first order.
Read the funnel from left to right
When ROI is low, the funnel shows where. A high CPM means the audience is expensive or the ad is weak. A low CTR means the ad does not earn the click. A low conversion rate usually points at the landing page, the price or the checkout, not the ad. Fix the weakest step first.
Count the full cost
Google and Meta add 8% service tax to Malaysian accounts, and agency or freelancer fees are part of the cost too. Leaving them out makes ROI look higher than the bank balance will. Our Google Ads cost guide and Facebook ads cost guide show typical Malaysian CPC and CPM figures to sanity-check your own.
Attribution decides the revenue figure
Each ad platform counts conversions in its own window, and two platforms can claim the same sale. For a fair ROI, use the revenue your store or CRM ties to the campaign, not the sum of every platform's report.
FAQ
Marketing ROI Questions
ROAS is revenue divided by ad spend and ignores your costs. ROI uses profit. A 4x ROAS looks good, but at a 20% margin it loses money, because you need 5x just to break even.
CPM is the cost per 1,000 impressions: spend divided by impressions, times 1,000. RM2,000 for 150,000 impressions is a CPM of RM13.33.
Conversions divided by clicks, as a percentage. 60 sales from 3,000 clicks is a 2% conversion rate. Some tools divide by sessions instead of clicks, so check which one your report uses.
There is no single number. Your break-even ROAS is 1 divided by your gross margin, so a 40% margin needs 2.5x to break even. Aim above your own break-even, not an industry average.
Want ads that clear your break-even ROAS?
O2O runs Google and Meta campaigns reported on profit, not clicks.