Trendyol Ads ROAS & Budget Calculator

What is ROAS and how is it calculated?

ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) is the ratio that shows how many times over an advertising campaign returns its revenue. The formula is simple:

ROAS = Revenue from ads / Ad spend

If you spend 1.000 TL and generate 6.000 TL in revenue, your ROAS is 6,0: every 1 TL you spent brought in 6 TL of revenue. That much everyone knows. Here is the critical point: ROAS measures revenue, not profit. Hidden inside that 6.000 TL of revenue are commission, shipping, withholding tax and product cost. To understand whether advertising is really paying off, you have to read ROAS not on its own but together with your margin.

Break-even ROAS: when does advertising start losing money?

Break-even ROAS is the threshold value where advertising leaves neither profit nor loss. You are at this point when your ad spend is exactly covered by the extra profit the advertising brings in. Its formula depends on your margin:

Break-even ROAS = 1 / profit margin

If your margin is %20, the break-even ROAS is 1 / 0,20 = 5,0. The logic: only 0,20 TL of every 1 TL of revenue is profit. To recover the 1 TL you spent on advertising, that profit has to add up to 1 TL — that is, 5 TL of revenue. This is why, once ROAS drops below 5,0, the extra profit from advertising fails to cover the ad spend and every sale eats into your margin.

This is exactly why the question "Is a ROAS of 3.0 good?" has no single answer. If your margin is %50, a 3,0 is excellent; if your margin is %20, that same 3,0 puts you at a loss. Make your ad budget decision not by an absolute ROAS target but by your distance from the break-even ROAS.

The net contribution of advertising: the number you should really watch

ROAS is a ratio, while net contribution is actual money. To see what advertising actually adds to your pocket:

Net contribution = Revenue from ads × margin − ad spend

With 6.000 TL of revenue, a %20 margin and 1.000 TL of spend, the net contribution = 6.000 × 0,20 − 1.000 = 1.200 − 1.000 = +200 TL. Advertising added 200 TL of net profit on these sales. If the number goes negative, then no matter how high the ROAS looks, advertising is losing you money.

How do you set an ad budget on Trendyol?

The right order is this: first find the real margin of your product, then calculate its break-even ROAS, and finally manage your campaigns against that threshold. To calculate your margin precisely rather than by guesswork, use the Trendyol profit calculator; it shows what is left on a product after commission, shipping, service fee, withholding tax and VAT. When you enter that margin into this ROAS calculator, you see clearly below which ROAS level you need to cut back your advertising.

In practice, evaluate advertising product by product: raise the budget on products running well above their break-even ROAS, and lower the bid or stop it on those that fall below. A blind "double the budget" approach grows revenue on low-margin products while shrinking profit. The metric you should measure is not total revenue but the net contribution from advertising.