Free · Two calculators · No email required
Two questions every campaign has to answer before spending a penny on ads. What ROAS do I have to hit to break even? And at my target ROAS, how many backers and how much profit will my ad spend actually deliver?
Product cost and reward price. Fees are pre-filled with 2026 Kickstarter rates.
Break-even ROAS
Enter your product cost and reward tier price above to calculate your break-even ROAS.
Money left for ads
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Per pledge, after fees + COGS.
Ad headroom
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Of tier price available for ads.
Verdict
Awaiting inputs
Enter product cost and tier price to see your margin.
Set a target ROAS and an ad budget. See what your ads should deliver.
Backers your ads should deliver
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Enter your product cost and tier price above.
Ad-driven raise
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Total pledges from ad traffic only.
Cash in your bank from ad-driven pledges, after everything
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Enter your product cost and tier price above to see what actually lands with you from ad-driven pledges.
A break-even ROAS above 3x means your margin is too tight for standard ad performance. Either the price goes up, the product cost comes down, or the campaign relies more on organic than paid. A 60-minute strategy call is the fastest way to work out which lever to pull.
Book a £60 strategy callBreak-even ROAS = Reward tier price ÷ Money left for ads per pledge.
Money left for ads = Tier price – COGS – (KS fee % × tier) – (processing % × tier) – (agency % × tier).
Forecast backers = (Target ROAS × Ad budget) ÷ Tier price.
Cash-in-bank forecast = Ad-driven raise – (all per-pledge deductions × backers) – Ad budget.
Simplified for one-tier campaigns. Real campaigns have multiple tiers with different margins. If you have a lot of super-early birds at a lower price, model that tier separately. For UK campaigns, VAT is not included here (it sits outside the ad model).
The minimum return on ad spend needed to cover product cost, Kickstarter fees, payment processing and any agency commission on that pledge. Above it, ads make you money. Below it, ads cost you money. For most physical products with a healthy margin it lands between 1.4x and 2.5x.
Most well-run campaigns aim for a blended 2.5x to 4x across the whole campaign. Launch day usually spikes higher, mid-campaign runs lower, and the final 48 hours can spike again. If you're stuck below break-even for a week, kill the ads and rely on organic. Read the mistakes list for more.
The mechanics are the same, but Kickstarter takes 5% off the top and payment processing takes another 3% plus a per-pledge fee, before you touch the money. That eats into the pool available for ads and pushes your break-even ROAS up. Agencies charging a percentage on top squeeze it further.
Only if you can beat your break-even ROAS consistently. It's fine to run underwater for a day or two around launch to buy momentum, but two weeks of underwater ads is how founders finish the campaign with less cash than they started with. Watch the daily ROAS in your ad account like a hawk.
