How to make the math work at $1k to $5k a month

Work out your break-even ROAS

Break-even ROAS is 1 divided by what's left of an order after product cost, shipping, payment fees and returns. A founder in r/shopify ran the numbers on a $60 order: $18 product, $8 shipping, about $2 in fees and $3 in returns. About 48% is left, so break-even is roughly 2.1.

The top reply adds a cushion: "i'd want to see 20-25% above it before calling a campaign healthy." That puts this store's target near 2.5. Triple Whale's paid-channel medians across 53,000+ brands are a $23.20 CPA on a $61.22 average order. Your break-even is the number you judge ads against.

More on this: Lower CAC

Make the first order bigger

A $24 candle with a $15 CAC loses money on one unit and makes money on two. That brand ships free over $40, and 30% of buyers add a second scent. A beauty brand selling a $21 item sets its free-shipping threshold above two items and gets a $50 average order.

Watch who the offer pulls in. The candle brand's $42 two-pack lifted order size but brought buyers who reordered less, and it pulled the bundle after six weeks. Test one change at a time and check 90-day reorders before you keep it.

• Free-shipping threshold just above two units
• A bundle priced below two singles
• One add-on under $10 at checkout
• A starter size that leads to a full size

More on this: Bigger orders

Judge ads on 7-day numbers

Under $100 a day, results swing. One founder sees 2 to 2.8 ROAS one day and barely 1 the next. Daily numbers at this budget are noise, so read the week.

The ad is the lever you control. In the same thread, a founder cut spend from $600 a day to $100 and ROAS rose from 2.3 to 4.6. Pull openings from rival ads that have run 60 to 90+ days in the Meta Ad Library, rewrite them for your product and test two or three at a time.

More on this: Viral hooks

Earn the second order

The candle brand above keeps 34% of buyers at 90 days and needs them to buy twice. A reorder email timed to when the product runs out is the cheapest fix, followed by a second-order offer in Klaviyo. Shopify puts typical repeat rates at 45% for supplements, 34% for food and drink, 25% for fashion and 20% for health and beauty.

Count repeat orders carefully. One founder warns that a hoped-for 30% repeat rate "is how a store ends up profitable in the spreadsheet and broke in the bank." Set CAC on first-order profit until a real 90-day group of buyers shows you more.

Use creators if your category runs on them

One small beauty brand gets about 60% of its customers from influencers. LVLS, a sportswear brand at $5k a month, had one TikTok reach 4.7m people and reached athletes through their photographers and trainers because paid reach of that size was out of budget.

Creator platforms start around $300 a month, which is a lot at this stage. Look for business emails on creators' YouTube About pages, and use TikTok Shop affiliate invites if your product sells there.

More on this: Creators who will promote you

Keep fixed costs small

A merch founder at $2k a month picked $10 hosting over a $30 Shopify plan "to minimize overhead, especially fixed costs." A fair rule from r/smallbusiness: "if I can pay $30/month and it saves me five hours of work, I'll take it." Foreplay, Minea, Modash, Helium 10 and Semrush are $675 a month. The same research is $99, and the first report is free.