Shopee Ads: how it works, what it costs, and the ROAS you need to avoid losing money

Shopee Ads is Shopee’s sponsored listing platform: you buy credits, choose products and a budget, and pay per click. Results are measured in ROAS (revenue ÷ ad spend), counting purchases made within 7 days of the click. The calculation that determines whether it’s profitable is the same as for any ad: minimum ROAS is 1 divided by the product’s margin before ad spend. The difference is that on Shopee, the 20% commission plus R$ 4,50 for orders up to R$ 79,99 leaves many products with a slim margin, so break-even ROAS can climb quickly.

The Shopee Ads dashboard shows revenue and ROAS. It doesn’t know your costs or taxes. Here’s how it works and how to turn ROAS into profit.

#How Shopee Ads works

• Prepaid credits. Add credits to your balance, and your ads use them for each click. When your balance runs out, your ads stop running. Shopee notifies you when your balance is low and when credits are set to expire within the next 30 days.
• Cost per click. You only pay when a buyer clicks. The cost depends on your bid and the highest competing bid. Invalid clicks aren’t charged.
• Metrics. Impressions, clicks, click-through rate (Shopee considers anything above 1.5% good), orders, revenue, ad spend, ROAS, and ACOS, with total and direct versions, under Marketing Center > Shopee Ads.
• Attribution. A sale is attributed to an ad if it happens within 7 days of the click.
• Invoice. Credit purchases appear on the invoice as "Seller Value-Added Services."

#Ad types

For most sellers, day-to-day advertising means product ads in search, with manual or automatic bidding.

#Ads Fácil: a cost that doesn’t always show up as an ad

Some stores are invited to join Ads Fácil. Shopee deducts up to 5% from each completed sale and returns the amount as ad credits within 7 days. Credits are valid for 30 days, the minimum participation period is 21 days, and Shopee controls bids, ROAS, and budget. The charge appears in the order statement as "Ads Fácil Program."

In practice, this is a cost of up to 5% on all your sales, including sales that would have happened without ads. If your average margin is 15%, Ads Fácil can take a third of it. It makes sense when the ads generate enough new sales to cover that 5%. To find out, compare your total profit before and after joining—not the ROAS the program shows.

#The ROAS you need: start with your margin

On Shopee, margin before ad spend is the price minus commission, the fixed fee, tax, product cost, and packaging. Here are three products with 6% tax and R$ 0,60 packaging:

Notice the third product: above R$ 100, the fixed fee increases to R$ 20, so a more expensive product can have a lower margin than a cheaper one. This is the kind of product that can be most misleading in the ads dashboard.

And here’s the general rule for any product:

A product with a 15% margin needs a ROAS of 20 to leave 10% profit after ads. That almost never happens. For these products, the honest choice is usually not to advertise, or to advertise only during peak seasons.

If your margin is low because of the price tier, check the commission table tiers before running ads. A product priced at R$ 82 pays less than one priced at R$ 79,90; correcting the price comes before any ROAS target. I explain Shopee’s three price tiers.

In practice. A hair accessories seller had a ROAS of 7 in the dashboard and thought her ads were doing well. Most products were priced between R$ 19,90 and R$ 29,90, where the R$ 4,50 fixed fee takes a big bite. After COGS and tax, these items had a margin of 12% to 18% before ads, and breaking even required a ROAS between 5.6 and 8.3. Half of the advertised products lost money at a ROAS of 7. She started advertising only three-piece kits, which had margins above 30%, and her monthly profit went up with less ad spend.

#How to build a profitable campaign

1. Calculate each product’s margin before ads, including the commission and fixed fee for its price tier. See the 2026 Shopee fees.
2. Choose products with margins above 25% to advertise. Below 20%, you need a very high ROAS.
3. Set a minimum ROAS for each product using the table above, and track results by product—not just by campaign average.
4. Give it time. One week isn’t enough; two to four weeks of data will show the pattern.
5. Cut based on profit, not ROAS. A product with a ROAS of 6 and a 35% margin is great; one with a ROAS of 8 and a 12% margin loses money.

#Direct or total ROAS?

The dashboard shows total ROAS (including purchases of other products from your store after a click) and direct ROAS (only the advertised product). To decide whether to keep an ad, use the direct ROAS, because the margin you compared is for that product. Total ROAS shows the overall effect on your store, but it combines products with different margins.

#Where the numbers go wrong

Shopee Ads spend comes out of the credits you bought, while Ads Fácil is deducted from each order payout. They appear in different places on the commission and fixed-fee statement. That’s why stores so often think their margin is 20% when it’s actually 8% after ads.

Milewa brings all three together: it pulls Shopee Ads spend for each product, applies the commission, fixed fee, your cost, and tax to its sales, then shows profit after ads by product. Ads with a great-looking ROAS but negative profit are flagged separately, so you can cut them before your next credit purchase.