CPA & ROAS Benchmarks by Vertical: The Reference Table
Observed first-order CPA and ROAS ranges by vertical and AOV band, plus blended return and payback windows so you stop comparing unlike businesses.
A good CPA is meaningless until you know the AOV, the vertical and whether you are judging first-order or blended return. This reference table maps the ranges we observe — CPA, ROAS and payback — so you stop scoring a supplement brand against a jewellery brand on the same board.
First-order ROAS is AOV divided by CPA, not a vibe
If average order value is $50 and you paid $40 to get the order, first-order ROAS is 1.25 — full stop. Teams still argue the ROAS is 'bad' because a dashboard somewhere showed 3.0, or 'good' because it beat last week, without checking whether the vertical even makes money at 1.25 on the first purchase. Always pair the CPA band with the AOV band for that vertical. A $90 CPA can be a win on a $220 jewellery order and a disaster on a $32 pet SKU. The tables below keep those two numbers on the same row so the ratio is honest.
Blended return is a different scoreboard from first-order
Consumables, subscriptions and replenishment brands are supposed to look mediocre on day-zero ROAS and healthy on 60- or 90-day blended return. One-and-done and high-return categories (apparel, jewellery, some home) have little second-order juice, so first-order has to carry the P&L. Mixing those models is how a supplement brand pauses a winner that would have paid back on the second bottle, and how a jewellery brand scales a 1.3 first-order ROAS that never gets another purchase. Decide which scoreboard the vertical is allowed to use before you call the number a failure.
Payback window is the hidden third column
CPA and ROAS without a clock still lie. A 2.0 blended ROAS that arrives in 14 days funds scale; the same 2.0 that arrives in 180 days can starve cashflow even if the cohort is 'profitable' on paper. Each vertical in the sheet has an observed payback window — how long until ad spend on a cohort is typically recovered from contribution, not from vanity revenue. If your cash cycle cannot fund that window, the correct move is a higher first-order target, not a pep talk about LTV. Use the window as a constraint on how aggressively you can buy the CPA band.
Use the band as a diagnostic, not as a trophy
Being inside the observed CPA band does not mean scale; being outside it does not always mean kill. If first-order CPA is worse than the band and hook, hold and outbound CTR are healthy, the leak is offer, price or landing page — not the video. If CPA is inside the band and first-order ROAS is still below break-even for your margin, the vertical maths may require a higher AOV or a real repeat loop, not more ad sets. When the diagnosis says creative volume is the bottleneck, batch new UGC from a product URL in Klip Kanvas rather than waiting on another shoot to 'find a better CPA'.
5 tables inside: first-order CPA by vertical with AOV bands, first-order ROAS, 60-90 day blended ROAS, payback windows, and the first-order vs blended diagnostic for when you are allowed to use each scoreboard.
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