How much can a sale through creators cost before a campaign stops paying off?

You can read the highest CPO (cost per order) you can afford straight off your own orders: it is the contribution margin before marketing. All the tables below use this one order. The figures are assumptions, so plug in your own.

1. Take the VAT out of the order value. Say an average order brings in €70 including VAT. At Germany’s standard VAT rate of 19% (§ 12(1) UStG), that is €70 ÷ 1.19 = €58.82 net.
2. Factor in returns. If you assume 20% of orders are returned, you keep 0.8 × €58.82 = €47.06 in net sales per order on average.
3. Subtract the cost of the goods that are kept. At an assumed 40% of the net price, or €23.53, that is 0.8 × €23.53 = €18.82 per order on average. In the example, returned goods go back on sale.
4. Subtract the costs that remain even if the order is sent back: shipping, packaging and payment fees, assumed at €6.50 per order. Add return shipping and handling, assumed at €7 per return, so 0.2 × €7 = €1.40 per order on average.
5. What is left is your contribution margin per order: €47.06 − €18.82 − €6.50 − €1.40 = €20.34. An order through creators must not cost you more than that. At exactly this amount the campaign just pays for itself, with nothing left for fixed costs or profit.
6. If you only count sales that are kept, the same contribution margin is spread over fewer sales: €20.34 ÷ 0.8 = €25.42 per kept sale. If you want, say, €8 per order left for fixed costs and profit, you have €12.34 for the campaign.

ROAS (return on ad spend) is sales divided by the cost of the campaign. The contribution margin ratio is your contribution margin divided by net sales after returns, in the example €20.34 ÷ €47.06 = 43.2%. Break-even ROAS is 1 divided by that ratio, so 1 ÷ 0.2 = 5.0 or 1 ÷ 0.5 = 2.0. Below that, the campaign costs more than the sales bring in. If commission is all you pay for the campaign, it can be at most as high as the ratio, calculated on net sales after returns. The last column shows the ROAS you need so that 10% of sales is left for fixed costs and profit after the campaign: 1 ÷ (ratio − 0.1).

The sales figure you divide by the cost moves the threshold. For the same order, it is 2.31 on net sales after returns, 2.89 on the net value before returns and 3.44 on the gross value before returns. In Google Ads you set target ROAS as a percentage: according to Google Ads Help, $5 in sales for every $1 of ad spend equals a target ROAS of 500%. Google works with the conversion values your tracking reports, so check two things before you compare ads with creators: is VAT included, and are returns deducted?

ROAS tells you how much a campaign sells, not what is left of it. That is what ROI (return on investment) shows: (contribution margin − campaign cost) ÷ campaign cost, so what is left after variable costs and the campaign, per euro spent. As one formula: ROI = ROAS × contribution margin ratio − 1.

Say a campaign costs €1,000 and brings in €3,000 in net sales after returns, so the ROAS is 3. With a contribution margin ratio of 25%, the sales leave €750 in contribution margin, €250 less than the cost. ROI is −25%. With the 43.2% from the example above, the same ROAS brings in €1,296 in contribution margin and an ROI of around 30%.

So don’t compare campaigns on ROAS alone if they sell different products. A ROAS of 4 on goods with a 20% ratio gives an ROI of −20%, a ROAS of 2.5 on goods with a 50% ratio an ROI of +25%.

Result here means the contribution margin of all orders minus campaign costs, using the €20.34 contribution margin and €47.06 net sales after returns per order from the example above. Commission is calculated on net sales after returns, so 20% is €9.41 per order. The break-even point of a fee is fee ÷ contribution margin per order: €1,500 ÷ €20.34 = 73.7, so 74 orders. With a fixed fee plus commission, divide the fixed fee by what is left per order after the commission: €500 ÷ (€20.34 − €4.71) = 32. The table uses unrounded intermediate values, so a result may differ from your own maths by €1.

The models cross over. The 20% commission costs you more than the flat fee from 160 orders, which is €7,500 in net sales. The fixed fee plus commission becomes more expensive than the flat fee from 213 orders, at €10,000 in net sales. With a flat fee, you carry the risk of low sales. With commission, the creators carry it, and you pay more when a lot sells.

Add two items that are easy to miss. The first is the Künstlersozialabgabe (artists’ social security levy). According to the Künstlersozialkasse (KSK), payment for advertising with self-made photos, videos or texts counts towards it, while commission from affiliate partnerships does not. Payments to a GmbH or another legal entity do not count either, the KSK says, and neither does separately stated VAT. A brand advertising itself is liable once its payments for jobs given to self-employed artists and writers add up to more than €1,000 in a calendar year from 2026. The rate is 4.9% for 2026, and the KSK lists 5.0% for 2027. If the levy applies to the fee, it adds €73.50 to €1,500 net and raises the break-even point to 78 orders. If the levy also applies to the fixed fee in the hybrid model, the break-even point there rises from 32 to 34 orders. Check how this applies to your contracts with your tax adviser.

The second item is the products you send to creators, plus shipping. They cost money even if nobody posts. If you send samples worth €25 each including shipping to an assumed 30 creators, you have spent €750 before the first order comes in. With 20% commission, €20.34 − €9.41 = €10.93 is left per order, so you need 69 orders just to cover the samples.

In the table above, commission pays for itself from the first order. That only holds if creators actually post. An affiliate programme, a listing on an affiliate network or a platform where creators can pick your products brings no reach on its own. Many partners in a programme never become active, and the creators you most want for your brand usually don’t post without a reason, such as a product launch, a campaign or a fee.

For your maths, that means a low commission rate doesn’t make a sale cheap if hardly any sales come in while samples, outreach and briefings still cost money. The real problem is getting creators to act, many at the same time, and then seeing who sells. Only with orders and costs per creator can you hold each creator’s CPO against your maximum CPO and move budget to the ones who sell.

1. Give each creator their own link or code so orders can be attributed.
2. Record all costs per creator: fee or share of the budget, commission, samples and shipping.
3. Divide the costs by orders after returns. That is the creator’s CPO.
4. If it is below your maximum CPO, that is a case for another round with that creator. If it is above, check the product, briefing and terms before you pay more.

The options only become comparable on the same basis: net of VAT, after returns and cancellations, with all of the channel’s costs included. Fill in the first block once and the second for each channel or creator, for example a flat fee, a commission model and an ad campaign over the same period.

Basis: net of VAT, after returns and cancellations
Period: [date] to [date]

1. Your order
Net price per order: [€]
Return rate: [%]
Net sales after returns per order = net price × (1 − return rate): [€]
Cost of goods kept per order: [€]
Shipping, packaging, payment per order: [€]
Return costs per order = cost per return × return rate: [€]
Contribution margin per order = maximum CPO: [€]
Contribution margin ratio = contribution margin ÷ net sales after returns: [%]
Break-even ROAS = 1 ÷ contribution margin ratio: [value]

2. Per channel or creator: [flat fee / commission / ads / creator]
Cost: [fee, commission, campaign budget or media budget] + [samples and shipping] + [levies, fees, subscription] = [€]
Orders: [number]
Net sales after returns: [€]
CPO = cost ÷ orders: [€]
ROAS = net sales after returns ÷ cost: [value]
Result = orders × contribution margin per order − cost: [€]
ROI = result ÷ cost: [%]
CPO below maximum CPO: [yes/no]

wyrld Boost puts your budget behind creators who feature your products, starting right away. You set products, KPIs and the period in advance, for example sales during a promotion week, and many creators take part at the same time. Joining is each creator’s own decision, so there is no promise on the number of participants, reach or sales. The pool is paid out to creators according to the KPIs they reach, and they label their campaign videos as advertising. You decide in which shops people buy, and after the campaign you can see which creator delivered which results.

For your own maths, treat the full budget like a flat fee: budget ÷ contribution margin per order gives the number of sales the campaign needs to pay for itself. If you also pay commission on the same sales through your affiliate programme, divide by the contribution margin after commission. How a pool is treated for the Künstlersozialabgabe is something to check with your tax adviser before the start.

With the brand and shop subscription, you can see every day which creators feature your products and who actually sells. If your affiliate programme runs through one of the large affiliate networks, wyrld shows up there as a single partner, through which creators can usually pick your products today. The subscription shows who behind it brings clicks and sales. If you want, you can set your own commission rates or bonuses for the creators who sell, and the calculation above shows how far you can go. The subscription runs monthly, and its price counts as a cost of the channel. Prices for the subscription and Boost are available on request. We are happy to talk through what fits your numbers: connecting through your affiliate programme or directly, the subscription or Boost.