Outdoor & Sporting: POAS, COGS and margin benchmarks
Outdoor and sporting goods stores sell large orders across several seasons at once. In Triple Whale's Google Ads benchmarks, the median sports and outdoors brand had an order value of $131.92 and a ROAS of 4.35, one of the few industries whose ROAS improved over the year to July 2026. But whether a big order makes money depends on whose brand was sold, how much it cost to deliver, and whether the boots came back. The pages below cover what a healthy return looks like, where ROAS misleads, what belongs in an outdoor store's cost of goods, and how to scale spend around each activity's season.
The questions, with sourced numbers
- What's a healthy POAS?
What POAS outdoor and sporting goods stores need on Google Ads when margins vary by brand, activity seasons shift demand and bulky gear costs more to ship.
4.35Median Google Ads ROAS - Why does optimising for ROAS overspend?
Why outdoor and sporting goods stores overspend on ROAS: equal ROAS across brands with unequal margins, fit returns, and end-of-season clearance.
61%Footwear returns that are fit or size - What counts as COGS?
Wholesale or factory cost, oversize shipping, fit returns and warranty claims: which outdoor and sporting costs belong in COGS when measuring POAS.
42.6%COGS as a share of sales (one company) - How do you scale spend profitably?
How to scale Google Ads for an outdoor gear store on profit: follow the activity calendar, split targets by brand margin, and use climate to target.
31%YETI's 2025 sales made in Q4
Background reading
- What Is POAS (Profit on Ad Spend)? Full Definition
- ROAS vs POAS: Which Metric Should You Actually Use?
- ROAS vs POAS: The Metric Killing Your Shopify Profits
- How to Calculate Break-Even ROAS (With a Worked Example)
- Shopify COGS Setup: How to Track Cost of Goods Sold
- Google Ads for Shopify: The Complete Profitability Guide
- Wasted Ad Spend in Google Ads: How to Find and Fix It