What's a healthy POAS for a supplement brand on Google Ads?

POAS divides the gross profit a campaign produced by what you spent to get it. At 1.0, ad spend used up every dollar of product profit the campaign generated. Above 1.0, the campaign contributes to fixed costs and net profit; below it, each sale loses money before overhead is counted.

No published POAS benchmark for supplement brands is built on real account data. The figure above is the closest credible number: the median Google Ads ROAS for health and wellness brands in Triple Whale's dataset, a category broader than supplements alone. It was a difficult year for the category. Median ROAS fell 8.73%, one of the three largest declines in the dataset. Median cost per acquisition rose 13.36% to $34.76, and health and wellness saw the steepest rise in cost per thousand impressions of any industry, up 28.60% to $22.40. The median order was $72.34.

A median ROAS of 2.06 on a first order doesn't leave much room. For a subscription brand, the real question is whether the customers that order brings in come back.

What moves a supplement brand's POAS

The first order and the subscription that may follow

Supplements are used up on a schedule, and can be sold by subscription. That splits POAS in two: what the first order earns, and what the customer earns over the months that follow. A first-order POAS below 1.0 can be a sound decision, but only if the reorders actually happen.

Most customers are lost in the first few reorders

In Recharge's subscription data, covering roughly 1,800 supplement brands, 86.6% of first-time subscribers completed a first reorder, the lowest rate of the five wellness categories Recharge compared. The curve then falls quickly: 57.6% reached a second reorder, 33.8% a third and 9.8% a sixth. Recharge found the curve flattens after the third reorder, once the habit has formed. A POAS target that assumes a year of reorders will overpay for most customers.

Subscription discounts carry into every renewal

A subscribe-and-save discount lowers revenue on the first order and on every renewal after it. The product costs the same each time, so margin per order is lower for a subscriber than for a full-price buyer. Payback has to be measured at the subscription price, not the list price.

Advertising restrictions

Google Ads restricts health claims and bans some ingredients under its healthcare and medicines policies. Ads and landing pages that break them can be disapproved, which limits what you can say to win the click, and can take a product out of Shopping altogether.

Turning the median ROAS into POAS

POAS equals ROAS multiplied by your margin after the subscription discount, shipping and fees.

• Measure first-order POAS and cohort payback separately.
• Use the subscription price, not the list price, when working out margin on renewals.
• Only bid on reorders you've measured in your own customer data.

Why a benchmark is only a starting point

Your break-even line depends on your margin, your subscription discount and how many first-time customers reorder. Use the median to see where health and wellness accounts typically sit, then set targets from your own cohorts.