How We Calculate SaaS Revenue & Ad Spend
All data comes from public advertising transparency regulations. We aggregate public observations and apply models to support your research.
100% Public Data
Advertising transparency laws require platforms like Meta to publish data on active advertisements. This data—including reach, impressions, and creative content—is publicly accessible through official APIs. We collect, aggregate, and transform this raw data into actionable intelligence.
Our Formulas
These simplified examples explain the model assumptions. Advertising observations are separate from inferred spend and revenue.
Reach → Ad Spend
How we calculate weekly advertising spend
Ad Spend = (Total Reach ÷ 1,000) × CPMNumber of unique users who saw ads (from Meta Ad Library)
Cost per 1,000 impressions (varies by country)
Estimated $ spent on advertising
CPM Benchmarks We Use
UK ~$10 · Germany ~$7-8 · France ~$6-7 · Netherlands ~$8 · Other EU ~$5-7
Ad Spend → Paid Revenue
Revenue generated from paid acquisition
Paid Revenue = Weekly Spend × 4 × 1.5 ROASMonthly ad spend (4 weeks)
Conservative return on ad spend
Monthly revenue from ads channel
Why 1.5× ROAS?
The benchmark uses 1.5× as a modeling assumption, not an observed return for each company. Actual ROAS can vary substantially, and sustained advertising does not establish profitability.
Total Monthly Revenue Estimate
Estimating full monthly revenue
Est. Monthly Revenue = Paid Revenue × Channel MultiplierChannel Multiplier: Organic, direct, and other channels are not measured by Meta advertising data. A multiplier such as 1.5× is an illustrative scenario, not a measured channel mix or a reliable total-revenue estimate.
How We Aggregate Data
Raw advertising data becomes intelligence through careful aggregation.
Total Reach
We sum reach across all active and historical ads for a brand. Meta provides reach ranges (e.g., "10K-50K"); we use midpoint values and aggregate across all tracked ads.
Total Reach = Σ (ad_reach_midpoint) for all adsDemographics (Age, Gender, Country)
Meta provides demographic breakdowns per ad. We aggregate these across all ads weighted by reach to show audience composition.
% Age 25-34 = Σ (reach_25_34) ÷ Total Reach × 100Weekly Spend History
We track reach deltas week-over-week. New reach × CPM = that week's estimated spend. This creates spend trend charts.
Week N Spend = (Reach_WeekN - Reach_WeekN-1) ÷ 1000 × CPMAd Count Trends
We track total ads and active ads over time. Spikes indicate new campaign launches. Drops indicate paused or ended campaigns.
Important modeling assumptions
- Reach is not impressions. CPM is priced per thousand impressions. Using reach as a proxy assumes a viewing frequency; summing ad-level reach can also count the same person more than once.
- Geographic extrapolation. The niche and competitor tools scale estimated EU daily spend by 10 for a modeled global daily figure, then by 30 days for a monthly figure. Applying 1.5× ROAS produces a revenue scenario. Those multipliers are assumptions, not observed global spend or actual company revenue.
- Benchmark scope. Overall benchmarks include non-SaaS advertisers. Use category-specific coverage and the subset with spend estimates when interpreting a SaaS comparison.
- Monthly revenue and MRR differ. Revenue inferred from advertising does not show subscription renewals, churn, non-recurring sales, or gross margin.
Validation & Confidence
Treat model outputs as directional research signals. A numerical accuracy guarantee would require a published validation sample, matched reporting periods, and a defined error measure; none is provided here.
How to Cross-Check an Estimate
- ✓Cross-reference with founder tweets, IndieHackers posts, podcast interviews
- ✓Compare against open startup dashboards (Buffer, Baremetrics, etc.)
- ✓Sanity check with employee counts and typical ARR/employee ratios
- ✓Track companies over time to validate growth trajectory estimates
What We Don't Capture
Organic Revenue
SEO, word-of-mouth, and direct traffic revenue isn't directly measurable from ad data.
Non-Meta Ads
Google Ads, LinkedIn, TikTok spend isn't included in Meta Ad Library data.
Enterprise Deals
Large B2B contracts typically don't come through paid social ads.
Exact ROAS
Actual ROAS varies by company. Our 1.5× assumption is not a measured return.
Interpretation: Actual revenue may be higher or lower than the estimate. Advertising data alone does not establish recurring revenue, profitability, or a minimum revenue floor.
See the data for 14,500+ SaaS
Revenue estimates, ad intelligence, and competitive insights—all calculated using this methodology.