Shopee Ads can look like a black box. You top up, Shopee spends it, and a dashboard tells you how many sales the ads made.
So here is one real campaign, with the numbers left in.
We run Shopee Ads for a Malaysian hair styling brand. We have left the brand unnamed, so we call its products A and B. Our managed campaign started on 23 August 2026. Across the dashboard’s reporting window of 1 August to 22 October 2026, ad spend was RM1,848.37. Shopee credited the ads with 358 orders and RM11,356.80 in sales.
That is a 6.14x return on ad spend, at RM5.16 per order.
This guide covers:
- What Shopee Ads cost us, per click, per order and per item.
- What happened to our cost per order after we set a ROAS target.
- How vouchers can bring the return closer to 5x.
- The gaps between ad sets, and how to avoid them.
Raw data: download the per-ad Shopee Ads reports (CSV) behind the monthly comparison below.
The campaign in numbers
These are the totals from the brand’s Shopee Ads dashboard for 1 August to 22 October 2026.
| Metric | Result | What it works out to |
|---|---|---|
| Ad spend | RM1,848.37 | |
| Impressions | 159,800 | |
| Clicks | 2,800 | 1.75% click-through rate (clicks ÷ impressions) |
| Orders | 358 | RM5.16 in ad cost per order |
| Items sold | 637 | 1.78 items per order, RM2.90 in ad cost per item |
| Sales | RM11,356.80 | 6.14x ROAS, about RM31.72 per order |
| Add to cart | 333 | 11.88% add-to-cart rate |
| Vouchers used | RM391.82, on RM3,250.30 of sales | About 29% of ad sales used a voucher |
Source: the brand’s Shopee Ads dashboard, 1 August to 22 October 2026. Clicks and impressions are rounded on the dashboard.
ROAS means return on ad spend: sales divided by ad cost. A 6.14x ROAS means every RM1 of ads came with about RM6.14 in sales.
How much do Shopee Ads cost?
You set your own budget, and Shopee notes that the budget you set changes how much GMV Max can deliver1. What you pay per sale depends on your product, price, reviews and competition.
Here is what our money bought:
- About RM0.66 per click (RM1,848.37 across about 2,800 clicks).
- RM5.16 per order.
- RM2.90 per item sold.
- About 16 sen of ad cost for every RM1 of ad sales. Shopee’s ad report labels this ACOS, advertising cost of sales (see the ACOS column in our CSV).
Do not judge GMV Max on cost per click alone. Shopee’s own guidance says the system may bid more for shoppers likely to buy, so you should look at cost per order or ROAS instead of CPC1.
Our numbers back that up. Product A, the bestselling hair wax, cost more per click than Product B, a hair clay, (RM0.86 against RM0.53 in the first month). It was still much cheaper per order, because more of its clicks turned into sales.
Which Shopee ad types we used
Shopee offers Shop Ads, Product Search Ads, Product Discovery Ads, GMV Max and Live Ads, plus brand formats open only to selected sellers3.
We used only one: GMV Max.
- GMV Max runs your product across Shopee’s traffic, including Search and Discovery1. You cannot pick placements.
- The system adjusts and optimises bid prices automatically1, so there are no keywords or bid ranges to manage. That is why this case study has no keyword list.
- Each GMV Max Auto Bidding ad can promote only one product4, so we ran one ad per product.
Almost all of the spend went to two products:
- Product A, a hair wax, about 70% of spend.
- Product B, a hair clay, about 30%.
Two other products got short GMV Max tests in late September and October. Shopee spent less than RM2 on them in October and they made no sales, so we left them alone.
Auto Bidding vs Custom ROAS: what changed in October
GMV Max has two modes:
- Auto Bidding. Shopee tries to maximise sales automatically without a set ROAS target1.
- Custom ROAS. You set a specific ROAS goal for each product1, and Shopee bids towards that target.
We ran Auto Bidding from 23 August to 21 September. In October, we moved both main products to Custom ROAS. Spend was similar in both periods, which makes the comparison easier to read, though it is still not a controlled test.
Auto Bidding (23 August to 21 September) against Custom ROAS (1 to 31 October). Image: One Search Pro, own work, from the brand’s Shopee Ads reports.
| All ads | Auto Bidding, 23 Aug to 21 Sep | Mostly Custom ROAS, 1 to 31 Oct |
|---|---|---|
| Ad spend | RM1,030.29 | RM1,013.48 |
| Clicks | 1,400 | 1,446 |
| Orders | 176 | 221 |
| Share of clicks that ordered | 12.6% | 15.3% |
| Sales | RM5,932.20 | RM6,323.90 |
| ROAS | 5.76x | 6.24x |
| Ad cost per order | RM5.85 | RM4.59 |
| Average order value | RM33.71 | RM28.61 |
Source: per-ad Shopee Ads reports (CSV). October includes RM1.96 spent on two small Auto Bidding tests; the two main products alone came to RM1,011.52, 6.25x ROAS and RM4.58 per order.
What we saw:
- Similar spend, 45 more orders. The ads got a similar number of clicks, but more of them bought.
- Product A improved most. Its ROAS went from 6.19x to 6.90x and its cost per order fell from RM5.43 to RM3.89.
- Product B improved a little. ROAS went from 4.57x to 4.96x.
The catch: orders got smaller. The average order fell from RM33.71 to RM28.61, and buyers bought fewer items per order. ROAS still rose, because the extra orders more than made up for it.
This is one brand over two months, not a controlled test. Both periods include a Shopee double-date sale (9.9 and 10.10), and October has one more day. So we cannot say the setting caused the change. Treat it as a hint worth testing, not proof.
How to set your target. Shopee suggests 3 target ROAS levels, and recommends using a product’s past performance as your benchmark2. It also warns against setting a target more than 25% above the highest suggestion1. Set it too high and Shopee spends less, so you get fewer sales.
Vouchers: the cost the dashboard leaves out
The dashboard shows voucher use separately, and we read the 6.14x ROAS as sales before vouchers.
About RM3,250.30 of the ad sales used a voucher, for a total discount of RM391.82. If the shop pays for those vouchers, and the sales figure has not already taken them off, add them to the ad cost:
RM11,356.80 ÷ (RM1,848.37 + RM391.82) = about 5.07x
Under those assumptions, the return is about a point lower than the headline. When you compare Shopee Ads results, check whether anyone counted vouchers.
The gaps between ad sets
The dashboard chart shows ad impressions, clicks and orders dropping to almost nothing twice: around 17 to 22 August and again in late September.
The ad reports line up with those gaps. The main August ad set started on 23 August, and the September set ended on 21 September, with the next ads starting between 26 September and 1 October.
What to do instead:
- Set up the next ad set before the current one ends. A gap means no ad traffic for those days.
- Expect a slow first week after a restart. Shopee says GMV Max needs at least 7 days to learn after a new campaign starts, and changing the ROAS goal restarts that learning1.
Shopee also notes that a tight budget can lower sales and limit ROAS1. It recommends changing budget or target by no more than about 20% at a time.
When Shopee Ads are worth it, and when they are not
The question is not “is 6x good?” It is “what ROAS do I need to make money?”
Break-even ROAS = 1 ÷ your gross margin.
| Your gross margin | Break-even ROAS |
|---|---|
| 50% | 2.0x |
| 40% | 2.5x |
| 30% | 3.3x |
| 20% | 5.0x |
Worked examples, not the brand’s figures. Gross margin here means what you keep from a sale after product cost, Shopee fees and shipping you cover.
Shopee Ads tend to work when:
- The product already sells on its own and has good reviews.
- Your margin leaves room above break-even. For example, at a 40% margin you break even at 2.5x, so a 6x result leaves plenty of headroom.
- You can keep ads running steadily, not in short bursts.
Be careful when:
- The product has few reviews or a weak main photo. Ads send traffic, but the listing still has to convert it.
- Your margin is thin. A 20% margin needs 5x just to break even, before vouchers.
“We let Shopee’s system handle the bids. Our job was choosing the products, setting the target and keeping the ads running,” said Eric Ang, founder of One Search Pro.
What we could not measure
Every case study has gaps. These are ours:
- Organic sales. We did not compare against the shop’s non-ad sales, so we cannot say how many of these buyers would have found the shop anyway.
- Attribution. The reports have two columns: “Conversions” count whole-shop orders linked to an ad, and “Direct Conversions” count only the advertised product (see our CSV). Counting only the advertised product, October’s ROAS was 5.89x instead of 6.24x.
- Profit. We have not shared the brand’s margins, so we show the break-even formula instead of a profit figure.
Method
- Headline figures: the brand’s Shopee Ads dashboard, 1 August to 22 October 2026, provided by our ads team. Our ads team says the managed campaign started on 23 August; the dashboard chart also shows a smaller amount of ad activity from 1 to 17 August.
- Monthly comparison: two per-ad “All CPC Ads Report” exports from Shopee Seller Centre, for 23 August to 21 September and 1 to 31 October 2026. The October report runs 9 days past the dashboard period, so the two sets of totals differ.
- Derived figures (cost per click, per order and per item, ACOS, voucher-adjusted ROAS) are our own maths from those numbers.
- Raw data: per-ad Shopee Ads reports (CSV), with the shop ID, product IDs and product names removed.
Want help with Shopee Ads or your wider online store marketing? See our digital strategy services.
Sources
- GMV Max FAQs, Shopee Ads Malaysia, checked 6 November 2026.
- GMV Max Custom ROAS, Shopee Ads Malaysia, checked 6 November 2026.
- Shopee ad types, Shopee Ads Malaysia, checked 6 November 2026.
- GMV Max Auto Bidding Migration Impact, Shopee Ads Malaysia, checked 6 November 2026.
Frequently asked questions
How much do Shopee ads cost in Malaysia?
You choose your own budget. In our campaign for a Malaysian hair care brand, RM1,848.37 over about 12 weeks bought roughly 2,800 clicks (about RM0.66 each) and 358 orders, or RM5.16 in ad cost per order. Your costs will depend on your product, price, listing quality and competition.
What is the difference between GMV Max Auto Bidding and Custom ROAS?
Both are automated. With Auto Bidding, Shopee tries to get as many sales as it can from your budget without a set return target. With Custom ROAS, you give Shopee a return target, such as 6x, and it bids towards that target. Shopee suggests 3 target levels and advises against setting a target more than 25% above its highest suggestion.
What ROAS do I need for Shopee Ads to be profitable?
Divide 1 by your gross margin. If you keep 40% of each sale after product and fulfilment costs, you break even at 2.5x ROAS. At a 25% margin, you need 4x. Then take vouchers and Shopee fees into account before you call a campaign profitable.
Do I need an agency to run Shopee Ads?
Not to start. Shopee's GMV Max does the bidding for you. An agency helps most with the parts the system cannot do: picking which products to push, setting a realistic ROAS target, planning budgets around sales days, and keeping ads running without gaps.