ACOS (Advertising Cost of Sale)
Ad spend divided by the sales that ad attributed. Lower usually means a more profitable campaign, though not always more revenue. ACOS is calculated per campaign, per keyword, or account-wide, and a "good" number depends entirely on the product's margin - 30% might be healthy for a high-margin product and unsustainable for a thin-margin one.
In practice
ACOS is calculated per campaign, per keyword, or account-wide, and a "good" number depends entirely on the product's margin - 30% might be healthy for a high-margin product and unsustainable for a thin-margin one. It only counts sales the ad system claims credit for, which is why TACOS exists as a broader check.
A campaign spends $50 in ads and generates $200 in attributed sales - that's a 25% ACOS.
Why it matters
Chasing a lower ACOS in isolation can quietly shrink total sales volume, since the cheapest way to lower it is often to cut spend on the exact keywords driving the most revenue.
Worth knowing
- Break-even ACOS equals a product's profit margin before advertising - spending above that on a sale is a loss.
- Best evaluated per campaign or per keyword, rather than as one blended account-wide number.
- A new listing often runs a deliberately higher ACOS early on to win reviews and rank before optimizing for profit.
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Tell us where things stand with putting acos into practice and we'll respond with next steps, no forms, no waiting in a queue.
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