Average Order Value (AOV)

AOV is quietly one of the most important numbers in paid media because it sits between your traffic and your revenue. You can pour money into clicks and conversions, but if each order is small, your ROAS stays thin. Raise the average basket and every existing conversion suddenly returns more, which is why AOV work often beats chasing cheaper clicks.

The link to bidding is direct. Smart Bidding and target ROAS strategies optimise toward revenue per conversion, so when your AOV rises, the algorithm can afford to bid into more expensive, higher-intent auctions and still hit target. A shop that lifts AOV from 60 to 75 euros gives its bidding more room to compete, often unlocking traffic that was previously out of reach. AOV improvement and bidding headroom go hand in hand.

AOV also reshapes which products and audiences deserve budget. Two campaigns with identical ROAS can have very different AOVs, and the higher-AOV campaign usually scales more comfortably because each sale carries more profit to absorb rising costs. When you segment performance by AOV, you often find that a small set of products or bundles drives most of the profitable revenue, which tells you exactly where to point your creative and your bids.

The classic ways to grow AOV are practical, not gimmicky: relevant cross-sells and upsells, free-shipping thresholds set just above your current AOV, bundles, and volume incentives. The art is lifting basket size without crushing margin, which is why AOV should always be read next to your margin, not in isolation.