AOV
Average order value
What a customer pays on an average order — the figure that decides how much you can pay to win one.
Formula
AOV = total order value ÷ number of orders
How to read it
- Raising it lowers the return you need to break even: every increase in order value buys room for ad cost.
- The usual levers: bundles, a free-shipping threshold, and a complementary offer at checkout — each tested with numbers, not impressions.
- Calculate it on completed and received orders, not on everything that entered a cart.
The common mistake
Treating it as fixed and then trying to fix profitability through targeting alone. In many stores, a modest lift in average order value does what weeks of campaign tweaks cannot.