What is ACOS and How to Reduce it
December 22, 2022 Posted by LUCAS COOKE

ACOS, or average cost of sale, is a term used in business to refer to the average amount of money spent on acquiring a new customer or making a sale. This metric is calculated by dividing the total cost of a company's marketing and sales efforts by the number of sales or customers acquired as a result of those efforts. For example, if a company spends $100 on marketing and advertising, and they make 10 sales as a result, their ACOS would be $10.

ACOS can be a useful metric for businesses to track and understand, as it can provide insight into the effectiveness of their marketing and sales efforts. By comparing the ACOS to the revenue generated from each sale, companies can determine if they are spending too much or too little on acquiring new customers or making sales. This can help them identify areas where they can improve their marketing and sales strategies in order to increase their profitability.

In addition to tracking ACOS, businesses can also use other metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of their marketing and sales efforts. These may include the cost per acquisition (CPA), which measures the cost of acquiring a new customer, and the lifetime value (LTV) of a customer, which estimates the total revenue that a customer will generate over the course of their relationship with the company. By combining these metrics with ACOS, businesses can gain a more complete picture of their sales and marketing efforts, and make more informed decisions about how to allocate their resources.

One important consideration when using ACOS is that it is a backward-looking metric, meaning that it provides information about past performance. While this can be useful for analyzing trends and making comparisons, it does not provide any information about future performance. For this reason, businesses should be cautious about relying solely on ACOS when making decisions about their marketing and sales strategies.

In conclusion, ACOS is an important metric for businesses to understand and track. By calculating the average cost of sale, companies can gain insight into the effectiveness of their marketing and sales efforts, and make more informed decisions about how to allocate their resources. While ACOS is a useful metric, it is important to consider it in combination with other metrics, and to be aware of its limitations.

A lower ACOS indicates that your campaigns are more effective at driving sales, while a higher ACOS indicates that you may be overspending on advertising or that your campaigns are not as effective.

Here are some tips for reducing ACOS:

  1. Review your keyword strategy: Make sure that you are targeting relevant keywords in your sponsored product campaigns. Using broad or unrelated keywords can result in high ACOS, as they may not be as effective at driving sales.
  2. Optimize your product titles and descriptions: Make sure that your product titles and descriptions accurately and clearly describe your products and include relevant keywords. This can help improve the visibility and relevancy of your products for potential customers.
  3. Test different ad formats: Experiment with different ad formats, such as sponsored brands or sponsored display, to see which ones perform best for your products.
  4. Set competitive bids: Set competitive bids for your sponsored product campaigns, but be sure to balance your bid amount with your desired ACOS. Higher bids can lead to more visibility, but they can also result in higher ACOS if they are not effective at driving sales.
  5. Monitor and analyze your campaigns: Regularly monitor and analyze the performance of your sponsored product campaigns to identify areas for improvement and optimize your campaigns accordingly.

By implementing these strategies, you can help reduce your ACOS and improve the performance of your sponsored product campaigns on Amazon.

Lucas Cooke
Marketing Associate