AOV

Average order value (AOV) is total revenue divided by the number of orders in a period. If 500 orders brought in $30,000, AOV is $60. It is a store-level number that you compute from your commerce platform, and it also shows up in ad reporting when you track purchase values. Google's conversions with cart data feature reports on items in each transaction and includes insights like number of orders and average cart size, so you can see AOV by campaign when item-level data is set up. Nearly every storefront platform shows AOV in its reports. In ad platforms it is not a standard column, so you derive it by dividing conversion value by conversions, and that only works when each conversion carries its real order value rather than a fixed number.

AOV links conversion rate to return. Revenue from ads equals orders times AOV, so ROAS equals orders times AOV divided by spend. With the same number of orders and the same spend, a higher AOV raises ROAS without winning a single additional customer. That is why stores use free-shipping thresholds, bundles, and add-on offers. It also means AOV changes can look like ad performance changes. A bump in ROAS in the week of a bundle launch is probably the bundle, not a better creative. Product mix is the hidden driver. A campaign promoting a $25 accessory and one promoting a $400 item will have very different AOV, and neither is better or worse. The useful comparison is AOV for the same product line across time.

Because AOV is a mean, outliers move it. A handful of very large orders can lift it far above what a typical buyer spends. A median order value, and a spread of order sizes, tells you more. AOV also depends on product mix. If a campaign promotes a cheap entry product, its AOV will be low and its customers may come back for more, which AOV alone hides. Promotions matter as well: a deep discount can lower AOV and raise order count at the same time. Customers who buy multiple items drive AOV up, but so do shipping-threshold games that make buyers add filler to reach a line. Look at units per order and refund rate before assuming a higher AOV is a healthier one.

Common mistakes: judging two campaigns by AOV when they sell different categories. Pushing AOV up with a high shipping threshold until conversion rate drops and total revenue falls. Using revenue-based AOV when returns are heavy, so the real kept value is lower. Reading one week's AOV in a month with a sale. And optimizing ads toward AOV alone, which can send delivery to a few big spenders and starve volume. Look at AOV together with orders and margin. If you run value-based bidding, AOV matters directly, because the bidder learns from the values your tag reports. A sudden AOV shift from a sale or a pricing change will move the system's expectations, so give it a few conversion cycles to settle.

To use it this week, calculate AOV for the last 90 days, then by channel or campaign if you can, and list the median beside the average. Check the share of orders just below any free-shipping line, because that is where a threshold nudge helps most. If you set a bidding target based on value, remember that AOV defines what each conversion is worth. Update your target when AOV shifts, or the strategy will chase an old number. Report AOV with the order count and a percentile or median, so that a week with three large wholesale orders does not look like a breakthrough.