Glossary/ACOS
What is acos?
ACOS, or Advertising Cost of Sales, is ad spend divided by attributed revenue, expressed as a percentage. It is the inverse of ROAS — a 25% ACOS is the same as a 4.0 ROAS. ACOS shows how much of revenue the seller spent on ads to win it.
01/Formula
Formula
ACOS = Ad spend / Attributed revenue × 100%
Example
A campaign spends ฿2,500 in ads and is attributed ฿10,000 in revenue. ACOS = 2,500 / 10,000 × 100% = 25%. For every ฿100 of attributed revenue, ฿25 went to ads.
02/Why it matters
The trap, in one paragraph.
ACOS is the metric most platform dashboards optimize toward, but on its own it is misleading. A 25% ACOS sounds good, until you account for 15% marketplace fees, 50% COGS, and 5% in seller vouchers — at which point the campaign is unprofitable. Always pair ACOS with margin or true ROAS.
03/In DataGlass
How ACOS is used in DataGlass.
DataGlass shows platform ACOS next to break-even ACOS — the ACOS at which a campaign just covers fees, COGS, and fulfillment for that SKU mix. Campaigns with platform ACOS above break-even ACOS are flagged as unprofitable, regardless of how good they look in the platform dashboard.
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