What is AOV?
Nicklas Segatz Mortensen · Growth Hacker · Fractional CMO · Meta Ads Nerd · 8 July 2026 · 5 min.
Definition
AOV (Average Order Value) is your total revenue divided by the number of orders in a given period. It's what an average customer puts in the cart per purchase.
Also called: Average Order Value, Average basket size
Sådan virker det
Hæver du den gennemsnitlige ordreværdi uden at røre budgettet, stiger både dækningsbidrag og den CAC, du har råd til at betale. En lille forbedring i kurven låser et nyt skaleringsloft op.
01Why AOV is a lever, not a report
AOV is easy to overlook because it doesn't live in the ad account. But it's one of the strongest levers you have: raise AOV by 15% without touching the marketing budget, and both contribution margin and the CAC you can afford to pay go up.
Bundling, volume discounts, free shipping above a threshold and smart cross-sell at checkout are among the cheapest growth initiatives there are — they cost no extra ad euros.
02AOV in the bigger equation
AOV feeds straight into CLTV: higher order value × number of purchases = higher customer value. And because a higher AOV improves the economics per order, you can bid higher in the auction and still hit your POAS target. That's how a seemingly small checkout improvement can unlock a whole new scaling ceiling.
03The math behind a lift in AOV
Put numbers on it: AOV is €65 at a 45% margin — roughly €29 in contribution margin per order. If your CAC is €26, there's €3 left per new customer on the first purchase — thin. Raise AOV to €75 (+15%) without touching the ad budget, and contribution margin climbs to ~€34, so suddenly there's €8 left. You've more than doubled the profit per new customer without a single extra ad euro.
That lift propagates all the way up. Higher contribution margin per order lowers your break-even ROAS, which means campaigns that were marginal before are now profitable — and you can bid higher in the auction and win traffic the competitor has to leave on the table. That's how a checkout optimization becomes an ad ceiling.
The cheapest levers are rarely discounts: free-shipping thresholds set just above your current AOV, bundles and product sets, volume discounts on consumables, and relevant cross-sell in cart and checkout. Discounts lift AOV too, but they eat the very margin the lift was meant to create — use them deliberately, not by default.
Frequently asked questions
How do I raise AOV without discounting?+
Bundles and product sets, free-shipping thresholds set just above your current AOV, cross-sell of accessories at checkout, and highlighting the more expensive variant. Discounting is only one route — and rarely the most profitable one.
Related terms
Glossary
What is CLTV?
CLTV (Customer Lifetime Value) is the total gross profit an average customer contributes across their entire lifetime as a customer — from first purchase to last.
Read the entry →Glossary
What is POAS?
POAS (Profit on Ad Spend) is your gross profit divided by ad spend. Where ROAS measures revenue per ad euro, POAS measures what you actually keep — after cost of goods, shipping and fees.
Read the entry →Glossary
What is contribution margin?
Contribution margin is revenue minus the variable costs (cost of goods, shipping, fees, returns). It's the amount each order contributes toward covering fixed costs and creating profit.
Read the entry →
Nicklas Segatz Mortensen
Growth Hacker · Fractional CMO · Meta Ads Nerd at Oaksmond
Growth hacker and fractional CMO with 10+ years' experience and hundreds of millions in managed ad spend behind him. Background from larger Danish and international scale-ups, and from the agency world.
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