Glossary · Compter l’argent
Average order value
Average order value is total revenue divided by the number of sales over a given period. It is what a sale brings in on average — and the average is precisely its weakness.
Les quatre divisions qui décident si une campagne mérite un euro de plus. The forty terms of the trade
What it is for
It is the figure that says how much you can afford to spend to win a customer. An acquisition at €60 is excellent if the basket is €400, ruinous if it is €45. No advertising budget decision holds without it.
How it is calculated
Revenue divided by number of sales. Revenue of €1,890 over 9 sales gives an average order value of €210. When the amounts are very uneven, the median — the amount that cuts the sales into two halves — describes reality better than the average.
The classic mistake
Deciding a budget on an average pulled up by a single large sale. The figure is right, the conclusion is wrong: the next customer will look like the median, not the exception.
The division, and what it conceals
€1,890 · 9 sales
€210 per sale
A correct figure. It does not say eight sales were €90 and the ninth €1,170.
What Subtraq does with it
The free tool /outils/calculateur-de-roas shows it as soon as you give it the number of sales, next to cost per acquisition. Left empty, the line disappears rather than showing a dash.
Read next
Un terme seul ne sert à rien. Voici ceux qui le rendent utilisable.
Cost per acquisition
Read the definition →Customer lifetime value
Read the definition →The ROAS calculator
Open the page →ROAS and ad spend
Open the page →« Average order value », une fois posé sur de vraies ventes
These divisions are only worth something if the revenue on top has a known origin. The calculator does them without signing up; the rest of the work is knowing where the money came from.
Open the calculator