Average order value (AOV) is the average revenue per order, calculated as total revenue divided by number of orders. It is the lever that quietly decides how much you can afford to pay for a click.
Why AOV drives everything downstream
AOV is revenue ÷ orders. Because your affordable CAC and break-even ROAS both scale with order value, raising AOV loosens every acquisition constraint at once. Two accounts with identical conversion rates can have wildly different room to bid if their AOVs differ.
AOV and LTV
AOV is a single-order snapshot; LTV extends it across the relationship. For businesses with repeat purchase, optimizing to first-order AOV alone can undervalue customers who come back, which is why we look at both when setting targets.