TACOS stands for Total Advertising Cost of Sales and puts advertising costs in relation to the total revenue of a period, not just the revenue that came in through ads.
How to calculate TACOS
TACOS = advertising costs ÷ total revenue × 100
Example: EUR 150 of advertising costs and EUR 5,950 of total revenue in the month give 150 ÷ 5,950 × 100 = 2.5%. The ACOS of the same campaign can be 15%, because it divides only by the revenue the platform attributes to the ads. Per item, you calculate with the advertising costs attributed to that item. For the whole channel, all advertising costs of the period belong in, including budgets with no item reference; otherwise the dependence on advertising looks smaller than it is.
Why a second advertising metric?
ROAS and ACOS evaluate the ad. TACOS evaluates the product: how much of the revenue an item makes in total has to be spent on advertising? This makes visible whether an item runs organically or whether the demand is bought.
How do you read TACOS?
- Falling TACOS with stable revenue: the item is gaining organic visibility; the ideal case.
- Rising TACOS with stagnating revenue: advertising is holding revenue up but no longer carrying it further. A warning sign, even if the ROAS looks good.
- Rising TACOS with strongly rising revenue: can be intentional, for example when launching a new item.
What value is good?
There is no general target value. TACOS is a trend metric: its value lies in the comparison with previous months and between your own items, not in comparison with industry figures. Together with the contribution margin, it shows whether advertising-driven growth is affordable.
TACOS per item and per channel
profitkonsole brings advertising costs and revenue together per item and shows the trend over the months, for each channel individually and across all of them together.
Contribution margin, not revenue
Every sales channel in one dashboard: marketplace data and your own costs brought together, per item and per channel.