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The Importance of an Initial Target ACoS

Setting a strategic initial target ACoS will help set you up for success.

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Written by Joseph La Selva
Updated over 2 months ago

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What Target ACOS Should I set?

You have connected your account to Perpetua and now you're ready to set your target ACoS. The key question: What should it be?

We strongly recommended that your initial target ACoS be set as close to your historical ACoS as possible prior to transitioning to Perpetua. Below is a briefing of what could happen to your campaign depending on the initial target ACoS that you set.

What Happens When Starting Low:

Let's say your historical target ACoS was 35% and you have set your initial target ACoS at 15%.  While we understand that you may want to lower your ACoS to 15% eventually, doing so at the outset may lead to a significant drop in spend/sales.


By setting your ACoS much lower than historical, you'll effectively be dropping bids on all of your targets.

If the bids are dropped below what's competitive, you won't see conversions and bids could be dropped even further until spend slows. A low target ACoS (that's unrealistic or not competitive enough for the space) will prevent the ad engine from exploring higher bids and getting conversion data.

Conversely, initiating the target ACoS at historical levels will allow the ad engine to learn from the volume of conversion data. Over time, you can start slowly lowering your target ACoS to get to where you want to be.


Starting with a Historic Target ACoS

This is an ideal ACoS rate for Perpetua's engine because of four things:

  1. It eliminates any unnecessary guessing that would otherwise have to be done by the ad engine

  2. It significantly reduces the risk of bidding less on keywords and ASINs that have performed well in your previous campaigns

  3. When the engine becomes "smarter" and becomes efficient at managing your campaigns, it will enable you to adjust your target ACoS to see what works and what doesn't.

  4. Finally, this ensures as smooth as a transition possible from your campaigns to Perpetua-optimized campaigns and sets up a foundation for success.


Article last updated September 2023. If you find this information to be out of date, please contact hello@perpetua.io.

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