Which metrics matter for OTTO advertising?

Which metrics OTTO shows for your ads

For Sponsored Product Ads, the advertising on otto.de, OTTO shows these metrics in the partner portal. The names appear exactly as OTTO writes them.

The metrics work like a chain. OTTO shows the ad, some customers click, every click costs money, and some clicks lead to a purchase. At the end sits ACoS, which puts costs and revenue in relation to each other.

On OTTO, ACoS is called „KUR (ACoS)“

If you're coming from Amazon, you'll look for ACoS on OTTO. OTTO calls it „KUR (ACoS)“, short for Kosten-Umsatz-Relation (cost-to-revenue ratio). The math is the same as on Amazon, ad spend divided by ad revenue. 60 € of ad spend for 200 € of ad revenue is a 30% ACoS. With ACoS, lower is better.

ROAS is the same calculation the other way round, ad revenue divided by ad spend. OTTO shows it as a percentage. A ROAS of 400% on OTTO means one euro of ad spend brought in 4 € of ad revenue. That equals a 25% ACoS. With ROAS, higher is better.

What OTTO counts as ad revenue

OTTO counts the submitted cart including VAT as revenue, so the price the buyer pays. OTTO's description doesn't mention returns or cancellations. What counts is what was ordered, not what stays paid in the end.

When a customer clicks your ad, OTTO credits it with the purchases of the next 14 days. A purchase counts for the day of the click. A day's ad revenue can therefore keep growing for two weeks while ad spend stays the same. So the ACoS of the last 14 days isn't final yet and can still fall.

You choose which purchases belong to a click in a campaign's detail report, in the „Conversion-Basis“ (conversion basis) field. Step 3 of the portal walkthrough further down shows where to find it. OTTO has four levels. On every level, only a purchase after a click on an ad counts, up to 14 days later. A purchase after someone merely saw the ad counts on no level.

By default OTTO is set to Brand, according to OTTO to show the full impact of the campaign. The „Dashboard“ and the „Kampagnen-Report“ (campaign report) also show revenue at Brand level. OTTO doesn't say so, but comparing the numbers shows it. Brand includes every purchase that counts at Item and Assortment level, so ad revenue is largest there, ACoS lowest and ROAS highest. The same campaign therefore looks better at Brand level than at Item level. The other levels don't build on each other. A campaign's revenue can be smaller at Assortment level than at Campaign level.

Which number to decide on at OTTO

In practice, you're best off judging your advertising per item or per campaign. If you want to compare your numbers with Amazon, take the campaign, because it matches what you know from Amazon. The item is more precise still. Brand level flatters your advertising because it includes purchases of other items from your brand.

ACoS alone doesn't tell you whether the advertising pays off. For that you need your target ACoS. It depends on your margin, and ads for an item with a lot of margin may cost more. What is a good ACoS on OTTO, and how do I calculate it? shows how to work it out. If ACoS is above target, you can lower the bid. If it's well below, you can raise it. When should I lower or raise bids on OTTO? explains when each one fits. A higher bid can bring you more clicks and more revenue while ACoS still has room before it reaches the target.

When an ACoS is above target, there's one of three reasons. A click costs too much, which the CPC shows. Too few clicks lead to a purchase, which the conversion rate shows. Or a purchase brings little revenue because the item is cheap. Impressions and CTR don't change ACoS, because it only uses costs and revenue per click. They tell you how often your ad is seen and clicked, and so how much revenue your advertising can bring at all.

Before you judge an item, it should have had at least 50 € of ad spend, according to OTTO's rule of thumb. Before that, its numbers are too thin for a first conclusion. In practice, experienced sellers judge each targeting on its own, meaning each advertised item in an automatic campaign and each keyword in a manual campaign. Often a few targetings spoil the average of a whole campaign.

What OTTO doesn't show you

OTTO doesn't calculate some numbers for you.

• TACoS, your ad spend as a share of your total revenue, including revenue without advertising. OTTO hasn't defined a TACoS. You'll find total revenue under „Analysen“ (Analytics) → „Controlling“ in the „Umsatz“ (Revenue) tile, and you have to do the division yourself. That revenue is counted by shipping date, ad revenue by order date.
• What an item earns after ad spend, OTTO commission and returns.
• Break-even ACoS, the ACoS above which you lose money on a sale.
• Ad revenue after returns. OTTO's revenue is the ordered cart.

How to find the metrics in OTTO's partner portal today

Your ad numbers are in OTTO Partner Connect, the partner portal for sellers.

1. Open „Marketing“ → „Marketing Dashboard“, choose the period at the top and the „Sponsored Product Ads“ tab. By default, four tiles show „Umsatz“, „Klicks“, „KUR (ACoS)“ and „Ausgaben“ (Spend). Use the arrow on a tile to choose another metric.
2. Under „Marketing“ → „Sponsored Product Ads“ you'll find the Dashboard, „Kampagnen-Report“, „Artikel-Report“ (item report), „Verkäufe-Report“ (sales report) and „Prognose-Report“ (forecast report).
3. Under „Marketing“ → „Sponsored Product Ads“, the „Dashboard“ tab lists your campaigns. The „SPA Kampagnendetailreport“ (SPA campaign detail report) icon in a campaign's row opens its detail report. You can also open it from the „Artikel-Report“ tab, in the „Artikelperformance-Detailübersicht“ (item performance detail view) table, via the icon in the „Detailreport“ column. The detail report has the tabs „Gesamt Report“ (overall report), „Keyword Report“, „Artikel Report“ and „Sales Report“. Switch the „Conversion-Basis“ there from „1. Marke“ (1. Brand) to „4. Artikel“ (4. Item).
4. Choose the period and download the Keyword Report, the Artikel Report and the Sales Report as CSV files. In the partner portal you can currently choose the whole „Kampagnenzeitraum“ (campaign period). The Helpdesk still gives a maximum of 30 days for the Keyword Report.
5. The targetings themselves aren't in any report. In the „Dashboard“ tab, click the „Bearbeiten“ (Edit) icon in the campaign's row and then „Weiter“ (Next). In an automatic campaign, the items and their bids are in the step „2 Produktauswahl“ (2 Product selection). In a manual campaign, the keywords with match type and bid are in the step „3 Keywords & Gebote festlegen“ (3 Set keywords and bids). Download them with „CSV-Download“ and leave the campaign with „Abbrechen“ (Cancel) without changing anything.
6. Merge all the files in Excel, targeting by targeting. Divide spend by revenue in each row, write your target ACoS next to it and mark what's above. Leave out the last 14 days, because their ad revenue can still grow.

You repeat this for every campaign and every period, and with many items and keywords it quickly becomes a big spreadsheet. You also work out TACoS separately using total revenue from „Analysen“ → „Controlling“. In practice, many sellers skip this work and set their bids without knowing the numbers per targeting. What software is there for OTTO sellers? lists the tools that take this work off your hands.

One garden chair on OTTO, two ACoS figures

Say you advertise the acacia chair at 50 € in an automatic campaign. Your garden furniture has a target ACoS of 25%. All numbers are an example and come from days more than 14 days back.

By default OTTO shows you Brand level, so a 20% ACoS, and the advertising looks better than your target. The chair itself comes to 30%. At 25%, 200 € of ad revenue may carry at most 50 € of ad spend, so the targeting is 10 € over target.

The chain shows why. One chair sells per 50 clicks, and at 0.30 € per click each chair costs 15 € in advertising. At 25% it should be 12.50 €. At the same conversion rate, a click may therefore cost at most 0.25 € on average. You can lower the bid and look at the targeting again after two weeks. When should I lower or raise bids on OTTO? shows how to go about it.