Google Ads ROAS and AOV Benchmarks

Macro-Trend Analysis: Shopping Profitability & Spending Power

Overall Trajectory & Performance Gaps

• Profitability Surge: Current-year ROAS consistently outperforms the previous year. The YoY profitability gap widened most significantly between late December and February, indicating highly efficient post-holiday clearance and Q1 acquisition strategies.
• Spending Power: AOV trended higher YoY through the first half of the year, peaking in March and April. This suggests consumers initially absorbed price hikes, maintaining strong spending momentum despite economic headwinds.

Metric Divergence: CAC vs. Pricing Power

• The Summer Shift: A critical divergence occurs in June and July. Current-year AOV drops below the previous year, yet ROAS remains higher YoY.
• Strategic Implication: This signals a temporary loss of retailer pricing power—consumers became price-sensitive, leading to smaller baskets or reliance on discounts. However, the sustained ROAS indicates that Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC) decreased proportionally. Advertisers successfully maintained profitability even as individual transaction values shrank.

External Macro & Platform Drivers

• Inflationary Pressures: The H1 AOV inflation aligns with broader macroeconomic trends where retailers passed rising supply chain and operational costs onto consumers.
• Consumer Caution: The mid-year AOV dip reflects growing economic caution, with shoppers “trading down” or delaying larger discretionary purchases.
• Algorithmic Efficiency: The ability to maintain high ROAS despite falling AOV points heavily to the maturation of automated campaign types (e.g., Performance Max) and the widespread adoption of Value-Based Bidding (VBB). These AI-driven systems dynamically suppress CPCs and optimize for margin rather than just volume, protecting advertiser profitability even when consumer spending power compresses.