CCost per Order

CPO

Cost per Order: the average cost generated for one order.

Moritz Lambrecht

Updated: July 9, 2026

Definition

CPO stands for Cost per Order and is calculated as campaign costs divided by the number of orders. For e-commerce brands, it is a central efficiency metric.

Also known as: Cost per Order

How to interpret it

A low CPO is only useful if the orders are economically valuable. It needs the context of AOV, margin, new-customer share, and repeat purchase rate.

In influencer marketing, CPO may look higher at first because some impact converts later through organic search, direct traffic, or retargeting.

Reporting

Tracking links, creator codes, and a clear attribution window make CPO more robust.

When scaling, marginal CPO is often more important than one campaign-wide average.

About the author

Moritz is an expert in data-driven influencer marketing as well as co-founder and CEO of the influencer marketing agency Ad Specialist. Together with his team, he has already implemented over 10,000 influencer campaigns and managed more than €50 million in advertising budgets for customers such as HelloFresh, Emma, Clark, mymuesli and many other well-known e-commerce companies. His focus is on helping e-commerce companies grow profitably through creative and measurable influencer marketing strategies on channels such as YouTube, Instagram and Twitch.

Through his performance-oriented and effective approach, he has built a reputation as a leading expert and speaker in German e-commerce. In this blog - as well as on LinkedIn and his YouTube channel - he regularly shares valuable insights about data-driven influencer marketing.

Learn more about Moritz