A launch that held TACOS under 9% from month two

The brand had relaunched the product with new packaging and lost its ranking history. The owner's rule was clear: a four-week ranking push, then no more than 10% of total sales on ads.

• Week one to four: exact-match campaigns on the six keywords with the highest purchase share, bids above break-even on purpose, budget capped daily.
• Week five: bids stepped down to the break-even ACOS; spend moved to the three keywords that had reached page one.
• Weekly search-term harvesting into exact campaigns; negatives added every Monday.

TACOS 8.7% in month two, 7.9% by month four. Organic share of sales rose from 31% to 64%. The product stayed on page one for all six launch keywords through the year.

Why it worked

The loss period had an end date before it began. Bidding above break-even is a reasonable way to buy ranking, but only when the budget is capped and the step-down is planned. Because spend moved to the terms that had already reached page one, organic sales replaced paid ones, and that is what pulls TACOS down.

What to take from it

• TACOS measures ad spend against all sales. It tells you whether ads are building the business or only renting it.
• Choose a small set of launch keywords by purchase share, not by search volume alone.
• Write the exit rule first: the date, the ceiling, and what happens to each keyword.
• Harvest search terms weekly and cut the ones that spend without selling.

Our free ACOS calculator finds the break-even point the step-down returns to.