From 10% to 5% TACoS: how Rutger halved his advertising costs on bol

Rutger Bots built up his bol business with his own products, smart product selection, and a growing range. His ads were running, his revenue was growing, but his advertising costs grew along with it. At a 10% TACoS, €2,000 of his ad budget disappeared every month without him really having a grip on it. He knew it could be better. He just didn't have the time to make it better.

After three weeks with Adyard, he achieved his highest revenue day in years. His TACoS dropped to 5%. And his daily time spent on ads: two minutes.

An entrepreneur who built himself up on bol

Rutger started like many sellers start: buying and reselling products from Action. Vacuum cleaner bags for €2, selling them for €20. Nintendo Switch games, smoke detectors. It worked, until everyone was doing it and the margins evaporated.

He decided to take a different approach. Months of product research, analyzing hundreds of products, and requesting samples via Alibaba. In the end, he settled on moth traps: low competition, very few reviews in the market yet, but a search volume of millions on bol. Everyone around him was doubtful. Not Rutger, because the numbers spoke for themselves.

The product caught on. His brand, Iluux, was born.

Advertising: a lot of money, little control

In the beginning, Rutger barely advertised. Only after a coaching program did he start running campaigns, fully automatically, with a 10% TACoS. That meant: €2,000 per month in advertising costs, every single month.

He knew that manual campaigns would perform better. More control over keywords, better control over positions, and less waste on poorly converting placements. But with 30 active campaigns, manual management meant several hours a week: raising and lowering bids, checking positions per keyword, and keeping track of negatives.

"I actually knew that manual was better and that you could get much more out of it. But I didn't give myself the time to spend a couple of hours a day on it either."

The result: he kept running automatic campaigns, paid a 10% TACoS, and left returns on the table.

The search for a better approach

Rutger had been seeing Adyard pop up on social media for a while. He had also used Market Mentor and heard that Adyard collaborated with them. When that partnership ended, he reached out directly.

What appealed to him was not just the software, but the concept: automated manual campaigns. The control and precision of manual management, but without the hours he couldn't afford to put in himself.

"You came up with the great idea of automated manual campaigns. I thought: yes, that's the thing for me."

He consciously chose the guided approach, not just the software. Lorenzo set up the entire campaign structure, helped brainstorm the strategy, and guided the transition step-by-step. Adyard functioned as the expert at the wheel, not just as a tool.

Phased transition: zero risk, pure results

The transition was handled carefully. Rutger let his existing automatic campaigns run alongside the new manual ones, giving the system time to harvest keywords and learn. He scaled down less important campaigns after two weeks. He kept his best campaign running alongside the new ones for a month until he felt confident enough.

"At a certain point, I had so much confidence in it that I could just turn that one off."

After three weeks, the system really started to deliver. More keywords found, better placements occupied, and less waste on irrelevant search terms. And then came the moment that Rutger summarizes best himself:

"After three weeks, things really start running well, and then you get serious sales."

The results: lower costs, higher sales, at the same time

The TACoS dropped from 10% to 5%. On a monthly ad budget of €2,000, that is a structural saving of €1,000 per month.

But savings alone only tell half the story. TACoS also decreases if you simply advertise less. What Rutger achieved was something else: his revenue went up while his advertising costs went down. That is the combination that counts.

"When your revenue goes up and your TACoS goes down at the same time, you can just see that it works."

In the period following the transition, he achieved his highest revenue day in years as a bol seller. The system found opportunities he had previously missed: better positions on Exact Match, more control over PDP placements, and less budget wasted on search terms that get clicks but don't convert.

He had aimed for a 7% to 8% TACoS. He ended up at 5%.

From hours per week to two minutes per day

Before Adyard: fully automatic, little control, 10% TACoS. After Adyard: fully automated manual campaigns, complete control, 5% TACoS.

And the time spent? Every morning, Rutger takes two minutes to look at what the previous day did. Nothing more.

The 4 to 5 hours a week that manual campaign management would have cost are now directed toward product development, new launches, and further expanding his range.

"You can focus those four or five hours a week on further growth within your business. And when you see that you are saving a thousand euros a month, you are actually saving instead of spending."

For sellers who are still hesitant

Rutger is direct in his conclusion:

"If your TACoS goes from ten to five and your revenue goes up, why wouldn't you do it? It's really a no-brainer."

And for anyone still weighing their options:

"To every bol seller: if you are still doubting, just do it."