By Operator One Editorial, 5 October 2026
To run ads on bol, open the Advertising tab in your bol seller account, accept bol's advertising terms and start a Sponsored Products campaign: self-service, pay-per-click ads shown in search results, on category pages and on product pages in the Netherlands and Belgium. bol advises starting with an automatic campaign and a target ACoS, then moving the search terms that sell into manual campaigns with exact and phrase keywords. Judge every campaign against a break-even ACoS calculated on the price excluding VAT, because bol reports ACoS on ex-VAT revenue.
Key takeaways
- bol Sponsored Products charges per click in a second-price auction, with bids accepted from EUR 0.01 to EUR 100 per click.
- On bol, an automatic campaign bids towards a target ACoS between 5% and 50%; since 20 March 2026 manual campaigns can carry a target ACoS too, but bol states it does not affect the auction.
- bol counts an ad sale when an order follows an ad click within 14 days, and calculates ACoS on costs and revenue excluding VAT.
- Break-even ACoS on bol is margin after all costs divided by the price excluding VAT: a EUR 30.25 consumer price at 21% VAT is EUR 25.00 of revenue in bol's ad reports.
- bol keywords have 2 match types, exact and phrase, and bol negative keywords match only the literal text, so excluding "blue shoe" does not block "blue shoes".
- bol recommends running a new campaign for at least 2 weeks or 80 to 100 clicks before changing it, with a starting daily budget of about EUR 15.
- bol commission across 36 categories runs from 2.1% to 20.7% plus a fixed EUR 0.05 to EUR 3.09 per item, both ex VAT, and is calculated on the price including VAT, unlike bol's ACoS.
Which advertising products does bol offer in 2026?
bol's advertising terms (version 13.0, dated 29 July 2025) define five ad formats: Sponsored Products, Branded Shelves, Display Advertising Onsite, Display Advertising Offsite and Social Advertising. Sponsored Products and Branded Shelves are self-service, cost-per-click formats run from the seller account, while bol creates the display and social ads itself, the display banners in collaboration with the advertiser. bol's seller help adds the Brand Page Creator for a brand landing page, and a Video Shelf is announced for Branded Shelves. bol's retail media site puts the audience at 13.7 million customers in the Netherlands and Belgium and 112 million visitors per month.
| bol ad format | Who can use it | How you pay | Where it appears |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sponsored Products | Sellers and suppliers, for items that hold the buy box | Cost per click, self-service | Search results, category pages and product pages, NL and BE |
| Branded Shelves (Image Shelf) | Registered brand owners, after brand verification | Cost per click, second-price auction, self-service | 7th position in search results and on category pages |
| Brand Page | Registered brands only | Self-service builder; bol review usually takes 5 to 10 working days | A brand landing page on bol, fed by Branded Shelves |
| Display Onsite and Offsite | Through bol Retail Media; banners made by bol with the advertiser | bol states you pay only for 100% viewable impressions | bol homepage, category and product pages; external websites |
| Social Advertising | Through bol Retail Media; ads made by bol in bol style | Not published by bol | Facebook and Instagram, via bol's own accounts |
Source: bol advertising terms, version 13.0, bol partner platform: Branded Shelves and bol Retail Media product pages, as of October 2026.
Where bol Sponsored Products ads appear
bol shows Sponsored Products on search results pages, category pages and item (product) pages, across desktop, mobile, tablet and the bol app, and each campaign can target the Netherlands, Belgium or both. Position matters on bol: bol states that 78% of all clicks on product pages come from the first page of search results, and 60% from the top 10 positions.
A bol Sponsored Products ad only runs while your offer holds the buy box, so price, delivery time and service decide ad delivery as much as the bid does. Category targeting on bol includes all subcategories automatically, and bol states that selecting a category does not guarantee display there.
Automatic vs manual campaigns on bol
bol offers two Sponsored Products campaign types, automatic and manual, and recommends starting with automatic. In an automatic campaign bol chooses the keywords from your product content, places the ads and bids towards a target ACoS you set between 5% and 50%; you can still add negative keywords. bol calls that target a guideline, so the achieved ACoS can land higher or lower.
In a manual campaign on bol you choose the keywords, the bid per keyword or category, and the page types where ads appear. Since 20 March 2026 bol lets you set a target ACoS on manual campaigns too (bol announcement), but bol states that it "does not affect the auction, your performance, or the algorithm": it is a reporting benchmark, and the bids stay yours.
bol caps a campaign at 10 ad groups of up to 5,000 items each, and recommends 10 to 20 items per campaign so that data builds up quickly.
Targeting options on bol and how to exclude them
bol Sponsored Products targets three things: search keywords, category pages, and item pages within a category, and each has its own exclusion tool.
| Targeting on bol | What it targets | How you exclude | Best use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Automatic campaign | Keywords and placements chosen by bol from your content; bids steered by a target ACoS of 5% to 50% | Negative keywords, removing items | Discovery in the first 2 weeks or 80 to 100 clicks |
| Keyword, exact match | Searches equal to the keyword, including misspellings and singular or plural forms, in the same order with no extra words | Negative keyword, exact | Proven converting search terms, with your highest bids |
| Keyword, phrase (partial) match | Searches containing the keyword in the same order, with words before or after it | Negative keyword, phrase | Reach around a proven core term; long-tail discovery |
| Category pages | Category pages from your item's breadcrumb trail, subcategories included | Negative category, or switching the category off | Shoppers browsing your own category |
| Item pages | Product pages of other items within a category level you choose, with a bid per level | Negative category only; single products cannot be excluded | Appearing on competing product pages in your category |
Source: bol partner platform help on keyword targeting and targeting on pages, and bol's Advertiser API v11 documentation, as of October 2026.
What bol advertising cannot do
bol has no negative product targeting: exclusions on bol are limited to negative keywords and negative categories, so you cannot keep your ads off one specific competitor's product page. Item page targeting on bol works by category level, not by picking competitor listings one by one; the older "alternative products" relation bol used for this is marked in bol's API documentation for future deprecation, with category targeting recommended instead.
bol has no brand-targeting campaign type either, and bol's help states that its algorithm filters out keywords containing competitor brand names for relevance, which is why such keywords often get no impressions. bol negative keywords also ignore misspellings and plurals: excluding "blue shoe" still lets ads show for "blue shoes" and "blueshoe", so each variant has to be added separately.
How the bol ad auction sets your click price
bol runs Sponsored Products as a second-price auction, so your cost per click is set by competing bids and moves when competitors change theirs. bol scores each ad as expected click-through rate multiplied by expected conversion for the keyword, multiplied by your bid, and names four influences on the click price: competition on the keyword, your bid, the item price and the delivery time.
Bids on bol run from EUR 0.01 to EUR 100 per click in bol's campaign specification. For manual campaigns bol shows the average winning bid per keyword and per category, a practical starting point for your own bid. If a correctly set-up bol campaign gets no impressions, bol suggests raising the bid in steps of EUR 0.05 or EUR 0.10.
Relevance comes from the listing: bol looks at the breadcrumb trail, complete specifications (an item missing its brand or publisher cannot be advertised), price stars, the buy box, photos and description.
Budgets, billing and payment on bol
bol sets no minimum daily budget for Sponsored Products and recommends starting at about EUR 15 per day. When a bol daily budget runs out the campaign stops for the rest of that day, and bol notes that 40% of purchases happen after 17:00, so a budget spent by mid-afternoon misses the evening.
bol offers four budget layers: a daily budget, a campaign budget, an account budget that caps spend across all campaigns for a period, and optional portfolio budgets with their own purchase order numbers. Once a bol account budget is spent or expires, all ads stop, even where campaign budget remains.
bol bills Sponsored Products in arrears: you pay only for clicks that happened, never in advance, and on the 1st of every month bol issues an invoice for the previous month's clicks, described as "Sponsored Products Ads". bol settles this separate invoice against your sales invoice when sales revenue covers the ad costs, and its specification dates run 3 days after the clicks. See bol's administration and invoicing and bidding and budgets pages.
How bol measures results: 14-day attribution and ACoS ex VAT
bol attributes an order to an ad when it follows an ad click within 14 days, and books it on the click date; a multi-unit order counts as 1 conversion. bol reports direct conversions, where the clicked item was bought, and indirect conversions, which for sellers are purchases of another item in the same category from the same seller within those 14 days.
bol calculates ACoS as ad cost divided by attributed sales, and bol's metrics page states that "we look at costs and revenue excluding VAT". bol defines TACoS as ad spend divided by total revenue, organic plus paid. An impression only counts on bol when it is viewable: at least 50% of the ad's pixels on screen for at least one continuous second, the IAB standard. bol's search term data, showing which searches triggered your ads, feeds manual campaigns and negative keywords.
Break-even ACoS on bol: calculate it on the price excluding VAT
Break-even ACoS on bol is your margin per unit after every cost except advertising, divided by the selling price excluding VAT, because ex-VAT revenue is what bol puts under ACoS. Consumer prices on bol include VAT: in the Netherlands the standard rate is 21%, and food is taxed at the reduced rate of 9%, according to the Belastingdienst.
Illustrative example (assumed figures, not a real product):
- Consumer price on bol: EUR 30.25 including 21% VAT, which is EUR 25.00 excluding VAT (30.25 divided by 1.21).
- bol commission: 12.4% of EUR 30.25 (EUR 3.75) plus a fixed EUR 0.95, so EUR 4.70 ex VAT, borrowing the rates from bol's own Kitchen Merchandise example.
- Product cost EUR 9.00, and fulfilment and shipping EUR 5.50 (both assumed).
- Margin before advertising: EUR 25.00 minus EUR 4.70, EUR 9.00 and EUR 5.50 leaves EUR 5.80.
- Break-even ACoS: EUR 5.80 divided by EUR 25.00 is 23.2%.
The common mistake is to leave VAT in the margin. Treating EUR 30.25 as revenue gives a margin of EUR 11.05 and an apparent break-even of 36.5%; a bol campaign run at 36.5% ACoS spends about EUR 9.13 per EUR 25.00 of ex-VAT sales and loses about EUR 3.33 on every ad-attributed unit. Strip VAT by dividing by 1.21 (or 1.09 for food), not by subtracting 21% of the consumer price: for a food product at 9% VAT, the same EUR 30.25 shelf price is EUR 27.75 of revenue in bol's reports.
Set the target ACoS below break-even to keep a profit; bol's own rule of thumb is that with a 20% profit margin, ACoS must stay under 20%. Because bol's automatic campaigns accept a target ACoS of 5% to 50%, a product whose break-even sits below 5% cannot get a profitable target on automatic bidding.
How to set up your first bol Sponsored Products campaign
- Make the offer ad-ready. Check that the item holds the buy box, that brand, category and specifications are complete, and that price, delivery time, reviews and content compete. Some items, such as infant formula and certain medicines, cannot be advertised on bol.
- Calculate break-even ACoS excluding VAT. Divide the margin after commission, product, fulfilment and shipping costs by the price excluding VAT, then set a target ACoS below it.
- Launch an automatic campaign. Create an automatic campaign with 10 to 20 related items, a daily budget of about EUR 15 and a target ACoS under break-even, for the Netherlands, Belgium or both.
- Let it collect data. Leave the campaign unchanged for at least 2 weeks, or until each item or keyword has about 80 to 100 clicks.
- Harvest search terms into manual campaigns. Move search terms that converted within target into a manual campaign: phrase match for reach, exact match with higher bids for proven terms, starting from bol's average winning bid.
- Add negatives. Exclude irrelevant searches, entering plural and misspelled variants separately, and add negative categories for page types that run above target.
- Review weekly. bol advises at least 1.5 hours per week of monitoring: cut bids where ACoS runs high, raise budgets where profitable campaigns hit the daily limit, and give each change 2 weeks.
bol commission and the full cost picture
bol commission is a variable percentage plus a fixed amount per item: in bol's current commission table, which covers 36 categories, the variable rate runs from 2.1% to 20.7%, depending on category, and the fixed amount from EUR 0.05 to EUR 3.09 per item, both excluding VAT. bol calculates commission on the selling price including VAT, while bol's ACoS uses the price excluding VAT, so the two percentages cannot simply be added together. bol calls the table figures "only an estimate", and the exact amount per item sits under Articles in the seller account, as bol's commission page explains.
Fulfilment is the other large variable in break-even maths on bol: Logistics via bol and own delivery are compared in our guide to bol fulfilment options, and onboarding, commission and the Belgian rules are covered in our guide to selling on bol in the Netherlands and Belgium.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to advertise on bol?
bol Sponsored Products charges only per click, with bids from EUR 0.01 to EUR 100 and no minimum daily budget; bol recommends starting at about EUR 15 a day. bol invoices ad costs on the 1st of each month for the previous month's clicks.
Does bol calculate ACoS including or excluding VAT?
Excluding. bol divides ad costs by attributed revenue excluding VAT, so a break-even ACoS must also be calculated on the ex-VAT price: the consumer price divided by 1.21, or by 1.09 for food in the Netherlands.
What is the difference between automatic and manual campaigns on bol?
In an automatic bol campaign, bol picks the keywords and placements and bids towards your target ACoS of 5% to 50%. In a manual campaign you set keywords, bids and page types yourself; since 20 March 2026 you can add a target ACoS, but bol states it does not affect the auction.
Can I target competitor products or brands with bol ads?
Not one by one. bol targets product pages by category level, has no brand-targeting campaign type and no negative product targeting, and bol's algorithm filters out keywords containing competitor brand names for relevance.
How long is the bol attribution window?
14 days. bol counts an order as an ad conversion when it follows an ad click within 14 days, books it on the click date, and includes indirect sales of other items in the same category from the same seller.
Do bol ads run in Belgium?
Yes. A bol Sponsored Products campaign can target the Netherlands, Belgium or both from the same seller account.
How Operator One runs bol advertising for brands
Operator One is the Merchant of Record: it sells as the legal seller on bol in the Netherlands and Belgium and on 100+ marketplaces in 28 countries, while the brand consigns its stock and receives the revenue. Advertising is part of that marketplace service: Operator One manages bol Sponsored Products campaigns, with bid strategy, keyword research and budgets handled weekly, as described under marketplace advertising and content.
Brands see what is spent. In O1 Suite, bol Sponsored Products results are refreshed every night and shown next to sales, stock and budget, so spend is read against the sales it drives. To discuss bol advertising for your range, talk to our team.