Stop Funding
Other People’s
Profits
Many Amazon sellers are unknowingly directing margin to the algorithm. Wasted spend, cannibalising campaigns, and under-indexed listings quietly drain thousands every month while the dashboard appears healthy. We audit your account, identify exactly where budget is leaking, and deliver a written report with a clear plan to fix it.
The Amazon Ad Trap
Amazon advertising is structurally complex — shaped by auction dynamics, competition density, and overlapping ranking signals. It rewards sellers who understand the architecture, and tends to drain those who don’t. These are patterns consistently encountered in account audits.
No Profit Baseline
Many sellers set budgets based on available spend rather than what the margin can support. Without knowing your COGS and COTS per unit, establishing a true break-even ACoS is not possible — and without that target, campaigns operate with limited visibility on profitability.
Campaigns Running on Auto-Pilot
Auto campaigns and broad match keywords are discovery tools, not long-term profit drivers. Leaving them unmanaged without regular Search Term Report mining and negative harvesting results in spend accumulating on low-relevance or low-conversion queries.
Advertising Into a Weak Listing
Paid traffic is unlikely to resolve a poor listing. Where conversion rate (CVR) is low, the cost of each click becomes disproportionate to the revenue it generates. Elevated ACoS frequently reflects a listing issue — low review count, weak titles, poor images, or uncompetitive pricing.
Scaling Spend Before Efficiency
Increasing ad budget on campaigns with a 50%+ ACoS generates more loss, not more profit. The correct sequence is: structure → optimise → scale. Reversing this amplifies existing waste rather than growth.
The Metrics That Actually Matter
These metrics are not just reporting tools — they determine whether advertising is genuinely producing profit or simply generating revenue at low margin.
Understanding the relationship between ACoS, TACoS, ROAS, CVR, and your unit economics is the difference between a campaign that looks good on screen and one that builds a sustainable business.
The Four Campaign Types
Amazon’s advertising ecosystem comprises four distinct ad formats. Each has a different placement, audience reach, and strategic purpose. Accounts that perform consistently well tend to use all four in coordination — each serving a defined role in the funnel.
Search & Product Pages
The core format for most Amazon advertisers. SP ads appear within search results and on product detail pages. They are keyword or product-targeted, and drive direct, high-intent traffic. SP campaigns are typically the first to activate and the most actively managed over time.
Top of Search Banners
Banner ads at the top of search results, featuring brand logo, headline, and up to three products. SB campaigns support brand visibility and New-to-Brand (NTB) customer acquisition — particularly useful on high-volume category keywords where competitive density is high.
In-Search Video Ads
Auto-playing video ads within search results. SBV tends to deliver competitive ACoS performance when matched to high-intent search terms — in part due to its prominent placement. Video creative that communicates the product benefit within the first three seconds generally performs best.
Retargeting & Audiences
Audience and product-targeted ads appearing on and off Amazon — including competitor detail pages, category pages, and DSP placements. SD functions primarily as a retargeting mechanism: useful for re-engaging shoppers who viewed but did not convert.
Match Type Strategy
Keyword match types determine how broadly Amazon matches your keywords to shopper search queries. Misapplying match types is a common source of wasted spend in early-stage accounts.
| Match Type | How It Works | Typically Used For | Watch Out For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exact | Ad shows when the shopper types your keyword precisely (or close variants). Tightest control, lowest waste exposure. | Proven convertersCore termsHigh-spend terms | Limited discovery — won’t surface new search term opportunities on its own. |
| Phrase | Ad shows when your keyword appears as part of a longer query. Balances reach and relevance. | Expanding reachMid-funnel terms | Can trigger adjacent or tangential queries. Benefits from active negative management. |
| Broad | Widest match — Amazon may show your ad for loosely related queries including synonyms. Higher discovery potential, higher waste exposure. | Keyword discoveryNew launches | Frequently triggers unrelated searches if unmanaged. Broad match should never run without regular Search Term Report review. |
| Auto | Amazon determines what searches to match your ad to. A useful discovery mechanism early on, but becomes less efficient over time without active management. | Keyword researchNew product launches | Requires regular negative harvesting. Auto campaigns typically degrade in efficiency without ongoing oversight. |
| Product Target | Targets specific competitor or complementary ASINs. Ad appears on their product detail pages. | Competitor conquestCross-sellCategory targeting | Conversion rates are generally lower than keyword targeting — ACoS expectations should be adjusted accordingly. |
Five Ways Your Campaigns Bleed Profit
These are not edge cases. They appear regularly across first-time account audits. Any one of them can represent meaningful annual waste. Encountered together — as is often the case — they can be the difference between a profitable account and a loss-making one.
Wasted Spend
Irrelevant search terms triggering ads and consuming budget with little conversion potential. Common examples: unrelated category terms surfacing via broad match, accessory searches triggering main product listings, or size and variant mismatches pulling spend from the right audience.
Keyword Cannibalisation
Two campaigns bidding on the same search term compete against each other in Amazon’s auction, tending to inflate CPC. An exact match campaign winning traffic at 25% ACoS and a broad campaign winning the same traffic at 50% ACoS represents a clear, avoidable structural cost.
Under-Invested Opportunities
High-converting search terms that campaigns are technically targeting but not fully capturing due to insufficient budget or underbidding. Where a term shows strong conversion history but disproportionately low impression share, the campaign is likely budget-constrained.
Advertising Into a Weak Listing
A listing with a low star rating, thin bullet points, weak imagery, or underutilised backend keywords will typically produce elevated ACoS — because the listing itself is failing to convert the traffic sent to it. Campaign restructuring alone will not resolve a listing problem.
No Bid Segmentation by Placement
Amazon allows separate bid multipliers for Top of Search, Rest of Search, and Product Pages. Most accounts leave these at default (0%), treating all placements identically. Top of Search positions often convert at materially higher rates — without placement-level bidding, you may pay similar CPCs across placements with very different commercial value.
Activating placement multipliers on exact-match campaigns with proven conversion rates is one of the most straightforward improvements available in most accounts.
The £375 PPC Audit
A structured, written audit of your Amazon advertising account — delivered as a comprehensive report with clear findings and a prioritised action plan. No ongoing retainer required. You get the full picture, in plain language, with everything you need to act on it yourself or hand to someone who will.
Unit Economics Baseline
We start with the numbers that determine whether your advertising can ever be profitable. Using the margin data you provide, we establish a true or estimated break-even ACoS for each active SKU — the figure against which every campaign decision in the report is benchmarked.
Account-Level Health Check
We review your full 30-day account dashboard: revenue, sessions, and CVR by SKU. Any SKUs with conversion rates materially below average are flagged — because advertising into a listing with a conversion problem produces elevated ACoS regardless of how well the campaigns are structured.
Campaign Architecture Review
We map every active campaign — SP, SB, SBV, and SD — by SKU, match type, and ACoS. Structural issues are identified and documented: campaigns running without negatives, broad match operating unsupervised, budget concentrated in low-performing formats, and campaigns misaligned to their intended funnel stage.
Search Term Report Analysis
We pull and classify every search term generating spend across your campaigns. Irrelevant queries are identified for negation. High-converting terms buried in auto or broad campaigns are flagged for promotion into dedicated exact-match campaigns. Cannibalising terms are documented with a specific fix for each.
Bid & Placement Assessment
We review current bids and placement multipliers across all campaigns. Underbid exact-match converters are flagged for increase. Placement bid multipliers — which Amazon defaults to 0% — are assessed and recommended where Top of Search data supports it.
Written Report & Action Plan
Everything above is compiled into a clear, structured report — written in plain language, not PPC jargon. Each finding is accompanied by a specific, prioritised recommendation. The report closes with a sequenced action plan: what to fix first, what to monitor, and where to focus budget once structural issues are resolved.
Strategies for Scaling Without Burning Margin
Once an account is structurally sound and operating at efficient ACoS levels, there are evidence-led paths to scaling profitably — both within Amazon and beyond it.
Portfolio Architecture
As an account matures, campaign portfolios allow budget caps and performance rules to be applied at brand or category level, reducing the risk of a single campaign monopolising spend during a demand spike.
- Group campaigns by SKU into clearly labelled portfolios
- Apply portfolio-level budget caps to protect margin
- Use portfolio reporting for clean cross-SKU ACoS comparison
- Separate launch-phase SKUs from mature SKU portfolios to prevent budget blending
AOV Optimisation
A higher AOV makes each CPC proportionally cheaper — improving the economics of every campaign in the account without a single bid adjustment.
- Test multipacks and bundle variations where margin supports it
- Enrol in Subscribe & Save to increase repeat revenue per customer
- Use virtual bundles to increase basket value without new ASINs
- Review pricing relative to the competitor set — premium positioning with a strong listing can improve ROAS
Defensive Brand Campaigns
Bidding on your own brand terms is margin protection, not vanity spend. Without a brand exact campaign, competitors can run Sponsored Brands ads directly against brand searches.
- Exact match brand campaigns with low bids and elevated TOS multipliers
- SB brand campaigns to occupy the top banner on brand searches
- Monitor competitor conquest activity against your ASINs
- Track NTB% on brand campaigns vs. generic keywords to distinguish acquisition from retention
Example Audit Outcomes
Every account differs by category, margin structure, and lifecycle stage. That said, certain structural improvements appear consistently across audits — regardless of what a seller is selling.
In many accounts, the largest gains come from correcting structural inefficiencies rather than increasing spend.
Reduced Wasted Spend
Search Term Report cleanup and structured negative harvesting removes budget flowing to low-relevance queries — often one of the fastest wins in a first audit.
Lower CPC Inflation
Resolving internal keyword cannibalisation reduces campaigns competing against themselves in auction — directly reducing the CPC paid on core terms.
Improved TACoS Over Time
Structurally sound campaigns contribute to organic rank retention, which reduces reliance on paid spend — reflected in a declining TACoS as the account matures.
Higher CVR After Listing Fixes
Identifying listing quality issues before scaling traffic means spend is directed at assets capable of converting it — rather than amplifying an existing CVR problem with more budget.
Better Budget Allocation
Rebalancing spend across SP, SB, SBV, and SD campaign types — based on actual conversion data — ensures budget is weighted toward formats and placements that have earned it.
Frequently Asked
What is a good ACoS for Amazon?
It depends on your contribution margin and product economics. Target ACoS should remain below your pre-ad contribution margin — the percentage remaining after COGS and COTS are deducted from revenue.
For a product retaining roughly 40% contribution margin before advertising, an ACoS in the 20–25% range is often sustainable. Accounts consistently operating above ~35% ACoS outside of a launch phase typically warrant a structural audit rather than a budget increase.
What’s the difference between ACoS and TACoS?
ACoS measures ad spend against ad-attributed revenue only. TACoS measures ad spend against total revenue, including organic sales. A maturing account should see TACoS trend downward over time as organic rank strengthens — indicating advertising is contributing to business growth rather than compensating for weak organic performance.
How often should I review my campaigns?
The Search Term Report warrants review at least weekly for accounts spending over £500/month. Bids and budgets typically require fortnightly adjustment for a stable account. Campaign structure reviews are generally monthly. The cadence should reflect account spend levels and current stability.
Should I run auto campaigns permanently?
Auto campaigns are useful discovery tools, particularly at product launch — but rarely the most efficient long-term performance drivers without active management. The process: run auto at modest spend, mine the Search Term Report for converting terms, promote winners to exact match, and negate irrelevant queries. Without this cycle, auto campaigns tend to become a primary source of wasted spend.
Why is my ACoS high despite a low CPC?
Low CPC with high ACoS typically indicates a CVR problem rather than a bidding issue. If shoppers click and don’t buy, review your star rating, main image, title, bullet points, and pricing relative to competitors. Reducing bids will lower spend but will not resolve the underlying conversion problem.
What does the £375 audit include?
A comprehensive written report covering: unit economics and break-even ACoS per SKU, campaign architecture across all active ad types, Search Term Report analysis with identified waste and cannibalisation, match type and bid structure review, placement strategy assessment, and a prioritised action plan. Clear, actionable — not a data dump.
Do you offer ongoing management after the audit?
Yes. The audit is a standalone engagement with no obligation to continue. Many clients use the report to implement changes themselves. For those who want hands-on support putting the recommendations into practice, ongoing management can be discussed once the audit is complete.
Do I need to give you access to my account?
To conduct a thorough Search Term Report and campaign architecture review, we will need read access to your Amazon Advertising console. This is done via a standard third-party access invite — you retain full control and can revoke access at any time. No credentials are ever shared directly.
A Clear, Written Audit Report.
No Guesswork.
For £375, you receive a comprehensive written audit of your Amazon PPC account covering campaign structure, search term waste, match type strategy, bid efficiency, and listing conversion health. Every finding comes with a prioritised plan of action. No jargon. No fluff. Just an honest assessment from someone with 16 years on the same side of the screen as you.
Ongoing account management is available after the audit, should you want support putting the recommendations into practice.