Know what each product can afford before you spend more.
A single ACoS target can hide products that lose money on advertised sales. I use your product margins and campaign data to decide where to increase spend, reduce it or investigate further.
$2.16Min ad-attributed sales in 30 days, for one personal care brand
$246Kin monthly ad spend on that account, at 11.38% ACoS
8 yrsas a pricing analyst
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Same ACoS. Different profit.
=
Product A
$100
fees + cost
ads
Product B
$100
fees + cost
ads
Yours
$100
?
fees + cost
ads
Fees + product cost
Ad spend
Profit left
Money lost
Illustrative figures, per $100 of ad-attributed sales. Below the dashed line, a sale loses money.
Two products each make $100 in ad sales and spend $25 on ads, an identical 25% ACoS. Product A has $60 of Amazon fees and product cost, so it keeps $15. Product B has $80, so it loses $5. Use the two sliders below to try your own break-even ACoS and ACoS.
Keep your product-level ad targets in one spreadsheet.
Enter each product’s price, fees, landed cost and conversion rate. Use the sheet to calculate break-even ACoS, choose a target and estimate a CPC limit alongside your own reports.
I may email once to ask whether the sheet helped. Privacy.
Break-even ACoS calculator
SKU
Price
Break-even
Target
Max CPC
Example-01
$39.99
48.2%
38.2%
$1.83
Example-02
$24.99
18.0%
8.0%
$0.24
Example-03
$59.00
43.2%
33.2%
$1.96
Example-04
$18.49
27.3%
17.3%
$0.38
Find the products your account average hides.
Two products can report the same ACoS and leave very different amounts after advertising. Fees, product costs and selling prices determine how much each one can spend. An account average combines those differences into a single number.
I spent eight years in pricing analysis before moving into Amazon advertising full-time. I start with the economics of the sale, set targets for each product, then review the traffic and campaigns against those targets.
Campaign roles are unclear
Discovery, brand, competitor and product-targeting traffic need their own context. Without it, a useful test and an unproductive campaign can look much the same.
Search-term routing has no clear rules
A converting query needs a plan for its next test, existing keyword coverage and destination. Check that the destination is delivering before routing traffic away from discovery.
Bid increases have no product-level limit
A placement adjustment can raise the amount you are willing to pay. Review it with the base bid, conversion data and contribution per purchase.
Five questions to answer before the next budget increase.
What’s the break-even ACoS for each of our top 10 products?Compare the advertising cost with the contribution each product leaves before ads.
How much did we spend last month on search terms with zero orders?Review relevance, settled purchases and product economics before deciding what to stop.
Which converting search terms are still running in auto or broad campaigns?Check existing coverage and set a budget for an exact-match test. A change in match type does not guarantee cheaper traffic.
What are we paying extra for top-of-search, and does it convert better there?Compare sales per click at each placement with the product’s target ACoS.
Is ad spend growing total sales, or only ad-attributed sales?Review total sales alongside ad attribution. Report totals alone do not establish how many sales the ads caused.
Give each campaign a purpose and a spending limit.
Keep discovery, validation and scaling decisions separate. Each week, review the evidence, record the action and set a date to check what happened.
Research
Auto and broad
Explore relevant queries with a defined test budget.
Harvest
Phrase
Review relevance and conversion evidence before expanding a query’s budget.
Scale
Exact + product targeting
Give selected queries and products controlled tests, using product-level targets.
Defend
Negatives + placements
Review exclusions and placement adjustments together. Confirm delivery before adding routing negatives.
$4.49M in ad sales across five documented accounts.
Examine the account figures, the campaign work and the supporting evidence. Each case identifies the reporting period and available data; client names remain private.
Largest account
$2.16M in ad-attributed sales in 30 days at 11.38% ACoS
Personal care brand · Amazon US · Nov 21–Dec 21, 2025
About $246K of ad spend in a single month, run on clean campaign roles, weekly search-term harvesting and negatives, bid and placement rules, and budgets tied to TACoS and margin. The founder got a weekly scorecard: what changed, why, and what’s next.
Ad sales$2.16M
Ad spend$246.0K
ACoS11.38%
ROAS8.79
● Straight from the Amazon Ads consoleNov 21–Dec 21, 2025. Cropped; campaign list not shown. Tap to enlarge.
Highest return
$1.11M in ad-attributed sales at 5.51% ACoS
Women’s handbags and accessories brand
The account ran on clear campaign roles, weekly search-term harvesting, placement premiums paid only where conversion supported them, and budgets that followed proven demand.
What would you like to change about your Amazon ads?
Tell me where the account stands and what you want to achieve. We’ll discuss your questions and whether an audit, a focused project or ongoing management would help.
Tell me about your account
Your store link, ad spend and main goal.
Pick a time
Choose a 30-minute call right after you submit. Google Calendar sends the confirmation and Meet link.
Talk about your business
Your company, current advertising, goals and concerns. No reports or account access required for this conversation.
Agree on the next step
We discuss the questions worth investigating. If an audit makes sense, I explain its scope, price and timeline before you decide.
Spending under $20K a month? You’re welcome to book too. The Profit-First Audit ($249) is often the better next step, and we can talk it through on the call.
Tell me what you want your ads to do.
In a free 30-minute call, we’ll discuss your business, your current advertising and whether an audit, a focused project or ongoing management would help.
