Amazon advertising audit

What an advertising audit examines

Finding wasted spend

Search term reports show every search that triggered an ad and what it cost. Sorting by spend with no or few sales reveals waste: irrelevant terms, overly broad matches and competitor terms that never convert. Amazon describes negative keywords as preventing ads appearing on results pages that do not meet campaign objectives, so missing negatives are a common audit finding.

Targets against margins

Amazon defines ACOS as ad spend divided by ad revenue. An audit compares each product's ACOS with its break-even point, roughly its margin before advertising. Products running well above break-even without a deliberate reason, such as a launch, are losing money on advertised sales.

Structure problems

Common problems include one campaign containing everything, the same search term targeted in several campaigns that compete with each other, mixed match types in one ad group and products with very different margins sharing bids. These make results hard to read and control.

How an audit runs

1. 01

   Data

   Campaign, search term and sales reports.

   Output: Data set

2. 02

   Margins

   Break-even ACOS per product.

   Output: Target sheet

3. 03

   Review

   Structure, terms, bids, budgets.

   Output: Findings

4. 04

   Listings

   Conversion readiness and stock.

   Output: Listing notes

5. 05

   Prioritise

   Fixes ranked by impact.

   Output: Action plan

Example: an audit for a supplements seller

Audit checklist

Missed opportunities

Audits also find converting search terms not yet targeted in exact match, products not advertised at all, brand searches not covered and best sellers limited by budget. These are often quicker wins than cutting waste.

Reporting gaps

If reports only show ad-attributed sales, it is hard to tell whether advertising grows total sales. An audit can recommend adding total sales and total advertising cost as a share of sales to regular reporting.

Acting on findings

Make changes in stages and track their effect, starting with the clearest waste and the biggest opportunities. Sudden wholesale changes make it hard to see what worked.

When to audit

Audit before choosing a manager, after sustained poor results, before peak seasons and at least once a year, even if someone already manages the account.

Placements and timing

Ads can appear in different places, such as top of search, other positions in results and product pages, and performance often differs between them. An audit looks at whether some placements consistently cost more per sale, and whether spend is concentrated at times or days when shoppers convert less. These patterns can guide bid adjustments, though they need enough data to be reliable.

Brand and competitor terms

An audit separates spend on your own brand terms, competitor terms and generic terms, since each has a different purpose and should be judged differently. Mixing them in one campaign makes results hard to interpret.