> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vortexiq.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # ACOS, Amazon Ads > Advertising Cost of Sales, primary profitability gauge. Replaces generic ROAS hero for Amazon Ads. How to read it, why it matters, and how to act on it. **Metrics type:** [Key Metrics](/nerve-centre/overview#metrics-types-explained) • **Category:** [Ad Platform](/nerve-centre/connectors#connectors-by-type) > Advertising Cost of Sales, primary profitability gauge. Replaces generic ROAS hero for Amazon Ads. ## At a glance > Advertising Cost of Sales, the primary efficiency metric on Amazon. **`ad_spend ÷ attributed_sales`**, expressed as a percentage. The **inverse of ROAS** (ROAS = 100% ÷ ACOS), so a 25% ACOS = 4× ROAS and **lower is better**. Industry-healthy ACOS sits at 15-25%; above 30% means non-brand campaigns are losing money for most categories. | | | | -------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **The formula** | `SUM(cost) ÷ SUM(attributedSales14d) × 100`. Aggregated from the Sponsored Products / Brands / Display Reports API. ACOS expresses ad spend as a percentage of ad-attributed revenue. | | **Reports API endpoint** | `POST /reporting/reports` on Amazon Advertising API v3, with `reportTypeId` per ad type (`spCampaigns` for Sponsored Products, `sbCampaigns` for Sponsored Brands, `sdCampaigns` for Sponsored Display). DSP uses a separate Reports API. The card pulls `cost`, `sales1d / sales7d / sales14d`, `purchases14d` per campaign / ad-group / keyword. | | **ACOS vs ROAS framing** | Same data, different convention. ACOS = spend ÷ sales (inverse). ROAS = sales ÷ spend (direct). **Amazon uses ACOS**; Google Ads / Meta use ROAS. To convert: ROAS = 100% ÷ ACOS. So ACOS 25% = ROAS 4×; ACOS 50% = ROAS 2×; ACOS 100% = ROAS 1× (break-even on revenue, lossy on margin). | | **Attribution model** | **Last-click within Amazon ecosystem only.** A click on a Sponsored Product ad attributes to that ad if the same shopper places an order on Amazon within the attribution window. **No cross-platform visibility**, the merchant's DTC site is invisible to Amazon Ads. | | **Default attribution window** | **14-day click** for Sponsored Products / Brands / Display. DSP defaults to 14-day click + 14-day view. Window can be set to 1d, 7d, 14d, or 30d on the report request. The 14d default is what most reports show; 1d gives a tighter, more conservative ACOS read. | | **Brand vs non-brand keyword scope** | Critical and reported separately when keywords are tagged. Branded ACOS commonly 5-8% (cheap defence on people who would buy anyway); non-branded ACOS 25-40% (real acquisition cost). The blended hero number hides this; cross to [Branded vs Non-Branded Spend](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/amazon-ads/branded-vs-non-branded-spend) to split it. | | **Sponsored Products vs Brands vs Display vs DSP** | SP (search-result ads, bottom-funnel, tightest ACOS). SB (banner search ads, mid-funnel, looser ACOS but with halo on organic). SD (audience-driven product ads, retargeting + lookalikes). DSP (programmatic display + video, top-of-funnel. ACOS is not the right yardstick). Each ad type has its own report endpoint. | | **Currency** | Account currency only (set per Amazon Advertising account, locked at marketplace creation). Multi-marketplace sellers run separate accounts per marketplace; this card is per-account, single-currency. | | **Amazon-only attribution gap** | If a customer clicks an Amazon ad, leaves Amazon, then buys on the merchant's DTC Shopify or BigCommerce site later, **Amazon never sees the sale and the DTC platform never sees Amazon's role**. The two ecosystems are completely siloed. The merchant's true ad-influenced revenue is higher than ACOS implies. | | **Time window** | `30D vsP` (default 30 days vs the prior 30 days). Amazon's report-generation latency means today is provisional for \~24h. | | **Alert trigger** | `>40% (warn) / >category benchmark (critical)`. Drives `sentiment_key: roas` (inverted internally so high ACOS = bad sentiment). | | **Roles** | owner, marketing, finance | ## Calculation Calculated automatically from your Amazon Ads data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading. ## Worked example A US home-goods seller running a mature Amazon catalog: Sponsored Products on branded + non-branded search, Sponsored Brands as awareness, and a Sponsored Display remarketing line. The 30-day window covers 14 Mar 26 to 12 Apr 26. | Campaign group | Spend | Attributed sales (14d) | ACOS | Equivalent ROAS | | ------------------------------------------- | ------------ | ---------------------- | --------- | --------------- | | **SP, Branded Search** ("our-brand pillow") | \$2,800 | \$56,000 | **5.0%** | **20.0×** | | **SP, Non-branded** ("memory foam pillow") | \$14,200 | \$43,800 | **32.4%** | **3.08×** | | **SP, Auto Targeting** | \$3,400 | \$11,200 | **30.4%** | **3.29×** | | **SB, Brand Awareness Banner** | \$4,800 | \$9,400 | **51.1%** | **1.96×** | | **SD, Remarketing** | \$1,600 | \$5,800 | **27.6%** | **3.62×** | | **Total (this card)** | **\$26,800** | **\$126,200** | **21.2%** | **4.71×** | What's interesting: 1. **Branded ACOS of 5% is "free money" but is not really acquisition.** Those shoppers searched the merchant's exact brand name; they were going to buy anyway. The \$2,800 spend defends the slot from competitor-conquest ads. The 5% ACOS makes the blended hero look healthy and disguises a less-flattering non-branded number, **agencies who quote a single ACOS number are nearly always quoting the blended figure**. Always split using [Branded vs Non-Branded Spend](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/amazon-ads/branded-vs-non-branded-spend). 2. **Non-branded ACOS at 32% is right at the edge of profitability.** Industry rule of thumb: target ACOS = gross margin × (1 - desired profit margin). A category with 60% gross margin can absorb up to \~40% ACOS at break-even. At 32%, the merchant is still profitable but has limited headroom; a 4-percentage-point rise on a competitor squeeze would tip the campaign loss-making. 3. **SB Awareness Banner's 51% ACOS is misleading**, top-of-funnel measurement against bottom-of-funnel intent. Sponsored Brands' real value is the **organic halo** (the awareness boosts non-paid search rank and DTC site traffic, neither of which Amazon attributes back). Use [Sponsored Brands Halo Effect](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/amazon-ads/sponsored-brands-halo-effect) before judging SB on ACOS alone. 4. **The blended 21% looks healthy but reflects \$2,800 of cheap brand defence pulling the average down.** Strip the branded line and the blended ACOS becomes 27.5% (ROAS 3.6×), much closer to the real cost of incremental sales. 5. **Prior 30D ACOS was 19.4%**, so today's 21.2% is a 1.8-percentage-point worsening, equivalent to ROAS dropping from 5.15× to 4.71×. Below the 40% warn threshold but worth investigating, the SP Auto Targeting campaign is drifting (30.4% this period vs 24% last period). Quick sanity tests: * ACOS down + sales up = healthy scaling on efficient inventory. * ACOS up + sales up = scaling beyond the efficient frontier (commonest cause of an alert). * ACOS flat + sales down = competitive pressure or seasonality, not your campaigns failing. * ACOS up sharply with no sales drop = a single high-spend campaign drifted; check [ROAS by Campaign](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/amazon-ads/roas-by-campaign). * Branded ACOS rising = competitor conquest bidding has entered your auction. ## Sibling cards merchants should reference together | Card | Why pair it with ACOS | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [Amazon Ads ROAS](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/amazon-ads/roas) | The same data expressed as a multiple instead of a percentage. Use whichever your team thinks in. | | [Amazon Ads Total Spend](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/amazon-ads/total-spend) | The numerator. ACOS up + spend up means scaling, ACOS up + spend flat means efficiency loss. | | [Amazon Ads Total Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/amazon-ads/total-revenue) | The denominator. Plus a sanity check that the attributed-sales total looks right. | | [Amazon Ads TACOS](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/amazon-ads/tacos) | Total ACOS = spend ÷ (ad sales + organic sales). The strategic read; if TACOS is falling while ACOS is flat, ads are lifting the whole pie. | | [Branded vs Non-Branded Spend](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/amazon-ads/branded-vs-non-branded-spend) | The blended ACOS hides this split. Always look at the two separately before changing bids. | | [ROAS by Campaign](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/amazon-ads/roas-by-campaign) | The drill-down. Headline ACOS hides per-campaign variance. **Open this before making decisions.** | | [Sponsored Brands Halo Effect](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/amazon-ads/sponsored-brands-halo-effect) | SB ACOS looks bad but creates organic lift Amazon doesn't credit. Open this before pausing SB. | | [Amazon Selling Partner Total Sales](/nerve-centre/amazon_sp/amzn_sp_total_sales) | The parent denominator. Ads-attributed sales should be a sub-set of this; the gap is organic. | | [Google Ads ROAS](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/google-ads/roas) | The cross-platform paid-acquisition comparison. Different ecosystems but useful for budget allocation across channels. | | [Shopify Total Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/total-revenue) | The other half of the merchant's revenue picture (DTC). Amazon Ads has zero visibility into this. | ## Reconciling against the vendor's own dashboard **Where to look in Amazon Ads Console:** [Amazon Ads Console > Campaign Manager](https://advertising.amazon.com/cm), the default Campaign Manager view shows ACOS in the column set per campaign. The total at the top of the table should match this card to within \~1%. [Amazon Ads Console > Reports > Sponsored Products / Brands / Display](https://advertising.amazon.com/reports) is the report-builder view, useful for breaking ACOS by ad type. Choose a 30-day window and the same date range, the totals match. [Amazon Ads Console > Recommendations](https://advertising.amazon.com/recommendations). Amazon's own optimisation suggestions. Useful as a sanity-check on what Amazon thinks the inefficiency is. **Why our number may legitimately differ from Amazon Ads Console:** | Reason | Direction of divergence | Why it happens | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Timezone**. Amazon Advertising reports use **PT (Pacific)** regardless of your account location. Vortex IQ aligns to PT for Amazon Ads. | None when both are PT-aligned. | Amazon's reporting backend is in Seattle. | | **Report-generation latency** (1-3 hours). A new order in the last hour may not be in either side. | Today's ACOS is provisional for \~24h. | Amazon batches report builds; the most recent hours catch up on the next refresh. | | **ACOS calculation timing**. Sales attributed back to clicks within the 14-day window means today's ACOS continues to adjust for 14 days as late conversions land. | Today's ACOS will improve over the next 14 days as more 14-day-window conversions get attributed back. | Amazon re-attributes nightly; this card re-pulls every 4 hours. | | **API rate limits**. Amazon Advertising API enforces \~2 requests/sec; large accounts may have stale partials during heavy refresh. | Stale by up to 1 refresh cycle (\~4h) in extreme cases. | The pull is paginated and rate-limited. | | **Attribution window choice**. If you compare a 7-day-window report against a 14-day-window report, ACOS will differ. This card uses the 14d default. | This card may show **lower** ACOS than the Console's 7d view. | The wider window captures more sales against the same spend. | **Cross-connector reconciliation:** | Card | Expected relationship | What causes legitimate divergence | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [`amazon_sp.amzn_sp_total_sales`](/nerve-centre/amazon_sp/amzn_sp_total_sales) | Ads-attributed sales ≤ Selling Partner Total Sales. The gap is organic. | Amazon Ads attribution doesn't include marketplace organic; Selling Partner reports the whole order. The two should reconcile within the date window once organic is subtracted. | | [`google_ads.gads_roas`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/google-ads/roas) | No relationship. Separate ecosystems. | Don't try to add the two; the audiences are mostly disjoint and the attribution windows are incompatible. Treat them as independent budget lines. | | [`google_analytics.ga_revenue_by_channel`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/google-analytics/revenue-by-channel) | Amazon traffic on the merchant DTC site shows in GA4 as referral source `amazon.com`. This is **incremental DTC revenue** that Amazon Ads does NOT see. | The Amazon-only attribution gap. Customers who clicked Amazon, browsed, then bought on the DTC site are completely invisible to ACOS. | | [`shopify.total_revenue`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/total-revenue) | No relationship. Different sales channel entirely. | Amazon Ads sales close on Amazon; Shopify sales close on the DTC site. Don't compare. |
Edge cases and rare reconciliation issues * **Vendor Central vs Seller Central accounts**: Vendor accounts report sales via SourcingProfit metrics; Seller accounts use AttributedSales. ACOS is calculated identically but the sales feed comes from different APIs. * **DSP attribution**: DSP reports use 14d-click + 14d-view by default. Mixing DSP and Sponsored ACOS in a single roll-up can over-count sales if the same shopper saw a DSP impression and clicked an SP ad. Amazon de-dupes within an ecosystem but not across DSP and Sponsored cleanly. * **Brand registry effects**: Sponsored Brands campaigns require Brand Registry; without it, the SB line is zero and the blended ACOS shifts toward SP only. * **Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC)** can give a more accurate cross-product attribution view, but is a separate Reports API and is not part of this card.
## Known limitations / merchant FAQs **ACOS vs ROAS, which one should I use?** Same data, different convention. ACOS (spend ÷ sales) is what Amazon uses; ROAS (sales ÷ spend) is what Google Ads / Meta use. Convert with `ROAS = 100% ÷ ACOS`. So 25% ACOS = 4× ROAS. **Use the one your team already thinks in**; the underlying number is identical. Most Amazon-native sellers think in ACOS; cross-platform marketers prefer ROAS for comparability. **Why is my Branded ACOS 5% but my non-branded ACOS 35%?** Brand-keyword shoppers searched for your exact name; they were going to buy anyway. The 5% spend defends the slot from competitor-conquest ads but isn't really acquisition cost. Non-branded keywords compete in the open auction against everyone in your category, so the cost-per-sale is realistically 4-6× higher. **A blended hero ACOS is therefore not directly actionable**, always split using [Branded vs Non-Branded Spend](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/amazon-ads/branded-vs-non-branded-spend). Agencies who quote a single ACOS number are nearly always quoting the branded-inflated blend. **My Sponsored Brands ACOS is 50%, should I pause SB?** Probably not. SB ads are mid-funnel awareness placements; the real value is the **organic halo** (your brand awareness boosts non-paid search rank and external traffic). Amazon doesn't credit any of that back into the SB ACOS, so the metric undercounts SB's true contribution. Open [Sponsored Brands Halo Effect](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/amazon-ads/sponsored-brands-halo-effect) before deciding. As a rule of thumb, judge SB on *new-to-brand* sales rather than ACOS. **Why doesn't my Amazon Ads ACOS reconcile with my Google Ads ROAS?** Different ecosystems. Amazon Ads only sees clicks-to-purchases inside Amazon; Google Ads only sees clicks on Google properties. The two audiences barely overlap (Amazon shoppers are bottom-funnel intent; Google PMax/Search audiences are broader). **Don't try to add the two budgets and divide into total revenue**, the result is meaningless. Treat them as separate channels with separate ACOS/ROAS targets. **What changed when Amazon updated the attribution window?** The default click attribution window is 14 days for Sponsored Products / Brands / Display. If you re-pull historical reports, you'll see ACOS shift slightly because Amazon may re-attribute late conversions. The card uses 14d default; switching the report request to 7d will tighten ACOS (lower attributed sales for the same spend, so higher ACOS). Settings live on each report request, not at account level. **I sell on US, UK, and DE marketplaces, why are these reported separately?** Each marketplace is a separate Amazon Advertising account with its own currency. ACOS is not aggregable across them in any meaningful way; an exchange-rate-converted total is mathematically suspect because the `attributed_sales` were transacted in local currency. Run one Vortex IQ connector per marketplace; compare ACOS in local currency. **Can I trust today's ACOS?** Less than 30-day rolling. Amazon's attribution is **continuous**, sales attributed to today's clicks will keep landing for the next 14 days. Today's ACOS is provisional and will improve over the next two weeks as late conversions roll in. **Don't restructure campaigns based on a single day's ACOS**; the 7-day rolling is the actionable read. **DSP vs Sponsored, do they share the same ACOS?** No. DSP (Demand-Side Platform, programmatic display + video) reports through a separate Reports API and uses 14-day-click + 14-day-view attribution by default. DSP ACOS often looks worse than Sponsored ACOS because DSP runs top-of-funnel awareness; ACOS is not the right yardstick for DSP. Use [DSP vs Sponsored Spend Mix](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/amazon-ads/dsp-vs-sponsored-spend-mix) for the strategic split, and judge DSP on reach and new-to-brand share. **How do I set my target ACOS?** The merchant playbook: `target_ACOS ≤ gross_margin × (1 - desired_profit_margin)`. So if gross margin is 60% and you want 10% net profit on the marketed line, target ACOS is `60% × 0.90 = 54%`. **If gross\_margin × (1 - target\_ACOS) > break-even, scale.** A category with 60% gross margin is profitable at any ACOS below \~50%; below 25% you have headroom to scale spend until ACOS rises to that level. *** ### Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre *ACOS* is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across Amazon Ads and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English. [Start for free](https://app.vortexiq.ai/login) or [book a demo](https://www.vortexiq.ai/contact-us) to see this metric running on your own data.