At a glance
Return on ad spend, the cross-platform-friendly view of the same data Amazon natively reports as ACOS. attributed_sales ÷ ad_spend. ROAS = 100% ÷ ACOS, so a 25% ACOS = 4× ROAS and higher is better. Industry-healthy ROAS sits at 4-6.7× (= ACOS 15-25%). Below 2× is unprofitable for most categories once COGS and Amazon fees are factored in.
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, same account as the ACOS example. The 30-day window covers 14 Mar 26 to 12 Apr 26.
What’s interesting:
- The blended 4.71× hides huge per-campaign variance. Branded Search at 20× is largely free revenue (people searching the brand name were buying anyway). SB Awareness Banner at 1.96× is below the 2× warn threshold. The hero ROAS is useful as a directional read but ROAS by Campaign is what drives daily decisions.
- Branded Search inflates everything. If you exclude branded keywords, the “true acquisition” ROAS drops to about 3.0×. Most agencies reporting ROAS to clients quietly include branded; for honest reads exclude it.
- Sponsored Brands at 1.96× looks unprofitable but probably isn’t. SB is mid-funnel awareness; the real value is the organic halo Amazon doesn’t credit. Open Sponsored Brands Halo Effect before pausing SB.
- A category-typical break-even ROAS for a 60%-margin product is ~1.7×. At 4.71× the merchant has comfortable headroom; at 2× they’d be in the warning zone; below 1.7× they’d be losing money before overheads.
- Prior 30D ROAS was 5.15×, so today’s 4.71× is a modest 8.5% drop. Spend rose ~5% while ROAS fell 8.5%, a directionally normal “scaling beyond the efficient frontier” pattern. Watch ROAS Trend for the 7-day rolling.
- ROAS up + spend up = healthy scaling on efficient inventory.
- ROAS flat + spend up = scaling without losing efficiency. Good.
- ROAS down + spend up = scaling beyond efficient frontier. Most common cause of an alert.
- ROAS down + spend flat = something changed in attribution or competitive landscape. Investigate before cutting.
- ROAS up + spend down = pulled back wisely from low-quality inventory. Good if intended.
Sibling cards merchants should reference together
Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard
Where to look in Amazon Ads Console: Amazon Ads Console > Campaign Manager. Amazon natively reports ACOS, not ROAS. To convert: ROAS =100% ÷ ACOS. So a Campaign Manager column showing 25% ACOS = 4× ROAS in this card.
Amazon Ads Console > Reports > Sponsored Products / Brands / Display, same conversion applies. Some report templates include a derived “Sales/Spend Ratio” which is mathematically identical to ROAS.
Amazon Ads Console > Recommendations. Amazon’s optimisation suggestions surface in ACOS terms. Convert as needed.
Why our number may legitimately differ from a derived ROAS in Amazon Ads Console:
Cross-connector reconciliation:
Known limitations / merchant FAQs
ROAS vs ACOS, which one should I use? Same data, different convention. ROAS = sales ÷ spend (a multiple, higher is better). ACOS = spend ÷ sales (a percentage, lower is better). Convert withROAS = 100% ÷ ACOS. Amazon natively shows ACOS, this card converts to ROAS for cross-platform consistency with Google Ads / Meta. Pick whichever your team already thinks in.
My ROAS is 5× and my finance team says I’m losing money, who’s right?
Probably finance. Amazon’s attributedSales14d is gross revenue, before COGS, Amazon fees, FBA fulfilment, returns, and overhead. A 5× ROAS on 60% gross margin and 15% Amazon fees gives you a contribution margin of roughly 1.4×, marginally profitable. The rule of thumb: divide ROAS by 2 to get a rough “true contribution multiple” for typical Amazon FBA economics.
Why is my Branded Search ROAS 20×+?
People searching for your exact brand name were going to buy anyway. Branded Search captures ~70-90% of that intent for cheap clicks. Branded ROAS is a poor measure of paid-acquisition health, you’re not really acquiring those customers, you’re paying Amazon to defend them. The “true acquisition” ROAS uses non-branded campaigns only.
My ROAS dropped 30% overnight, what should I check?
In order of likelihood: (1) Attribution-window settling. The 14-day click window means yesterday’s number isn’t final yet; check again in 48-72 hours. (2) Promo-period rollover. ROAS during a Lightning Deal rolls into “normal” the day after; sales attribution catches up unevenly. (3) Competitor entered the auction. Check CPC Trend for sudden spikes. (4) ASIN went out of stock. Check Active Ads on Out-of-Stock SKUs, zero conversion against continuing spend. (5) Buy Box loss. Check Active Ads on No-Buy-Box ASINs.
Should I optimise for ROAS or for total ad-attributed revenue?
Depends on your phase. Profitability-constrained: optimise for ROAS. Growth-focused with profitable unit economics: optimise for absolute attributed sales volume. ROAS will compress as you scale into less-efficient inventory but total profit grows. The right answer is rarely “highest ROAS”; usually it’s “highest ROAS subject to spending the budget”.
Why doesn’t my Amazon Ads ROAS match my Google Ads ROAS?
Different ecosystems. Amazon Ads only sees clicks-to-purchases inside Amazon; Google Ads only sees clicks on Google properties. The audiences barely overlap (Amazon shoppers are bottom-funnel intent; Google PMax/Search audiences are broader). Don’t try to combine the two, treat them as separate channels with separate ROAS targets.
Can I trust today’s ROAS?
Less than the 7-day rolling. ROAS for today is built from incomplete data, the 14-day click attribution window means today’s numerator continues to grow for two weeks. Don’t restructure campaigns based on a single day’s ROAS; the 7-day rolling is the most actionable.
Multi-marketplace, how does ROAS work?
Amazon Advertising accounts are single-marketplace by design. Multi-marketplace sellers run separate accounts per marketplace. Each account reports ROAS in its own currency. This card is per-account.
My ROAS-target playbook?
The merchant heuristic: target_ROAS ≥ 1 ÷ (gross_margin × (1 - desired_profit_margin)). So if gross margin is 60% (after Amazon fees) and you want 10% net profit, target ROAS is 1 ÷ (0.6 × 0.9) = 1.85× minimum. Below that, you’re losing money. If gross_margin × (1 - 1/ROAS) > 0, the campaign is contribution-positive and worth scaling.