> ## 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. # ROAS, Amazon Ads > ROAS for Amazon Ads stores. Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre. 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) ## 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. | | | | -------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **The formula** | `SUM(attributedSales14d) ÷ SUM(cost)`. Returned as a unitless ratio. ROAS is the inverse of ACOS, the same data, expressed in the convention most cross-platform marketers use. | | **Reports API endpoint** | `POST /reporting/reports` on Amazon Advertising API v3, with `reportTypeId` per ad type (`spCampaigns`, `sbCampaigns`, `sdCampaigns`). DSP uses a separate Reports API. | | **ROAS vs ACOS framing** | Same data, different convention. ROAS = sales ÷ spend (direct). ACOS = spend ÷ sales (inverse). **Amazon natively reports ACOS**; this card converts to ROAS for cross-platform consistency with Google Ads / Meta. ACOS 25% = ROAS 4×; ACOS 50% = ROAS 2×. | | **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.** | | **Default attribution window** | **14-day click** for Sponsored Products / Brands / Display. DSP uses 14-day click + 14-day view. The window is configurable per report request (1d / 7d / 14d / 30d). | | **Brand vs non-brand keyword scope** | Critical and reported separately when keywords are tagged. Branded ROAS commonly 15-25× (very high because the audience was going to buy anyway). Non-branded ROAS 2.5-4× (the 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). | | **Sponsored Products vs Brands vs Display vs DSP** | SP (search-result ads, bottom-funnel, highest ROAS). SB (banner search ads, mid-funnel, lower ROAS but with halo). SD (audience-driven product ads). DSP (programmatic display + video, top-of-funnel. ROAS undercounts DSP's value). Each ad type has its own report endpoint. | | **Currency** | Account currency only (set per Amazon Advertising account, locked at marketplace creation). Multi-marketplace = separate accounts. | | **Amazon-only attribution gap** | If a shopper 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. ROAS understates the ad's true contribution to the merchant's combined revenue. | | **Time window** | `30D vsP` (default 30 days vs the prior 30 days). Today is provisional for \~24h; the 14-day click window means today's ROAS will improve over the next two weeks as late conversions land. | | **Alert trigger** | `<2 (warn), <1 (critical)`. `<1` means ad spend exceeds ad-attributed sales (loss before any cost-of-goods). | | **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, same account as the ACOS example. The 30-day window covers 14 Mar 26 to 12 Apr 26. | Campaign group | Spend | Attributed sales (14d) | ROAS | Equivalent ACOS | | ------------------------------ | ------------ | ---------------------- | --------- | --------------- | | **SP, Branded Search** | \$2,800 | \$56,000 | **20.0×** | **5.0%** | | **SP, Non-branded** | \$14,200 | \$43,800 | **3.08×** | **32.4%** | | **SP, Auto Targeting** | \$3,400 | \$11,200 | **3.29×** | **30.4%** | | **SB, Brand Awareness Banner** | \$4,800 | \$9,400 | **1.96×** | **51.1%** | | **SD, Remarketing** | \$1,600 | \$5,800 | **3.62×** | **27.6%** | | **Total (this card)** | **\$26,800** | **\$126,200** | **4.71×** | **21.2%** | What's interesting: 1. **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](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/amazon-ads/roas-by-campaign) is what drives daily decisions.** 2. **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. 3. **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](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/amazon-ads/sponsored-brands-halo-effect) before pausing SB. 4. **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. 5. **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](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/amazon-ads/roas-trend) for the 7-day rolling. Quick sanity tests: * 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 | Card | Why pair it with ROAS | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [Amazon Ads ACOS](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/amazon-ads/acos) | The same data expressed as a percentage instead of a multiple. Use whichever convention your team thinks in. | | [Amazon Ads Total Spend](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/amazon-ads/total-spend) | The denominator. ROAS up + spend up = healthy scaling; ROAS up + spend down = retreat from low-quality inventory. | | [Amazon Ads Total Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/amazon-ads/total-revenue) | The numerator. Tells you whether ROAS moved on cost-side or revenue-side. | | [Amazon Ads ROAS by Campaign](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/amazon-ads/roas-by-campaign) | Headline ROAS hides per-campaign variance. **Open this before making decisions.** | | [Amazon Ads ROAS Trend](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/amazon-ads/roas-trend) | Daily series. ROAS is volatile day-to-day; the 7-day rolling is the actionable read. | | [Amazon Ads TACOS](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/amazon-ads/tacos) | The strategic complement, "are ads growing the whole pie or just shifting attribution?" | | [Branded vs Non-Branded Spend](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/amazon-ads/branded-vs-non-branded-spend) | Branded ROAS dominates the blended figure; always split. | | [Sponsored Brands Halo Effect](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/amazon-ads/sponsored-brands-halo-effect) | SB ROAS undercounts organic lift. Use this before judging SB on ROAS alone. | | [Google Ads ROAS](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/google-ads/roas) | The cross-platform paid-acquisition comparison, useful for budget allocation between Google and Amazon. | | [Shopify Total Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/total-revenue) | The other half of merchant revenue (DTC). Amazon Ads has zero visibility into Shopify. | ## Reconciling against the vendor's own dashboard **Where to look in Amazon Ads Console:** [Amazon Ads Console > Campaign Manager](https://advertising.amazon.com/cm). 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](https://advertising.amazon.com/reports), same conversion applies. Some report templates include a derived "Sales/Spend Ratio" which is mathematically identical to ROAS. [Amazon Ads Console > Recommendations](https://advertising.amazon.com/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:** | Reason | Direction of divergence | Why it happens | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Timezone**. Amazon Advertising reports use **PT (Pacific)** regardless of account location. Vortex IQ aligns to PT. | None when both are PT-aligned. | Amazon's reporting backend is in Seattle. | | **Report-generation latency** (1-3 hours). | Today's ROAS is provisional for \~24h. | Amazon batches report builds; the most recent hours catch up on the next refresh. | | **ACOS calculation timing**. The 14-day click window means today's numerator continues to land for two weeks. | Today's ROAS will *rise* over the next 14 days as more attributed sales land. | 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 Amazon Ads Console is set to a 7-day-window report, ROAS will look lower than this card's 14d default. | This card may show **higher** ROAS 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) | Ad-attributed sales ≤ Selling Partner Total Sales. The gap is organic. | Amazon Ads attribution doesn't include marketplace organic; Selling Partner reports the whole order. | | [`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. Treat 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** Amazon Ads does NOT see. | The Amazon-only attribution gap. | | [`shopify.total_revenue`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/total-revenue) | No direct relationship. Different sales channel. | Don't compare. |
Edge cases and rare reconciliation issues * **Vendor Central vs Seller Central accounts**: Vendor accounts use SourcingProfit metrics; Seller accounts use AttributedSales. ROAS calculation is identical but the sales feed comes from different APIs. * **DSP attribution**: DSP reports use 14d-click + 14d-view by default. Mixing DSP and Sponsored ROAS in a single roll-up can over-count sales if the same shopper saw a DSP impression and clicked an SP ad. * **Brand registry effects**: Sponsored Brands campaigns require Brand Registry; without it, the SB line is zero and the blended ROAS shifts toward SP only. * **Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC)**: provides a more accurate cross-product attribution view, but is a separate Reports API and not part of this card.
## 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 with `ROAS = 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](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/amazon-ads/cpc-trend) for sudden spikes. (4) **ASIN went out of stock**. Check [Active Ads on Out-of-Stock SKUs](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/amazon-ads/active-ads-on-out-of-stock-skus), zero conversion against continuing spend. (5) **Buy Box loss**. Check [Active Ads on No-Buy-Box ASINs](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/amazon-ads/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. *** ### Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre *ROAS* 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.