Knowing Amazon PPC costs is no longer optional if you want to build a profitable business on the platform. Rising competition across nearly every category means that sellers who guess at their advertising budgets instead of calculating them systematically are leaving money on the table or worse, bleeding cash with every click.
The average cost per click on Amazon reached $0.98 in 2025, according to Perpetua’s benchmark data. But this number hides the full story. Some sellers in niche categories pay as little as $0.35 per click, while those competing in saturated markets like supplements or electronics routinely pay $3.00 or more.
This guide breaks down exactly what drives Amazon PPC costs, how to calculate your specific budget requirements, and proven strategies to reduce wasted spending without sacrificing ranking.
Amazon PPC Ad Types
Amazon Pay-Per-Click advertising operates on an auction-based system where you only pay when someone clicks your ad. Amazon offers three main ad types that serve different purposes in your overall strategy.
1. Sponsored Products
These ads appear in search results and on product detail pages. These ads promote individual listings and typically deliver the lowest cost per click with the highest return on ad spend. Most sellers start here because the format directly drives conversion and organic ranking.
2. Sponsored Brands
These ads showcase product videos with multiple products with custom headlines and your logo. They are best for building brand awareness and typically cost more per click than Sponsored Products.
3. Sponsored Display
These ads reach shoppers both on and off Amazon using audience targeting. These ads work well for retargeting customers who viewed your products but did not purchase, though they generally deliver lower conversion rates than search-based ads.
How the Amazon Ad Auction Works
Every time a shopper types a search query into Amazon, an invisible auction takes place in milliseconds. Multiple sellers are competing for the same ad placements, and Amazon needs to decide whose ad to show and in what position.
Here is what happens during each auction:
You set a maximum bid amount for a specific keyword. Let us say you bid $2.00 for the keyword “stainless steel water bottle.” When a shopper searches for that term, Amazon looks at all the advertisers bidding on it and considers three main factors: your bid amount, your ad’s relevance to the search, and your expected conversion rate based on historical performance.
The winner gets the top ad placement, but here is where it gets interesting. You do not pay your full bid amount. Amazon uses a second-price auction model, which means you pay just $0.01 more than the second-highest bidder. So if you bid $2.00 and the next highest bid was $1.40, you pay $1.41, not $2.00.
The Three Pricing Models Available on Amazon
Amazon offers different ways to pay for advertising depending on your campaign type and goals. Below are the 3 pricing models offered to sellers.
| Pricing Model | How You Pay | Typical Cost Range | Best Used For |
| CPC (Cost-Per-Click) | Each time someone clicks | $0.91 to $1.12 average | Direct product sales |
| CPM (Cost-Per-Mille) | Per 1,000 impressions | $4.00 to $12.00 | Brand awareness campaigns |
| vCPM (Viewable CPM) | Per 1,000 viewable impressions | $5.00 to $8.00 | DSP display campaigns |
Most sellers focus primarily on CPC campaigns because they tie costs directly to potential customer actions. You are not paying for people to see your ad; you are paying for people interested enough to click
Amazon PPC Cost By Category
This is where average numbers become almost meaningless. A supplement seller and a book seller operate in completely different cost environments, even though both sell on the same platform. Your category determines your baseline costs more than any other single factor.
1. High-Cost Categories
Some categories attract intense competition because of high profit margins, repeat purchase potential, or market size. If you sell in these categories, expect to pay premium prices for clicks.
Supplements and vitamins represent the most expensive advertising category on Amazon. Average CPCs range from $2.00 to $3.50, with competitive keywords regularly hitting $6.00 or more. The high costs reflect the industry’s margins and the lifetime value of customers who become repeat buyers.
| Category | Average CPC | Peak CPC | Typical Conversion Rate |
| Supplements and Vitamins | $2.00 to $3.50 | $6.00+ | 8% to 10% |
| Consumer Electronics | $1.50 to $2.50 | $5.00+ | 6% to 8% |
| Health and Personal Care | $1.45 to $1.80 | $4.00+ | 10% to 12% |
| Major Appliances | $1.60 to $2.20 | $4.50+ | 5% to 7% |
| Automotive and Powersports | $1.40 to $1.90 | $3.50+ | 7% to 9% |
| Beauty and Skincare | $1.30 to $1.70 | $3.00+ | 9% to 11% |
2. Mid-Range Categories
These categories offer more moderate costs while still providing solid sales opportunities. Most sellers operate in this range.
Home and kitchen products average $1.00 to $1.40 per click. The category’s breadth means costs vary significantly by subcategory.
| Category | Average CPC | Peak CPC | Typical Conversion Rate |
| Home and Kitchen | $1.00 to $1.40 | $2.50+ | 6.5% to 8% |
| Clothing and Accessories | $0.90 to $1.30 | $2.00+ | 8% to 10% |
| Toys and Games | $0.85 to $1.25 | $2.00+ | 10% to 12% |
| Sports and Outdoors | $0.80 to $1.20 | $1.80+ | 9% to 11% |
| Pet Supplies | $0.90 to $1.35 | $2.20+ | 10% to 13% |
| Baby Products | $1.00 to $1.45 | $2.30+ | 11% to 14% |
3. Lower-Cost Categories
Some categories offer relatively affordable advertising costs, though lower CPCs do not automatically mean higher profits. These categories often have passionate customer bases that convert well when they find the right product.
| Category | Average CPC | Peak CPC | Typical Conversion Rate |
| Books | $0.30 to $0.60 | $1.00+ | 12% to 15% |
| Arts and Crafts | $0.40 to $0.70 | $1.20+ | 11% to 14% |
| Office Products | $0.50 to $0.80 | $1.30+ | 10% to 12% |
| Industrial and Scientific | $0.55 to $0.85 | $1.40+ | 8% to 10% |
| Musical Instruments | $0.45 to $0.75 | $1.25+ | 9% to 11% |
How Amazon CPCs Have Changed Over Time
Amazon advertising costs have followed a generally upward trajectory over the past six years, with a notable spike in 2025 after two years of relative stability.
| Year | Average CPC | Year-Over-Year Change |
| 2020 | $0.71 | Baseline |
| 2021 | $0.93 | +31% |
| 2022 | $1.03 | +11% |
| 2023 | $0.98 | -5% |
| 2024 | $0.97 | -1% |
| 2025 | $1.12 | +15.5% |
| 2026 (Projected) | $1.18 to $1.25 | +8% to 12% |
The 2021 spike makes sense when you consider the pandemic-driven ecommerce boom. More sellers flooded the platform, competition increased, and CPCs followed. The slight dip in 2023 and 2024 gave sellers some breathing room, but 2025 brought costs roaring back.
What is driving the 2025 increase? The data points to two main factors. First, more than 70% of Amazon sellers now run PPC campaigns, up from roughly 40% just five years ago. Second, organic ranking continues declining as Amazon adds more ad placements to search results. The combination means more advertisers fighting for fewer organic eyeballs.
Critical Factors That Determine Your Amazon PPC Costs
Your actual advertising costs result from the interaction of multiple variables. Some you control directly through campaign management. Others require strategic product selection and positioning decisions made before you ever launch a campaign.
1. Category Competition and Market Saturation
The number of sellers bidding on keywords in your category creates baseline cost pressure. When 50 sellers compete for “protein powder,” prices rise through simple auction dynamics. When 5 sellers bid on “organic pea protein unflavored 5lb,” prices stay reasonable because demand for ad inventory stays low.
Highly competitive categories see constant bid inflation as sellers fight for the same customer pool. Electronics, beauty, supplements, and home improvement products face this reality every day.
2. Keyword Selection and Match Types
Broad keywords with high search volume cost significantly more than specific long-tail variations. Bidding on “wireless headphones” might cost $2.50 per click due to intense competition. Targeting “noise canceling wireless headphones for small ears” could cost $0.65 because fewer sellers recognize the value of specific, high-intent searches.
Match types amplify this effect. Broad match keywords cast a wide net but they could trigger ads for irrelevant searches. Phrase match offers middle ground with moderate control and reasonable costs. Exact match delivers the most precision, ensuring your ads only appear for specific search terms, though it limits your reach.
Start with exact match on your highest-converting keywords to capture bottom-of-funnel buyers. Layer in phrase match to discover new keyword variations. Use broad match sparingly with aggressive negative keyword management to prevent waste.
3. Listing Quality and Conversion Performance
Amazon’s algorithm rewards listings that convert clicks into sales. Products with strong review profiles, competitive pricing, clear images, and optimized copy achieve higher conversion rates. These listings earn lower CPCs over time because Amazon recognizes they provide good customer experiences.
Poor performing listings face a double penalty. They pay market rates for clicks, then fail to convert those clicks into sales. A listing converting at 5% needs twice as many clicks to generate the same sales as one converting at 10%.
Image quality, bullet point clarity, A+ content utilization, review count, and star rating all influence conversion rates. FBA products generally outperform merchant-fulfilled listings because customers trust Prime shipping. Pricing relative to category averages affects conversion rate.
4. Seasonality and Peak Shopping Events
CPCs fluctuate dramatically based on shopping calendar events. Q4 brings massive cost increases as sellers compete for holiday shoppers. Prime Day, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday see bidding wars that can double or triple normal CPCs in competitive categories.
The impact varies by category. Toys, electronics, and gift items see the most dramatic spikes, with increases of 50% to 150% during November and December. Summer categories like outdoor equipment, grills, and swimwear spike from May through July. Back-to-school products see increased costs in July and August.
5. Campaign Structure and Targeting Strategy
How you organize campaigns directly impacts cost efficiency. Sellers who dump all products and keywords into a single campaign have no visibility into what works and what wastes money. They pay average CPCs across winners and losers with no ability to optimize.
Structured campaigns separate products by performance tier, separate branded keywords from category terms, and isolate high-value keywords in single-keyword ad groups for precise bid control. This granularity reveals which elements drive profitable sales and which drain budgets.
6. Ad Placement
Where your ads appear affects both costs and conversion rates. Top of search placements convert better than rest of search or product page placements, but they also cost more. Amazon allows placement multipliers where you can bid 50% to 900% more for specific placements.
Most profitable sellers focus spending on top of search for their highest-converting keywords while reducing or eliminating spend on product pages for competitive keywords. The exception is using product page placements for complementary targeting where you want visibility on specific competitor listings.
7. Bidding Strategy Selection
Amazon offers three automated bidding strategies with different cost implications. Dynamic bids down only reduces your bid when conversion is less likely but never increases it above your maximum. This conservative approach protects against overspending but may limit visibility during peak conversion windows.
Dynamic bids up and down adjusts in both directions, potentially increasing bids by up to 100% for top of search placements when Amazon predicts high conversion likelihood. This aggressive strategy can spike costs quickly if conversion rates are low.
Fixed bids never adjust, giving you complete cost control at the expense of missing optimization opportunities.
How to Calculate Your Specific Amazon PPC Budget
Your budget should reflect your product economics, business stage, and specific goals. The calculation starts with understanding your breakeven point.
Step 1: Calculate Your Breakeven ACoS
Your breakeven ACoS represents the advertising cost of sales percentage where you make zero profit and zero loss on a sale. Spending above this threshold loses money. Operating below it generates profit.
The formula is straightforward but requires accurate cost data:
Breakeven ACoS = (Product Price – COGS – Amazon Fees) / Product Price × 100
Let’s understand this with simple example.
- Product price: $35.00
- Cost of goods sold: $12.00
- Amazon referral fee (15%): $5.25
- FBA fulfillment fee: $4.50
- Total costs: $21.75
- Profit per unit: $13.25
Breakeven ACoS = $13.25 / $35.00 × 100 = 37.9%
Any ACoS below 37.9% produces profit. Any ACoS above it loses money. This number becomes your advertising guardrail. You can temporarily exceed it during product launches or aggressive growth phases, but sustained operation above breakeven destroys profitability.
Step 2: Determine Your Target ACoS Based on Business Goals
Breakeven ACoS tells you what is possible. Target ACoS tells you what is profitable. Most established products should target 60% to 80% of breakeven ACoS to maintain healthy margins while staying competitive.
Using our $35 product example with a 37.9% breakeven:
- Conservative target (70% of breakeven): 26.5% ACoS
- Moderate target (75% of breakeven): 28.4% ACoS
- Aggressive target (80% of breakeven): 30.3% ACoS
New product launches often accept breakeven or even negative ACoS for 60 to 90 days to build sales velocity and organic ranking. The strategy works when you have a plan to reduce ACoS once organic sales accelerate.
Step 3: Calculate Required Budget Using Expected Orders
With your target ACoS established, calculate the budget needed to hit your sales goals. This requires estimating your conversion rate and average order value.
The formula:
Monthly Budget = (Target Orders ÷ Conversion Rate) × Expected CPC × 30 days
For a product targeting 30 orders per day:
- Conversion rate: 10% (typical for optimized listings)
- Expected CPC: $0.85 (based on category benchmark)
- Clicks needed per order: 1 ÷ 0.10 = 10 clicks
- Daily clicks needed: 30 orders × 10 clicks = 300 clicks
- Daily budget: 300 clicks × $0.85 = $255
- Monthly budget: $255 × 30 = $7,650
This calculation provides a realistic starting point. Actual performance will vary based on conversion rates, CPCs, and keyword selection. Monitor closely in the first 30 days and adjust based on real data.
Step 4: Allocate Budget Across Campaign Types
Spreading budget evenly across all campaigns is a mistake. Different campaign types serve different purposes and deserve different budget allocations based on their role in your sales funnel.
Recommended budget allocation framework:
| Campaign Type | Budget % | Purpose |
| Exact match high-converters | 40-50% | Capture bottom-funnel buyers |
| Phrase match discovery | 20-25% | Find new converting keywords |
| Broad match exploration | 10-15% | Uncover unexpected opportunities |
| Product targeting | 15-20% | Steal competitor traffic |
| Branded defense | 10-15% | Protect brand searches |
New products with no performance data should start with conservative budgets of $10 to $20 per day per campaign and scale based on results. Established products can deploy larger budgets immediately because you understand which keywords and targets convert.
The 2.5% Rule of Budget Estimation Method
The 2.5% rule offers a fast way to estimate maximum CPC based on product price. While not as precise as calculating breakeven ACoS, it provides a useful starting benchmark.
The rule states: Maximum CPC should not exceed 2.5% of product price
This assumes:
- 10% conversion rate (typical for optimized listings)
- 25% ACoS target (conservative for most products)
For a $30 product: $30 × 0.025 = $0.75 maximum CPC
The 2.5% rule works as a quick sanity check. If category CPCs exceed this threshold by more than 50%, you need exceptional conversion rates or higher margins to maintain profitability. Products priced below $20 struggle in high-CPC categories because the math becomes impossible.
1. When the 2.5% Rule Breaks Down
The formula assumes average conversion rates and standard margins. Products with conversion rates above 15% can profitably pay higher CPCs. Products with margins below 30% need lower CPCs to stay profitable. Subscription products or those with high repeat purchase rates can accept higher acquisition costs because customer lifetime value justifies the initial investment.
Use the 2.5% rule for initial estimates, then refine using your actual product economics and performance data.
How to Reduce Amazon PPC Costs Without Losing Sales
Lowering costs without sacrificing results requires a systematic approach focused on eliminating waste while protecting profitable spend. These strategies work regardless of budget size or product category.
1. Negative Keyword Management
Negative keywords prevent your ads from appearing for irrelevant searches. Without them, broad and phrase match keywords trigger ads for searches that never convert. You pay for clicks that have zero purchase intent.
Review search term reports weekly and add negative keywords for searches with more than 15-20 clicks and zero orders.
For example, for one of our partner brand, we reduced CPC from $2.00 to $1.20 by adding 57 negative keywords over six weeks. Their ACoS dropped from 42% to 25% with no decrease in sales volume.
2. Focus on Long-Tail Keywords
Long-tail keywords with 3+ words cost less and convert better than broad head terms. A seller targeting ” magnesium supplements” might pay $4.50 per click while same seller targeting “magnesium citrate chewable tablets” pays $0.85 per click from buyers who know exactly what they want.
Long-tail keywords deliver three advantages. Lower competition means lower CPCs. Higher specificity attracts buyers further along the purchase journey. Better ad relevance improves conversion rates because you match search intent precisely.
3. Dayparting to Eliminate Low-Conversion Hours
Dayparting adjusts campaign budgets or pauses ads during hours when conversion rates drop. Analysis reveal that clicks between midnight and 6 AM cost the same but convert 60% worse than afternoon clicks. Reducing or eliminating spend during those hours improves overall efficiency.
While Amazon does not natively support hourly scheduling, tools like Perpetua, Scale Insights, and Ad Badger automate this process.
Manual dayparting works through budget pacing. If you discover that 70% of conversions happen between 10 AM and 8 PM, allocate budget to ensure it lasts through those peak hours rather than depleting early in the day.
4. Optimize Bids Based on Placement Performance
Not all ad placements deliver equal returns. Top of search typically converts best but costs most. Product pages often generate clicks at lower CPCs but may convert poorly depending on which ASINs your ads appear on.
Download placement reports from Amazon’s campaign manager to understand where your budget goes and which placements drive profitable sales. Adjust placement multipliers accordingly:
- High-converting placements: Increase multiplier to 100% to 150%
- Average-converting placements: Keep at 100% (no adjustment)
- Low-converting placements: Reduce multiplier to 50% or eliminate entirely
5. AI-Powered Bid Optimization Tools
Manual bid management becomes impossible at scale. Checking 50 campaigns with 500 active keywords daily to identify optimization opportunities consumes hours and still misses real-time patterns.
AI-powered tools process thousands of data points simultaneously to adjust bids multiple times per day based on conversion likelihood. They increase bids when algorithms predict high conversion probability and reduce bids when signals indicate lower intent.
Leading platforms include:
- Perpetua for brands with significant budgets seeking sophisticated automation
- Scale Insights for mid-market sellers balancing automation and control
- Helium 10 Adtomic for sellers already using Helium 10 for research and optimization
- Quartile for large catalogs requiring portfolio-level management
6. Create Single Keyword Campaigns for Top Performers
Lumping 50 keywords into one campaign, only the few keywords get the budget while the important keywords cannot even get the chance to prove their worth.
Single keyword campaigns (SKC) isolate your top 5 to 10 keywords into dedicated ad groups with individual bid control. This structure enables surgical optimization where you can maximize spend on winners and minimize spending on underperformers. The setup requires more initial work, but the control pays dividends.
Budget Guidelines by Product Stage and Monthly Spend Level
Your advertising budget should scale with revenue and adjust based on where products sit in their lifecycle. New launches require different strategies than established bestsellers.
1. New Product Launch (Month 1-3)
When you launch a new product, expect to spend between 50% to 100% of your expected revenue on advertising. This sounds extreme, but it is necessary. Your product has no reviews, no sales history, and zero organic ranks. Without aggressive advertising, nobody will find it.
Here is what this looks like in practice. If you expect to generate $5,000 in sales during your first month, plan to spend $2,500 to $5,000 on PPC. Yes, you will lose money initially. This is an investment in building momentum, not immediate profit.
Your goal during these first 90 days is simple: get 30 to 50 orders in the first month. This sales velocity tells Amazon’s algorithm that your product matters. Once you hit this threshold, Amazon starts showing your product in organic search results.
Split your budget this way:
- Put 60% into exact match campaigns targeting your highest intent keywords.
- Allocate 25% to phrase & broad match campaigns to discover which keyword variations actually convert.
- Use the remaining 15% for product targeting campaigns where you place your ads on competitor listings.
Check your campaigns daily during this phase. If a product cannot convert paid traffic at reasonable rates within 30 days, you have a listing problem or a pricing problem, not an advertising problem.
2. Growth Stage (Month 3-6)
By month three, you should have 15 to 30 reviews and some organic sales trickling in. Your advertising budget can drop to 30% to 40% of total sales when measured as TACoS (total advertising cost of sales, which includes both ad sales and organic sales).
For example, if you are generating $10,000 in total monthly sales (both from ads and organic), you should be spending around $3,000 to $4,000 on advertising. The key metric to watch is whether your TACoS percentage is declining each month. If your TACoS stays flat or increases, your advertising is not building organic foundation the way it should.
During this stage, shift your budget allocation this way:
- Put 50% toward campaigns and keywords that you already know convert profitably.
- Dedicate 30% to testing new keyword opportunities that could expand your reach.
- Use 20% to protect your brand name searches as customers start searching for you specifically.
3. Established Products (Month 6-12)
Once your product has been selling for six months, it should stand more independently. Target a TACoS between 15% to 30%. At this point, advertising shifts from being your primary sales driver to being a defensive tool that protects your position and captures incremental sales.
For instance, a product generating $20,000 in monthly sales should only need $3,000 to $6,000 in ad spend. Your organic sales are now doing the heavy lifting. If you cannot achieve your target ACoS after six months in market, something is structurally wrong with your product, pricing, or category competition.
Allocate your established product budget like this:
- 40% to your proven exact match keywords that consistently deliver profitable sales.
- Put 30% to branded defense campaigns protecting your product name and brand.
- Put 20% toward expanding into adjacent categories or keywords.
- Reserve the final 10% for testing new opportunities.
Common Mistakes That Waste Amazon PPC Budget
Sellers repeat the same costly errors regardless of experience level. Recognizing and eliminating these mistakes often delivers bigger results than any optimization tactic.
Mistake 1: Relying on Automatic Campaigns Exclusively
Automatic campaigns should not spend 15% to 30% of total PPC budget compared to manual campaigns. Amazon prioritizes exposure over efficiency, showing your ads broadly to gather data.
Use automatic campaigns to identify converting search terms, then migrate winners to manual campaigns with precise bid control. Keep automatic campaigns running at low budgets (10% to 15% of total spend) for ongoing discovery, but put the majority of budget in manual campaigns where you control every variable.
Mistake 2: Ignoring Search Term Reports
Search terms show exactly what shoppers searched before clicking your ad. This data reveals which keywords convert, which waste money, and which new opportunities you are missing. Sellers who ignore search term reports throw away their most valuable optimization resource.
Download and review search term reports weekly minimum. Look for:
- High-converting terms to add as keywords
- Wasted spend terms to add as negatives
- Unexpected variations that suggest new product opportunities
Mistake 3: Setting Daily Budgets Too Low
Campaigns that exhaust budgets by 10 AM every day signal missed opportunity. Your ads disappear for the remaining 14 hours, including peak shopping windows. Low budgets also prevent Amazon’s algorithm from gathering sufficient data to optimize ad delivery.
Set daily budgets high enough to run 24 hours, then reduce bids if spending is excessive. A campaign that spends its full $50 budget but could have profitably spent $75 should increase budgets, not celebrate staying on budget.
Mistake 4: Treating All Keywords Equally
Keywords with identical costs often deliver dramatically different returns. One keyword might convert at 15% while another converts at 3%. Bidding the same amount for both guarantees suboptimal results.
Segment keywords by performance tiers and bid accordingly. High performers earn aggressive bids and higher budgets. Middle performers get moderate bids. Low performers get minimal bids or pause entirely. This tiered approach concentrates spending where it generates returns.
Mistake 5: Launching Without Conversion Rate Optimization
Poor listings cannot profitably convert paid traffic regardless of budget. Sellers who launch PPC campaigns before optimizing images, copy, pricing, and feature bullets waste money driving traffic that bounces.
Before spending on advertising, ensure your listing converts organic traffic at category-average rates or better. If organic conversion rates sit below 8%, fix listing elements before scaling paid spend.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Amazon PPC cost per month on average?
Most active sellers spend between $1,000 and $3,000 monthly on Amazon advertising. New sellers might start lower while testing, and established sellers with multiple products often spend $10,000 or more. Your ideal budget depends on product count, category competition, and growth objectives.
Is there a minimum budget requirement for Amazon PPC?
Amazon has no official minimum. However, practical minimums exist for gathering useful data. Budget at least $500 to $1,000 monthly per product to collect enough clicks for meaningful optimization. Lower budgets extend the learning period significantly and delay your path to profitability.
Does Amazon advertising actually deliver positive ROI?
Case studies show roughly 95% of businesses report satisfaction with Amazon advertising ROI. The key word is “actively manage.” Campaigns left unattended frequently lose money, while optimized campaigns typically generate three to five times return on ad spend.
How do I determine my starting bid?
Begin with the 2.5% rule: set your initial bid at 2.5% of your product selling price. For a $40 product, start at $1.00. This provides a reasonable baseline that you will adjust based on actual performance data after one to two weeks.
Why are my CPCs higher than average benchmarks?
Several factors push CPCs above averages. You might be in a highly competitive category or subcategory. You might be targeting broad generic keywords instead of specific long-tail terms. Your listing might convert poorly, causing Amazon to charge more for your ads. Seasonal spikes during Q4 or Prime Day also elevate costs across the platform.
What ACoS should I target?
Your target ACoS depends on your profit margin. Calculate your break-even ACoS (which equals your profit margin before ads), then target 60% to 80% of that number for profitable advertising. Industry averages run 28% to 30%, but a “good” ACoS ranges from 15% for high-margin products to 40% or more during aggressive launch phases.
How does Amazon advertising compare to Google Ads?
Amazon CPCs average $1.12 compared to $2 to $5 on Google for competitive keywords. More importantly, Amazon traffic carries much stronger purchase intent. Amazon conversion rates average 9% to 11% versus 1% to 3% on Google Shopping. Per dollar spent, Amazon advertising typically delivers more sales for ecommerce products.
Should I use automatic or manual campaigns?
Use both for different purposes. Automatic campaigns work best for keyword research and discovery, finding terms you would not have thought to target. Manual campaigns work best for scaling proven performers with precise bid control. The standard approach starts with automatic campaigns to gather data, then moves converting keywords to manual exact match campaigns.
How long before I see results from Amazon PPC?
Expect meaningful data within two to three weeks of consistent spending at adequate budget levels. Optimization toward profitability typically takes 60 to 90 days for new products. Established products with existing sales history can optimize faster because you start with conversion rate data.
