Why is my Amazon ACoS going up?

ACoS goes up when ad spend grows faster than the sales it brings: clicks cost more, more brands bid on the same keywords, budget drifts to search terms that do not convert, or the listing converts worse than before. Prime Team Agency, an Amazon agency that manages advertising for brands, reads ACoS next to total sales.

Contact Us to talk to our team about it.

Same spend, worse results

You have not changed much in your campaigns. The budget is the same, yet each month the ads bring fewer sales for the money, and ACoS (advertising cost of sales: ad spend divided by ad sales) keeps climbing.

Rising ad costs are one of the top complaints Amazon sellers raise. An experienced Amazon agency checks the listing and the price as well as the ad console, because a high ACoS is often a listing or pricing problem that shows up in the ads.

Why ACoS rises

• Clicks cost more. More brands bid on the same keywords, so the same click costs more each year.
• Spend drifts. Broad and automatic campaigns find searches that get clicks and no orders.
• The listing converts less. Fewer or older reviews, a weaker main image, a lost Buy Box or a price above nearby offers turn the same clicks into fewer sales.
• Stock runs low. Out-of-stock variations or a slow season cut sales while the bids stay the same.
• Organic sales fell. When organic rank drops, ads carry more of the sales and ACoS looks worse.

What you can do

1. Pull the search term report and stop the terms that spend without selling.
2. Move search terms that already sell into exact match campaigns with their own bids.
3. Check the listing behind each top campaign: Buy Box, price, reviews and main image.
4. Track TACoS (ad spend divided by total sales) next to ACoS to see whether ads grow the whole business.
5. Set a target ACoS per product from its margin, not one number for the account.

When to get help

If you have cut the wasted terms and ACoS still climbs, the cause usually sits in the listing, the price or the stock. We can review the ads and the listings together with you. Contact our team to talk it through.

Related questions

• Why are Amazon fees eating my margin?
• Someone changed my Amazon listing. How do I get it back?
• All seller and brand questions

Related reading

• When Amazon PPC stops scaling
• How to find high-converting keywords for Amazon listings