Same Ad Sales, 81.6% Less Ad Spend
In the first 30 days after I took over this US dietary supplements brand's Amazon PPC, ad spend fell from $2,156.71 to $396.38 while ad sales stayed at $1,720. ACoS dropped from 125.4% to 23.0%, ROAS rose from 0.80 to 4.34, and the seller's estimated net payout more than doubled, from $1,226.63 to $2,752.63. The fix was structure: match types separated, proper negative keywords, and single-keyword campaigns for the terms that convert.
The problem
In August the account spent $2,156.71 on ads to bring in $1,719.69 in ad sales. That is a ROAS of 0.80: every $1 spent on ads returned $0.80 in ad sales, before product costs and Amazon fees. The account was losing money on advertising, and ads were eating more than half of total revenue (TACoS 53.7%).
What I changed
- Restructured the full PPC account so each campaign has one clear job and its own budget.
- Separated match types (exact, phrase, broad and auto) so bids and search terms can be controlled independently.
- Added proper negative keywords to stop spend on search terms that clicked but never converted.
- Launched single-keyword campaigns for selected high-intent keywords, so the budget goes to the searches that actually sell.
Results: August vs September 2026
| Metric | August | September | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $4,019.29 | $3,959.32 | −1.5% |
| Orders | 63 | 67 | +6.3% |
| Units | 71 | 68 | −4.2% |
| Ad spend | $2,156.71 | $396.38 | −81.6% |
| Ad sales | $1,719.69 | $1,719.71 | 0.0% |
| ROAS | 0.80 | 4.34 | +3.54 |
| ACoS | 125.4% | 23.0% | −102.4 pts |
| TACoS | 53.7% | 10.0% | −43.7 pts |
| Net payout | $1,226.63 | $2,752.63 | +124.4% |
Source: Seller Central Sales Snapshot and Amazon Ads campaign manager, 1–31 August vs 1–30 September 2026. Net payout is the estimated payout shown in the seller dashboard.
What this shows
Cutting ad spend usually costs sales. Here it didn't, because most of the August spend was going to searches that never converted. Removing that waste left ad sales unchanged and turned advertising from a loss into a profit driver. Orders went up slightly, and the seller kept about $1,526 more in the month.
This is the kind of waste the free 48-hour PPC audit looks for first. If you want to understand the metrics, see ACoS vs TACoS and how to reduce ACoS.
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