Amazon PPC Glossary

ACOS (Advertising Cost of Sales)

ACOS measures Amazon ad efficiency: ad spend divided by ad revenue, as a percentage. Lower is more efficient.

Attribution Window

The attribution window is how long after an ad click Amazon credits a purchase to the ad — 7 or 14 days, which makes recent data incomplete.

Break-even ACOS

Break-even ACOS equals your profit margin before ad spend. Above it, ads lose money; below it, they print it.

Budget Utilization

Budget utilization is daily spend versus daily budget. Near 100% on a profitable campaign means demand is being left on the table.

CPC (Cost per Click)

CPC is what you actually pay per ad click on Amazon — set by a second-price auction, capped by your bid.

CTR (Click-Through Rate)

CTR is clicks divided by impressions. On Amazon ads, low CTR signals weak relevance or unappealing listings.

CVR (Conversion Rate)

CVR is orders divided by clicks. It anchors how much each click is worth — and therefore your maximum profitable bid.

Dayparting

Dayparting schedules ad intensity by hour or day, concentrating spend when shoppers actually convert.

Dynamic Bidding

Dynamic bidding lets Amazon raise or lower your bid in real time based on conversion likelihood: down-only, up-and-down, or fixed.

Impressions

An impression is one display of your ad. Impressions measure reach and auction participation, not engagement.

Match Types (Broad, Phrase, Exact)

Match types control how loosely a keyword matches shopper searches: broad casts wide, exact is surgical.

Negative Keyword

A negative keyword blocks your ads from showing on specific search terms — the main tool for cutting wasted spend.

Organic Rank

Organic rank is where your product appears in unpaid search results — ads influence it through sales velocity.

Placements (Top of Search, Product Pages)

Placements are where on Amazon your ad shows. Top-of-search converts best — and placement bid boosts let you pay for it selectively.

ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)

ROAS is ad revenue divided by ad spend. ROAS 4.0 means $4 of sales per $1 of ads — the inverse of ACOS.

Search Term

A search term is what a shopper actually typed before clicking your ad — distinct from the keyword that matched it.

Search Term Harvesting

Harvesting promotes proven search terms from broad/auto campaigns into exact-match keywords you control directly.

Sponsored Brands

Sponsored Brands are banner-style ads with your logo and multiple products, shown above search results. Requires Brand Registry.

Sponsored Display

Sponsored Display ads retarget shoppers on and off Amazon using audiences and product targeting instead of keywords.

Sponsored Products

Sponsored Products are Amazon’s keyword- and product-targeted ads that look like organic listings. The workhorse ad type.

TACOS (Total Advertising Cost of Sales)

TACOS divides ad spend by TOTAL revenue (organic + ad-attributed), showing how dependent your business is on advertising.