Amazon PPC in Q4 2026: the dates, and why a deal lowers what a click is worth.

Q4 is when conversion rates rise and clicks get more expensive, so most sellers raise their bids. But a deal price also cuts your margin, and margin decides what a click is worth. Here are the Q4 2026 dates, the one calculation to redo before each of them, and what to check once the peak is over.

The Q4 2026 dates

Prime Big Deal Days covers the US, Canada, Mexico, the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Sweden and ten more countries. If you sell in several of them, plan each marketplace on its own. Amazon says the dates may vary by country.

A deal lowers what a click is worth

Two numbers decide how much you can pay for a click: the margin you keep on a sale before ads, and the share of clicks that become a sale.

Break-even ACoS = unit margin ÷ price. Break-even CPC = unit margin × conversion rate.

Take a product at $40 with $12 of margin before ads. Its break-even ACoS is 30%. At a 10% conversion rate, its break-even CPC is $1.20.

Now run it at 20% off. The price drops to $32, but the whole $8 discount comes out of your margin, which falls from $12 to $4. The break-even ACoS drops from 30% to 12.5%. Suppose the deal doubles your conversion rate to 20%. The break-even CPC is still only $4 × 20% = $0.80, a third lower than before the deal.

So the conversion rate went up and the most you can pay for a click went down. A bidder aiming at a 25% ACoS target keeps bidding as if the product still earned $12 a sale, and loses money on every ad sale during the deal. The figures here are an example; put your own into the ACoS calculator before each event. In EU marketplaces, take VAT out of the price first. More on this number in what ACoS is, and the number that matters.

Before each event: budgets first

The costliest mistake on a peak day is not a wrong bid. It is a campaign that runs out of budget before the day is over and stops showing for the rest of it. Check what each campaign spent on your last big day, and set the event-day budget from that. Amazon Ads lets you schedule a higher budget for set dates with budget rules, so you do not have to remember to change it on the morning.

Then set the bid ceiling from the break-even CPC at the deal price, per product. Do not raise bids across the whole account by a fixed percentage.

Stock is the other limit

An ad that sells your last units in November can leave you out of stock in December, when the same sale would have come at full price. Sponsored Products ads stop showing once a product is out of stock, so the damage is done in the days before. Look at days of cover per product: if a product will not be restocked before Christmas, slow its ad spend before the peak. We covered why in why your best-selling ASIN is your biggest PPC risk.

After Cyber Monday: do not let the peak set your December bids

Two things go wrong in the week after Cyber Monday. First, sales keep arriving: for sellers, Sponsored Products counts a sale up to seven days after the click, so Cyber Monday's ACoS is not final until the following Monday. Judge it then. Second, any bidding rule or tool that learns from recent conversion rates has just seen the best week of the year. Put your targets back to your full-price margin on 1 December, and check that bids come back down with them.

A Q4 checklist

1. Recalculate break-even ACoS and break-even CPC at each deal price, per product.
2. Set event-day budgets from your last peak day, and schedule them.
3. Check days of cover. Slow ads on products that will not be restocked in time.
4. Plan each marketplace on its own dates.
5. Wait seven days before judging a peak day's ACoS.
6. On 1 December, set targets back to full-price margins.

Mirox bids against your break-even, keeps to the limits you set, and slows spend when stock runs low. Every bid change comes with the numbers behind it. Simulation Mode is free for 30 days on your real account with no card, so you can watch it through a peak before any bid goes live. See how it works and what it costs.

Common questions

When are Black Friday and Cyber Monday in 2026?

Black Friday is Friday 27 November 2026 and Cyber Monday is Monday 30 November 2026. Amazon had not announced the dates of its own Black Friday Week by 30 September 2026; dates you see elsewhere are predictions.

When is Prime Big Deal Days 2026?

6 and 7 October 2026, in 22 countries including the US, Canada, Mexico, the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland and Sweden. Amazon notes that dates may vary by country.

Should I raise my Amazon PPC bids for Black Friday?

Raise budgets before you raise bids. A deal price cuts your margin, and that lowers the most a click is worth even if conversion rate doubles. Recalculate your break-even CPC at the deal price, bid up to it, and make sure the daily budget lasts until the evening.