Amazon PPC A→Z · Lesson 5 · 3:14
What a good ACoS really is There's no single good ACoS. Your margin sets the ceiling (break-even ACoS) and each campaign's job sets its target, so judge ACoS per campaign, not as one blended number.
The video plays from YouTube (no cookies until you press play). 1 Per product: break-even ACoS = profit before ads ÷ price (fees from Amazon's Revenue Calculator, plus the costs it leaves out, like returns). Target = break-even × (1 − the share of profit you keep). Redo both when price, fees or a deal change. 2 Give every campaign one job. Profit: ACoS under the target. Launch or rank push: above break-even only with a budget cap, an end date and one number to watch, like organic sales. 3 Check ACoS per campaign, not blended. Over break-even with no plan behind it: lower the bid to what a click is worth, or move the non-buying search terms to negatives. One ACoS for the whole account, or a "good ACoS" from someone else (a blog average, a round 25%). A blended number under break-even can hide a campaign that loses money with no plan.
0:00 One account, three campaigns 0:27 Two lines: break-even and target 0:48 The water bottle 1:04 Three campaigns, three jobs 1:35 The blended number hides a leak 2:07 The common mistake 2:18 ACoS has limits too 2:37 Do this today Show Hide 0:00 What is a good ACoS? Not one number. Here's why. 0:04 One bottle, three campaigns. Together: thirty five point seven percent ACoS, under break-even. 0:12 But inside, one campaign loses a hundred dollars a month, with no plan behind it. 0:17 Fix that one, and profit goes from seventy five dollars to one hundred and seventy five. 0:23 Lesson five: what a good ACoS really is. 0:27 Even Amazon says there's no single good ACoS. Each brand has its own target. 0:33 Two lines set it. Your margin sets the ceiling: break-even ACoS. Above it, the ad loses money. 0:41 And each campaign's job sets its target: under break-even for profit, or above it on purpose, for a short time. 0:48 Here's the example: the steel water bottle again. Forty dollars, fifteen left before ads. 0:55 Break-even: fifteen divided by forty. Thirty seven point five percent. 1:00 Keep a fifth of that profit, and the target is thirty percent. 1:04 One month, three campaigns. Campaign A is for profit: six hundred dollars spent, twenty four hundred in sales. Twenty five percent ACoS. Three hundred dollars profit. 1:16 Campaign B is a rank push, on purpose: five hundred dollars, fifty percent ACoS, minus one hundred and twenty five. It's capped, and it ends after four weeks. 1:27 Campaign C is discovery, with no plan: four hundred dollars, fifty percent ACoS, minus one hundred. 1:35 All together: fifteen hundred spent, forty two hundred in sales. Thirty five point seven percent. Under break-even, so it looks fine. Profit: seventy five dollars. 1:47 Without campaign C: thirty two point four percent, and one hundred and seventy five dollars. 1:53 Or fix it. In C, only one click in twenty buys, so a click is worth seventy five cents. Bid sixty cents, and if one in twenty still buys, ACoS lands on the thirty percent target. 2:07 The common mistake: one ACoS for the whole account, or a good ACoS from someone else. A blog average, a round twenty five percent. None of them knows your margin. 2:18 ACoS has limits too. The console doesn't know your costs, so it never shows break-even. And it counts only the sales Amazon gives the ad. 2:28 One week is noise: wait for enough clicks. And a rank push needs a cap, an end date, and one number to watch, like organic sales. 2:37 So today: work out break-even and a target for each product. Amazon's free Revenue Calculator gives the fees. Add the costs it leaves out, like returns. 2:48 Give every campaign one job: profit, or a rank push with a cap and an end date. 2:54 Then check ACoS per campaign. Over break-even with no plan? Lower the bid to what a click is worth, or add negatives. 3:02 A good ACoS isn't one number. It's your margin, and each campaign's job. 3:07 Next lesson: what a click costs, and why that keeps changing. See you there. Not affiliated with Amazon. Numbers in this video are a worked example. Published 30 October 2026.