Amazon PPC Audit Checklist: 24 Checks and the Reports to Pull

An Amazon PPC audit is a structured review of your advertising account that finds wasted spend, missed demand and settings that hold campaigns back. This Amazon PPC audit checklist gives you 24 checks in eight groups, plus the reports you need to pull, so you can run the audit yourself in an afternoon.

What is an Amazon PPC audit?

An Amazon PPC audit is a point-in-time review of your Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display campaigns against your business goals. It checks whether spend goes to searches that convert, whether the account structure gives you control, and whether your listings can turn clicks into sales.

A good audit ends with a short list of fixes ranked by impact and effort. It does not end with “rebuild everything”. Most accounts improve faster from ten targeted changes than from a full restructure.

Which reports do you need for an Amazon PPC audit?

You need five Sponsored Products reports: Search term, Targeting, Placement, Advertised product and Campaign. Amazon’s advertising reporting guide describes each one. Pull them for the same date range so the numbers reconcile.

How to pull them

1. Sign in to the Amazon Ads console and open the reports section from the side navigation.
2. Create a new report, choose Sponsored Products, then pick the report type.
3. Set the same date range for every report, ideally the last 30 to 60 days.
4. Download each report as a spreadsheet and keep the files, so you can compare after your changes.
5. From Seller Central, also download total sales for the same period from Business Reports. You need it to calculate TACoS.

Repeat the steps for Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display if you run them.

Account and tracking checks

Start with the basics, because every later check depends on clean numbers. Confirm what goal the ads serve, that you can see total sales next to ad sales, and that nothing outside the account distorts the data, such as a third-party tool still changing bids.

1. Goal written down: profit, launch, rank defence or growth, with a target ACoS or TACoS for each product group. See ACoS vs TACoS if you are unsure which to use.
2. Break-even ACoS known per product: your margin before ad spend, as a percentage of price.
3. TACoS tracked weekly: ad spend divided by total sales, calculated from Business Reports.
4. Automation reviewed: list every rule, script or tool that changes bids or budgets, so changes are not overwritten.

Is your campaign structure giving you control?

A sound structure separates discovery from performance and keeps each campaign to one clear purpose. If one campaign mixes auto targeting, exact keywords and competitor ASINs, you cannot set a sensible budget or bid strategy for any of them. Our guide to Amazon PPC campaign structure covers this in depth.

5. Auto and manual separated: automatic targeting finds terms; manual campaigns scale proven ones.
6. Branded, competitor and generic terms separated: they convert at very different rates and need different targets.
7. Consistent naming: you can tell a campaign’s product, type and match type from its name.
8. Portfolios in use: campaigns grouped by brand or product line so you can read and cap spend per group.

Search terms and negatives

The Search term report is where most wasted spend shows up. Sort by spend, then find terms with clicks but no orders, and terms that convert well but are not yet targeted on their own. Amazon’s Sponsored Products targeting guide recommends checking this report for auto campaigns and moving top terms into manual campaigns.

9. Non-converting terms: terms whose spend has passed roughly your target cost per order with no sale, added as negative exact or negative phrase.
10. Harvested winners: converting terms added as exact match keywords in a manual campaign.
11. Cross-negatives: harvested terms negated in the source auto or broad campaign, so campaigns do not bid against each other.
12. Negative product targets: irrelevant or non-complementary ASINs excluded from product targeting.

How should you check bids and placements?

Compare each target’s cost per click and conversion rate with its sales, then check where ads actually show. The Placement report splits results between top of search (first page), rest of search and product pages, and Amazon lets you adjust bids for each of these placements.

13. Bid strategy fits the goal: fixed bids, dynamic bids – down only, or dynamic bids – up and down, chosen deliberately per campaign.
14. Placement adjustments based on data: raised only where the Placement report shows better conversion.
15. High-spend targets reviewed: the top 20 targets by spend checked one by one against break-even ACoS.
16. Starved targets found: converting targets with few impressions, which may need a higher bid.

Budgets and ad scheduling (dayparting)

A campaign that runs out of budget at midday loses the afternoon and evening shoppers. Check budget status in the console, and look at hourly results where your marketplace offers them. Amazon’s budget rules can raise budgets on a schedule, including by hour of day in some marketplaces, or when a performance threshold is met.

17. Out-of-budget campaigns: profitable campaigns that run out early get budget first.
18. Budget spread: spend matches priorities, not the order campaigns were created in.
19. Peak events planned: schedule-based budget rules set for events such as Black Friday.

Are your listings ready for ads?

Ads send traffic; the listing converts it. If a product loses the featured offer, Amazon does not show its Sponsored Products ads to shoppers, as its advertising page for sellers explains. Weak images, few reviews or low stock waste clicks.

20. Featured offer and stock: every advertised ASIN in stock and holding the featured offer.
21. Listing quality: title, images, bullets and A+ content match the search terms you pay for.
22. Price and reviews: competitive against the products shown next to yours.

Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display and reporting

Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display need Brand Registry. Check that they have their own goals and are not bidding on the same terms as Sponsored Products without reason. Then check that someone reads the numbers on a fixed schedule.

23. Brand ads purposeful: Sponsored Brands for branded and category terms, Sponsored Display for retargeting or product pages, each with its own target.
24. Reporting rhythm: a weekly view of ad sales, total sales, ACoS, TACoS and ranking for core keywords, with a change log.

What should you do after the audit?

Rank every finding by expected impact and effort, fix the top five, and wait one to two weeks before judging results. Change one lever at a time per campaign, so you know what worked. Keep the downloaded reports as your baseline for comparison.

If you would rather have a second opinion, EcommTech (ECOMMTECHAGENCY LTD) is a UK-registered Amazon and marketplace agency with a team in the UK and Pakistan. Our free audit is written and delivered within 3 working days, and it covers the same areas as this checklist. You can request it here, or read about our Amazon PPC management service.

Get this audit done for you, free

EcommTech runs these checks on your account and sends a written audit within 3 working days, before any fee is agreed. EcommTech (ECOMMTECHAGENCY LTD) is a UK-registered Amazon and marketplace agency with a team in the UK and Pakistan. The team has worked with marketplace sellers since 2020, and the company was registered in England and Wales in September 2024.

For brand owners: how we work

1. Free written audit: we review your campaigns, listings and account health and send a written audit within 3 working days.
2. Plan and fixed fee: a plan with timeline, the team assigned and a fixed monthly fee, agreed in writing before anything starts.
3. Onboarding: access through Amazon’s user permissions, so you keep ownership of your account and can remove us at any time. Daily check-ins while we settle in.
4. Run and report: weekly reports on sales, ACoS, rankings and account health, plus a monthly review call. Month to month, with no lock-in.

You get a named account manager and an in-house team of 40+ specialists across PPC, listings, design and operations. See our Amazon PPC management service for the full scope.

For agencies in Germany, Europe and the US

We work white-label with marketing agencies, Shopify developers and consultants who want to offer Amazon, TikTok Shop and European marketplace services without building their own team. Your client, your brand, our specialists. See how our white-label Amazon PPC for agencies works.

• White-label delivery: PPC, listing and account management for your clients.
• Your branding: shared reporting you can forward under your agency’s name.
• European marketplaces: onboarding and management for your DACH, Dutch and Polish clients on Amazon, OTTO, Kaufland, bol.com and Allegro.
• Referrals: if you prefer to hand a client off completely, we can agree a referral arrangement.
• Working hours: our team in Pakistan starts the day before the UK and central Europe, so overnight data is checked before your morning.

Proof you can check

• Registered in England and Wales, company no. 15972352.
• 5.0 rating on Google from 14 reviews.
• Founder’s Upwork profile: Top Rated, 98% Job Success, 38 contracts, 5,700+ hours.
• Amazon Ads Verified Partner and Kaufland Verified Service Partner.

Frequently asked questions

How often should I audit my Amazon PPC account?

Run a full audit every quarter and before major sales events. Review the Search term report and budgets weekly, because wasted spend and budget gaps build up quickly between audits.

What date range should I use for an Amazon PPC audit?

Use at least the last 30 days. For products with few clicks, use 60 to 90 days so that conversion rates are based on enough data to act on.

Which Amazon report shows wasted ad spend?

The Search term report. It lists the shopper searches that led to at least one click on your ads, with spend and orders, so you can find terms that cost money without selling.

Can I audit my Amazon PPC account without paid tools?

Yes. The Amazon Ads console reports and Seller Central Business Reports contain everything in this checklist. Paid tools save time on large accounts but are not required.