Why ACoS alone misleads

ACoS is ad spend divided by the sales attributed to the ad. It tells you whether the ad, on its own, pays for itself. What it doesn't tell you is how much the product sells without it. Two products with the same 30% ACoS can be in opposite situations: one sells almost everything through the ad (pause it and the sales vanish) while the other sells most of its volume organically (the ad is an expensive booster). Deciding on ACoS alone is deciding with half the information.

If the vocabulary isn't second nature yet, read What are ACoS, TACoS and ROAS on Amazon first. Here the focus is where to see each number in EcomVision and how to use it in a decision.

Ads sales, Organic sales and TACoS

  • Total sales: everything the product sold in the period, with or without ads.
  • Ads sales: the part of sales that Amazon attributes to the product's ad.
  • Organic sales: the rest, i.e. Total sales − Ads sales. It never goes below zero.
  • TACoS: ad spend ÷ total sales. The lower it is, the less the product depends on ads to sell.

A real example from the demo account, last 30 days: the Manual Coffee Grinder sold $1,121.66 in total — $527.84 through the ad and $593.82 organically. Ad spend was $131.10. ACoS is 131.10 ÷ 527.84 = 24.8%; TACoS is 131.10 ÷ 1,121.66 = 11.7%. More than half of this product's sales come without ads, and that's what ACoS doesn't show.

By product: the Sponsored Products report

The Sponsored Products report lists, one per row, every product that had ad spend in the period, with Total sales, Ads sales, Organic sales, Ads, Profit, Margin, ACoS, TACoS and Units. The total row at the top sums the set: in the demo account, 30 days, the set's ACoS is 23.2% and its TACoS is 19.1%.

EcomVision Sponsored Products report with the columns Total sales, Ads sales, Organic sales, Ads, Profit, Margin, ACoS, TACoS and Units for 12 products, and the total row at the top.
Sponsored Products report (last 30 days, demo account): ad and organic sales side by side, with ACoS and TACoS per product.

How to open it:

  1. In the side menu, open Market research and analysis › Reports / Analytics.
  2. In the Advertising block, click the Sponsored Products card.
  3. Pick the period (7, 15 or 30 days, month to date or last month, or your own dates). Tip: use at least 7 days, because ad data arrives about 1 day late.
  4. Click a column title to sort. To find the product that depends most on ads, sort by TACoS; to find who is losing money, sort by Profit.
  5. Download CSV exports the filtered list, with the total row.

If you manage more than one account, the same report exists in the agency reports, summing the accounts, and the Campaigns + Profit report brings TACoS per campaign for all of them.

By campaign: the TACoS column in Campaigns

On the Campaigns screen (Sponsored Products tab), the TACoS card at the top shows the account's number, with the change against the previous period. In the list, the new TACoS column shows the campaign's: its spend ÷ the total sales (ads + organic) of the products it advertises.

EcomVision Campaigns screen, Sponsored Products tab, with the account TACoS card at 17.7% and, in the list, the ACoS, TACoS and ROAS columns for each campaign.
Campaigns screen: the TACoS card at the top is the account's; the TACoS column in the list is each campaign's (demo data, last 7 days).

Hover the “?” in the column header to read the explanation without leaving the screen. A campaign with no linked product (such as a store- or brand-level Sponsored Brands campaign) shows “—”: with no product, there are no total sales to divide by.

Before you pause: TACoS in the Pause tab

In Bulk actions › Pause, each active campaign shows spend, sales, ACoS, ROAS, clicks and now also TACoS. It's context only: it does not change the suggestion (the campaign stays pre-selected for pausing when it spent without selling) or the verdict. It lets you decide with more information: a campaign that spent without selling but whose product sells well organically calls for a different conversation than one whose product doesn't sell at all.

EcomVision Bulk actions screen, Pause tab, listing active SP campaigns with spend, sales, ACoS, ROAS, orders, clicks, CPC, CVR and TACoS on each line, plus the verdict (Pause, Review or Keep).
Pause tab: TACoS appears at the end of each campaign's metrics line (demo data).

In the Ads Agent Audit, the account's TACoS also appears next to ACoS and net profit, with the same number as the Results card.

How to read it: four practical cases

All taken from the demo account, last 30 days.

  • Moderate ACoS, low TACoS — the ad lifts organic. The Ceramic Nonstick Frying Pan (11 in.) has a 16.7% ACoS and a 7.6% TACoS, with a 21.6% margin: over half of its $3,224.25 in sales are organic. Cutting the ad without looking at organic could cost more sales than ACoS suggests. Before pausing, try lowering bids or reviewing terms.
  • High ACoS and TACoS with a negative margin — the product needs attention. The 2-Tier Dish Drying Rack has a 137.1% ACoS, an 84.7% TACoS and a −93.8% margin: ads consume nearly all of the product's revenue ($1,151.05 of spend against $1,359.66 in total sales) and the profit is gone. Review price, cost and the campaign.
  • Low TACoS and a healthy margin — a product that sustains itself. The Glass Food Storage Containers have an 8.7% TACoS and a 20.9% margin: the ad is small next to total sales. A natural candidate for more investment.
  • Spent without selling on ads — look at the campaign, not just the product. A campaign with zero ad sales and a 71.9% TACoS means its spend equals about 72% of the product's total sales. Pausing it, or rebuilding it with tighter targeting, comes before judging the product.

Caveats when interpreting

  • A campaign's TACoS doesn't add up to the account's. The same product can be in several campaigns, and each uses its full total sales.
  • Organic sales of “$0.00” isn't an error. Amazon attributes a sale to the ad within a window of up to 7 days after the click, while total sales are counted by order date. Over short periods, a product's Ads sales can exceed its total sales. In the demo this shows up on the black Insulated Water Bottle (30 days): Ads sales of $4,498.50 against total sales of $3,568.81, with organic at $0.00 instead of negative. That's why the sum of the rows can differ from the total.
  • Ad data arrives about 1 day late. Look at 7 days or more.
  • “—” means no data, not zero. A campaign with no linked product, or an account without synced total sales, shows “—” instead of an invented number.
  • Read-only. These screens change nothing on Amazon. To act, use Campaigns and Bulk actions, which ask for confirmation.

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