What is the difference between industry-standard metrics and retail metrics in Amazon Ads?

Industry-standard metrics (clicks, spend, CTR, CPC, impressions, ROAS) are common to all digital advertising and measure media efficiency — whether the ad is being shown and clicked. Retail metrics (ACoS, attributed sales, total orders, conversion rate, detail page views, units sold) measure the business result that media generates — whether the click turned into a sale.

Are detail page views (DPV) the same as clicks?

Not necessarily. A shopper can click the ad and then browse several different product detail pages, so DPV doesn't always equal clicks — DPV measures visits to product pages, not just the initial ad click.

Which report should I use to build negative keywords?

The Search Term Report, which shows the actual terms shoppers typed that led to a click on your ad. It helps you find high-performing searches and add negatives for terms that miss your target — and it shows how the match types you chose influence which searches your ad appears for.

Amazon Ads Metrics: Which Report to Use

Not every ads metric measures the same thing. One group tells you whether your ad is being seen and clicked; another tells you whether that click actually turned into a sale. And Amazon Ads has seven different campaign reports — each designed to answer a specific question, not the same question seven times.

Industry-standard metrics (media)

These are common to all digital advertising, not just Amazon, and measure the efficiency of the media itself:

Clicks — how many times the ad was clicked.
Spend — the total invested in the campaign.
CTR (Click-Through Rate) — clicks divided by impressions; a high CTR means the audience seeing your ad tends to click through to the product page.
CPC (Cost Per Click) — what each click cost; aCPC (average CPC) is total spend divided by total clicks.
Impressions — how many times the ad was shown; lots of impressions means the ad is winning auctions often.
ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) — total product sales divided by total ad spend; the higher, the more efficient the campaign.

Retail metrics (business results)

These focus on the retail outcome the advertising generates — whether the click became a sale:

ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sales) — campaign spend divided by total sales over the same period; the share of sales spent on advertising.
Attributed sales — total value of the brand's products sold as a result of the ad.
Total orders — the count of orders placed for the brand's products.
Conversion rate — the percentage of shoppers who clicked and bought; low conversion with high clicks usually points to a product page problem, not an ad problem.
Detail page views (DPV) — how many times the product detail page was visited; DPV doesn't always equal clicks, because one click can lead a shopper through several product pages.
Units sold — total units of the brand sold on Amazon.

One important operational detail: sales data can take up to 24 hours to show up in reports — decisions based on same-day data may be working with incomplete numbers.

The 7 campaign reports and when to use each

All of them are available in Seller Central under Reports → Advertising Reports.

Campaign Report — summarizes performance by campaign over a period (clicks, DPV, spend). Use it to see how a campaign is doing overall and spot where to dig deeper.
Keyword Placement Report — breaks down keyword performance by ad placement (top of search, other placements), with impressions, clicks, CTR, ACoS and new-to-brand metrics per placement. Use it to find keywords that perform better in certain placements and adjust bids.
Placement Report — breaks down campaign performance by ad placement. Use it to find campaigns that would benefit from a placement bid adjustment.
Targeting Report — shows sales and performance for keywords, ASINs and categories across all campaigns that received at least one impression. Use it to see how keyword and product targeting performs over time, and decide when to adjust bids or expand your target list.
Advertised/Purchased Product Report — shows sales and performance of advertised ASINs across all campaigns with at least one impression. Use it to compare products within the same campaign and spot underperformers — a sign of too few keywords, poorly targeted keywords, or bids too low for popular terms in the category.
Search Term Report — shows the actual terms shoppers typed that led to an ad click, with sales data for the promoted ASINs and for related "halo" ASINs from the brand. Use it to find high-performing searches and add negatives for terms that miss your target.
Performance Over Time Report — shows campaign status (running, paused, ended, ended by end date) over time. Use it to track campaign status — an ended campaign that hit its goals can be copied into a new campaign with no end date, keeping coverage continuous.

Where to find them

All of these reports are available in Seller Central, on the "Advertising Reports" tab inside the "Reports" section — the same path works whether you're actively selling on Amazon or just monitoring live campaigns.

How EcomVision helps

EcomVision's Amazon Ads & Campaigns already separates media metrics from retail metrics in the same dashboard, and automatically cross-references the search term, placement and advertised product reports — no need to download and merge seven different spreadsheets every week.

Update notice: the names and exact contents of Amazon Ads campaign reports may change. Always check the official advertising reports documentation in Seller Central for current behavior.

Sources

Official Amazon Mentor Program material — "Campaign reporting metrics" (training on Amazon Ads campaign metrics and reports).

Amazon Ads Campaign Metrics: What They Are and Which Report to Use