How do I audit wasted Amazon ad spend?
A 30-minute weekly audit catches most wasted PPC spend. Pull the search term report for 14 days, negative-out any term with 10+ clicks and zero orders, cut bids on keywords with ACoS 2x above target, and pause any SKU whose product-level ad spend exceeds its net profit for the period.
Jul 26, 2026 · 3 min read
Step 1: search term audit
Pull the last 14 days of the Sponsored Products search term report. Filter for 10+ clicks and zero orders. Every one of those terms becomes a negative-exact on the ad group that served it. This alone typically cuts 15% to 25% of ad spend.
Nova exposes the same audit continuously, with spend, ACoS and ROAS per campaign and keyword next to product profit.
Step 2: keyword ACoS audit
Filter the keywords report for ACoS more than 2x your target ACoS and 30+ days of history. Cut bids 25% on each. Do not pause them outright unless spend is significant; a bid cut lets you keep organic ranking signal.
Step 3: SKU-level profit audit
For each active SKU, compare product-level ad spend to net profit for the period. Any SKU spending more on ads than it earns in profit gets paused or repriced. Nova surfaces this automatically at the Cockpit level so you do not have to build the query by hand.
Frequently asked questions
How much waste is normal?
20% to 40% of ad spend on unaudited accounts. After a first audit cycle, expect 5% to 15% ongoing.
How often should I audit?
Weekly for accounts spending $1k+/month, biweekly for smaller accounts.
Should I pause underperforming SKUs entirely?
Cut bids first. Only pause after a bid cut fails to move ACoS in 30 days.
Does Nova help audit ad spend?
Yes. Nova shows SKU-level ad spend inside the P&L so you see which SKUs are net-profitable after ads and which are not.
See this in Nova
Nova surfaces this metric per SKU so you can act before your next monthly close catches it.
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