What percent of Amazon revenue should I spend on PPC?
A common range is 8% to 15% of Amazon revenue for private-label brands, tracked as TACoS. Under 8% often means you are under-invested and leaving growth on the table. Over 15% for a mature brand usually means acquisition costs are eating margin faster than repeat revenue can fund them.
Why TACoS is the right lens
ACoS only tells you what happened on ad-attributed sales. TACoS (ad spend / total sales) tells you how much of the whole business is funded by ads. Below 10% usually means organic is doing real work; above 20% is a warning.
When to spend more
Launch: 20% to 30% TACoS is normal for 30 to 60 days. Growth mode with strong repeat: 12% to 18% is fine. Harvest mode on a mature SKU: 6% to 10% is the goal.
Frequently asked questions
Is TACoS the same as ACoS?
No. ACoS is ad spend divided by ad-attributed sales. TACoS is ad spend divided by total sales.
What is a bad TACoS?
Over 20% for a mature SKU usually means you are propping up sales with ads.
Does TACoS include SB and SD?
Yes. Include every ad type in the numerator.
See this in Nova
Nova surfaces this metric per SKU in near real time so you can act before your next monthly close catches it.
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Sponsored Brands vs Sponsored Products: which should I run first?
Sponsored Products first, every time. SP drives direct sales on ready-to-buy queries and gives the fastest read on unit economics. Sponsored Brands adds top-of-funnel brand exposure and store traffic but usually shows a longer payback and needs SP data first to know which keywords deserve the SB budget.
How should I ramp Amazon PPC for Q4 and Prime Day?
Start 30 days before the event. Raise budgets on proven exact and SP category campaigns, warm up bids gradually to build search rank, then scale hard during the 48 hours before and through the event. Do not launch new keywords for the first time on event day; the CPC premium is brutal.
How do I find wasted Amazon PPC spend?
Pull 60 days of search-term reports. Flag any search term with 15+ clicks and 0 orders as negative candidates. Flag campaigns whose 30-day ACoS is 2x your target with no volume gain as pause candidates. Between the two, most accounts recover 5% to 15% of budget in a week.
Do I need branded defense PPC campaigns on Amazon?
Yes, if competitors bid on your brand terms or you are brand-registered with real branded search volume. A dedicated Sponsored Products exact campaign on your brand keywords is cheap insurance. Add Sponsored Brands headline on your top brand queries to own the fold.