How does Embarc fix a bleeding Amazon ad account?
Most accounts we inherit aren't short on keywords. They're short on structure. Auto campaigns overlap with broad, the same search term runs in five campaigns bidding against each other, and nobody has added a negative in months. More budget makes that worse, not better. We fix it in four steps:
- Diagnose the waste. Pull the full search-term history and find where spend goes without sales: irrelevant terms, overlapping targets, bloated broad-match campaigns, and placements that cost more than they return.
- Restructure by intent. Separate discovery from performance. Research and auto campaigns find terms, exact-match campaigns scale proven ones, product targeting and brand defense each run on their own budget.
- Harvest and sculpt. Move converting terms into exact match, negate them upstream so they don't compete with themselves, and cut the terms that never convert.
- Scale what's proven. Once waste is under control, add budget to the campaigns and keywords that hit target, and use SQP data to find where you have room to take more share.
If you want to understand the mechanics behind this, we've written about how to lower your Amazon ACoS without killing sales and why most Amazon ad accounts fail.
How do you set a target ACoS?
A target ACoS should come from your margin, not from an industry benchmark. The starting point is your break-even ACoS: the ACoS at which an ad-driven sale makes zero profit. Break-even ACoS equals your profit margin before advertising.
A worked example with hypothetical numbers:
| Line item (per unit) | Hypothetical amount |
|---|
| Selling price | $40.00 |
| Landed product cost (unit + freight + duties) | −$10.00 |
| FBA fulfillment fee | −$7.00 |
| Referral fee (15% of price, for this example) | −$6.00 |
| Profit before advertising | $17.00 |
| Break-even ACoS ($17 ÷ $40) | 42.5% |
At a 42.5% ACoS, this product breaks even on every ad sale. If the brand wants to keep roughly 15 points of margin on ad-driven sales, the target ACoS is about 27.5%. During a launch, running closer to break-even can be a deliberate investment in rank. For a mature product, the target sits well below it. We also account for returns, storage, and other costs specific to your account, and confirm your real fees in Seller Central, since they vary by category and size tier.
Because organic sales carry no ad cost, the account-level view is TACoS. A product can run a high ACoS on a launch keyword and still be very profitable overall if the rank that keyword earns drives organic sales.
What results has Embarc's PPC management delivered?
Advertising was a core lever in both of our published case studies. In a restricted medicated skin care category, a compliance-safe ad structure with weekly bid and negative audits and SQP rank tracking helped take monthly revenue from $5.1K to $23.6K over 15 months, a 4.6x increase. In a consumer products account wrecked by stockouts, a campaign restructure, ranking recovery after restock, and Q4 budget scaling took sales from $2.4K in April 2025 to $45.6K in April 2026, 19x year over year, with a best month of $76.1K. Read the full case studies.
How much does Amazon PPC management cost?
Pricing is scope-based and quoted after a free audit. The main drivers are ad spend, the number of products and campaigns, and whether PPC runs on its own or as part of full Amazon account management. Most engagements are a monthly retainer, sometimes with a performance component tied to sales. Your ad spend is billed by Amazon to your account, and inclusions and any minimum term are confirmed in writing before you commit. More detail in our guide to Amazon agency pricing.
Related: Amazon keyword research guide · Amazon listing optimization · Product launch strategy: the first 90 days