Amazon PPC glossary.
7 pay-per-click advertising terms defined for Amazon sellers.
- ACoS — Advertising Cost of Sales
- TACoS — Total Advertising Cost of Sales
- ROAS — Return on Ad Spend
- Sponsored Products — Amazon Sponsored Products ads
- Sponsored Brands — Amazon Sponsored Brands ads
- Sponsored Display — Amazon Sponsored Display ads
- PPC — Pay-Per-Click advertising
- ACoS — Advertising Cost of Sales
- ACoS is ad spend divided by attributed sales, expressed as a percentage. An ACoS of 30% means $0.30 of ad cost was incurred for every $1.00 of sales attributed to ads. Used to benchmark advertising efficiency against product margin.
- TACoS — Total Advertising Cost of Sales
- TACoS is total ad spend divided by total sales (ads + organic), expressed as a percentage. Healthier brands typically see TACoS decline as ads drive organic momentum, while ACoS stays in target. Watch the trend, not the daily number.
- ROAS — Return on Ad Spend
- ROAS is sales divided by ad spend — the inverse of ACoS expressed as a multiple. A ROAS of 4.0 equals an ACoS of 25%. Use ROAS when comparing Amazon ads to other channels in growth conversations; use ACoS when thinking in margin terms.
- Sponsored Products — Amazon Sponsored Products ads
- Sponsored Products is the auction-based PPC ad format that promotes individual ASINs in search results and product detail pages. Most accounts spend the largest share of ad budget here. Available to all Professional sellers; no Brand Registry required.
- Sponsored Brands — Amazon Sponsored Brands ads
- Sponsored Brands is the headline-banner ad format above search results, promoting up to 3 ASINs with custom headline and brand logo. Brand Registry required. Typically 1.4× higher conversion than Sponsored Products on the same query when above the fold.
- Sponsored Display — Amazon Sponsored Display ads
- Sponsored Display is the audience-targeted ad format running on Amazon detail pages and (via off-Amazon partners) external sites. Used for retargeting cart-abandoners, defending branded keywords on competitors' detail pages, and audience-based reach.
- PPC — Pay-Per-Click advertising
- PPC means advertisers pay only when a shopper clicks an ad. Amazon advertising (Sponsored Products, Brands, Display) is auction-based PPC. Bid management, negative keywords, search-term mining, and KPI-window discipline are the core levers of PPC efficiency.