Amazon PPC Glossary: 60+ Terms Every Seller Should Know

Amazon advertising comes with a lot of jargon. This glossary defines the terms you'll see in the Ads console, in reports, and in conversations with agencies, in plain English. Terms are grouped by topic so related ideas sit together. Bookmark it and come back when a report column doesn't make sense.

Core metrics

• ACoS (advertising cost of sales): ad spend divided by ad-attributed sales. A 25% ACoS means you spent $25 for every $100 of ad sales.
• ROAS (return on ad spend): ad sales divided by ad spend. The inverse of ACoS. A 25% ACoS equals a 4.0 ROAS. See ACoS vs ROAS.
• TACoS (total advertising cost of sales): ad spend divided by total sales, organic included. Shows how dependent the business is on ads. See what is TACoS.
• Break-even ACoS: the ACoS at which ad spend equals the profit a sale would earn without ads. Equal to profit margin before ad spend.
• Target ACoS: the ACoS you aim for, usually below break-even.
• Impressions: the number of times your ad was shown.
• Clicks: the number of times shoppers clicked your ad.
• CTR (click-through rate): clicks divided by impressions.
• CPC (cost per click): what you paid for a click. Average CPC is spend divided by clicks.
• Spend: the total cost of your ads in the period.
• Orders: purchases attributed to your ads within the attribution window.
• Units: individual items sold through those orders.
• Sales: revenue from attributed orders.
• Conversion rate (CVR): orders divided by clicks.
• CPM: cost per thousand impressions.
• vCPM: cost per thousand viewable impressions, an option for some Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display campaigns.

Example: one row, every metric

Ad types and formats

• Sponsored Products (SP): cost-per-click ads for individual listings in search results and on product pages.
• Sponsored Brands (SB): ads with your logo, a headline, and multiple products or a video. Requires Brand Registry.
• Sponsored Brands video: a Sponsored Brands format with a video that plays in search results.
• Store spotlight: a Sponsored Brands format that promotes sections of your Amazon Store.
• Sponsored Display (SD): display ads targeting products, categories, or audiences, on and off Amazon.
• Amazon DSP: Amazon's demand-side platform for programmatic display, video, and audio ads, bought separately from Sponsored Ads.
• Amazon Store: a free multi-page brand storefront on Amazon for registered brands.
• Amazon Attribution: a tool that measures how non-Amazon marketing (social, search, email) drives Amazon sales.

Compare the main three in Sponsored Products vs Sponsored Brands vs Sponsored Display.

Account structure

• Campaign: the top-level container with a budget, bidding strategy, start and end dates, and targeting type.
• Ad group: a set of ads (products) and targets inside a campaign that share a default bid.
• Portfolio: a folder of campaigns that can share a budget cap.
• Advertised product (ad): the specific SKU or ASIN being promoted.
• Daily budget: the average amount a campaign can spend per day.
• Budget cap: a portfolio-level limit on total spend over a date range or month.
• Budget rules: schedules or performance-based rules that raise budgets automatically, for example during events.
• Bulk operations: spreadsheet-based tools for creating or editing many campaigns at once.

Targeting

• Automatic targeting: Amazon chooses searches and products to match your ad to, based on your listing.
• Close match: auto targeting group for searches closely related to your product.
• Loose match: auto targeting group for searches loosely related to your product.
• Substitutes: auto targeting group for product pages of similar items.
• Complements: auto targeting group for product pages of items that go with yours.
• Manual targeting: you choose keywords or products to target.
• Keyword: a word or phrase you bid on.
• Search term: the actual text a shopper typed that triggered your ad. Not always identical to your keyword.
• Broad match: matches searches containing your keyword's words in any order, plus related terms.
• Phrase match: matches searches containing your phrase in order, with words before or after.
• Exact match: matches searches equal to your keyword or close variations (plurals, misspellings).
• Negative keyword: a term you exclude so your ad won't show for it. Available as negative exact and negative phrase.
• Product targeting (ASIN targeting): targeting specific product detail pages.
• Category targeting: targeting a whole category, optionally refined by brand, price, rating, or shipping.
• Audience targeting: Sponsored Display targeting based on shopping behavior, such as views remarketing.
• Branded keywords: searches that include your brand name.
• Long-tail keywords: longer, more specific searches, usually lower volume and higher intent.
• Keyword harvesting: moving converting search terms from auto or broad campaigns into exact match.
• Keyword isolation: making sure each search term is targeted in only one place so campaigns don't compete.

Bidding and the auction

• Bid: the most you're willing to pay for a click before any adjustments.
• Default bid: the ad group's bid for targets without their own bid.
• Suggested bid: Amazon's recommended bid and range for a target.
• Dynamic bids, down only: Amazon may lower your bid when conversion looks less likely.
• Dynamic bids, up and down: Amazon may raise your bid (up to 100% for top of search, 50% elsewhere) or lower it.
• Fixed bids: Amazon uses your exact bid.
• Placement adjustment (bid modifier): a percentage increase for top of search, rest of search, or product pages, up to 900%.
• Top of search: the first row(s) of the first search results page.
• Rest of search: other search placements.
• Product pages: placements on product detail pages and similar non-search pages.
• Second-price auction: an auction where the winner pays roughly what was needed to beat the next bidder. See how the Amazon ads auction works.
• Top-of-search impression share: the share of eligible top-of-search impressions your ads won.
• Dayparting: changing bids or budgets by time of day or day of week.

Attribution and reporting

• Attribution window: how long after a click (or view) a purchase is credited to an ad. 7 days for seller Sponsored Products, 14 days for Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display. See the attribution window explained.
• Advertised SKU sales: sales of the exact product in the ad.
• Other SKU sales (halo sales): sales of different products from your brand after an ad click.
• New-to-brand: orders from customers who haven't bought from your brand in the previous 12 months.
• Search term report: shows the actual search terms that triggered your ads and how each performed.
• Targeting report: performance by keyword or product target.
• Placement report: performance by placement.
• Advertised product report: performance by advertised SKU.
• Purchased product report: what shoppers bought after clicking, including halo purchases.
• Brand Analytics: Brand Registry reports on search terms, market basket, and repeat purchase behavior.
• Search Query Performance: a Brand Analytics report showing your share of impressions, clicks, and purchases for searches.

Eligibility and account terms

• Brand Registry: Amazon's program for brand owners, required for Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display, Stores, and Brand Analytics.
• Featured offer (Buy Box): the offer shown on the product page's add-to-cart button. Sponsored Products ads generally serve only for the featured offer.
• ASIN: Amazon's unique product identifier.
• SKU: your own identifier for a product listing.
• Parent and child ASINs: a variation family (parent) and its individual sizes or colors (children).
• Ineligible: an ad that can't serve, for example due to lost Buy Box, stock, or policy.

Putting the terms together

Here's how several terms combine in one decision. Your exact match keyword 'bamboo sheets queen' has 40 clicks, 5 orders, $52 spend, and $300 sales: CVR 12.5%, ACoS 17.3%. Your target ACoS is 30%, and top-of-search impression share is low. Max bid = 30% x 12.5% x $60 average order = $2.25. Your current average CPC is $1.30, so there's room to raise the bid and win more top-of-search impressions.

If you're putting these terms to work for the first time, Amazon PPC for beginners lays out a first month step by step. AdSpark's Account Copilot can answer questions about your own account in plain English, such as 'which keywords are above target ACoS this week', and take actions you approve.

FAQ