| name | ads-amazon |
| description | Amazon Ads deep analysis: Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display, and Amazon DSP — campaign structure, ACOS/TACOS, search-term harvesting, negatives, bids, ASIN targeting. Use when user says Amazon Ads, Amazon PPC, Sponsored Products, DSP, ACOS, TACOS, AMS, or retail media. |
| user-invokable | false |
| tested_date | "2026-05-17T00:00:00.000Z" |
| tested_with | claude-code v2.x |
Amazon Ads Deep Analysis
Amazon owns 80% of US retail media ($56B in 2025). This sub-skill audits
the three Sponsored ad types plus basic DSP visibility for sellers and
vendors. Detailed Amazon DSP audit (programmatic / Twitch / Fire TV / Freevee
/ Prime Video) is queued for Wave 3 in ads-retail-media.
Note: This is a leaf sub-skill. The thresholds and rules below live
inline. In Wave 3, once ads-walmart ships and the ads-retail-media
orchestrator extracts the shared retail-media logic, a dedicated
retail-media-specs.md reference file will replace these inline rules
(planned, not yet created — do not link to it from other files).
Process
- Collect Amazon Advertising export: Search Term Report (last 60 days),
Campaign Performance Report, Targeting Report, Placement Report, Bulk
Operations file
- Collect Brand Analytics if available (Brand-Registered sellers / vendors):
Search Terms, Repeat Purchase Behavior, Item Comparison
- Verify Seller / Vendor Central context (vendor strategy differs from
seller strategy on portfolio, coupons, and Sponsored Brands video)
- Read
ads/references/benchmarks.md for Amazon-specific benchmarks
- Read
ads/references/scoring-system.md for weighted scoring
- Evaluate checks per category
- Calculate Amazon Ads Health Score (0-100)
- Generate findings report with action plan
What to Analyze
Campaign Structure & Portfolios (15% weight)
- Portfolio organization — campaigns grouped by funnel stage (Awareness /
Consideration / Conversion) or by product line, not ad-hoc
- Campaign naming convention consistent (e.g.,
SP_Brand_Exact_USD_Conv / SB_NonBrand_HSA_Video_USD_Cons)
- Auto vs Manual mix: Sponsored Products has ≥1 Auto campaign per ASIN
cluster for search-term harvesting (auto-mining workflow)
- ASIN-level coverage: every priority ASIN appears in ≥1 SP campaign
(Exact, Phrase, or Broad) AND ≥1 Auto campaign
- Targeting type mix in SP: Manual Keyword + Manual Product (ASIN
targeting) + Auto (for harvesting). Pure Auto is a learning-only state
- Sponsored Brands: at least one HSA (Headline Search Ad) campaign per
brand storefront; SB Video tested for high-AOV products
- Sponsored Display: separate Audience (retargeting + lookalike) and
Contextual (product / category targeting) campaigns — don't mix in one
Search-Term Harvesting & Negatives (25% weight)
- Auto → Manual harvest cadence weekly or bi-weekly: pull converting
search terms from Auto, promote winners to Manual Exact in their target
campaign, add as negatives to the Auto so spend redirects
- Negative keyword coverage: every Auto campaign has Manual campaign
ASINs as negatives (prevents Auto cannibalizing Manual placements)
- Negative product targeting: irrelevant ASINs added at campaign level
(prevents Sponsored Display contextual targeting from showing your ad
next to incompatible products)
- Search Term Report harvested last 7 days — any high-spend, zero-
conversion terms above $10 / 30 days should be negatives
- Brand defense: branded search terms are isolated in a separate
campaign with exact-match brand keywords and competitor-name negatives
- Top-of-search visibility — branded search auction CPC vs default; flag
if competitor bid is above your brand-defense bid
ACOS / TACOS Discipline (20% weight)
- ACOS targets set per portfolio based on contribution margin (target
ACOS = (1 - contribution_margin) × buffer). Sloppy "30% across the board"
ACOS targets cap performance
- TACOS (Total ACOS) trending down quarter-over-quarter — TACOS measures
total ad spend / total revenue including organic; downward trend means
paid is lifting organic, not replacing it
- ROAS reported alongside ACOS for the team that thinks in ROAS
- Coupon + Lightning Deal stacking — when on, ACOS targets relaxed to
capture lift; auto-flag campaigns that need temporary ACOS uplift
- Day-parting: bid adjustments by hour for ASINs where add-to-cart
hours differ from purchase hours (frequent for high-AOV electronics)
Bid & Budget Management (15% weight)
- Dynamic bidding strategy:
Up and Down for Manual Exact converting
campaigns; Down Only for Auto campaigns or Sponsored Display contextual
(avoid bid escalation in learning campaigns)
- Placement bid multipliers: Top-of-search placement adjusted based on
ROAS by placement (Placement Report); often +50-100% for top-of-search,
-30% for product page placements
- Budget caps appropriate — no campaigns capped at <2x current daily
spend (caps strangle algorithm learning)
- Bulk bid adjustments — bid optimization runs weekly via Bulk
Operations not ad-hoc in the UI
Sponsored Brands (10% weight)
- HSA (Headline Search Ad): brand logo + 3-product showcase + landing
page (Store, custom URL, or product list)
- SB Video: 6-45s; 15-30s sweet spot. Hook within 2s. Captions on.
Required for high-AOV products
- Brand Store linked as landing destination where available (higher
CVR than product detail page)
- Negative keywords on SB include competitor brand names if you don't
want top-of-funnel competitor traffic; remove if you do
Sponsored Display (10% weight)
- Audience targeting: Views Remarketing, Purchase Remarketing, Cross-
Sell, and Lookalike audiences each scaled with appropriate bids
- Contextual targeting: relevant categories AND specific ASIN targeting
(your own complementary products + competitor ASINs you can win)
- Display creative quality: at minimum, the default product creative;
custom creative tested for top SKUs
- Off-Amazon Sponsored Display (Twitch, IMDb, third-party sites) audited
separately — different CPC dynamics, different attribution windows
Brand Analytics & Reporting (5% weight)
- Brand Analytics accessed (Brand-Registered only): Top Search Terms,
Item Comparison, Repeat Purchase Behavior
- Top Search Terms report used to identify share-of-voice gaps vs
competitors on category keywords
- Repeat Purchase Behavior informs subscription / replenishment ad
strategy
- Amazon Attribution (off-Amazon traffic) tracked if running external
ads driving to Amazon listings
Key Thresholds
| Metric | Pass | Warning | Fail |
|---|
| ACOS (vs target) | Within ±10% of target | 10-25% over | >25% over |
| TACOS trend (90d) | Decreasing | Flat | Increasing |
| Auto / Manual mix | Both active per ASIN | Only Manual or only Auto | Single campaign / ASIN |
| Negative keywords on Auto | Manual ASIN keywords added | Some missing | None |
| Search term harvest cadence | Weekly | Monthly | Ad-hoc |
| Branded campaign ACOS | <5% | 5-15% | >15% |
| Dynamic bidding strategy | Up-and-Down on converters, Down-Only on learners | Mixed inconsistently | All campaigns same strategy |
| Sponsored Brands video tested | Active on top 10 ASINs | Active on 1-3 ASINs | Not tested |
| Brand Analytics accessed | Weekly | Monthly | Never |
Output
Amazon Ads Health Score
Amazon Ads Health Score: XX/100 (Grade: X)
Campaign Structure: XX/100 ████████░░ (15%)
Search-Term Harvesting: XX/100 ██████████ (25%)
ACOS / TACOS Discipline:XX/100 █████████░ (20%)
Bid & Budget Mgmt: XX/100 ████████░░ (15%)
Sponsored Brands: XX/100 ███████░░░ (10%)
Sponsored Display: XX/100 ███████░░░ (10%)
Brand Analytics: XX/100 █████░░░░░ (5%)
Deliverables
AMAZON-ADS-REPORT.md: Full per-category findings- Search-term harvest plan: keywords to promote to Manual + keywords to
add as negatives, ranked by spend recovery $
- ACOS-by-ASIN matrix highlighting unprofitable SKUs
- Sponsored Brands video opportunity list (top 10 ASINs without SB Video)
- Pre-launch checklist when entering a new product category
- Amazon DSP entry recommendation (yes / no based on total monthly spend
and audience size)
