Report tool
Why did my Amazon ad spend go up?
Drop in a daily search term or campaign report that covers two periods. The tool splits the change into new searches, more clicks and higher CPCs, and lists the terms that moved most.
- Free, no sign-up
- Your file stays in your browser
Drop a daily report here
A daily search term or campaign report covering both periods, as XLSX or CSV.
Your report is read by your browser and never uploaded. Close the tab and it's gone.
Next step
Do this every day in Merch Jar.
Automation logic you can read, adjust and preview on your account. It's saved switched off, and runs once you turn it on.
How to get a daily report
- 1In the Amazon Ads console, open Reporting under Measurement & Reporting and start from the Search term template (or the Campaign template).
- 2Set Time unit to Daily, so each row is one day with a Date column. The Hourly time unit gives hours of the day with no dates, which this tool can't split.
- 3Cover both periods: 60 days to compare two 30-day periods. XLSX and CSV both work.
- 4Drop it in above. Your file never leaves your browser. The tool reads it on your device, and there's no account or upload. The same report, as a summary, also runs through the search term report analyzer and the branded vs non-branded ACoS tool. To check what a CPC rise means for your target, try the target CPC calculator.
FAQ
How the tool splits the increase
It compares two periods of the same length, by default the last half of your report against the half before it. For every search term (or campaign) it takes the change in clicks at the old cost per click, which is the "more clicks" part, and the clicks you have now times the change in CPC, which is the "higher CPCs" part. The two always add up to the term's change in spend. A search with no clicks in the first period counts entirely as new, and one with no clicks in the second as stopped.
In the sample data, a garden tools seller's spend rose $454.47 (36%) from August to September. $227.37 came from new searches like "tree loppers", $188.24 from more clicks on searches that were already running, and $98.91 from higher CPCs, mostly "pruning shears", minus $60.05 from four searches that stopped after being negated.
What each cause usually points to
The split tells you where to look next.
- New searches come from auto and broad campaigns reaching searches they hadn't before, a new keyword, or a season starting. Check whether they sell before you decide whether to keep paying for them.
- More clicks on the same searches usually means more impressions, from a higher bid or budget, a better placement, or more people searching. A budget that used to run out by mid-afternoon and now lasts the day shows up here too.
- Higher CPCs come from higher bids, a bid strategy that raises bids, placement adjustments, or more advertisers bidding on the same searches. If you didn't touch the bids, the term list shows which searches got pricier.
Did the extra spend pay for itself?
More spend is fine when it brings in sales at the same rate. If ACoS stayed within 10% of where it was, the tool says ACoS held. If ACoS rose, the new clicks bought less, and the term list shows which searches did that. In the sample, ACoS went from 33.9% to 34.3% while sales grew too, so it held.
One caution on recent days. Orders are credited to the day of the click and can arrive days later, so the newest days in any report undercount sales for a while.