ads-amazon · git:20260526.b91d55f · 2026-05-26 · sha256 659b5f8e1ffb11cf
ads-amazon git:20260526.b91d55fA
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--- name: ads-amazon description: "Amazon Ads deep analysis covering Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands (incl. Sponsored Brands Video), Sponsored Display (audiences + contextual), and basic Amazon DSP. Evaluates campaign structure, ACOS/TACOS targets, search-term harvesting, negative keyword discipline, Brand Analytics signals, day-parting, bid management, auto vs manual campaign mix, ASIN targeting, and DSP retargeting. Use when user says Amazon Ads, Amazon advertising, Amazon PPC, Amazon search ads, Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display, Amazon DSP, ACOS, TACOS, retail media audit, Amazon Marketing Services, AMS, or Amazon seller advertising." user-invokable: false tested_date: 2026-05-26 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 1. Collect Amazon Advertising export: Search Term Report (last 60 days), Campaign Performance Report, Targeting Report, Placement Report, Bulk Operations file 2. Collect Brand Analytics if available (Brand-Registered sellers / vendors): Search Terms, Repeat Purchase Behavior, Item Comparison 3. Verify Seller / Vendor Central context (vendor strategy differs from seller strategy on portfolio, coupons, and Sponsored Brands video) 4. Read `ads/references/benchmarks.md` for Amazon-specific benchmarks 5. Read `ads/references/scoring-system.md` for weighted scoring 6. Evaluate checks per category 7. Calculate Amazon Ads Health Score (0-100) 8. 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 ## v1.8.0 deltas — UCM + Collections + Prompts + Brand+/Performance+ (AMZ-new-1..17) These checks cover the platform changes that landed after the core sub-skill shipped (unBoxed 2025 Nashville, unBoxed Toronto 2026, and the public launches between Nov 2025 and Mar 2026). Where a capability changes how earlier checks read — Multi-Touch Attribution, Full-Funnel Campaigns — the delta note says so. ### Unified platform, AI agents & new placements (AMZ-new-1..7) - **AMZ-new-1 — Unified Campaign Manager (UCM)**: Sponsored Ads + Amazon DSP in one platform (beta announced Nov 11 2025, live early 2026). Exposes **15 months of daily data + 6 years of monthly data** — the deepest history any major ad platform offers. For accounts that previously split Sponsored and DSP reporting, treat UCM as the canonical reporting layer; the data depth makes multi-year seasonality and long-tail ASIN decay checks feasible. - **AMZ-new-2 — Ads Agent**: conversational chat assistant for campaign creation, targeting, and AMC (Amazon Marketing Cloud) analytics, available to anyone with AMC access. Detect adoption; verify it is not running unattended write actions. - **AMZ-new-3 — Creative Agent**: agentic AI ad creation, expanded Nov 11 2025 to Streaming TV and Sponsored TV. For CTV campaigns, verify Creative Agent outputs are reviewed before launch (paused-by-default). - **AMZ-new-4 — Full-Funnel Campaigns**: new AI campaign type (2026) spanning Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, display, and streaming TV in a single campaign. Detect adoption — if Full-Funnel is in use, the channel-level breakouts that worked for single-product campaigns no longer apply. - **AMZ-new-5 — Multi-Touch Attribution (MTA)**: deployed across Campaign Manager (early 2026), materially different from the prior last-click-only model. Verify MTA is the selected attribution model and that the user understands historical reports are not like-for-like. - **AMZ-new-6 — Sponsored Products Video in search results**: native video format inside Sponsored Products. Detect adoption; flag missing video assets in the product catalog for video-eligible categories. - **AMZ-new-7 — Reimagined homepage hero + top-of-search pre-purchase**: new high-visibility placements. Pre-purchase targets users who have not bought yet — high leverage for cold-prospecting campaigns. ### Amazon Ads MCP Server (AMZ-new-8) - **AMZ-new-8 — Amazon Ads MCP Server**: closed beta Nov 13 2025, public beta Feb 2 2026. Supports Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Amazon Q, and Bedrock. Verify scope is minimum-necessary (one account, not all-account access) and read-only first. ### Sponsored Brands Collections (AMZ-new-9) - **AMZ-new-9 — Sponsored Brands Collections** (launched Jan 28 2026, replacing the old Product Collections format): **minimum 3 ASINs, maximum 10 ASINs**, with **Auto (AI) and Manual** product-selection modes. Auto mode supports **up to 1,000 ASIN exclusions**. The format **removes custom headlines, lifestyle images, and branded creative** — a notable retreat from advertiser creative control, so flag brands that relied on custom SB creative. **US only** at launch. > **Citation caveat:** The **"+143% click-attributed sales"** figure > circulating in coverage belongs to Sponsored Brands **Reserve Share of > Voice**, NOT Collections (Amazon's Reserve Share of Voice page reports > top-of-search impression share rising 62.7% → 99.3%, click-attributed sales > +143%, and lost top-of-search sales falling 10.3% → 0.3%). Do not attribute > it to Collections. The **"2.5x more unique products purchased"** Auto-vs- > Manual figure is third-party (sentrykit.com) beta-test data only and does > **not** appear on Amazon's official launch page — flag as not-yet- > corroborated by a primary source. ### Sponsored Products / Sponsored Brands Prompts (AMZ-new-10) - **AMZ-new-10 — SP & SB Prompts**: moved from open beta to general availability in the US on **March 25 2026**, with **CPC billing** beginning at GA and auto-enrollment for SP and SB campaigns. A **dedicated Prompts report** (Campaign → Ad Group → Ads → Prompts tab) lists prompt text, impressions, clicks, and orders; practitioner coverage extends it to CTR / CPC / spend / sales / ACOS / ROAS / 7-day orders & units. Detect Prompts adoption, review prompt-level CTR and ACOS, and flag prompts spending without conversions for early kill. ### Brand+ and Performance+ (AMZ-new-11..13) These are Amazon-supplied case figures — present them as vendor benchmarks, not independently verified results. - **AMZ-new-11 — Brand+ (prospecting AI)**: Amazon reports **+71% PDP views, +42% brand discovery, +64% purchases** vs non-Brand+ tactics. - **AMZ-new-12 — Performance+ (conversion AI)**: Amazon reports **+34% ROAS in-store and +68% CPA improvement off-Amazon**. - **AMZ-new-13 — Brand+ / Performance+ combined (H&R Block case)**: **144% full-funnel CVR lift and 35% CPA improvement** when run together. ### CTV / Prime Video (AMZ-new-14..17) - **AMZ-new-14 — Prime Video ads 2026 expansion**: adds Belgium, Denmark, Norway, and Turkey. - **AMZ-new-15 — Direct Netflix and Spotify integrations** via Amazon DSP. - **AMZ-new-16 — NBA on Prime Video**: started Oct 2025; expanded packages from May 2026. - **AMZ-new-17 — Complete TV**: cross-publisher streaming TV management across Prime Video and premium publishers, with linear TV data integration. ## 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)