Campaign performance: simple playbook
The two basic shares (the starting point)
Spend %
What it is: How much of the total ad money this one campaign is eating.
Why you care: If a campaign takes a big slice of money but doesn’t bring matching sales, it’s quietly draining you.
Why it goes wrong:
- Over-broad targeting
- Aggressive “top of search” boosts
- Missing negative keywords
- Pricey categories
- Your own brand terms eating budget you don’t need to spend
Fast fixes:
- Lower daily budget
- Reduce top-of-search boost
- Cut bids 10–30% in steps
- Add negatives from the last 30–60 days
- Split exact match from “explore” targets so you can control each cleanly
Sales %
What it is: How much of total revenue this campaign actually brings in.
Why you care: This is the point of running ads.
Why it goes wrong:
- Not enough traffic
- Weak click-through or conversion
- Out of stock
- Weak product page
- Bad price
- Wrong match types
- Spending on search terms that don’t buy
Fast fixes:
- Improve product page (price, images, reviews)
- Mine the search term report; add converting terms as exact
- Move budget to proven themes
- Tighten match types
- Test better creatives
- Make sure you hold the Buy Box and have stock
Push or pull: the signals that tell you what to do
Efficiency Index (EI)
Formula: EI = Sales% ÷ Spend%
How to read it:
- EI > 1 → This campaign beats your account average.
- EI < 1 → It underperforms.
Why it goes wrong (low EI):
- Bids too high; over-boosted placements
- Junk search terms; weak-intent category targets
- Product page problems
Fast fixes for low EI:
- Cut bids and boosts
- Pause or negate waste terms
- Move “prospecting” into its own small budget
- Retest placements
Fast scale for high EI:
- Raise budget caps; nudge bids on exact winners
- Copy winners into Sponsored Brands/Video
- Try a small top-of-search boost (+10–20%)
- Watch ACOS
Gap (Sales vs Spend)
Formula: Gap = Sales% − Spend%
How to read it:
- Positive number → More sales than the money it takes (good).
- Negative number → Takes more money than sales it returns (bad).
Why it goes wrong (big negative):
- Exploration mixed with core
- Broad match hoovering random traffic
- Old keywords past their peak; seasonal drop
- Competitors cut prices
Fast fixes:
- Lower budget; split tests into a separate campaign
- Add strong negatives; reset placement boosts
- Re-bid using click and conversion data (don’t feed dead targets)
Relative ACOS
Formula: Relative ACOS = (Spend% ÷ Sales%) × Account ACOS
What it is: The campaign’s ACOS, expressed in the same “units” as your account target to rank easily.
When it’s high: Same causes as low EI plus price/page issues.
Fast fixes: Cut bids, trim boosts, remove weak targets, or fix the product page/price. Ads can’t rescue a bad offer.
Weighted ACOS Impact
Formula: Weighted Impact = Spend% × (Relative ACOS − Account ACOS)
What it tells you: How much this campaign pushes your whole account ACOS up or down; a “drag meter.”
- High & positive (bad): Freeze budget, slash boosts, keep only exact winners, move experiments elsewhere.
- Strongly negative (good): Feed budget, expand to SB/SBV, protect winners with exact match, defend against rising CPCs.
Opportunity Score
Formula: Opportunity = max(0, (Sales% − Spend%) ÷ Sales%)
What it tells you: 0–1 “headroom” score. Higher = you’re under-funding a winner.
Why it’s high:
- Bids too conservative; no top-of-search boost
- Winner buried in a mixed ad group
- Daily budget is capping
Fast scale:
- Add 15–30% budget; add 5–15% bids on proven exacts
- Small top-of-search boost
- Clone to new match types or similar intents
- Extend ad hours
Quadrants: your one-look map
Q1 Whales (High Spend and High Sales)
Role: Core revenue engines.
Why they win: Strong brand terms, proven exacts, good pages, stable rank.
Fast actions: Protect and scale. Raise budgets, test small top-of-search boosts, copy winners to Sponsored Brands/Video, watch stock and TACoS.
Q2 Hidden Gems (Low Spend, High Sales)
Role: Under-fed winners.
Why they’re hidden: Bids too low, no boost, mixed with other stuff, budget caps.
Fast actions: Raise budget, nudge bids on exact winners, isolate into their own campaigns, add look-alike targets, expand to new regions/placements.
Q3 Money Pits (High Spend, Low Sales)
Role: The drain.
Why they sink: Broad match waste, weak-intent categories, bad price/page, competitor squeeze, off-season.
Fast actions: Cut bids 20–40%, cap budgets, remove or negate bad targets, trim boosts, move tests out, keep only items that re-prove themselves.
Q4 Noise (Low Spend, Low Sales)
Role: Long tail and experiments.
Why they exist: New or niche ideas, low volume.
Fast actions: Keep them cheap if clicks are cheap and EI ≥ 1; otherwise pause. Promote anything that starts to work into Q2 or Q1 structures.
How to run this day to day
1) Triage order
- Sort by Weighted ACOS Impact; fix the worst harm first.
- Sort by Opportunity Score; feed the most starved winners.
- Check EI trends for the last 7, 14, and 30 days.
2) Guardrails
- Don’t judge new stuff too fast. Give it at least 20–40 clicks and 2–3 conversions.
- Split Brand vs Non-Brand, and Exact vs Broad/Auto. Mixed signals make dumb decisions.
- If inventory covers < 14 days or you’re losing the Buy Box, pause the scaling.
3) If the ads look “off,” check the product
- Price changes, coupons ending, page edits, stockouts, review swings, competitor sales will swing EI/ACOS fast.
4) Time windows
- Use the last 30–35 days for stable decisions.
- Peek at the last 7 days for momentum.
- Treat big sale weeks (Prime, Black Friday) separately.
TL;DR (the quick moves)
- Scale it: EI > 1, Gap (Sales% − Spend%) > 0, and high Opportunity Score → add budget, nudge bids, small top-of-search boost, copy to SB/SBV.
- Fix it: EI < 1 or negative Gap with big Weighted Impact → cut bids/boosts, cap budget, prune targets, add negatives, move tests out.
- Park it: Q4 can idle if clicks are cheap and EI holds; otherwise pause.
- Protect it: Q1 “whales” get inventory checks, exact-match protection, and careful boosts don’t starve winners.
That’s it. Feed winners, stop the leaks, and keep the math simple and honest.