Sudden Drop in Sales and ACOS Spike After Receiving Amazon Ad Credit
Hey everyone, wondering if anyone else has experienced this.
I have a Private Label product that sells really well through FBA. I recently got back in stock, sales were strong, and PPC was performing great. I decided to lower my bids a bit to manage ACOS and slow sales since I only have about 600 units left and new inventory won’t arrive for 2 months.
Everything looked perfect for three days - about 18 units/day with ~10% ACOS. Then suddenly, sales dropped to 7 units/day and ACOS shot up to around 80%. I didn’t change anything in my campaigns or listings. I understand that organic rank may be lower now, but conversion rate on same Exact keywords is just horrible.
The only thing that happened that same day is Amazon added a $250 ad credit to my account.
Has anyone else seen performance tank right after getting an ad credit? Wondering if this could’ve affected the PPC algorithm or campaign delivery somehow?
Sudden Drop in Sales and ACOS Spike After Receiving Amazon Ad Credit
Hey everyone, wondering if anyone else has experienced this.
I have a Private Label product that sells really well through FBA. I recently got back in stock, sales were strong, and PPC was performing great. I decided to lower my bids a bit to manage ACOS and slow sales since I only have about 600 units left and new inventory won’t arrive for 2 months.
Everything looked perfect for three days - about 18 units/day with ~10% ACOS. Then suddenly, sales dropped to 7 units/day and ACOS shot up to around 80%. I didn’t change anything in my campaigns or listings. I understand that organic rank may be lower now, but conversion rate on same Exact keywords is just horrible.
The only thing that happened that same day is Amazon added a $250 ad credit to my account.
Has anyone else seen performance tank right after getting an ad credit? Wondering if this could’ve affected the PPC algorithm or campaign delivery somehow?
8 replies
Seller_NbYSGJ8Tehgbv
I am not kidding when I tell you that I have seen the ad credit thing over 100 times.
It did not affect the advertising of any account.
I would recommend cycling new keywords on a weekly basis based on your own advertising reports. There is not a single keyword that lasts forever. Some even last for just a couple of days. You can pair this type of keyword optimization with your bid modifications and you should avoid seeing this drop in sales.
Ana_Amazon
Hi there @Seller_5xG0GbJvs9AU0
I can understand your concern about this sudden performance. As @Seller_NbYSGJ8Tehgbv mentioned, the ad credit does not affect the account’s advertising (they're typically just accounting entries). Let me share some insights that might help explain what's happening.
First, when you lowered your bids to manage inventory, you might have triggered a cascade effect that's more complex than it appears. Bid adjustments can cause Amazon's algorithm to redistribute your ad impressions differently. Sometimes this takes a few days to show up in your metrics, which explains the three-day delay you experienced.
Here's what might be happening:
- Your reduced bids likely changed your ad placement positions
- Lower positions often mean lower-quality traffic, explaining your conversion rate drop
- The algorithm might be testing new placements for your ads, causing temporary volatility
If you need to maintain slower sales for inventory management, consider using campaign scheduling instead of bid reduction, setting up inventory-based rules and creating separate campaigns for your best-performing keywords
Hope this helps!
Best regards,
Ana
Seller_5xG0GbJvs9AU0
At this point I really feel like this is some kind of glitch. I have been selling on Amazon over 2 years and I have never seen anything like that. That happened a month ago and it still has not recovered, even though im getting Top of search placements etc. Advertising support was useless.
Seller_RN4buyki3elka
Going from 18 units a day at 10% ACOS to 7 at 80% in one move isn't an ad credit problem. The ad credit is coincidence. Something structural changed at the same time, and the answer is buried in your re-stock event.
Check Buy Box ownership for the past 60 days. If you lost the box for any window, ad efficiency tanks immediately even on your own listing. This is the #1 cause of the exact pattern you're describing.
Then look at the OOS gap. "Recently got back in stock" is the giveaway. Going out of stock for 7+ days resets ranking on your top keywords. Reorder velocity has to rebuild before impressions normalize, and during that window your ads end up competing on every keyword instead of only the converters. That's why ACOS exploded.
Worth comparing TACoS vs ACoS over the same window. If TACoS held but ACoS got worse, your organic share collapsed and ads are carrying everything. Fix is rebuild ranking with coupons and SB defenses, not lower bids.
How long was the OOS window before you got back in stock? And was Buy Box at 100% the whole time? Those two answers narrow it to one of the three causes.
