Amazon collects a mountain of data on your ads, and most of it sits unread. The sellers who win are the ones who pull the right report, read the one number that matters, and make a change, while everyone else glances at ACoS and moves on.
Amazon PPC reports are where the account tells you exactly what to fix. Each report answers a different question, from which search terms convert to which placements pay, and knowing which to open turns guesswork into decisions.
I have run these reports across 7 to 9 figure accounts since 2015, and they are the backbone of every optimization we make. The guide below covers the report types, where to find them, and how to turn each one into profit.
TL;DR — the short version
Amazon PPC reports are downloadable performance breakdowns for your Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display campaigns, each answering a specific question about your ads. The essential ones are the search term, targeting, placement, advertised product, and performance over time reports, which between them show what to harvest, negate, scale, and cut. Pull them from the advertising console on a weekly rhythm, start from the business problem rather than the report name, and read every report through the lens of profit and TACoS.
What Amazon PPC Reports Are and Why They Matter
An Amazon PPC report is a downloadable breakdown of how your ads performed, sliced by a specific dimension like search term, target, placement, or product. Amazon collects the data automatically while your campaigns run, then lets you pull it for any date range.
The reports matter because the campaign dashboard only shows you the surface. A campaign can post a healthy ACoS while a single search term inside it bleeds money, and only the search term report reveals it. Reading the right report is how you move from knowing a campaign is off to knowing exactly which lever to pull, which is the difference between guessing and optimizing.
Find Your Reports in the Advertising Console
Getting to the reports takes a minute once you know the path. Both the advertising console and Seller Central lead to the same place.
Open Measurement and Reporting in the advertising console, choose Sponsored ads reports, and click Create report. Pick the ad category, the report type, your date range, and a time unit, then run it.
A summary report aggregates each target into one row, while a daily report breaks performance out by day, which you want when you are watching a trend. Amazon holds a limited window of history, so download and archive the reports you rely on rather than assuming they will always be there.
Know the Reports Available by Ad Type
Each ad type has its own set of reports, and the overlap is large. Sponsored Products carries the deepest reporting, since it is where most sellers spend the most.
| Ad Type | Key Reports |
|---|---|
| Sponsored Products | Search term, targeting, advertised product, campaign, placement, performance over time, purchased product, search term impression share |
| Sponsored Brands | Keyword, search term, campaign, keyword placement, search term impression share, category benchmark |
| Sponsored Display | Campaign, targeting, advertised product, purchased product |
Amazon documents the full set in its guide to measuring campaigns. One difference worth noting is that the purchased product report, which shows the products shoppers bought after clicking an ad, is available to sellers rather than vendors, so your exact menu depends on your account type.
Read the Reports That Drive Optimization
A handful of reports carry most of the weight. These are the ones our team opens every week, and the decision each one drives.
- ●Search term report. Reveals the exact queries that triggered your ads, so you can promote the converters into keyword research and add the wasters as negatives.
- ●Targeting report. Grades every keyword and product target you chose, so you can scale the profitable ones and lower bids on the rest.
- ●Placement report. Compares top of search, rest of search, and product pages, so you can set top-of-search placement bids where they earn their premium.
- ●Advertised product report. Breaks performance down by ASIN, so you can align budget with your best products and your stock.
- ●Performance over time report. Tracks average CPC and spend across the period, so you can catch a rising cost before it eats your margin.
- ●Search term impression share report. Shows your impression rank and share on each term, so you can spend more on a high-converting term where you are barely showing.
Two of these have their own detail worth a look. The search term impression share report surfaces the hidden gems you under-serve, and the advertised product report separates your promoted sales from your total attributed sales so you can see what each ASIN really earns.
Match Each Report to a Business Question
The fastest way to use reports is to start from the problem rather than the menu. Name what is wrong, and the right report follows.
- ●Spend is high but sales are low. Open the search term and targeting reports to find the queries and targets burning budget.
- ●Clicks are strong but conversion is weak. Read the advertised product report, then check the listing, since the issue is often the page rather than the ad.
- ●You want better placement. Pull the placement report to see whether top of search is worth a higher bid.
- ●ACoS looks fine but growth is flat. Look past campaign reports to TACoS and total sales, because the ads may be capturing sales you would win anyway.
- ●You need new keywords. Mine the search term and search term impression share reports for converters to promote.
That habit keeps you from drowning in data. One clear question points to one report and one change, which is how a weekly review stays fast and focused, the way a disciplined monitoring routine should.
Turn Reports Into Profit
Reports only pay off when they change what you do. Pulling them is the easy part; the discipline is closing the loop every week.
Read each report through a profit lens rather than a vanity one. A report can show a great ACoS on a branded campaign while your total business is flat, so judge the account on TACoS and margin, and let a healthy TACoS tell you whether the ads are actually growing sales.
Make the change a report points to, note it, and check the result in next week’s report, so every download earns its time. Run that loop consistently and reports become the engine of a profitable Amazon PPC program rather than a pile of spreadsheets.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Conclusion
Amazon PPC reports turn your account from a black box into a set of clear decisions, one report per question. Learn where to find them, which ones drive real optimization, and how to match a report to the problem in front of you, and your weekly review gets faster and sharper.
Pull them on a rhythm, read them through a profit lens, and act on what they show, so every download leads to a change that pays. If you would rather have a team run your reports and act on them for you, get a free Amazon PPC audit and we will show you what your data is telling you to do.
About the author: Isaac Gross is the founder and CEO of IG PPC, a hands-on Amazon and Walmart PPC agency for 7 to 9 figure brands. An Amazon seller since 2015, he founded IG PPC in 2019, and the firm now manages billions in annual Amazon sales.
