Amazon advertising
Amazon PPC reporting services
A reporting service turns Amazon advertising data into something you can act on. The difference between a useful service and a decorative one shows in a few places: whether measures are agreed with you before reporting starts, whether figures are read against your margins, whether attributed sales are presented with appropriate caution, whether the report is short enough to read and whether it ends with clear recommendations. Dashboards full of charts can look impressive while answering none of the questions you need answered.
The sections below set out what to agree, questions to ask, warning signs, data access and how to judge whether the reports are worth paying for. LetGetGrow manages Amazon advertising as ongoing management or one-off projects, working in your own advertising account, with the scope and fee set out in a custom quotation.
Illustrative diagram
- Questions
- Measures
- Data
- Template
- Routine
Setting up a reporting service
Questions
What decisions the reports must support.
Output: Reporting brief
Measures
Definitions and targets per product.
Output: Agreed measures
Data
Exports or limited access.
Output: Data source list
Template
Layout reviewed with you.
Output: Approved template
Routine
Regular reports and reviews.
Output: Report schedule
Start with your questions
Before any template is built, write down the decisions you want reports to help with: whether to raise or cut budget, which products to advertise, whether a launch is on track. A service that asks about these first will build a report around them. One that starts with a standard dashboard may give you plenty of numbers and few answers.
Questions to ask a reporting service
| Question | Good answer shows |
|---|---|
| How will you use our margins? | Break-even figures per product |
| How do you treat attributed sales? | Shown alongside total sales, with caveats |
| What does a report look like? | A sample that is short and ends with actions |
| How are measures defined? | Written definitions in each report |
| What data access do you need? | Minimum access, using Amazon's permission tools |
Warning signs
Only attributed sales shown
Results may look better than they are.
Industry averages as targets
Your margin is what matters.
Long reports, no recommendations
Numbers without decisions.
Changing layouts
Hard to compare periods.
Data access
Reporting can often be done from exports you send, or from a user account created for the service through Amazon's permission settings with read-only access where available. Avoid sharing your own login. If the service uses a third-party reporting tool connected to your account, ask what data it stores, where, and how access is removed when the work ends.
Example: agreeing measures
Illustrative example — not a client case study
Situation: A supplement brand hires a service to report on six products.
- The service asks for margins and calculates a break-even ACOS for each product.
- Both sides agree the report will show total sales beside ad-credited sales, and flag brand-name searches separately.
- The first report follows an agreed one-page template with three recommendations at the end.
What this shows: The brand knew what each figure meant from the first report. This example is illustrative.
What you should receive
Set-up
- Written measure definitions
- Break-even per product
Each report
- Summary first
- Recommendations with reasons
Records
- Change log
- Raw exports on request
Reporting separate from management
Some sellers want reporting from someone other than the person managing campaigns, as an independent check. If so, agree how the reporting service and the manager share findings, and who acts on recommendations.
Judging the service
After a few reports, ask yourself whether they changed any decisions. If you have read them and done nothing differently, either the reports are not answering your questions or the questions need revisiting.
What to agree
Agree the reporting schedule, measures, template, data access, who receives reports, whether a call accompanies each report and the fee.
Brand and category searches
Ask whether the service separates searches for your own brand from category searches in its reports. Brand searches often look very efficient because those shoppers were already looking for you. Combined figures can hide category campaigns that are struggling, so a service that splits them out without being asked is showing good judgement.
If you change provider
Reports built in a provider's own tool may not come with you if the service ends. Agree that you will receive the template, measure definitions and past reports in a format you can open without the provider's software, so the next person can continue the same series and compare like with like.
How often reports arrive
Ask what frequency the service recommends for your sales volume and why. Products with few daily orders produce noisy weekly figures; a monthly report with a short alert for problems in between may serve you better than frequent full reports.
Questions about Amazon PPC reporting services
What does a PPC reporting service do?
Turns advertising data into reports that support decisions.
What should we agree first?
The decisions reports must support and how measures are defined.
Should reports use industry averages?
Your own break-even figures are more useful.
Does the service need our login?
No; use exports or a separate user with limited access.
Can reporting be separate from management?
Yes, as an independent check.
How do we judge reports?
By whether they change decisions.
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