Key takeaways: A useful report answers three questions: what changed in the account this period, why it was changed, and what it did to the numbers you care about. Weekly reports should be short and specific, monthly reports should explain the trend and the plan, and quarterly reviews should judge the strategy. If a report only shows ACoS and spend, it is a dashboard, not a report.
The three questions every report must answer
Most agency reports are screenshots of Campaign Manager with a paragraph of commentary. They tell you what the numbers were. They do not tell you what the agency did, and so they cannot tell you whether the agency is the reason the numbers moved. Ask for three things in every report.
What changed. A list of the edits made in the account this period: bids raised or lowered and on which keywords, negatives added, campaigns launched or paused, budgets moved, listing or creative changes uploaded. In a well-run account this list comes straight from the change log, because every edit was made in bulk, validated and recorded before upload. That is how B21 · How changes reach your account works in our playbook, and it is why the report can be specific.
Why. The rule or evidence behind each group of changes. "Added 34 exact negatives for terms with over 20 clicks and no orders in 60 days" is a reason. "Optimized campaigns" is not.
What it did. The metrics that the change was meant to move, compared with the period before. Wasted spend after a negatives sweep. Conversion rate after a main image change. Rank on the target terms after a placement modifier increase. Each change has a number it was supposed to affect, and the report should show that number.
Weekly, monthly, quarterly
| Cadence | Length | Contents | Question it answers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly | One page | Changes made, sales and ad spend vs prior week, ACoS and TACoS by ASIN group, stock and listing alerts, next week's planned changes | Is the account moving in the right direction and is anything on fire? |
| Monthly | Three to five pages plus a call | Trend on the primary KPI, profit per ASIN, organic vs paid share, tests run and results, plan for next month against the 30/60/90 | Is the strategy working and what changes next? |
| Quarterly | Review meeting | Objective vs outcome, unit economics by ASIN, seasonal plan for the next quarter, budget and scope review | Should the strategy, budget or scope change? |
The weekly report is the one that matters most and the one most often skipped. It does not need to be long. It needs to be on time, consistent in format so you can compare weeks, and honest about the alerts: a stock-out, a suppressed listing or a Buy Box loss belongs at the top, not buried after the ACoS chart. A9 · How and when you hear from us sets out how and when we communicate, and the weekly report is the backbone of it.
Metrics that belong in the report
At account level: total sales, ad sales, ad spend, ACoS, TACoS, and the organic share of orders. At ASIN level, for the products that matter: sessions, conversion rate, rank on the three to five target keywords, ad spend and profit after ads. For the advertising specifically: wasted spend as a share of total, share of spend in exact versus discovery campaigns, and budget utilization.
Profit per ASIN is the metric agencies most often leave out, because it needs your cost data and because it can make a good-looking month look ordinary. It is also the one number that tells you whether the account is actually better off. If the agency does not ask for landed cost in the first month, ask why.
Signs a report is hiding something
- Only account totals. A launch running at 80% ACoS and a mature range at 15% average out to something that looks fine. Ask for ASIN groups.
- ROAS instead of ACoS with no margin context. A 4x ROAS is a 25% ACoS. Whether that is good depends on your margin, which the report should reference.
- Ad sales without total sales. Ad sales can rise while total sales fall, if paid is cannibalizing organic orders. Both numbers, every time.
- No change log. If you cannot see what was edited, you cannot judge whether the agency did anything or whether the market moved on its own.
- Moving goalposts. The primary KPI agreed at the start should be the first line of every report. If it disappears from the report, it is usually because it moved the wrong way.
- Screenshots of Campaign Manager. You can log in and see those yourself. The report should add what the console cannot: the reasoning.
Reading the report as a client
Spend ten minutes a week on it. Check the primary KPI first, then the alerts, then the changes list. Ask one question when something in the changes list does not match the reasoning. That single habit keeps an agency honest more effectively than any contract clause, and it means the monthly call starts with a decision rather than a recap.
Frequently asked questions
How often should an Amazon agency report?
Weekly for the operational report, monthly for the strategy review with a call, and quarterly for a review of the objective, budget and scope. Anything less frequent than weekly leaves problems like stock-outs and suppressions unreported for too long.
What should an Amazon PPC report include?
Changes made and why, spend and sales versus the prior period, ACoS and TACoS by ASIN group, wasted spend, rank on target keywords, budget utilization, alerts, and the plan for the coming period. Profit per ASIN belongs in the monthly report.
Should I still have access to my own Seller Central and advertising accounts?
Always. The agency works as a user on your accounts, never as the owner. You should be able to log in, see every campaign and verify every figure in the report against the console.