Amazon advertising benchmarks 2026: CTR, conversion rate, and CPM by category

2026 Amazon advertising benchmarks put CTR at 0.56%, CVR at 10.77%, and CPM at $8.08, up 39.18%, across 2,800+ brands in Triple Whale's customer data. Category decides what "good" looks like: in the same Aug 2025 to Jul 2026 data, Electronics converts at 5.04% against 16.33% for Pets & Animals.

At Olifant Digital, we manage $100M+ in annual Amazon client revenue across 50+ Amazon accounts. This guide adds our own September 2026 data from 66 managed ad accounts and covers cross-category and category benchmarks, ad formats, ACoS vs TACoS, Amazon's native Benchmarks report, and the order we fix underperforming metrics in.

TL;DR

• CTR 0.56%, CVR 10.77%, CPM $8.08. These are the 2026 Amazon advertising benchmarks across 2,800+ brands in Triple Whale's customer data, Aug 2025 to Jul 2026.
• Reach costs more. CPM rose 39.18% year over year, from $5.81 to $8.08.
• Category sets the bar. Electronics converts at 5.04% against 16.33% for Pets & Animals.
• Amazon's report skips ACoS and CVR. The native Benchmarks report covers CTR, CPC, CPM, and new-to-brand metrics, but excludes ACoS and CVR.
• Fix metrics in a fixed order. Work through CTR, CVR, CPC, then ACoS, because a problem upstream makes every metric below it look worse.
• Managed accounts gain 84% in CVR. Olifant Digital's analysis of 50+ managed accounts shows an 84% average conversion rate increase.
• Our own data: top of search sells best. Across 66 ad accounts we manage, top-of-search clicks converted at 13.1% against 5.5% on product pages in September 2026, at a 34% median ACoS.

What are Amazon advertising benchmarks?

Amazon Ads benchmarks are performance baselines for the key metrics. The 4 metrics we measure every week include the:

• Cost per click (CPC)
• Advertising cost of sales (ACoS)
• Click-through rate (CTR)
• Conversion rate (CVR)

The benchmark figures in this guide come from Triple Whale's customer data across 2,800+ brands, covering Aug 1, 2025 to Jul 31, 2026. Category CPC comes from Amazon's own Benchmarks report in your console.

For instance, a 7% CVR is on par for Apparel & Accessories (6.84% median) and a warning sign in Pets & Animals (16.33% median). Benchmarks set the starting line, and your CVR can move well above it. Across the 50+ brands we manage, the average conversion rate increase is 84%.

2026 Amazon advertising benchmarks: cross-category averages

According to Triple Whale's customer data across 2,800+ brands (Aug 2025 to Jul 2026), here's how Amazon Ads performance moved against the prior 12 months.

These numbers are often quoted as the Amazon average. They blend high-cost categories with low-cost ones. Use them to read the market.

Triple Whale doesn't publish CPC, so pull your category CPC from Amazon's Benchmarks report, covered below.

There are 3 trends that stand out:

• Reach costs more. CPM, the cost of a thousand ad views, rose 39.18% in a year. This increase matters if you run Sponsored Display or Amazon DSP.
• Amazon shoppers buy more often. Amazon ads convert at 10.77%, while Shopify's 2026 guide puts most e-commerce sites at about 1.6% to 2.9% of sessions. The bases differ, so treat this as directional.
• Clicks are earning more attention. CTR rose 35.16%, from 0.41% to 0.56%, so more shoppers who see an ad now click it.

Amazon advertising benchmarks by category

The table shows Triple Whale's median CTR, CVR, CPM, and average order value (AOV) for 9 industries over the same period.

Averages hide the story. The platform-wide number tells you almost nothing about your account, so find your category row and judge your numbers against it.

What the category numbers tell you

Electronics converts lowest and sells highest

Electronics has the lowest median CVR at 5.04% and the highest median AOV at $108.62. It's a crowded category, and the products cost enough that sellers can bid hard.

At that conversion rate, loose targeting burns your budget before lunch. Use exact match keywords and block all the search terms that aren't producing sales.

Apparel has the cheapest reach and the lowest CTR

Apparel & Accessories has the lowest median CPM at $4.36 and the lowest median CTR at 0.48%. According to Statista, clothing is the category US online shoppers most often say they returned. In its survey, 25% of respondents returned clothing, versus 17% for shoes and 12% for accessories.

Returns push your real cost per sale above what the ad reports show. Subtract them when you set your target ACoS.

Pets & Animals converts best

Pets & Animals has the highest median CVR at 16.33%, followed by Food & Beverage at 14.96%. Prices are low, and shoppers usually reorder more often. Plus, the "Subscribe and Save" option turns one purchase into a standing order.

Categories such as Beauty (14.10%) and Health & Wellness (11.56%) work similarly. Judge these on what a customer spends over 3 months.

Compare each metric against your category row. Then, work out your break-even ACoS, which is the profit margin that's left after your product cost, Amazon fees, and shipping.

Price is important too. A $15 product will almost always convert better than a $150 one. As such, expect to sit above your category's conversion rate if you sell cheap and below if you sell premium products.

“When an ad underperforms, most sellers cut the bid first. In our accounts, top-of-search clicks convert about twice as well as product-page clicks and cost only about 30% more, so a lower bid usually pushes you out of the one placement that sells. If CTR or conversion rate is below your category benchmark, fix the main image, title and listing first. Then decide what a click is worth.” Alex Stoykov, founder and CEO of Olifant Digital

Amazon Ads benchmarks by ad format

Amazon offers 4 main ad formats. According to Amazon Ads, Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands are cost-per-click (CPC) ads, and Sponsored Brands also supports cost per thousand viewable impressions (vCPM). Amazon Ads prices display ads (formerly Sponsored Display) per click or by vCPM.

Each format has its own pricing and function. Your choice of format matters as much as your bids do.

Sponsored Products is the format to build around. These ads sit in the search results and look like the listings around them, reaching those shoppers who already typed what they want. If you run one format, make it the base of your Amazon advertising strategy.

Sponsored Brands buys the space that's above the search results. You need to use it so your ads show your product range when someone searches for your brand.

In our accounts, display ads (formerly Sponsored Display) work as a lower-cost follow-up. They drive few sales on their own, yet keep your product in front of people who looked and left.

Amazon DSP places ads on and off Amazon, with pricing that varies by format and placement. According to Amazon Ads, the managed DSP service typically requires a minimum spend of $50,000 USD, which varies by country.

What our own accounts show: Olifant data from 66 Amazon ad accounts

Published benchmarks come from software vendors and Amazon's peer reports. To check them against real managed accounts, we pulled September 2026 Sponsored Products data from 66 Amazon ad accounts we manage across 11 Amazon marketplaces in North America, Europe and Australia. Each account had at least 200 clicks in the month, sales use Amazon's 7-day attribution, and no client is named. Figures are medians unless we say otherwise.

Pooled across all US spend ($671,757 in September), ACoS was 21.0%, conversion rate 12.1%, CTR 0.75% and CPC $1.14. The pooled ACoS sits far below the median because larger accounts run more efficiently, which the spend split below shows.

ACoS ranges from 11% to 117%

Of 42 US accounts, 13 ran an ACoS under 25% and 11 ran above 50%. That spread is why a single “good ACoS” number is meaningless without your margin next to it.

Higher-spend accounts paid more per click than mid-size ones and still ran the lowest ACoS, because they converted almost twice as often. Small accounts paid the highest CPC of all.

Top of search converts 2x better than product pages

Top-of-search clicks converted 2.02x as often as product-page clicks while costing only 1.29x as much. Top of search had the lower ACoS in 82% of the 63 accounts with enough placement data. This is the strongest case for fixing CTR and conversion before cutting bids: a lower bid pushes you out of the placement that sells best.

Benchmarks by region

UK clicks cost less than US clicks (£0.63, roughly $0.85, against $1.13) and converted better in our sample. Euro marketplaces had the lowest CTR and conversion rate, so listings there need local-language titles and images before bids are raised. The UK and EU samples are small, so read them as directional.

Category results in our accounts

Home and furniture shows why conversion rate alone misleads: it converts at just 2.0%, yet a $322 average order keeps ACoS at 26%. Beauty is the opposite case: clicks are cheap, but ACoS sits near 50% in a crowded category. These are medians from our own accounts, so treat them as directional next to the larger datasets above.

Where search term spend goes

In the median account, 55% of September Sponsored Products spend went to search terms that got clicks but no sale that month. Only about 5% went to terms with 10 or more clicks and no sale. Most wasted spend is spread thin across many low-click terms, so a “negate after 10 clicks” rule catches little of it. Tight campaign structure and relevant targeting do more.

Exact match ran the highest median ACoS, because it carries the most contested head terms. Moving a term to exact gives you control over its bid, not a lower ACoS by default, so judge every exact term against your break-even ACoS.

Sponsored Brands wins new customers

In the 30 accounts with enough Sponsored Brands spend, a median 87% of Sponsored Brands sales came from new-to-brand customers, at a 34% ACoS, a 10.7% conversion rate and a $1.52 US CPC. Sponsored Products took a median 85% of total sponsored ads spend and Sponsored Brands 15%. 34 of 46 accounts ran Sponsored Brands, while only 18 ran display ads.

August to September

From August to September 2026, the median account's CPC fell 2.5%, conversion rate fell 4.8% and ACoS stayed flat, on 10.6% less spend. Pooled US CPC moved from $1.11 to $1.14. The late-summer lull is real, and it is the cheapest window to build rank before Q4.

Olifant data: Sponsored Products, September 1 to 30, 2026, 66 managed ad accounts with 200+ clicks each across 11 Amazon marketplaces, Amazon 7-day attribution. Medians unless stated.

Why Amazon ad costs keep rising (and what to do about it)

According to Amazon's 2025 annual report (10-K), the company booked $68.6 billion in advertising services revenue in 2025, up from $56.2 billion in 2024. Amazon's Q2 2026 quarterly report (10-Q) shows $19.8 billion in Q2 2026, up about 26% from $15.7 billion a year earlier. Reach is getting pricier too, with Triple Whale's CPM up 39.18% year over year.

When more sellers bid for the same ad slots, everyone ends up paying more. Amazon is also adding new places for ads to appear. For example, Amazon Ads moved Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands prompts to general availability in the US on March 25, 2026.

In our accounts, top of search took 37.8% of Sponsored Products spend in September 2026, more than any other placement. Competition for those positions pushes prices up across the rest of the page.

None of this has to cost you profit, with the following 5 changes:

1. Use exact keywords for proven terms. Check weekly which phrases shoppers typed before buying, then target those exactly.
2. Block the searches that don't sell. Every click you pay for on a search that never converts comes straight out of margin.
3. Adjust bids by time of day. If few customers buy between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., bid less in those hours.
4. Pay more for the slots that work. In our accounts, top of search converted 2.02x as well as product pages, so bid accordingly.
5. Add reach-focused ad types. In our accounts, display ads and Amazon DSP often cost less per person reached and pull the average down.

Sellers who are still using the loose targeting that worked in 2022 will see their profits shrink. On the other hand, those adjusting to today's higher click costs will maintain their margin.

ACoS vs TACoS: which benchmark matters?

ACoS and total advertising cost of sales (TACoS) are both important because each one answers a different question. However, when you mix them, it will lead to incorrect decisions that will look right.

ACoS only answers one question: Is the campaign profitable on its own? If your margins are 25% and your ACoS is 32%, every ad-attributed sale loses money.

TACoS answers a bigger question and also includes organic revenue. Calculate your TACoS every month and compare it with the month before.

When TACoS is falling, it means your ads are building a flywheel. Rising TACoS means that you're "renting" the sales.

This is why it's important to read both together. A healthy ACoS alongside a climbing TACoS means that the organic has stalled, and the paid spend is holding up the top line.

How to use Amazon's native benchmarks report

Amazon Ads made Benchmarks reporting generally available in 18 marketplaces on May 18, 2026, after a US-only beta. It's available to brand owners registered in Amazon's Brand Registry.

In our experience, many published benchmarks before the beta came from software vendors reporting on their own customers' data. Now, you can see how you compare to other sellers in the same category using Amazon's own data.

You'll find it in the Amazon Ads console and through the Amazon Ads API. It compares 8 metrics against category peer brands: 3 new-to-brand metrics, CTR, CPC, CPM, video completion rate, and cost per completed view. It doesn't include ACoS or CVR, so use your break-even ACoS as the benchmark for those.

The new-to-brand figures are worth studying, as they separate the cost of winning a genuinely new customer from the cost of reaching someone who is already aware of your brand. If your costs are higher than those of similar sellers, your ads aimed at new audiences are expensive and don't generate much return.

How to diagnose and fix underperforming Amazon Ads

Benchmarks only matter when you act on them. Work through the 4 metrics in a fixed order: CTR first, then CVR, followed by CPC, and lastly ACoS.

Each one feeds the next. This means a problem that's near the top makes everything below look worse than it is. There's no amount of bid tuning that will fix a listing that nobody clicks on.

Step 1: fix CTR

It's important to check if your CTR is under 0.4%. If shoppers are seeing your ad but scrolling past it, it means you either have a problem with your main image, title, or the searches in which you show up. In our audits, the main image is usually the first thing to fix for CTR, so check it first.

Then, you need to pull a 14-day Search Term Report and look for phrases that have plenty of impressions, but no clicks. For example, an ad that shows up for "organic dog treats" under a title that reads "Premium canine nutrition bites" is paying for clicks it will never get.

Lifting your CTR from 0.3% to 0.5% gives you 67% more clicks from the same impressions, without paying more per click. This is why this step comes first.

Step 2: improve your conversion rate

If fewer than 8 out of 100 clicks end in a sale, this step is for you.

The listing is the problem.

Start with the reviews. A product with fewer than 15 reviews or a rating below 3.8 stars needs attention. Use Vine and follow-up emails to gather more reviews.

Then, improve your A+ Content and check your price against competitors on the same page. Also, confirm that every size and color is in stock with Prime Delivery.

These fixes all move the same number. Going from 8 sales per 100 clicks to 12 cuts your cost per sale by a third.

Step 3: reduce your CPC

When your cost per click is above the benchmark for your category, it's time to bring it down.

If your CTR and conversion rate are healthy, you need to adjust your bidding by:

• Moving those keywords that reliably sell into exact match
• Paying more for the ad slots that convert best
• Lowering bids during the hours when there are fewer purchases
• Blocking any term that has spent twice your target cost per sale without producing one

The goal is profitable clicks. A click that costs $1 and leads to a sale is still better than one that costs 20 cents and leads nowhere.

Step 4: bring ACoS in line

This is the last step, if ACoS is still above benchmark and the other 3 metrics look fine.

The constraint is margin or the product.

If it's the margin, raise your price and reduce what the product costs you, or accept the advertising as the price of winning a repeat customer.

Cutting wasted spend also protects margin. On a protein bar brand's account, we cut broad, non-converting keywords and rebuilt targeting around high-intent long-tail terms. The result was 171% revenue growth for Balanced Tiger in 2 months, with a 50% ACoS reduction.

If it's the product, no bidding will fix it. Selling a product at $45 while the competitors are doing it for $12 (without any obvious reason for the difference) is an Amazon brand positioning problem.

Not every high ACoS is a problem. You should expect it to climb during a:

• Product launch
• Push for new customers
• Seasonal peak

Budget for these periods in advance so the spike is a planned decision.

Seasonal Amazon Ads benchmarks: planning your budget

Across the accounts we manage, Amazon costs follow a similar pattern every year. The table shows that pattern, with our recommended bid and budget changes for each period.

Event spend climbs faster than click prices. According to Triple Whale's Prime Big Deal Days 2026 benchmarks, daily Amazon ad spend rose about 149% versus the prior week. Median CPC rose only about 6%, and median CPM about 1.5%.

Our own accounts show the same pattern on a smaller scale. During Prime Big Deal Days on October 6 and 7, 2026, across 53 accounts we manage, median daily spend rose 21% against the September daily average, CPC rose 7.6%, and daily ad sales rose 21%. Conversion rate rose 1.9% and ACoS held almost flat (+1.4%), while CTR fell 14% as more brands competed for the same shoppers. These are early figures pulled on October 10, so some event sales are still being attributed.

There are 2 annual actions that deserve special mention.

First, ensure you buy your Q4 rankings early. In our accounts, clicks are much cheaper in August than in November, and sales during that period lift your listings in the search results before the rush begins.

Second, judge TACoS across the whole quarter. This tells you whether the spending left you with sales that keep coming or you only got the sales for which you paid.

How we handle Amazon Ads benchmarks at Olifant

Inside our Amazon PPC management service, we check every account against its category benchmarks weekly, at campaign level. We pull CTR, CVR, CPC, and ACoS for each campaign and compare them with the category row.

We fix them in the same order every time: CTR, CVR, CPC, then ACoS. A CTR or CVR problem goes to the Conversion Designer on the account before anyone touches a bid. Bid changes can't rescue an ad nobody clicks or a listing nobody buys from.

Once CTR and CVR clear the benchmark, we restructure campaigns with the 1-1-1-1 Scaling Method, our proprietary campaign architecture framework. It pairs one keyword, one match type, and one target inside one ad group. That structure, used on the Balanced Tiger account, means each bid decision applies to a single search term.

Bids are managed daily with our in-house AI platform, Olifant AI, and a senior specialist owns every bid decision. We analyze the search term report weekly and move converting terms into exact match. ACoS gets judged last, against the brand's break-even ACoS.

Key takeaways

• The 2026 baseline is a 0.56% CTR. The 2,800+ brands in Triple Whale's customer data also averaged a 10.77% conversion rate and an $8.08 CPM from Aug 2025 to Jul 2026.
• CPM jumped from $5.81 to $8.08. Every thousand ad views cost 39.18% more than the year before.
• Your category moves the target. Pets & Animals converts at 16.33%, while Electronics converts at 5.04%.
• Amazon's native report has gaps. It benchmarks CTR, CPC, CPM, and new-to-brand costs against peer brands, with no ACoS or CVR.
• Upstream metrics come first. Fix CTR, then CVR, then CPC, and judge ACoS last.
• Managed accounts convert 84% better. That's the average conversion rate increase in Olifant Digital's analysis of 50+ managed accounts.
• Placement matters more than bid cuts. In 66 accounts we manage, top of search converted at 13.1% against 5.5% on product pages, and ACoS ranged from 11% to 117%.

Final thoughts

Amazon advertising benchmarks are a diagnostic tool. Your category, price point, and margin decide what a good number looks like.

You need to compare your performance against the benchmarks in the tables above and fix the upstream metrics first, following the diagnostic sequence of CTR, CVR, CPC, and ACoS, and then track TACoS alongside ACoS to measure whether your advertising is building long-term organic growth.

The 2026 landscape is very clear. The brands that win are those with disciplined bidding strategies, strong listings, and a view of their numbers.

If your numbers sit below your category benchmarks, get a free marketing plan. Olifant Digital is a full-service Amazon and e-commerce marketing agency for established brands that want profitable growth. We'll analyze your account, identify your biggest constraint, and build a plan to fix it. Our services start from $2,000 per month and are custom for each project, based on the complexity and workload required, and every engagement comes with a 60-day guarantee: if we don't improve your performance, you don't pay.

Get your free marketing plan

Frequently asked questions

What is a good ACoS on Amazon in 2026?

Your margin is what determines a good ACoS. As such, the right answer is different for every seller. To determine your ACoS, take your selling price and subtract the product cost, Amazon's fees, and shipping. Whatever percentage is left is the point where advertising stops making you money.

What is the average click-through rate on Amazon ads?

The average click-through rate on Amazon ads is 0.56% across 2,800+ brands in Triple Whale's customer data, Aug 2025 to Jul 2026. By category, medians run from 0.48% for Apparel & Accessories to 0.68% for Toys, Art & Collectibles. If your CTR sits under 0.4%, fix your main image and search term relevance first.

How do I calculate CTR in Amazon ads?

Divide clicks by impressions, then multiply by 100. For example, 280 clicks ÷ 50,000 impressions × 100 = 0.56% CTR, which matches the 2026 cross-category benchmark. Run the calculation weekly at campaign level and compare it with your category row.

How do Amazon conversion rates compare to other platforms?

Amazon ads convert at 10.77% in Triple Whale's data, while Shopify's 2026 guide puts most e-commerce sites at about 1.6% to 2.9% of sessions. The two figures are measured on different bases, so treat this as a directional comparison.

In our experience, timing is the main reason: Amazon shoppers arrive ready to buy, with reviews, prices, and delivery dates on one page. On social media, someone who clicks is still deciding whether they want the product.

How often should you check your benchmarks?

Check your own numbers weekly. ACoS, CPC, CTR, and CVR at a campaign level are enough to spot a problem while it's still in its initial phase, and this gives you enough data to identify a real change. TACoS is a monthly job as it moves slowly by nature. Reading it too often will have you reacting to nothing. Add one extra comparison before Prime Day and before Q4 when the costs climb and last year's figures tell you more than the annual averages do.

How much does Amazon PPC management cost?

At Olifant Digital, services start from $2,000 per month and are custom for each project, based on the complexity and workload required, and every engagement comes with a 60-day guarantee: if we don't improve your performance, you don't pay. Ad spend is billed separately.