This is the most current 2026 reference for Amazon PPC ACOS benchmarks across the major UK and US Amazon categories. Use it to calibrate your own performance, set realistic targets, and decide whether your current ACOS is a real problem or a category reality.
What Is ACOS?
Advertising Cost of Sale (ACOS) = ad spend ÷ ad-driven revenue. ACOS of 25% means you spent £25 in ads to drive £100 in sales attributed to those ads.
The Two Numbers That Matter
ACOS in isolation is meaningless. The two numbers that matter are:
- Break-even ACOS — the ACOS at which advertising contributes zero profit.
- Target ACOS — the ACOS that keeps you profitable at your desired margin.
If your gross margin is 40%, your break-even ACOS is 40%. Your target ACOS depends on whether you’re aggressively growing (closer to break-even) or maximising profit (well below break-even).
2026 Benchmarks by Category
| Category | Top quartile ACOS | Average ACOS | Bottom quartile ACOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beauty & Personal Care | 15–25% | 30–40% | 50%+ |
| Health & Household | 20–28% | 30–42% | 55%+ |
| Home & Kitchen | 18–28% | 30–40% | 50%+ |
| Pet Supplies | 15–25% | 28–38% | 50%+ |
| Toys & Games | 12–22% | 22–32% | 40%+ |
| Baby | 15–25% | 25–35% | 45%+ |
| Garden & Outdoor | 15–25% | 28–38% | 50%+ |
| Sports & Outdoors | 15–25% | 25–38% | 45%+ |
| Electronics & Accessories | 10–18% | 20–30% | 40%+ |
| Fashion (Clothing & Shoes) | 15–25% | 30–45% | 55%+ |
| Office Products | 15–22% | 22–32% | 40%+ |
| Grocery | 10–18% | 20–28% | 35%+ |
Numbers compiled from anonymised UK and US seller data and aligned with the 2025–2026 reporting period.
What Drives ACOS Differences
- Category competitiveness: beauty and supplements have aggressive bidders driving CPCs up.
- Average order value: low-AOV categories struggle harder — even cheap clicks add up against a small basket.
- Conversion rate: categories with high consideration (electronics) often have lower conversion and higher ACOS.
- Brand strength: branded keywords convert at 25–40% with low ACOS; unbranded competitive keywords are 5–10% conversion with higher ACOS.
If Your ACOS Is Too High
- Audit search terms — remove the bottom 20% wasteful queries via negative keywords.
- Restructure into branded, defensive, exact, broad, and discovery campaigns.
- Reduce bids on bottom-quartile keywords by 20–30%.
- Improve listings — conversion rate is half the ACOS battle.
- Move budget toward Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display where ACOS is often lower.
If Your ACOS Is Already Low
Counter-intuitive but important: if your ACOS is well below your break-even, you’re probably under-spending. Test increasing budgets and bids on top-performing keywords to capture more sales volume even at higher (still profitable) ACOS.
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