Amazon advertising, read in three dimensions

Every report is a shadow.

ACOS is one shadow. AMC is another. Search Query Performance is a third. Look at one and you can only guess the shape. Connect them, and a finite set of data starts to show the real thing.

Open the public ledger Where to start

Connect the reports, connect the AI, until a finite set of data shows the answer's real shape.

Every report is a shadow

Each report flattens a three-dimensional account onto a single plane. Most of the market works from one shadow at a time, which is why two operators can stare at the same ACOS and prescribe opposite fixes.

Dashboard vs. map

ACOS and AMC are dashboards: lagging indicators that tell you something moved. Eligibility for the auction and the customer cycle are the map: they tell you where you are and which road leads where.

Why one operator can do it now

Joining AMC with the other reports used to take an analytics team. With AI handling the joining, cleaning and first-pass checks, one operator can run the investigation and keep the judgment.

I don't hand out answers.

I share a view that has been tested hard on real accounts and could still be overturned tomorrow. Every claim here states its premises, says whether it comes from my own measurements or is still a hypothesis, and names the result that would prove it wrong.

Discussion, data, logic, verification. In that order, and on repeat.

ACOS

AMC

SQP

The account

Three ways in

Read, check, then run it yourself.

The free material is meant to be true enough to stand on its own. The paid course is where you get the full steps to reproduce it on your own account.

NOTES

Short reads

One popular claim or one reading trap per note. Premises laid out, the conclusion, one example and the condition that would overturn it.

Browse notes → LEDGER

Public ledger

Every verdict in one table, including the ones we later reversed. Open questions are listed too, so you can bring data to them.

Open the ledger → COURSE

The full series

Six modules from the shadow problem to designing what you watch. Every unit includes the step-by-step method, queries and checklists.

See the syllabus →

Latest notes

Recently published

All notes →

2026-10-12
Our own claim: "It's not ACOS, it's TACoS" — does it still hold?
The principle holds — judge ads by what they do for the account. The ratio is a gauge; proving ads drove growth takes holdouts, controls, and placebo arms.
⚠️ Partly
2026-10-12
Reading trap: the Business Report doesn't match the number you saved last month
Revised for weeks: units drift down, sessions drift up. Store the pull time; re-pull before comparing; prefer ratios.
— Reading trap
2026-10-12
"Lower ACOS is always better"
ACOS is a verdict line for harvest campaigns, not a goal for every campaign. A low ACOS can mean the ad stopped finding new customers or ran out of budget.
❌ Doesn't hold
2026-10-12
"Raise the bid and you'll get more impressions"
Bid acts on ranking among eligible ads, not on eligibility; own campaigns compete for the same auction; capped budgets turn higher bids into fewer clicks.
❌ Doesn't hold

From the public ledger

Popular claims, judged.

✅ holds · ⚠️ partly · ❌ doesn't hold · 🔶 untested · — reading trap (a way the numbers mislead). Experience means measured on my own accounts; Hypothesis means the framework is formed and still being tested.

Loading the ledger…

See the full ledger, including open questions →

Written for

Sellers with real volume and real data, in-house ad leads, and operators who run accounts for brands. People who already know the buttons and want to know why the numbers move.

Not written for

Anyone looking for a setup checklist, a guaranteed result, or a tool to buy. There is nothing here to sell you except the course, and it promises a method, not an outcome.