First-party retail media benchmarks
Amazon Ads Benchmarks: CPC, CTR and ROAS
RMIQ-managed Amazon Ads campaigns paid $0.90 a click, the highest CPC of the five retail media networks in our data, and each click returned about $4.15 in attributed sales. That is the second most valuable click in the dataset, within 2% of Instacart's $4.21 and about 1.9 times Walmart Connect's $2.19.
Amazon Ads sells Sponsored Products per click, at the top of, alongside and within Amazon's shopping results and on product pages. This page publishes what those clicks cost and return in RMIQ's accounts: cost per click (CPC), click-through rate (CTR) and return on ad spend (ROAS), set against Walmart Connect, Instacart, Sprouts and Thrive Market over the same month. The figures are RMIQ's own averages from live client campaigns. Nothing here is gated, and no email is required.
Written by Mateusz Drela, CEO, RMIQ
The dataset
Amazon Ads benchmarks at a glance
| Metric | Benchmark | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Average CPC | $0.90 | Cost per click, all managed Amazon Ads campaigns |
| Average CTR | 0.70% | Clicks divided by impressions, all managed campaigns |
| ROAS | 4.61x | Attributed sales per $1 of ad spend, about 21.7% ACoS (derived) |
| Sales per click | About $4.15 | Attributed sales per click, derived as ROAS times CPC |
| Scale | 2.7M | Ad impressions in the period, with 19,037 clicks |
Cost per click
Average Amazon Ads CPC
The average Amazon Ads CPC across RMIQ-managed campaigns was $0.90, the highest of the five networks we measured: 88% above Walmart Connect ($0.48), 70% above Instacart ($0.53) and 14% above Sprouts and Thrive Market ($0.79 each). At that average, $1,000 buys about 1,110 clicks.
Amazon prices each click in an auction on your adjusted bid plus other factors, and in Amazon's own words, the more in-demand a keyword is or the more visible the placement, the higher the cost. Four things move your CPC around the $0.90 average:
Brand and non-brand mix. In RMIQ's accounts, branded terms clear cheaply and generic category terms carry the full auction price, so a blended CPC well above $0.90 usually means non-brand spend runs without limits.
Placement and bidding settings. Top-of-search adjustments can raise a bid by up to 900%, and dynamic bidding can raise it by up to 100% on top. Both count toward your maximum CPC.
Prime events. Ad Badger's 2026 data puts the year's highest monthly Amazon CPC in June ($1.32), the month of Prime Day, and Amazon advises raising baseline bids for event traffic. September 2026 held no Prime event, so the $0.90 is an everyday price.
Who bids on your terms. Amazon picks Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands ads by the keywords advertisers choose to bid on and the amount they bid, and only the offer holding the Featured Offer, in stock, can advertise your listing. Brand protection starts with winning that offer.
A practical read from RMIQ's playbook: if your Amazon CPC sits well above $0.90 outside a Prime event, check top-of-search modifiers and exact-match coverage of your non-brand terms before you blame the auction. The Amazon keyword research tool is a quick way to build that term list.
Click-through rate
Amazon Ads CTR
Amazon Ads delivered a 0.70% click-through rate in RMIQ-managed campaigns, about 1.9 times Walmart Connect's 0.37%. It also clears two published Amazon yardsticks: Ad Badger's 2026 Amazon average CTR is 0.58%, and its Food and Grocery average is 0.39%.
Out of every 1,000 impressions, about 7 turned into clicks on Amazon and about 4 on Walmart Connect. The grocery-first networks draw more: Instacart's 2.11% is about three times Amazon's, Sprouts reached 1.67% and Thrive Market 3.16%.
| Network | Average CPC | Average CTR |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon Ads | $0.90 | 0.70% |
| Walmart Connect | $0.48 | 0.37% |
Placement spread. Sponsored Products serve at the top of, alongside and within shopping results and on product pages. In RMIQ's reading, Amazon traffic spans research, comparison and replenishment, so many shoppers who see an ad are still comparing.
Match type. Exact match serves only on the precise search, which keeps relevance high, while broad and phrase match trade relevance for reach. Amazon recommends the highest bids on exact match.
Listing quality. Amazon advises advertising products with five or more reviews at 3.5 stars or higher, four or more images and at least three bullet points. Its own data shows Sponsored Products with video earned a 67% higher CTR.
Read CTR with CPC. Amazon buys fewer clicks per 1,000 impressions than the grocery networks, and each click costs more. The next section shows why that trade pays.
Return on ad spend
Amazon Ads ROAS
RMIQ-managed Amazon Ads campaigns returned 4.61x ROAS, within 0.07 of Thrive Market (4.64x) and Walmart Connect (4.57x) and 31% above Sprouts (3.53x). In Amazon's own terms that is an ACoS of about 21.7%, derived as 1 / 4.61, since the dataset reports ROAS.
The expensive click earns its price. ROAS times CPC gives attributed sales per click, and at $0.90 a click and 4.61x, each Amazon click returned about $4.15. Only Instacart's click returned more, and by under 2%.
| Network | Attributed sales per click | Derived from |
|---|---|---|
| Instacart | $4.21 | 7.95x times $0.53 |
| Amazon Ads | $4.15 | 4.61x times $0.90 |
| Thrive Market | $3.67 | 4.64x times $0.79 |
| Sprouts | $2.79 | 3.53x times $0.79 |
| Walmart Connect | $2.19 | 4.57x times $0.48 |
At these averages, a $10,000 budget buys about 11,100 Amazon clicks and $46,100 in attributed sales. The same budget on Walmart Connect buys about 20,800 clicks and $45,700: nearly twice the clicks for slightly less in sales.
Attributed sales at each network's average ROAS in this dataset, applied to your number. Your own ROAS will differ.
What holds Amazon ROAS back
Automatic campaigns without negatives. Negative targeting works in both automatic and manual campaigns. In RMIQ's accounts, automatic campaigns left without negatives are a frequent drag on ROAS.
Modifiers that never paid back. Placement adjustments of up to 900% buy visibility at a price. In RMIQ's accounts, top-of-search modifiers set high without a conversion lift pull ROAS down.
Budgets gone early. Amazon does not pace daily budgets through the day, so a small budget can be spent in minutes, and campaigns that run out miss the day's best-converting hours.
RMIQ's rule of thumb: a managed Amazon account below 4x ROAS usually has one of these three problems, and each one can be checked against the numbers above.
Amazon-specific
The Amazon settings behind these numbers
On Amazon, a few campaign settings decide how far your CPC can climb above your bid and how long your budget lasts. Each one moves the averages on this page, and each one is in your hands.
Placement adjustments. Bids can be raised by up to 900% for top of search, rest of search and product pages, so you pay more where a placement converts.
Dynamic bidding. With dynamic bids up and down, Amazon can raise a bid by up to 100%, and its guide tells advertisers to be prepared to spend double the bid. Fixed bids use the exact bid you enter.
Daily budgets. Daily budgets are not paced, and Amazon's own example is a peak-day budget gone by noon. Schedule-based budget rules raise budgets ahead of events.
Negative targeting. Negative keywords, products and brands apply to automatic and manual Sponsored Products campaigns, at campaign or ad group level.
Amazon recommends letting an automatic campaign run for about two weeks before building manual campaigns from what it finds, and reviewing dynamic bids about every two weeks. In RMIQ's accounts, the terms that convert get their own exact-match campaigns and bids, and modifiers stay only where they pay. For formats and setup, see the Amazon Ads guide.
Network comparison
How does Amazon Ads compare with other retail media networks on ROAS?
Amazon Ads ranked third of five on ROAS at 4.61x, behind Instacart (7.95x) and Thrive Market (4.64x) and ahead of Walmart Connect (4.57x) and Sprouts (3.53x). It had the highest CPC and the second-largest volume, with 2.70M impressions and 19,037 clicks.
| Network | Average CPC | Average CTR | ROAS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Instacart | $0.53 | 2.11% | 7.95x |
| Amazon Ads | $0.90 | 0.70% | 4.61x |
| Walmart Connect | $0.48 | 0.37% | 4.57x |
| Sprouts | $0.79 | 1.67% | 3.53x |
| Thrive Market | $0.79 | 3.16% | 4.64x |
Instacart leads on ROAS and returns 1.72 times Amazon's, Thrive Market leads on CTR, and Walmart Connect sells the cheapest click. Amazon pairs scale with the second most valuable click of the five. See the Instacart Ads benchmarks and the Walmart Connect benchmarks for those networks in detail.
For consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands, Amazon's clicks pay back almost as well as the best grocery click in the dataset, at the second-largest volume of the five. In RMIQ's view, that makes Amazon the base of the plan, with grocery networks added where your products sell.
Methodology
How these benchmarks were measured
- Source:
- Amazon Ads campaigns RMIQ manages for CPG brands
- Scale:
- 2.7M ad impressions, 19,037 clicks
- Period:
- September 2026, a month with no Prime event
- CPC and CTR:
- All managed Amazon Ads campaigns in the period; CTR is clicks divided by impressions
- ROAS:
- Attributed sales divided by ad spend, as each network reports it
- Derived:
- ACoS as 1 / ROAS; sales per click as ROAS times CPC
- Not published:
- Spend and sales in absolute terms
The same month and the same method cover all five networks, so the comparison table reads straight across. Prime Day 2026 ran June 23 to 26 and Prime Big Deal Days October 6 to 7, so September's averages carry no sales-event spike.
ROAS comes from each network's own reporting. Amazon Sponsored Products credits the last click within 7 days for seller accounts and 14 days for vendors. Instacart credits sales within 14 days of a click and splits credit across touches with linear attribution.
These are RMIQ client averages from live managed campaigns. Amazon shows category peer benchmarks only inside its console, to Brand Registry brands; this page is open to everyone. Results vary by category, basket size, promotional calendar and competitive density.
The numbers on this page may be quoted with a link to this page as the source. For the wider market, see the retail media guide.
FAQ
Amazon Ads benchmarks: questions
What CTR should I expect on Amazon Sponsored Products?
RMIQ-managed Amazon Ads campaigns averaged a 0.70% click-through rate, about 7 clicks per 1,000 impressions. That is about 1.9 times Walmart Connect's 0.37% and above Ad Badger's 2026 Amazon averages of 0.58% for all categories and 0.39% for Food and Grocery. Grocery-first networks such as Instacart (2.11%) run higher.
What is a good ACoS on Amazon?
RMIQ-managed Amazon Ads campaigns returned 4.61x ROAS, which equals an ACoS of about 21.7%, derived as 1 / 4.61. Amazon itself says a good ACoS depends on your margin: to stay profitable, ACoS has to sit below your profit margin.
Is Amazon Ads more expensive than Walmart Connect?
Per click, yes. RMIQ-managed campaigns paid $0.90 on Amazon Ads and $0.48 on Walmart Connect, about 88% more. ROAS came out almost level, at 4.61x on Amazon and 4.57x on Walmart, because each Amazon click carried about $4.15 in attributed sales against $2.19 on Walmart.
Amazon Ads vs Instacart Ads: CPC, CTR and ROAS
Instacart led on all three in RMIQ-managed campaigns: $0.53 CPC, 2.11% CTR and 7.95x ROAS, against $0.90, 0.70% and 4.61x on Amazon Ads. Per click, the two came out close: about $4.21 in attributed sales on Instacart and $4.15 on Amazon. In RMIQ's view, most CPG brands should run both.
How should I split budget between Amazon and Walmart Connect?
At RMIQ's averages, $1,000 bought about 1,110 clicks and $4,610 in attributed sales on Amazon Ads, and about 2,080 clicks and $4,570 on Walmart Connect. With returns this close, fund each network in line with the share of your sales it carries.
How do Amazon attribution windows compare with Instacart's?
Amazon Sponsored Products credits the last ad click within 7 days for seller accounts and 14 days for vendors. Instacart credits sales within 14 days of a click and shares credit across touches with linear attribution. Read cross-network ROAS with those differences in mind.
Sources
- RMIQ, campaign data from RMIQ-managed accounts on five retail media networks, September 2026.
- RMIQ, Amazon Ads benchmarks page brief, November 2026: RMIQ's observations on its accounts.
- Amazon Ads, Sponsored Products; Best practices for your Sponsored Products ads; A guide to targeting with Sponsored Products; Keyword targeting guide; New advertiser guide.
- Amazon Ads, What is cost per click?; Guide to dynamic bidding; What is ACOS?; Tips to optimize holiday advertising campaigns.
- Amazon Ads, Benchmarks reporting now generally available worldwide, May 18, 2026.
- Ad Badger, Amazon Advertising Benchmarks 2026, app data January to August 2026.
- NBC News Select, Prime Day 2026 and October Prime Day 2026 dates.
- Amazon Sponsored Products attribution windows: Intentwise; Amazon Seller Forums.
- Instacart Docs, Sponsored products; Linear attribution reporting.
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