Live diagnostic

Your ACOS looks fine.
Your profit doesn't.

You've built the campaigns, tweaked the bids, read every guide. Something is still leaking, and the dashboard won't tell you where. Upload your bulk file and see it in 60 seconds.

Find What's Leaking: Free Snapshot Book the 30-min diagnosis See a sample snapshot
Diagnoses the spend leaks Seller Central won't show you Works whether you run PPC yourself or your VA does 9 metrics scored against where they should be One operator on your account, with an AI that double-checks every bulk-file pass before changes ship
Scanning campaign metrics sample account T+00.00s
ACOS
22.0%
OK
Wasted Spend
18.0%
AT RISK
LEAKS DETECTED 00 Scanning…
Step 01 · Free snapshot

Drop your bulk file. I'll show you the bleed.

9 metrics, scored against where a healthy account at your phase should be. Parsed in your browser. Not stored. Takes about 60 seconds.

stratum-ppc · bulk-file-analyzer · ready
How to download your bulk file

Amazon Ads Bulk Sheet (last 60 days)

Go to Amazon Ads > Bulk Operations > Download, and include:

  • Sponsored Products: Targeting & Keywords (Status: Enabled + Paused)
  • Paused Campaigns
  • Placement Data for Campaigns
  • Sponsored Products Data
  • Sponsored Brands Multi-Ad Group Data
  • Sponsored Display Data
  • Sponsored Products Search Term Data
  • Sponsored Brands Search Term Data

Missing tabs grey out affected metrics, not a hard error. The last 60 days is enough.

Separate multiple with commas. Used only to split branded vs. non-branded spend in your report, it's not stored and isn't a login or contact field. Skip it and that one metric just greys out.

Drop your bulk file here

Or click to browse. Accepts .xlsx files from Amazon Ads Bulk Operations. Typical size: 2–40 MB. Don't have every tab? Missing ones just grey out their metrics. Partial files still work.

Parsed in browser · only aggregated metrics sent, then discarded
See a sample snapshot
01 / UPLOAD
Bulk file in browser
Parsed locally. Only the aggregated metrics for your report are sent, then discarded.
02 / SCORE
9 metrics graded
Healthy · Investigate · Critical, per phase.
03 / FIX
Action plan, on-screen
Fix it yourself, or hand it to me.

This upload gives you the 9-metric snapshot: your wasted-spend estimate, the scorecard, and the top structural flags, in about 60 seconds. Want the deeper cut? The full 9-panel Audit Dashboard is a separate free tool that takes the same bulk file and goes to root cause.

The snapshot and the deeper diagnosis are both free. If you want me to manage it after, it's a flat $1,499/mo, never a % of your ad spend, cancel month-to-month. See what's included →

Analyzing your data...

Crunching the numbers from your bulk file.

● Reading campaign structure
● Mapping search term performance
● Calculating wasted spend
● Generating your snapshot
$1.76M+
In monthly PPC sales managed across my career
6.6x
Blended ROAS across 7 categories
$40K–$500K/mo
The sellers I'm built for, from lean profitability up to exit-prep
How I work

One operator. Every pass double-checked by AI.

You still work with me directly, start to finish. The difference: when I pull your bulk file, I run my analysis, then an AI I built re-checks the file and my recommendations before anything ships. It catches what a tired human eye skips. I make every call. Nothing runs on autopilot.

01

A second set of eyes

No one reads a 13,000-row bulk file without missing something. After my pass, the AI double-checks my work against your full file and flags what I skipped: an overlooked negative, bid math that doesn't tie, a search term bleeding across two campaigns. I review every flag and decide.

02

Nothing on autopilot

Every bid change, every negative, every pause gets my review and sign-off before it touches your account. The AI double-checks and flags. I decide. You're never handed to a model.

03

No lock-in, ever

Leave any month and you keep a standard, documented bulk-sheet structure any operator or tool can run. Nothing depends on my software. No black box to inherit.

04

Your data stays yours

The AI reads the bulk file you've shared only to run its check. It never trains anything used on another client, and a data-processing addendum is available on request.

How it works

How I find what's costing you.

You've done the work. Something's still off. Here's how I pinpoint the structural problems your dashboard can't show you.

Step 01

Upload your data

Drop your Amazon bulk file into the free snapshot tool. In under a minute, you'll see a 9-metric scorecard showing exactly where your account is bleeding: wasted spend, search term leakage, bid structure gaps.

Step 02

See the hidden problems

I go deeper than surface ACOS. I map your search term flow, isolate the campaigns dragging your margins down, and show you the structural issues that tweaking bids will never fix. Run a wasted spend finder, n-gram analysis, or negative keyword scan on your own data first.

Step 03

Fix or hand off

Armed with the diagnosis, you can fix it yourself or hand it to me. If I manage it, you get weekly bid optimization, negative targeting, keyword harvesting, and transparent reporting. No contracts.

The numbers

What happens when you fix the structure.

Four seller transformations, all inside 90 days. Different revenue bands, different phases, same playbook: diagnose the structure, fix the leaks, get out of the way of the margin.

Health & Personal Care
Profitability phase · 3 mo
Added to monthly profit
+$4,735/mo
↑ 30.2% lift · no budget increase
ACOS−31.9%
39.66%→27.02%
TACOS−46.4%
9.25%→4.96%
Profit Margin+7.47pp
34.11%→41.58%
ROI+63pp
161%→224%

This seller was doing everything right on the surface: campaigns built, bids adjusted, budgets allocated. The problem was structural: search term bleed across campaigns, wasted spend on non-converting keywords that looked active, and a bid architecture that rewarded impressions over conversions. I diagnosed the leaks, rebuilt the structure, and ACOS dropped from 39% to 27% in 90 days. Monthly profit jumped $4,735. No budget increase.

Toys & Games
Growth phase · 3 mo
Added to monthly profit
+$1,725/mo
↑ Profit margin more than doubled · 7.51% → 15.85%
Sales+113%
$6,605→$14,105
TACOS−5.3pp
29.91%→24.57%
Profit %+8.3pp
7.51%→15.85%
CVR+1.3pp
8.33%→9.58%

A toys & games brand at ~$6.6K/mo with profit margin under 8%. The growth was there, but every additional sale was barely paying for itself. I rebuilt the bid architecture for velocity-with-discipline: aggressive on the search terms that converted, ruthless on the long tail that didn't. The doubling wasn't paid spend alone. Concentrating budget on the converting head terms pushed organic rank on those keywords, and the organic sales compounded on top of the ad sales. Three months later: monthly sales doubled, TACOS dropped 5 points, and profit margin doubled. Same operator. Same product line.

Beauty / Skincare
Profitability · $45K/mo · 3 mo
Added to monthly profit
+$2,890/mo
↑ Net of the $1,499 retainer · no budget increase
ACOS−35.7%
38.4%→24.7%
TACOS−45.1%
14.2%→7.8%
Wasted Spend−61.0%
41%→16%
CVR+2.7pp
9.1%→11.8%

A $45K/mo skincare brand bleeding spend to non-converting variant search terms: six ASIN variants, only three of them carrying their weight. I killed the long tail, concentrated spend on the top three converters, rebuilt the negative structure, and dropped wasted spend from 41% to 16%. Monthly profit lift cleared the retainer in week three. Cash-flow math closed by month two.

Home Goods / Kitchen
Market Share → Profitability · $310K/mo · 3 mo
Added to monthly profit
+$28,400/mo
↑ Exit-prep transition · cleaner TACOS for diligence
ACOS−32.7%
32.1%→21.6%
TACOS−36.8%
11.4%→7.2%
Profit Margin+7.5pp
18.9%→26.4%
ROAS+48%
3.1x→4.6x

$310K/mo kitchen brand, 12 months from a planned aggregator exit, leaking ~$11K/mo to top-of-search placements on terms that actually converted better lower on the page. Rebuilt every bid around what each keyword was truly worth (revenue per click × target ACOS), with caps so bids don't whiplash week to week, restructured branded defense, and pulled TACOS from 11.4% to 7.2%. TACOS (total ad cost ÷ total sales) is the line item aggregator buyers scrutinize hardest in diligence. +$28,400/mo on the bottom line, plus a clean, defensible ad P&L for the exit window.

Services

What I actually do.

Three ways to engage, all starting with a diagnosis, not a pitch.

Account Diagnosis

I pull your data and map every dollar. You'll see exactly which campaigns are leaking, which search terms are bleeding budget, and what structural changes will move the needle. Not a vague PDF. A line-by-line action plan.

Free · this is the 30-min call
Written summary delivered 48 hrs after. No obligation to continue. Keep everything I find.

Full Campaign Management

Once you see what's wrong, hand it to me. I rebuild the structure, manage bids weekly, harvest keywords, build negatives, and report transparently. You stop babysitting campaigns and focus on your product.

From $1,499/mo · flat fee
Why flat fee? Cutting your wasted spend saves you money and costs me nothing. That's the only pricing structure where my incentive and yours point the same direction. Cancel month-to-month, no notice. If you leave, you keep everything: the rebuilt campaign structure and a clear record of what changed and why. No black box to inherit.

Launch & Scale

New ASIN? I build the campaign architecture from day one: keyword research, aggressive early targeting, rank tracking, and the structural foundation so you never end up in the "bleeding and can't see why" position again.

Custom · quoted after diagnosis
Pricing depends on launch scope (number of ASINs, category competitiveness). Flat fee, never % of spend.
About

I don't guess. I diagnose.

Alfred Gabaldon, founder of Stratum PPC
Alfred Gabaldon
Founder & Lead PPC Operator, Stratum PPC
See my track record on LinkedIn
6+ yrs on Amazon Ads 4 accounts under management now $1.76M+/mo PPC sales managed (career)
Currently accepting 3 new accounts this quarter

I map your campaign structure, trace your search term flow, and tear down your placement data to find the problems bid-tweaking will never fix.

I work exclusively with Amazon private label brands: health & personal care, home & kitchen, toys & games, beauty, automotive, industrial, photography, lighting, ebooks, and CPG. That focus means I've likely seen your exact problem before.

You'll always know what I found, what I changed, and why. Every Wednesday you get a plain-English performance report: the numbers, what moved them, and what I'm doing next, so you're never in the dark and never back in the weeds. One operator, start to finish. No rotating account managers. I cap the book on purpose instead of scaling into an agency, so a new client never means yours gets less of me. When I'm full, I close the list rather than hand accounts down.

What I won't fix: bad listings, weak A+ content, broken Brand Registry. PPC amplifies whatever's on the detail page. If the listing doesn't convert organically, no amount of bid optimization saves it. If that's your problem, I'll tell you on the diagnosis call instead of taking your retainer.

60 sec
From upload to scorecard
48 hr
Written diagnosis delivered
9 metrics
Scored against your phase
No contracts
Cancel month-to-month, no notice
weekly performance update example format · not a client's data

Week of May 24–30

Sales
$8,240
▲ 18% vs last wk
Ad Spend
$1,510
▲ 12% vs last wk
TACoS
18.3%
▼ from 21.1%
CVR
9.4%
▲ from 8.1%
Profit
20.5%
▲ from 16.2%

What happened

  • Sales up 18% on a controlled 12% spend increase. The ranking campaigns from last month are converting, and organic share climbed to 41% of total (from 33%).
  • TACoS improved to 18.3% as organic absorbed more of the volume; profit margin expanded to 20.5%.
  • One variant (B0XXXXXXXX) is the efficiency drag: 72% ACOS on $190 spend. Flagged below.

What we're doing next

  • Concentrating budget on the two converting hero ASINs; tightening bids on the B0XXXXXXXX variant instead of feeding it.
  • Holding the top-of-search push on the primary keywords while organic rank compounds.

Expect next week

  • TACoS should keep easing toward target as organic rank holds. The variant decision sets how fast margin recovers.

Plain-English, every Wednesday: the numbers, what moved them, and what I'm doing next, so you're never in the dark, and never back in the weeds. This is the format, not a client's data.

FAQ

Questions sellers actually ask.

How do you charge for the management service?

Flat fee from $1,499/mo. Never % of ad spend. That's the only structure where cutting your waste is my incentive, not my loss. Cancel month-to-month, no notice period.

What does the snapshot actually check?

9 metrics scored against where a healthy account at your phase should land: Account ACOS, Top-of-Search ACOS, wasted spend %, conversion rate, branded vs non-branded split, auto-campaign share, budget concentration, revenue concentration, and spend/revenue alignment. Each gets a Healthy / Investigate / Critical flag. No vanity metrics.

Why doesn't Seller Central show me this?

Seller Central reports each metric in isolation. The snapshot reads your bulk file across reports (Sponsored Products targeting, search term reports, placements) and surfaces structural problems (search term bleed across campaigns, mismatched bid architecture, and branded/non-branded ratio) that don't show up in any single Seller Central view.

Is my bulk file safe?

Parsed in your browser. Only the aggregated numbers needed for the report are sent to the analysis server, held in memory during analysis, then discarded. No file storage. No email gate. No account.

Do I need a perfect bulk file?

No. The last 60 days is enough. Include Sponsored Products Targeting + Keywords (Enabled + Paused), Placement Data, Search Term Reports for SP and SB, and Sponsored Display Data if you run it. Missing tabs grey out the affected metrics, not a hard error.

How does the audit classify keywords? What are the four buckets?

Every targeting row in your bulk file gets sorted into one of four buckets based on orders, ACOS, and spend relative to your account-level target CPA. The logic is fixed, not vibes:

  • High ACOS: orders > 0, ACOS above your account average. Converting but at a margin penalty.
  • Low ACOS: orders > 0, ACOS at or below your account average. The keywords carrying the account.
  • High Spend / Non-Converting: orders = 0, spend above target CPA. The bleed bucket; these are the negation candidates.
  • Low Visibility: orders = 0, clicks below the threshold needed to fairly judge them. Not bleeding yet, but not proven either. Fund the test or kill them.

The bucket distribution alone tells you whether the account is leaking budget (mass in High Spend / Non-Converting) or starving its winners (mass in Low Visibility).

What are the phase benchmark thresholds?

The snapshot scores nine metrics against ranges that shift based on your strategic phase. The thresholds your free snapshot grades against:

MetricAwarenessMarket ShareGrowthProfitability
Account ACOS< 40%< 30%< 25%< 15%
Top-of-Search ACOS≤ 60%≤ 50%≤ 40%≤ 30%
Wasted Spend %< 50–60%< 35–45%< 30–40%< 25–30%
Conversion Rate> 3%> 6%> 8%> 10%
Branded Sales %≤ 5%≤ 25%≤ 15%≤ 15%
Auto Campaign %≤ 40%≤ 25%≤ 20%≤ 15%
Budget Concentration≤ 90%≤ 80%≤ 70%≤ 60%
Revenue Concentration≤ 90%≤ 80%≤ 75%≤ 65%
Spend/Revenue Alignment≤ 20pts≤ 15pts≤ 10pts≤ 5pts

Definitions: Budget Concentration = share of total ad spend in your top 3 ASINs. Revenue Concentration = share of total ad sales from your top 3 ASINs. Spend/Revenue Alignment = how far your spend distribution drifts from your sales distribution across ASINs (half the summed absolute gap between each ASIN's spend-share and sales-share, on a 0–100 scale; 0 = spend tracks revenue exactly, higher = budget pointed at ASINs that aren't producing the matching sales). Ranges, not exact decimals. The snapshot uses the precise thresholds. These are directional so you can sanity-check your account against the right phase before booking.

Can my VA upload the bulk file instead of me?

Yes. The snapshot is built to be forwarded. Send your VA or account manager the upload page. They get the bulk file, drop it in, and the scorecard renders. The 30-min diagnosis call is the one part where I want you there, because the structural conversation needs the owner.

Do you use AI? Who actually makes the decisions?

Yes, as a second check, not as the operator. When I pull your bulk file, I run my analysis, then an AI I built re-checks the file and my recommendations and flags anything I missed: an overlooked negative, bid math that doesn't tie, search-term bleed across campaigns. I review every flag and make the call. Nothing runs autonomously, and nothing on your account is "AI-optimized" in a way another operator couldn't pick up and run. You're hiring me, with a second set of eyes, not a bot with a human nearby.

What if my listing is the problem, not my PPC?

I'll tell you on the diagnosis call. PPC amplifies whatever's on the detail page. If your listing doesn't convert organically, no amount of bid optimization fixes that. The snapshot's conversion-rate flag is usually the first place this shows up. If listings are the real bottleneck, I'll tell you straight and not take the retainer.

I'm prepping for an aggregator exit. Does that change anything?

Yes. The work shifts from "what's the lowest ACOS we can hold" to "what does the P&L need to look like for diligence." Buyers scrutinize TACOS, branded vs. non-branded ratio, and bid architecture defensibility, not just topline ad sales. Tell me your timeline on the diagnosis call and I'll structure the engagement around the exit window.

How many accounts do you currently manage? Are you at capacity?

Four active accounts as of this quarter. I'm currently accepting three new accounts. Capacity is the constraint, not lead flow, and the cap is deliberate: I'd rather turn away revenue than scale into a team and let your account get diluted or handed to a junior. You always work with me directly, start to finish. If we're a fit on the diagnosis call and there's a slot, I'll quote you on the spot. If we're a fit but slots are full, I'll tell you when the next opening lands.

You're a one-person operation. What if you're unavailable?

Your account is never unattended. I keep the book small specifically so I'm never stretched thin or out of reach: I stay close to every account daily and reachable for any real-time decision. No multi-week gaps, no "your manager is on vacation." For a brand inside an exit window, that continuity is exactly the point.

Exit prep

Planning a sale in 9–18 months?

Aggregators and strategic buyers don't price your brand on top-line sales. They price on the line items in your P&L that survive due diligence. TACOS is one of the first things they pull.

01

Clean TACOS, not just clean ACOS

Buyers diligence total advertising cost of sale, not the campaign-level number you optimize against. A brand at 11% TACOS sells at a different multiple than one at 7%. Same revenue, different price.

02

Defensible bid architecture

Buyers want to see structure they can hand to their internal team without losing months of momentum. Documented, transparent, replicable. Not "the operator's special sauce."

03

Branded defense without overspend

Strong branded ROAS protects the moat. Bloated branded spend means you're paying to defend ground nobody's attacking. Buyers know the difference; the wrong ratio costs you on the multiple.

If you're inside the exit window, the Profitability-phase snapshot is the right starting point. Book the diagnosis and tell me your exit timeline, and I'll structure the work around it.

Free diagnosis

Find out what's leaking before you spend another dollar.

Upload your bulk file for a free snapshot, or book a 30-minute diagnosis call. I'll show you the specific structural problems in your account and what they're costing you. No pitch. No obligation. Keep the insights either way.

Get your free diagnosis
Free account health snapshot, no email required 30-minute live diagnosis of your campaign structure I name the specific problems and what they're costing you No contracts. No obligation. Keep everything I find.