Key Takeaways
Why ag exemption is the wrong name, what qualifies land, the county standards that decide it, and the three-year rollback that catches buyers.
- The Texas Comptroller calls this a special appraisal, not an exemption, because it changes the valuation method rather than removing value from the roll.
- Productivity value is based on what the land can produce agriculturally, which is usually far below market value.
- Texas Tax Code 23.55 imposes an additional tax on three years of the difference when the use of the land changes, plus penalties and interest.
- County appraisal districts set degree of intensity locally, so the same activity can qualify in one county and fail in the next.
- Many counties require land to have been in agricultural use five of the preceding seven years, so you cannot buy bare land and qualify next year.
Start with the search term report, then examine negative targeting, campaign structure, bids, budgets and the claims shoppers see after the click. The aim is a short list of changes that protects profit while giving useful campaigns room to grow.
A magnesium capsule and a pre-workout powder may both sit in the supplement category, but their buyers, economics and advertising constraints differ. An account-wide ACoS average can hide a profitable hero SKU next to a new product that consumes budget without converting. A useful audit works at the SKU and campaign level before making broad changes.
Here are seven checks a US supplement brand can run before adding more spend.
1. Set a margin-based ACoS target for each SKU
ACoS is ad spend divided by ad-attributed sales, expressed as a percentage. It tells you what share of attributed revenue went to ads; it does not tell you whether the order was profitable. Amazon Ads explains the formula and why there is no universal “good” ACoS.
Start with the selling price, then subtract product cost, Amazon fees, fulfilment, expected promotions and a reasonable allowance for returns. The amount left before advertising is the simplified break-even ad budget for that order.
For example, if a $30 supplement leaves $10 after those costs, the simplified break-even ACoS is about 33%. An established SKU may need a target well below that figure to fund overhead and profit. A launch campaign may temporarily have a different objective, but that decision should be explicit and time-limited.
Audit action: Put each advertised SKU in a simple sheet with selling price, contribution margin, break-even ACoS and the target ACoS for its current stage. Flag campaigns whose spend is being judged against an account-wide target that ignores the SKU’s economics.
2. Check whether the listing can convert the click
An ad can attract a relevant shopper and still fail if the detail page does not answer the question that brought them there. Before adjusting bids, inspect the advertised ASIN on desktop and mobile.
Check that the main image clearly shows the product, the pack size and serving count are easy to understand, the title accurately identifies the formula, and the price is sensible against comparable listings. Review stock availability, recent reviews, variation setup and any suppressed or incomplete content.
Then compare the search query with the page. A shopper looking for “magnesium glycinate capsules” should immediately see the ingredient form and capsule count. If the query promises one thing and the listing leads with another, more clicks may only create more wasted spend.
Audit action: For each high-spend, low-conversion ASIN, record the top three listing issues before increasing its budget. Fix the retail experience and then reassess campaign performance over a comparable period.
3. Read search terms, not only targeted keywords
A targeted keyword is what you bid on; a search term is the shopper query that actually triggered an ad. This distinction is where much of the useful audit work happens.
Download the Sponsored Products search term report for a meaningful period and group queries by intent. Separate exact product matches, adjacent needs, competitor names, broad research terms and clearly irrelevant traffic. Compare spend, clicks, orders, attributed sales and ACoS for each group. A query with no orders after a handful of clicks is a review candidate, not automatic proof that it will never convert.
Look for winners as well as leaks. If an automatic or broad-match campaign discovers a relevant term with repeat sales, test that term in a manual campaign where you can manage the bid more deliberately. Amazon Ads describes automatic targeting as a source of search insights for manual campaigns.
Audit action: Make three lists: proven queries to promote, uncertain queries to monitor and irrelevant or persistently inefficient queries to exclude.
4. Use negative targeting with care
Negative keywords can stop ads from appearing for searches that do not fit your product or performance goals. Negative product targets can exclude unsuitable ASINs or brands. Both controls can help focus spend, and Amazon supports them in automatic and manual Sponsored Products campaigns.
Do not add a broad exclusion just because one query had a poor week. A phrase negative can block useful variations as well as the obvious mismatch. Check the match type, campaign scope and related queries before applying it.
For example, a brand selling unflavoured collagen powder might exclude a clearly unrelated product form, while keeping a relevant ingredient query that simply needs a lower bid or a better listing. A negative is most useful when the traffic is genuinely unsuitable or has enough evidence of poor performance.
Audit action: Review new negatives at the campaign and ad-group levels. Note why each was added so you can reverse an exclusion if it blocks a useful term. Amazon Ads outlines negative keyword and product targeting.
5. Separate campaigns by purpose
When branded defence, category discovery, competitor targeting and new-product launches share a single campaign, the account is difficult to read. Their conversion rates and acceptable ACoS can differ for legitimate reasons.
An audit should show what each campaign is supposed to do. A branded campaign may defend existing demand. A category campaign may seek new shoppers. A product-targeting campaign may reach people comparing similar or complementary ASINs. A launch campaign may be testing terms before there is enough data to scale.
There is no need to create dozens of tiny campaigns for the sake of a neat dashboard. Split campaigns when the separation improves control over bids, budget, targeting or reporting. Keep the naming consistent enough that someone else can tell which SKU and objective a campaign serves.
Audit action: Label every active campaign with its product, targeting type and purpose. Flag campaigns that mix objectives or send several products with very different margins into the same budget decision.
6. Inspect bids, placements and budget limits together
High CPC alone is not a reason to stop a target. A more expensive click may be worthwhile if the product converts and the contribution margin supports it. The useful question is whether the bid and placement are buying incremental orders at an acceptable cost.
Compare performance by target and placement, then look for campaigns that exhaust their budget early. A profitable campaign that runs out of budget may deserve funds moved from a weaker one. A campaign that spends its full budget without orders needs a review of targeting, bids and the detail page before more budget is added. Amazon Ads recommends assessing those factors together when a campaign spends without converting.
Also check inventory. Driving a surge of paid traffic to a product close to running out of stock can create an avoidable interruption. For a supplement line with multiple pack sizes or flavours, keep the advertised ASIN aligned with the version you can actually fulfil.
Audit action: Identify the top five campaigns by spend, note their budget status and placement performance, then decide whether to reallocate, change bids, fix the listing or maintain the current setup.
7. Review claims and report on the whole business
Supplement ads and detail pages need a careful claims review. Ad copy should accurately reflect the product page, and any claim should be supportable. Check headlines, images, packaging text and the linked listing before scaling a creative or campaign. Amazon Ads says advertising claims must be truthful, consistent with the detail page and substantiated.
The final audit view should include more than ACoS. Track ad spend, ad-attributed sales, total sales, product-level contribution and inventory alongside ACoS. TACoS—ad spend divided by total sales—can be a useful directional measure of how advertising relates to overall revenue. A change in TACoS does not, by itself, prove that ads caused an organic sales change.
Audit action: Produce a one-page summary with the three biggest spend leaks, three strongest growth opportunities, the owner of each action and a date to review the outcome.
What should you do first?
Do not rebuild the account in a single afternoon. Start with the changes backed by the clearest evidence: irrelevant search terms consuming real budget, a high-spend listing with an obvious conversion issue, or a campaign whose budget is being taken by a weaker SKU. Record the date of each change so the next performance review can separate the effect of the change from normal variation.
A good audit ends with decisions, not a thick export of campaign metrics. If you would like another set of eyes on your account, AKSpire offers a free PPC audit for US supplement brands. Bring your top ASINs, current ad spend and main growth goal; the findings should show where to investigate first.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good ACoS for a supplement brand?
There is no single number that suits every supplement. Work from each SKU’s contribution margin and business goal. A new launch may tolerate more ad cost for a defined period, while an established product needs room for overhead and profit. Compare ACoS with conversion rate, total sales and stock position before changing a bid.
How often should I audit Amazon PPC search terms?
Review high-spend campaigns frequently enough to catch irrelevant traffic before it consumes a large budget. A weekly working review and a deeper monthly audit are practical starting points, but the right cadence depends on spend and order volume. Use enough data to avoid overreacting to a small number of clicks.
Should I pause every keyword with no sales?
No. Check relevance, click volume, spend, product margin and the listing experience first. A term with few clicks may simply lack evidence. A clearly irrelevant query can be excluded sooner; a relevant query with substantial spend and no orders may need a lower bid, a listing fix or a pause.
Is lowering ACoS always the goal?
No. A lower ACoS can result from cutting useful discovery spend or shifting the mix toward branded searches. Judge the change against contribution margin, total sales, new-to-brand reach where available, and the campaign’s purpose. The goal is profitable growth over time, not the lowest possible percentage on a screenshot.
