How a Pest Control Brand Cut ACOS 9 Points in One Week While Sales Grew 9.2%
A pest control brand on Amazon was running a 48.8% weekly ACOS at the start of its peak insect season. In one week, ACOS came down to 39.4% while sales still grew 9.2%, saving roughly $1,198 a week in ad spend for more output rather than less. The lever was cutting wasted spend and redeploying it into converting search terms the account had never targeted.
01The challenge
A pest control brand on Amazon was heading into the few weeks of the year that decide its season with a 48.8% weekly ACOS. Almost half of every advertised dollar was going back out the door, at the exact moment volume was about to be at its highest.
Peak season punishes a bad ACOS harder than any other time of year. Click costs are at their annual maximum because every competitor is bidding, so an inefficient account does not just waste more money, it wastes it faster, and there is no quiet month afterwards to make it back.
02The approach: The Peak-Week ACOS Compression
The Peak-Week ACOS Compression does not slow the account down to fix efficiency. It moves the same money out of what is not working and into demand the account was already receiving but not bidding on.
Cut the wasted spend first
Stripped out spend that was not returning, which is the fastest available lever in a week where every click costs more than it will for the rest of the year. This is the move that funds everything after it.
Push budget behind the proven performers
Boosted the campaigns and targets already converting well, so the freed budget landed where the account had existing evidence rather than a hypothesis.
Launch campaigns on converting search terms that were not targeted
Found high-converting search terms the account was picking up incidentally but had never targeted directly, and built new campaigns against them. This is where the sales growth came from, and it is demand the account was already earning without bidding for it.
03The results
Weekly ACOS fell from 48.8% to 39.4%, a 9.4 point improvement in a single week, while sales grew 9.2% over the same period. The efficiency gain was worth roughly $1,198 a week in ad spend, produced alongside more sales rather than fewer.
The timing is the point. Higher, cheaper sales during peak insect-repellent season protect margin in the weeks that carry the year, when every efficient click counts most and every wasted one is at its most expensive.
Why it worked: the account was not overspending in total, it was misallocating. Waste and untapped demand existed side by side, which is the common case and the reason 'spend less' and 'sell more' are not opposites. It also proves the account can scale profitably from here, so the freed budget can be reinvested into more sales instead of held back to defend ACOS.
04FAQ
Can you lower Amazon ACOS and grow sales at the same time?
Yes, when waste and untapped demand exist in the same account. On this pest control account, cutting non-returning spend and redeploying it into previously untargeted converting search terms took weekly ACOS from 48.8% to 39.4% while sales grew 9.2%, saving roughly $1,198 a week.
What is the Peak-Week ACOS Compression?
A three-move Amazon PPC sequence for a seasonal account already inside its peak: cut the spend that is not returning, push the freed budget behind proven performers, then build new campaigns on high-converting search terms the account was receiving but never targeting.
Should you fix a seasonal Amazon account before or during peak season?
Before is better, but during is far better than after. Click costs peak when every competitor is bidding, so a 9 point ACOS improvement is worth more in peak weeks than in any other week of the year. Waiting for the season to end to fix efficiency means paying the highest prices of the year for the account's worst performance.
How do you find converting search terms you are not targeting?
Run the search term report and look for terms producing conversions through broad or auto campaigns that have no exact-match campaign of their own. On this account, those terms were where the sales growth came from, because the demand was already being earned incidentally and just needed to be bid on directly.
What is a good Amazon ACOS during peak season?
Judge it against the account's own baseline and its margin, not a benchmark. This account improved from 48.8% to 39.4% in a week and the improvement mattered more than the absolute level, because it happened while sales grew and during the weeks with the highest click costs of the year.
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Mike Begg
E-commerce operator and business acquirer. Founder of AMZ Commerce Advisers (100+ active Amazon brands, 500+ managed since 2016) and GoAvance. Owner of Reach Social Commerce (50+ TikTok Shop launches). Amazon Ads Advanced Partner. Based in Guadalajara, Mexico.
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