# How to Automate Amazon Ads Using the API

- Tool: API Automations
- Difficulty: Advanced
- Fix time: 60–90 minutes
- Compatibility: Amazon Ads API v2, Node.js 18+, Python 3.9+
- Last updated: May 2026

## TL;DR

Use the Amazon Ads API to automate Sponsored Products management. Pull daily performance reports via the async /v2/sp/reports endpoint, calculate ACOS per keyword, adjust bids via PUT /v2/sp/keywords, and pause campaigns below your ROAS threshold. The Ads API is separate from SP-API and requires its own LWA app registration.

## Best practices

- Register a separate LWA application for the Ads API — do not reuse your SP-API credentials
- Always call GET /v2/profiles first to get the profile_id before making any campaign API calls
- Run bid optimization at most once per day — Amazon's attribution window is 7 days, so daily changes are sufficient
- Set hard bid limits in code (e.g., max $5, min $0.10) to prevent automation errors from setting extreme bids
- Use dry-run mode (log intended changes without applying) for the first few runs to validate your logic
- Implement a minimum data threshold — don't adjust bids based on fewer than 10 clicks or 3 days of data
- Store all bid changes in a database for trend analysis and to revert bad changes if needed
- Test with a single campaign before enabling automation across your full account

## Frequently asked questions

### Is the Amazon Ads API the same as SP-API?

No. They are completely separate APIs with separate app registrations, separate LWA client credentials, and separate base URLs. SP-API handles orders, catalog, and inventory at sellingpartnerapi-na.amazon.com. The Ads API handles campaigns at advertising.amazon.com. If you use both, you need two separate LWA applications and maintain two sets of credentials.

### How long does it take for Amazon Ads reports to generate?

Reports typically take 15–60 minutes to generate. Current-day reports are not available until ~3 hours after UTC midnight. There's no way to speed up generation — poll every 60 seconds and handle the wait. The report for a given day becomes available the following day.

### What is ACOS and how is it calculated?

ACOS (Advertising Cost of Sale) = (Ad Spend / Attributed Sales) × 100%. A 25% ACOS means you spent $0.25 in ads for every $1 in attributed sales. Lower is generally better. The report metric 'acos7d' is Amazon's pre-calculated 7-day ACOS. You can also calculate it manually from the 'spend' and 'sales7d' metrics.

### What happens if I set a bid too low and my ads stop showing?

Keywords with bids below Amazon's minimum (typically $0.02) or below the competitive bid range for your category may stop showing impressions. If you notice a keyword going to zero impressions after a bid reduction, increase the bid. Always set a minimum bid floor (e.g., $0.10) in your automation logic to prevent this.

### Can I automate Sponsored Brands or Sponsored Display campaigns too?

Yes. The Ads API supports Sponsored Brands at /v2/hsa/* endpoints and Sponsored Display at /sd/* endpoints. The authentication and general pattern is the same, but the endpoints, attributes, and report metrics differ. Focus on Sponsored Products first since it's the most commonly automated campaign type.

### How do I get the profile_id for my Amazon Ads account?

Call GET /v2/profiles with your Ads API access token and client headers. This returns a list of all advertising profiles authorized under your credentials, including profile_id, country, currency, and account type. Save the profile_id for your target marketplace and include it in the Amazon-Advertising-API-Scope header on every subsequent request.

### Can RapidDev help me build a custom Amazon Ads optimization system?

Yes. RapidDev can build a complete bid management system with custom ACOS targets per product category, dayparting rules, budget pacing, and weekly performance dashboards. We handle the Ads API integration, report parsing, and automated bid logic.

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Source: https://www.rapidevelopers.com/api-automations/how-to-automate-amazon-ads-using-the-api
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