This account had been run for revenue optics rather than profit. Sales were flat, margins were thin, and the budget was funding clicks that did not convert. We took over on December 1. In the first 30 days net profit grew 48% while ad spend fell 44%, and January profit beat Black Friday.
- Net profit: $82,609, up 48% in the first month
- Ad spend cut 44% while profit grew
- Profit per unit up 2.1x
- Gross margin from 14.8% to 26.5%
- January profit beat Black Friday, up 23% over the prior peak
The principles that made it work
- Fix the math before buying more traffic. Most profit problems on Amazon are math problems, not demand problems.
- Cut the spend that does not convert. The fastest profit is the waste you stop paying for.
- Put budget behind products with margin. Rankable SKUs with margin depth get the spend. The rest come out of rotation.
How we did it: the PAIR process
- Promotions. Killed weak discounts and ran offers that lifted velocity and profit through December.
- Advertising. Cut ad spend 44% and kept only the keywords that converted.
- Rankability. Focused on rankable SKUs with margin depth and dropped the rest from ad rotation.
What good looks like
A flat quarter is usually an efficiency problem, not a demand failure. Fix the math, cut the spend that is not converting, and the profit comes back in weeks, without new SKUs or price hikes. It is why the right agency is measured on profit, not on spend.
