Had a brand come to us for an audit.
By elizabeth-greene-junglr · September 16, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
Had a brand come to us for an audit.
They said, "Our agency is telling us we need to spend more. We're already at 12% total ACoS. We don't want to go higher. But we can't seem to grow."
So we dug in.
They were spending roughly $40,000 a month on branded keywords.
Their agency had them pouring budget into shoppers who already knew the product and were already going to buy it.
The ACoS looked great.
The ROAS looked great.
And revenue was flat.
That's the trap.
A 12% ACoS can absolutely be a stalled business.
Because if most of that spend is just catching people who were already yours, you're paying a toll booth on a road people were already driving.
The agency's answer was "spend more." But more of what? More branded? That's just a bigger toll booth.
We cut branded spend from $40,000 down to just under $14,000. We built out a real ranking campaign structure focused on non-branded keywords. We shifted budget toward shoppers who didn't already know the brand.
Total ACoS? Still running at or below 12%.
Growth? 30% year over year for three straight months after being flat.
The thing is, labeling a campaign "non-branded" doesn't mean it actually is one.
I can't tell you how many times I've gotten into an account, looked at what's actually being targeted inside a quote non-branded campaign, and it's all branded keywords and branded ASINs.
If your account looks efficient but revenue isn't moving, follow the money.
Look at the actual search terms and the actual targets.