Talk to usCheck what your reports measure before using them to increase or cut ad spend. A campaign can look successful when you compare ad costs with retail sales instead of royalties. A timing gap can also make recent sales look missing. Either mistake can lead you to change spending for the wrong reason.
Amazon Ads reports sales credited to ads. KDP reports sales and royalties for your books, including purchases that came through other routes. This guide shows how to compare them so you can tell what the book has earned, what remains uncertain and whether you can afford the next test.
Start with one question: “For this paperback, in this marketplace, over these dates, which figures should match?” An account-wide sales total and a single-book royalty total cover different things. The ACoS and profit guide explains why retail sales value also differs from author income.
Build one comparable slice
Choose one title, format, marketplace and currency. Export both reports. Keep the original column names and record when you downloaded each file. Check what the dates mean in each report, rather than assuming that the same date range covers the same events.
KDP's advertising help gives a concrete print example: KDP records a paperback sale when the book ships, while the advertising report records the purchase date. The page also explains why ad-attributed sales differ from total book sales. Check the guidance for the reports you use before deciding that a difference is an error.
If a report includes recent activity, save another export later. Keep both files so you can see what changed. There is no single waiting period that resolves every kind of mismatch.
Keep sales value and royalties apart
Use separate columns for clicks, ad spend, attributed orders, attributed sales value, KDP units and royalties. Do not rename attributed sales “income” to make a spreadsheet look tidy.
If campaign results include more than one purchased format, split the figures where the data allows it. Otherwise, mark the mix as unresolved. A paperback and an ebook can leave different royalties from the same retail sales value.
An illustrative reconciliation
Imagine a fictional US paperback review. All amounts below are hypothetical US dollars. This example does not match individual transactions across reports.
On a small screen, scroll the table to compare all columns.
| Item | First export | Follow-up observation |
|---|---|---|
| Advertising spend | $48 | Same scope and currency confirmed |
| Ad-attributed retail sales | $180 | Retail value, not royalty |
| KDP royalty income | $72 | All recorded sales in the selected slice |
| Other-market royalties in initial workbook | $15 | Removed from this comparison |
| Subscription income | $9 | Kept outside the paperback comparison |
The operating comparison is $72 minus $48. That leaves $24 before other costs. It does not prove that ads generated all $72 in royalties.
Do not add the $180 sales figure to the royalties. That would count two views of economic activity as two income streams. The $15 correction fixes a scope mistake. Keeping the $9 separate prevents subscription activity from becoming paperback income in the workbook. Neither step proves that every remaining difference is an error.
Keep an exception list
For each open difference, write the smallest question that could resolve it. “Does this row include the ebook?” gives you something to check. A broad claim that the numbers are unreliable does not.
Record the book identifier, market, format, report names, export dates, disputed amount and next check. If you ask support for help, provide that record and the source files. Remove unrelated account details from screenshots.
Mark recent figures as provisional. You can stop new spending when the cash allowance runs out while leaving the final result open. Waiting for reports to settle is a separate decision from funding more clicks.
For a catalog, repeat this process by book before combining totals. The multiple-book management guide explains why account averages can hide problems.
What this means for your next ad decision
Do not increase spending just because $180 in attributed sales looks large next to a $48 ad bill. In this example, the comparable royalties leave $24 after ads, before other costs. That is the book's result for the selected period. It does not prove that ads caused all the income or that a larger budget would improve it.
Before the next budget change, write down three things: royalties earned, ad spend and any unresolved reporting differences. If dates, formats or income types are still mixed, fix the comparison before using it to justify more exposure. If the reports are sound but the result falls short of your goal, review the economics of the next test.
The point is to base spending on the money available to your publishing business. Keep a firm test allowance while the evidence settles; incomplete reporting is not a reason to leave spending open-ended.