The method
Query-State Economics
You are not managing campaigns. You are managing search-query economics.
A campaign average tells you what an account spent. It does not tell you which positions the brand owns, which it is renting, and which are quietly losing money. Query-State Economics replaces that average with a state — one per customer search query — and makes every budget decision follow from it.
Dominating
Rank and conversion both held. Defend, do not overspend.
Winning
Paid and organic reinforcing each other at target margin.
Competing
Traffic earned, economics still thin. Watch or fix.
Opportunity
Demand present, position absent. Where budget should move.
Bleeding
Spend without return. Where budget should leave.
One query, moved through the system.
The readouts below are mechanics of the classification — how a query moves between states. They are not client data and not a result.
Illustrative example
“waterproof mattress protector”
- Organic rank
- 47
- Paid rank
- 3
- Conversion
- 9.1%
- TACoS
- 31%
Classify, intervene, reclassify.
- 01
Classified
Demand present, position absent.
Nothing is touched until the query has a state. The account is read as one surface — advertising, organic visibility, conversion, and profitability together — because a query that looks expensive in the ad console can be the cheapest position the brand owns once organic rank is read alongside it.
- 02
Intervention
Budget moved onto the query, organic defense built behind it.
The state dictates the action, not the other way round. Budget moves toward positions that are winnable and away from spend that returns nothing, and organic defense is built behind the placement so the account stops renting a position it could hold.
- 03
Reclassified
Paid and organic reinforcing each other at target margin.
The query is read again and re-stated. That is the whole loop: a state, an intervention sized to it, then a fresh classification. Queries move between states permanently, which is why this is a standing operating rhythm rather than a one-time restructure.
Straight answers.
What is Query-State Economics?
A way of reading an Amazon account in which every customer search query is placed in one of five economic states, and every budget decision follows from that state rather than from a campaign-level average.
How is this different from managing ACoS?
A blended average hides both the winners and the waste. Classifying at query level makes the account legible: which positions are held, which are rented, and which are simply losing money.
Do the states have fixed numeric thresholds?
No. The states are economic descriptions, not formulas. A query's state depends on rank, conversion, and margin together, read against what that position is worth to the account.
The audit is where the classification starts.
A paid diagnostic — every query in the account placed in a state, written findings, and a prioritized 30/60/90 plan, before any retainer conversation.