Margin on Ozon is rarely fixed in the ad account. More often it is fixed by changing what you sell. When marketplace commissions went up, one partner store was left with 1-2% net on every unit sold on its old assortment. The way out was new products: one new SKU went from zero to about $13,300 a month within a few months, with healthy profitability.
Why advertising stopped saving the margin
For a long time the recipe seemed obvious: a well-built product card plus well-tuned ads. Positions grew, sales grew.
Then things started to drift. Campaigns kept running, but profitability slid: first 0.5-1% a month, then faster. In some months margin dropped 2-3% at once.
We dug into the numbers across client and student stores and found a pattern: sales and margin fell hardest for sellers in narrow niches, where monthly search volume was very low, under 10,000 queries.
That changed how we select products. The product determines your search positions, how well your ads perform (cost per click, cost per order and so on) and your income ceiling: some products can carry $33,000-$83,000 a month, others struggle to reach $3,300.
What to do when margin compresses
When Ozon updated its commissions, we sat down with our partner and ran the numbers. The conclusion was blunt: the current product could not carry the store any further. Margin had compressed to the point where it made no sense.
There are usually two paths:
- keep pushing: "we already invested, let's try a bit more";
- make a strategic decision and move to a new product.
We took the second. We found new products, built the cards, launched the listings. The new items started growing faster than anything we had developed before.
The takeaway is simple: sometimes the most profitable decision is to let go of what no longer works. It feels risky in the moment, but over the distance it is what actually moves a store forward.
Margin and ads: the numbers
An example from a store we run with a partner:
- margin raised to 23% (starting point was 5-7%);
- ad cost share (ACOS) cut from 27% to 8%, while the number of sales from ads grew;
- store turnover multiplied.
Note the order: product and assortment work comes first, advertising catches up afterwards. If the product is a poor fit, no campaign setting will raise the ceiling.
What to do next
- Calculate net margin per product at current commissions. If it comes out at 1-2%, that is a signal, not a reason to "try a bit more".
- Check monthly search volume in your categories. Niches under 10,000 queries are a risk zone for both sales and margin.
- Estimate the income ceiling per product: some listings can realistically do $33,000-$83,000 a month, others $3,300.
- If the current assortment does not produce margin, look for new products and launch new cards instead of squeezing more out of ads on the old ones.
- Compare margin month over month: a 0.5-1% monthly decline is easy to miss, and in some months margin can drop 2-3% at once.
