Amazon Ads Error Decoder
Cryptic error message when configuring campaigns on Amazon Ads? Search below to see what's wrong and how to fix it.
Forbidden Access
This happens when your application tries to access an Amazon Ads API resource without the proper permissions, or if the advertiser's profile has been unlinked from your developer account.
Resource Not Found
Amazon couldn't find the specific entity you are looking for (like a Campaign ID, Ad Group, or Keyword). This usually means the ID is incorrect, or it belongs to a completely different advertising profile.
Rate Limit Exceeded
You're moving too fast! Amazon's API has strict rate limits to prevent server overload, and you've submitted too many requests in a specific time window.
Internal Server Error
Don't worry, this one usually isn't your fault! An unexpected error occurred on Amazon's internal servers while trying to process your request.
Service Unavailable
The Amazon Ads API service is temporarily down, most likely undergoing scheduled maintenance or experiencing exceptionally high server load.
Unprocessable Entity
Your request was formatted perfectly (syntactically correct JSON), but Amazon couldn't process it because it didn't make logical sense—like trying to pause a campaign that is already permanently archived.
Invalid Argument
One of the parameters in your payload is malformed or isn't an accepted value for that field (for example, passing `Paused` instead of `PAUSED`).
Malformed Request
The server couldn't understand your request because the JSON payload itself is broken, missing a comma, or improperly formatted.
Unsupported Media Type
You forgot to tell Amazon what kind of data you're sending, or you're sending it in the wrong format.
Request Payload Too Large
You're trying to send too much data at once. The size of your JSON payload has exceeded Amazon's maximum allowed limits.
Portfolio Out of Budget
The portfolio budget has been completely exhausted.
Ad Group Out of Budget
The ad group budget has been completely exhausted.
Account Out of Budget
The account budget has been completely exhausted.
Payment Method Failed
The credit card on file has failed to charge.
Account Out of Balance
Prepaid funds have been depleted to zero.
Campaign is Archived
Cannot perform operations on an archived campaign.
Campaign is Paused
The campaign is paused and not delivering metrics.
Duplicate Campaign
A campaign with these details already exists.
Ad Group is Archived
Cannot perform operations on an archived ad group.
Ad Group is Paused
The ad group is paused and not delivering metrics.
Duplicate Ad Group
A ad group with these details already exists.
Keyword is Archived
Cannot perform operations on an archived keyword.
Keyword is Paused
The keyword is paused and not delivering metrics.
Duplicate Keyword
A keyword with these details already exists.
Product Ad is Archived
Cannot perform operations on an archived product ad.
Product Ad is Paused
The product ad is paused and not delivering metrics.
Duplicate Product Ad
A product ad with these details already exists.
Target is Archived
Cannot perform operations on an archived target.
Target is Paused
The target is paused and not delivering metrics.
Duplicate Target
A target with these details already exists.
Portfolio is Archived
Cannot perform operations on an archived portfolio.
Portfolio is Paused
The portfolio is paused and not delivering metrics.
Duplicate Portfolio
A portfolio with these details already exists.
Draft Campaign is Archived
Cannot perform operations on an archived draft campaign.
Draft Campaign is Paused
The draft campaign is paused and not delivering metrics.
Duplicate Draft Campaign
A draft campaign with these details already exists.
Negative Keyword is Archived
Cannot perform operations on an archived negative keyword.
Negative Keyword is Paused
The negative keyword is paused and not delivering metrics.
Duplicate Negative Keyword
A negative keyword with these details already exists.
Inventory Out of Stock
The specific ASIN tying to this ad currently has absolute zero sellable inventory inside Amazon's fulfillment network.
Not Buy Box Winner
Your offer for this ASIN isn't currently winning the Featured Offer (the Buy Box). Because Amazon prioritizes customer experience, Sponsored Products ads only show if the advertiser holds the Buy Box.
ASIN Not Eligible
Amazon has flagged this product as ineligible for advertising. This usually happens due to category restrictions, missing images, suppressed listings, or a sudden policy violation flag on the catalog page.
Hazmat Restriction
Amazon has classified this specific item as a hazardous material. Hazmat items are heavily restricted from utilizing standard advertising placements.
Adult Product Restriction
The product has been flagged as 'Adult' in nature in the Amazon catalog backend. Adult novelties and related products are barred from nearly all Amazon Ads placements.
Restricted Category
This product lives in a retail category that is currently gated off from Sponsored Ads (for instance, certain medical devices, weapons, or fine art).
Missing Main Image
Your ASIN lacks a high-quality main image on its product detail page, which is a hard requirement to generate a Sponsored Ad creative.
No Purchasable Offer
There is literally no active offer for this ASIN on Amazon right now, or the listing is entirely suppressed from search.
Brand Authorization Mismatch
You're trying to advertise an ASIN for a brand that your advertising account isn't officially authorized to represent.
Low Inventory Warning
While this isn't strictly an error that stops ads, it's a massive warning that your FBA stock is incredibly low.
Invalid Match Type: BROAD
The match type BROAD is not valid for this specific op.
Invalid Match Type: PHRASE
The match type PHRASE is not valid for this specific op.
Invalid Match Type: EXACT
The match type EXACT is not valid for this specific op.
Invalid Match Type: NEGATIVE_EXACT
The match type NEGATIVE_EXACT is not valid for this specific op.
Invalid Match Type: NEGATIVE_PHRASE
The match type NEGATIVE_PHRASE is not valid for this specific op.
Invalid Match Type: NEGATIVE_BROAD
The match type NEGATIVE_BROAD is not valid for this specific op.
Keyword Too Long
The keyword phrase you submitted contains too many characters or too many spaces.
Disallowed Characters
The keyword contains punctuation, emojis, or symbols that Amazon's search engine refuses to process.
Invalid Targeting Expression
Your Product Attribute Targeting (PAT) JSON expression syntax is totally malformed.
Clause Too Broad
Amazon rejected your category targeting request because it would target practically millions of items and degrade the auction.
Negative Keyword Conflict
You're trying to add a positive keyword that exactly clashes with an existing Negative Keyword right in the same Ad Group.
Maximum Keywords Exceeded
You hit the hard limit for how many active/paused keywords can exist inside this single specific Ad Group (usually max 1000).
Restricted Keyword
The keyword explicitly violates Amazon's policy rules (often involving prescription drug claims, adult terms, or restricted brand names).
Bid Too Low
The CPC bid submitted is literally below Amazon's mandatory platform minimum required to participate in the auction (often $0.02 or local equivalent).
Bid Too High
The bid is irrationally high, triggering Amazon's safety ceiling checks. This is usually due to a decimal/math error in scripts.
Budget Too Low
The campaign's daily budget is set below Amazon's absolute minimum threshold (usually $1.00 USD).
Bid Exceeds Budgets
Your requested CPC bid is mathematically higher than the entire daily budget attached to the campaign!
Invalid Bid Strategy
You tried applying a bidding strategy that isn't supported by this campaign variant (like applying 'Rule-based bidding' to a generic Sponsored Brands auto-campaign).
Missing Default Bid
You are trying to create an Ad Group but totally forgot to supply the mandatory 'defaultBid' monetary value.
Invalid Placement Modifier
Your Top of Search or Product Page bid modifiers violate percentage boundaries (they usually must exclusively be integers between 0% and 900%).
Conflicting Bid Modifiers
You are sending a request containing conflicting overlapping bid strategies in a single payload.
ROAS Target Unachievable
Your input for a Rule-Based Bidding target ROAS is syntactically invalid or mathematically unlikely based on historical data ceilings.
Sponsored Display ASIN stockout
The product assigned to a specific Sponsored Display ad has gone absolutely out of stock in the Amazon Fulfillment Network.
Report Not Ready
You generated a request for an Amazon Ads bulk data report, but you're attempting to download it too quickly before Amazon's servers have finished compiling the file.
SB Campaign out of funds
Your Sponsored Brands campaign has rapidly eaten through its pre-allocated daily limit constraint faster than expected.
Report Expired
You waited too long to download an API report! Amazon generally deletes the temporary download files from their servers after a specific timeframe to save storage space.
Targeted brand ID not recognized
You attempted to use Product Attribute Targeting (PAT) to hit a specific brand, but the Brand ID you passed does not exist in Amazon's current catalog entity map.
Unsupported Column in Bulk Sheet
You attempted to upload an Amazon Bulk Operations spreadsheet, but it contained a column header that is misspelled, deprecated, or completely unrecognized by the server.
Deprecated API endpoint
Amazon updates their API roughly every few months and phases out older endpoints (like moving from v2 to v3). The route you are calling has been historically sunset.
Duplicate Portfolio Name
You tried to create or rename a portfolio, but another portfolio with the exact identical spelling already exists inside of your specific advertising account.
Credit card restricted
The payment method securely attached to your Amazon seller account has been flagged as ineligible (perhaps it's an unaccepted prepaid debit card or has a strict fraud lock on it).
JWT Bearer Malformed
The access token included in your HTTP Authorization header is incorrectly formatted, structurally corrupted, or incomplete.
Profile Scope Header Missing
You fired an API request to an endpoint that explicitly requires the `Amazon-Advertising-API-Scope` header to know *which* agency client to act on, but you forgot it entirely.
App Suspended
Uh oh. Amazon has actually suspended your internal Developer Client application, possibly for violating Terms of Service or massive endpoint abuse.
ASIN only eligible for DSP
Standard Sponsored Products/Brands are not allowed to be utilized for this retail product category; it is locked exclusively to Amazon Demand-Side Platform (DSP) buys.
Unknown Framework Error
Amazon's servers encountered an alien problem they couldn't confidently classify using a standard internal error code dictionary.
Duplicate Ad Group Name
Every Ad Group inside a specific Campaign must have a completely unique name. You just tried creating one that matches a name you already used.
Missing Campaign Start Date
When initially creating a campaign, the API enforces a strict requirement that you dictate *when* it's allowed to begin spending, but your payload lacked this.
Invalid Bid Type Schema
The bid value submitted was rejected because it inherently violated parameter types—for instance, sending the bid dynamically wrapped as a string value rather than a true float/decimal.
No matching errors found
Try adjusting your search terms or checking your spelling.
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