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Amazon PPC 101: A Practical Guide to Profitable Ads

If you sell on Amazon, PPC isn’t optional—it’s oxygen. The right setup can kick-start organic rank, validate keywords, and drive profitable sales. The wrong setup burns budget and muddies your data. This guide gives you a simple, dependable way to set up and optimize Amazon PPC—without needing an agency or expensive tools.

Amazon PPC (pay-per-click) lets you bid on search queries and placements so your products appear in high-intent spots. You pay only when someone clicks, and your goal is profitable sales (TACoS down, rank up).

Core Ad Types

  • Sponsored Products (SP): Keyword or ASIN targeted; the workhorse for most catalogs.
  • Sponsored Brands (SB): Headline and video formats; great for branded defense and top-funnel discovery.
  • Sponsored Display (SD): Audience and product targeting for retargeting, cross-sell, and conquest.

The 3-Bucket Campaign Structure (Keeps Data Clean)

Create these for each hero product or tight product family:

  1. Branded (exact): Your brand + product terms (e.g., “acme collagen powder”).
    • Goal: Own your brand. Expect low ACoS.
  2. Core Non-Branded (exact): High-intent, product-defining terms (“hydrolyzed collagen powder”).
    • Goal: Efficient, scalable conversions.
  3. Discovery (phrase/broad + product/ASIN targeting): Explore adjacent queries and competitor pages.
    • Goal: Find winners; harvest and promote them to exact.

Naming convention example:
SP | Collagen Powder | Branded-Exact
SP | Collagen Powder | Core-Exact
SP | Collagen Powder | Discovery-Phrase/Broad
SP | Collagen Powder | Discovery-ProductTargeting

Keyword & ASIN Targeting Workflow

  1. Seed list: From your listing, competitor titles, and suggested keywords in Ads Console.
  2. Prioritize intent: Choose terms that match your product’s strongest value prop.
  3. Match types smartly:
    • Start Exact for control (Core & Branded).
    • Use Phrase/Broad in Discovery to uncover new search terms.
  4. Harvest weekly: Move converting search terms (≥2–3 orders with acceptable ACoS) from Discovery into Core Exact. Add poor performers as negatives in Discovery.

Bidding Basics (Fast, Practical Rules)

  • Initial bids: Use suggested bids as a compass; set slightly above midpoint for Exact, at midpoint for Phrase/Broad.
  • Dynamic bidding: Start with Dynamic – Down Only for control. Add placement modifiers later after data.
  • Placement adjustments: If Top of Search shows strong conversion (e.g., ≥20% better than rest), add a +20–60% placement modifier gradually.

Negatives: Your Waste-Control Lever

  • Add exact negatives for irrelevant or consistently unprofitable search terms.
  • Use phrase negatives to block entire themes (e.g., “free,” “sample,” “DIY”) when needed.
  • Review Search Term Reports weekly; act on outliers.

Creative That Converts

  • Main image: Crisp, fills frame, compliant.
  • Title: High-intent keywords early; readable.
  • A+ Content & Store: Align with the keywords you’re bidding on.
  • SB Video: Hook in 1–2 seconds, show product in use, captions on, 20–30s length.

Profit-First Measurement (ACoS vs. TACoS)

  • ACoS = Ad spend / Ad revenue (per campaign).
  • TACoS = Ad spend / Total revenue (catalog health).
    Prioritize TACoS: if TACoS trends down while total revenue rises, you’re building sustainable rank.

30-Day Launch & Optimization Plan

Days 1–3: Setup

  • Build the 3-bucket structure (Branded Exact, Core Exact, Discovery).
  • 5–20 keywords per Exact campaign (no stuffing).
  • Start with modest daily budgets split ~50% Core, 30% Discovery, 20% Branded.

Days 4–10: Early Signals

  • Let campaigns run; don’t over-edit.
  • Only pause bleeding terms: ≥10–15 clicks, 0 sales.
  • Add obvious negatives (irrelevant variants).

Days 11–20: Harvest & Nudge

  • Promote Discovery winners to Core Exact.
  • Reduce bids 10–20% on terms with rising CPC + weak CVR.
  • Test Top-of-Search placement boost if Exact converts well.

Days 21–30: Scale or Trim

  • Increase budget on campaigns hitting target ACoS and good CVR.
  • Expand product targeting (competitor ASINs with weak reviews/price).
  • Add SB video for top keyword cluster; start SD retargeting at small budgets.

Simple Benchmarks (Guidelines, not rules)

  • Click-through rate (CTR): ≥0.35% is decent for SP; SB video often higher.
  • Conversion rate (CVR): 8–20% for well-aligned queries and optimized listings.
  • ACoS target: Start at your breakeven margin ACoS, then improve via negatives and bid refinement.

Weekly SOP (Save this!)

  1. Pull Search Term Report → harvest winners, negate losers.
  2. Check budgets → prevent early-day out-of-budget; reallocate to winners.
  3. Review placements → add/trim modifiers if Top-of-Search materially helps.
  4. Track TACoS trend → ensure total sales grow while TACoS is stable/down.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

  • Mixing branded + non-branded in the same campaign (dirty data).
  • Too many keywords per ad group (no budget concentration).
  • Pausing too fast before data matures.
  • No negative strategy.
  • Scaling bids without fixing listing conversion first.

FAQs

Q: How much budget do I need to start?
A: Enough to get 20–30 clicks per core keyword cluster per week. Scale once you see consistent conversions.

Q: When should I use Broad vs. Exact?
A: Use Broad/Phrase in Discovery to learn; Exact in Core to scale known winners efficiently.

Conclusion

Start small, structure cleanly, and follow the weekly SOP. Your data will sharpen, your spend will concentrate on winners, and your TACoS will trend down as organic rank rises. If you want, I can tailor this to your specific catalog (niche, margins, and current ACoS/TACoS) or draft the next post in the series.

 

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