Amazon PPC for Beginners: Get Started Fast & Get it Right

Even if you are new to Amazon, you have probably heard about Amazon ads. Amazon’s advanced advertising feature can help Amazon sellers reach buyers, boost your sales, promote brand awareness, and measure your success on Amazon.

If you are looking for a guide on Amazon PPC for Beginners, then this post is right for you. In this essential Amazon PPC guide we will provide you with detailed explanations on the different Amazon ad formats and help you navigate your way through your first PPC campaign setup – from choosing your campaign type and keywords to reviewing your results. If you are looking for more hands on support explore our Amazon PPC Services and our Amazon Advertising Management Services). For more advanced tactics, please refer to our Amazon Advertising Strategy Guide (2025 edition).

Note: You may also use an Amazon advertising software that can help you navigate Amazon PPC without experiencing information overload, and to also limit potential mistakes.

What is Amazon PPC?

Amazon PPC stands for Amazon Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising. As per this definition, advertisers only need to pay for these ads when users actually click them. That differentiates PPC ads from other types of ads that are charged based on impressions. The latter are charged using a CPM model and advertisers need to pay regardless of whether users have actually clicked them or not.

Sellers running PPC advertising can select specific keywords they want to bid on and when users search for these keywords, their Amazon listings will feature on different placements on Amazon, including the Search Results Page (SERP). This type of bidding is available for Amazon Sponsored Product (Amazon Product Ads Management) and Amazon Sponsored Brands ads.

That makes PPC ads very appealing. While they may not generate sales right away, they will at a bare minimum help drive (relevant) users to your Amazon product listings.

Why Amazon PPC is Important for Amazon FBA Businesses

Amazon PPC ads are the easiest way to get your Amazon listings right in front of shoppers with high purchase intent. This is because they are on the the Amazon search results page (SERP) und are placed using “keyword targeting”.

Let me explain what that means:

Amazon PPC ads such as “Amazon Sponsored Products Ads” (more on the different ad formats later) allow Amazon vendors, sellers, agencies, and Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) authors to advertise their products at the top of Amazon’s search results page.

With Amazon PPC ads you can select target keywords relevant to your products, bid on them and serve your ads to Amazon users searching for these particular keywords right at the top of the Amazon search results page (and also in other places).

This is obviously highly appealing to Amazon FBA businesses: Amazon PPC ads allow you to reach a very targeted and relevant audience, right at the moment when they are in buying mode. Research has well demonstrated a strong positive correlation between the amount of clicks an Amazon Listing gets and its ranking position for relevant search terms. Depending on the keyword and the product category, up to 2/3 of the total outbound clicks from a given search results page can concentrate on the first three search results.

How do Amazon PPC Ads work?

Amazon PPC ads work on the basis of an ad auction. Advertisers enter bids (maximum CPCs = cost-per-click) for keywords and compete against each other for said keywords. Ads are then served in ranking order based on the outcome of the ad auction. It is important to understand that the maximum bid set by an advertiser is not the only factor that determines the outcome of the auction. That is because Amazon can only capitalize on the bid offered if an Amazon users actually clicks the ad (remember it’s pay per click!).

For this reason the Amazon ad algorithm seeks to strike a balance between several factors, including the maximum bid, the expected click-through-rate and also the expected conversion rate (remember Amazon also earns commission if someone buys a product on the platform). This allows Amazon to maximize its own revenue.

As a result, same as with Google ads, products featured in Amazon PPC ads are generally a pretty good fit for the search query used by a shopper. So if you sell running shoes, but bid on a completely non-related keyword (snow boots), your ads likely won’t show no matter how high your bids, because Amazon can figure out that nobody will click them.

It’s also worth mentioning that Amazon’s PPC bid algorithm works on on the basis of a 2nd price auction. That means that if you win the bid auction, your winning bid (Cost Per Click) will in most cases be lower than your actual maximum bid, because Amazon will only charge you the amount necessary to beat the next best competitor, instead of charging you the maximum CPC that you have defined. We have explained this in more detail on our Amazon advertising auction explainer post.

So to recap: As an advertiser you can precisely define which keywords you want to show your ads for and you can also decide how much you are willing to pay for each click (your maximum bid).

Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Up Amazon Advertising Campaigns

To get started with Amazon ads, you need to first create an Amazon ad account. You have two options for that:

• Sponsored Ads
• Amazon DSP and Sponsored ads

“Sponsored Ads” is the default options that most Amazon Sellers will go for. Amazon DSP (Demand-Side Platform) is a more advanced form of advertising (programmatic ads) that allows advertisers to buy display, video, and audio ads on and outside of Amazon using Amazon first-parry customer data to inform ad targeting. For the managed-service option of Amazon DSP advertising a minimum monthly ad spend of around $50,000 is required.

Once you have created your amazon ads account, you will be be able to choose between three different ad formats: Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display. Let’s go through them one by one.

Amazon PPC Ads Formats Explained

Intro to Sponsored Products Ads

Sponsored Products look like organic product listings. When a shopper sees your ad while browsing the search results of his/her product inquiry, the shopper wouldn’t feel that your products are sponsored. This is also why experts say that Sponsored Products usually take up about 70% of your advertising sales. When shoppers click this type of ad campaign, most of the time they will be directed to the product detail page.

Where Do Sponsored Products Appear?

Sponsored Products ads usually appear on the first page of the search results pages. You will see them at the top, middle, and bottom part of search results. This type of ad may also appear in product detail pages.

Sponsored Products allow you to advertise individual products using specific keywords. It allows you to set-up your campaign in two ways:

Automatic Campaigns

With an automatic campaign, you let Amazon do the job for you. You don’t have a lot of control with the settings of this ad campaign. Amazon will automatically choose which keywords to incorporate on your ad. These will be based on specific search terms that it deems relevant to your product. This type of campaign is advisable for new PPC advertisers. This way you can also test which keywords would work for you.

Manual Campaigns

With manual campaigns, you can manually select and upload the keywords and products you will target. You can do this based on your own keyword research or using that have been successfully targeted (and driven sales) via your automatic campaigns. So with manual campaigns you have a lot more control, as you determine which keywords to bid on (and at what maximum CPC). As a result you have direct control on where your ads are showing. You can also customize the ad placements, each keyword bid, the amazon keyword match types and the categories you will target.

This type of targeting is ideal for sellers that is a bit more comfortable with the Amazon PPC platform. It also offers more room for you to strategize. Manual campaigns are more complex! Be sure to be delicate when it comes to your keyword research, and bidding to prevent losing tons of money.

Check out our blog post on Manual PPC or Automated PPC to decide which approach is more suitable for you.

Who Can Access Sponsored Products Ads?

Sponsored Products ads are available to Amazon vendors (1P) through the Amazon Advertising Console. Meanwhile sellers (3P) are required to have a professional selling plan to access this Amazon PPC option.

How to Setup Amazon Sponsored Products Ads in 5 Minutes

Intro to Sponsored Brands Ads

This type of ad allows you to be more creative with your ads. It is ideal for brand awareness campaigns! It gives you the ability to advertise your logo, and upload custom images. You can also add custom headlines or copy, and include multiple products on your ad at the same time. It also gives you the ability to run video ads.

Sponsored Brands allow you to direct shoppers at your store page, or a custom Amazon landing page. It gives you the liberty to do product and keyword targeting, but you can only do them manually. For a complete guide on Sponsored Brands, you can check out our Sponsored Brands Tutorial.

Where Do Sponsored Brands Appear?

You can spot Sponsored Brands ads in four ad placements in Amazon’s search results pages. The first placement is on top of the fold (Top of Search), and the three other placements are below the fold. Sponsored Brands also appears on the product details page under the set of bullets. While the Sponsored Brand video ads will appear in the middle of the page

Who Can Access Sponsored Brands?

This type of ad is available to vendors, agencies, book vendors, and professional sellers who have Amazon Brand Registry.

Amazon Sponsored Brands Ads – The Complete Tutorial

Intro to Sponsored Display Ads

This type of ad is on a cost per impression model (CPM) and a cost-per-click (CPC) model. Proper bid management and targeting the right products are the best ways to ace Sponsored Display ads.

Where Do Sponsored Display Ads Appear?

Sponsored Display Ads are the most purchase-intended ads. You will find them at the bottom of the “Add to Cart” button on Amazon product detail pages, and on the right side and below the search results pages. These ads may also be seen off Amazon.

This type of ad is the most versatile kind of Amazon PPC ad because it provides four targeting options:

Views

For this targeting option, your ad will be shown to customers who haven’t made a purchase yet but previously viewed your product detail pages or similar products within the last 30 days. The cost will be on a CPM model

Products

This places ads on product detail pages and other Amazon pages and allows you to place your ads on your competitor’s product pages, and other relevant product categories. It is a manual type of targeting on product targeting.

Searches

The option allows you to show your ads to shoppers based on their search history or purchases in the last 90 days.

Purchases

The option allows you to show your ads to shoppers based on their purchase history in the last 90 days.

Who Can Access Sponsored Display Ads?

This type of ad is also accessible to vendors. However, it is only available to sellers who are enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry.

the best structure for your first Amazon PPC campaign, you must first determine which type of ad is right for you (Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands or Sponsored Display). From there, you can continue with determining your mode of targeting, etc.

If you’re planning to create a Sponsored Products campaign, you may check out our article entitled “How to Structure Amazon PPC Campaigns” for a detailed, step by step guide.

What types of Ad Targeting is available for Amazon Ads?

Targeting with your PPC campaigns can help you generate better quality leads, increase your conversion rates, and also help you achieve your target sales. There are different types of targeting in Amazon PPC, but the most used and most effective so far are:

Keyword based Targeting

Keywords are what sellers bid on, while search terms are the exact search queries of shoppers. Keyword targeting works for both Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brand ads. For automatic campaigns, keyword targeting allow Amazon to choose the most searched terms that it thinks are relevant to your product. Similarly, for manual campaigns, it allows you to choose, formulate, and collect keywords that you can use in your campaign to match the search queries of Amazon shoppers.

For example, if you’re starting a manual Sponsored Products Campaign for the furniture you offer, some of the keywords you may bid on include “home furniture,” “Scandinavian furniture,” “modern home furniture,” etc.

Product Targeting

This targeting type allows you to target certain brands, products (ASIN), categories, and/or product features that are related to the products you’d like to advertise. This feature puts your products in front of shoppers as they search for items to buy or browse through product detail pages on Amazon.

For example, if you’re planning to advertise a medical supply, you may opt to target the category “Health & Personal Care” so that your ad may be placed in search results and product detail pages that fall under this category. You may also target a brand that offers something similar to your products. This targeting type is available for all 3 different Amazon advertising types.

What are the Different Keyword Match Types?

When targeting keywords, Amazon will ask you to choose a specific “match type” to determine the degree of match between your chosen keywords versus the customer search terms. You can find three match types on Amazon. These three come with various degrees of monitoring and ad targeting precision requirements.

Broad Match

This match type includes search terms that are related to your keywords. For example, if your keyword is “modern home furniture,” the broad match would include search terms that contain this keyword (i.e.new home furnishing, etc.). Although this type would have the poorest performance of all the 3 types, it gives you a lot of potential customer search query data based on your keyword.

Phrase Match

This match type includes search terms that also contain the words in your chosen keyword, but in the exact order. For example, if your keyword is “modern home furniture,” the match phrases can be “modern home furniture for sale,” “discounted modern home furniture,” “buy modern home furniture,” and the like.

Exact Match

This match type includes search terms that mirrors the words in your chosen keyword – word per word. For example, if your keyword is “modern home furniture,” the exact match keyword would also be “modern home furniture.”

How Much Does Amazon PPC Cost?

Now let’s talk about money. If you’re wondering how much Amazon PPC will cost you, the answer is – it depends. Amazon gives advertisers the opportunity to submit bids for their ads. These bids are the maximum amount advertisers are willing to pay for the keyword or overall campaign.

The truth is, Amazon often favors the highest bidder. The average CPC usually ranges from $0.02 to $3.00, but it still depends on the product category or the subcategory you sell, in as well as the level of competition on your specific niche. Since the highest bidders also pay the highest CPC (although only $0.01 more than the next highest bid), they often get the highest ad position (ad rank 1).

How to Set the Right Goals for Your Amazon PPC Campaign?

It’s easy to lose money when you’re not tracking the performance and costs of your PPC campaigns. But in order to do this, you must first clearly set your goals. Some of the goals that you may set for your campaigns include increasing your sales and/or impressions, reaching your target profit margin, and maximizing your net profit.

You may be able to measure your success based on the goals you set by calculating certain target values such as your Advertising Cost of Sale (ACoS), and more. Read more on this in our blog posts: What is a good ACoS on Amazon and What is Amazon TACoS.

Amazon PPC Advertising Jargon you Need to Know

If you are new to PPC advertising, you are likely overwhelmed by all the specialist terms, acronyms and industry jargon. To make things easier we have compiled a comprehensive Amazon Abbreviation List that is ideal for Amazon PPC beginners. Here are some of the most essential terms you can’t get by without:

• CPC (Cost-Per-Click): The amount you pay when someone clicks on your ad
• CTR (Click-Through Rate): The percentage of people who click on your ad after seeing it
• ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sales): Your total ad spend divided by sales generated from ad clicks. This is a critical performance metrics as it shows you how profitable your ads are.

Can Amazon PPC Help Improve My Organic Search Rankings?

The good news is, yes. Your sales from Amazon PPC can directly influence your product’s organic ranking on Amazon’s search results. This is highly beneficial for new products since they don’t have a sales history or they may have lesser page views. Amazon PPC campaign can help drive traffic to these new products to boost visibility and launch sales. This is referred to as the Amazon flywheel.

Final Thoughts on Amazon PPC for Beginners

When done correctly, creating Amazon PPC campaigns can be one of the easiest ways to boost sales and reach your target profits in Amazon. If you’re new to this kind of advertising, don’t worry. It may appear complex because of the jargon and technicalities, but when you get used to it, you may reach your target goals sooner than you thought. But to make advertising easier for you, we offer an Amazon advertising software that can help you easily set up campaigns, research keywords and manually bid on them, export data, and measure your success.

FAQ: Amazon PPC for Beginners