In this article, we will detail 6 very specific and actionable steps for Amazon PPC Optimization. But before we dive in, let’s explore why optimizing your Amazon ads is such a critical success-factor for Amazon Sellers:
While for Amazon display ads audience based targeting options are available, for the most part Amazon ads are what is referred to as “PPC Ads”: You select certain target keywords that you want to bid on. As Amazon shoppers search for products on Amazon.com, your ads are triggered and served to potential customers based on these keywords (more on this topic: Keyword Research for Amazon Products).
Also, before you begin optimizing your Amazon PPC campaigns make sure that your listing perform well. There is no point sending ad traffic a product listing that does not convert because it doesn’t have any user reviews, or because listing titles and bullet point copy are not optimized (More about our Amazon Listing Optimization Services).
Once all this is done optimize your PPC campaigns to scale and grow your Amazon sales in the most cost-efficient way. This will help you generate sales faster, acquire more reviews and thereby offset a perpetuous virtuous cycle that also leads to more organic sales as your Amazon Listings’ search performance improves (a process referred to as the Amazon flywheel).
As a result you will be collecting dividends on your hard earned Amazon PPC success.
6 Steps to optimize your Amazon PPC Campaigns
As promised below are 6 actionable steps to optimize your Amazon PPC, if you follow these step regularly, at least on a weekly basis I will close to guarantee that there will be ACoS improvement within one month timeframe.
Step 1 ➡️ Block out the Bleeder
These are keywords/category/PAT that is bleeding you dry because click/spend is going into it and no orders has been attributed, you have given them a chance now its time to cut your loses.
Criteria:
Last 60 days – 3 (Amazon PPC sales attributions)
Clicks ≥ 8
Orders = 0
Action:
Decrease Bid to Min Bid ($0.02 in US marketplace)
Step 2 ➡️ Down Bid High ACoS (>100%)
Criteria:
Last 60 days – 3 (Amazon PPC sales attributions)
Clicks ≥ 8
Orders > 0
ACoS > 100%
Action:
Decrease Bid to ➡️ CPC * 50%
Step 3 ➡️ Down bid Above Target ACoS (40%)
Let just say my target ACoS% is 40%, you can replace this number to whatever your target ACoS% is.
Criteria:
Last 60 days – 3 (Amazon PPC sales attributions)
Clicks ≥ 8
Orders > 0
ACoS ≥ 40% and ≤ 100%
Action:
Decrease Bid to ➡️ CPC * 75%
Step 4 ➡️ Up bid Over Optimized Keywords
The idea for this is to make sure the keywords that are really driving sales at a low cost gets a bid that closer to the market. This will ensure that you are winning the keyword bid auction.
Criteria:
Last 60 days – 3 (Amazon PPC sales attributions)
Clicks ≥ 8
Orders > 0
ACoS ≤ 20% (half of target ACoS of 40%)
Action:
Decrease Bid to ➡️ CPC * 125%
Step 5 ➡️ Add Negatives Keywords
Now we are going to explore adding negative keywords in your campaign. You go to the “Search Term” function inside your Amazon ad console inside your ad group. Please note this feature is only available for Sponsored Products
Criteria (In your Search Term Screen):
Last 60 days – 3 (Amazon PPC sales attributions)
Clicks ≥ 8
Orders = 0
Action:
Add as negative exact
Step 6 ➡️ Add High Performers (Search Harvest)
Staying the search term console, you will now do the opposite and add these search term that has done well and attributed to at least 2 orders. There a different terms for this process in the Amazon PPC community such as Search Term Harvesting, Positive Keyword, Adding Keywords, Search Term Isolation etc
Criteria (In your Search Term Screen):
Last 60 days – 3 (Amazon PPC sales attributions)
Clicks ≥ 8
Orders ≥ 2
Action:
Add as Keyword
Amazon PPC Optimization on Steroids’ (ft SellerMetrics)
You probably can figure out by now from the above optimization process that scaling and implementing it across multiple campaigns and marketplace will be very time consuming. We at SellerMetrics can take the guess work (and actual work) out of Amazon PPC Optimization by automating above 6 steps optimization process.
Imagine if all your campaigns/keywords/search terms are completely streamlined across all of your marketplace/accounts, that how much time you can save for more criterial business decision such as launching new product or writing new books. Lets see how this is done on SellerMetrics.
Step 1 to 4 ➡️ Using SellerMetrics keywords console
Using SellerMetrics’ console you can make keywords level bid changes across all your Amazon advertising marketplaces/accounts. So you don’t need to go in and out of campaigns, then into another account like seen in the previous. Your bid change also be done using CPC as your baseline whereas this is something supported on your Amazon advertising console.
Step 5 ➡️ Add Negative Keywords
SellerMetrics negative keyword function make adding negatives so easy, just set up a rule.
For example, I want “X” keywords from “Campaign A” to be inserted into “Campaign B/Ad Group B” as negative keyword (exact) when keywords “X” hit “Y” Clicks with Orders = 0.
Step 6 ➡️ Add High Performers (Search Harvest)
Same with search term isolation, SellerMetrics makes this super easy with the rule set up.
For example, I want “X” keywords from “Campaign A” to be inserted into “Campaign B/Ad Group B” as a new keyword (can pick exact, phrase or broad) when keywords “X” hit “Y” Orders/or ACoS%.
Check us out, we have a 14 days (no credit card required) trial.
Other Amazon PPC Tips for Campaign Optimization
Here are other Amazon PPC keyword optimization tips to consider when optimizing your ad campaign:
Optimize for Amazon PPC Match Types
This helps potential buyers search for relevant sponsored products. For manual campaigns, it can be classified into broad, phrase, and exact matches. Broad match types contain all components of keywords in any order. Phrase match types contain all components of keywords in the same order. Exact match types contain word-for-word keywords.
There’s also a negative keyword setting that can help you eliminate targeted searches not related to the product you are selling and words that are not converting into actual sales.
In-Depth Keyword Research & Negative Keywords
A robust Amazon PPC campaign begins with thorough keyword research. Unlike traditional search engines, Amazon shoppers arrive with high purchase intent, and the keywords they use reflect a desire to find specific products. Because of this direct commercial mindset, selecting the right keywords—and equally important, excluding the wrong ones—can significantly affect your ad performance.
Identifying High-Intent Keywords
Effective research starts by brainstorming terms that relate closely to your product’s core features and benefits. You can start with Amazon’s own auto-suggestions; when you begin typing in the Amazon search bar, the platform will populate related search phrases used by real customers. These search suggestions often include long-tail phrases that reveal more specific consumer needs. While short, generic keywords might bring broader visibility, longer phrases like “organic cotton baby swaddle for newborns” attract buyers who already know what they want.
You can supplement this approach by using keyword research tools, or by conducting reverse keyword search on Amazon. Here is a very detailed review of popular Amazon PPC Tools that you can use for keyword research.
Analyzing the Amazon Search Term Report
Once your ads have been running for a few weeks, dive into your Search Term Reports. These reports show the actual searches that triggered your ads, along with clicks and conversion data. Analyzing these insights helps you identify which terms have delivered profitable conversions and which phrases are wasting budget. If a particular phrase consistently drives sales at a reasonable Advertising Cost of Sale (ACoS), consider transferring it to an exact match campaign with a higher bid to capture more of that lucrative traffic.
Similarly, keep an eye on phrases that result in clicks but no conversions. Those may indicate either a mismatch between your product and the shopper’s intent or a poorly optimized product listing that fails to convert. If your listing is well-optimized yet you still see repeated non-converting terms, it’s time to add them as negative keywords.
Implementing Negative Keywords
Negative keywords are a critical but often overlooked element of Amazon PPC optimization. By marking a keyword as negative, you instruct Amazon not to show your ad for searches containing that term. This helps you prevent wasted ad spend on irrelevant clicks. Negative keywords can be broad-match or phrase-match, depending on how strictly you want to exclude the term.
Optimize for Dayparting and Seasonality
Online shopping activity on Amazon isn’t static—user behavior shifts over the course of a day, a week, and throughout the year. Understanding these fluctuations allows you to allocate your ad budget when consumers are most likely to purchase, which can lead to higher efficiency and better ACoS.
What is Dayparting?
Dayparting, also known as ad scheduling, is a tactic used to run ads during specific hours or days of the week. While Amazon doesn’t currently offer a native dayparting feature for Sponsored Products or Sponsored Brands. The concept is simple: if you notice that your target audience tends to purchase in the evenings or during work breaks, you can focus your ad spend during those windows and minimize wasteful impressions at other times.
However, before implementing dayparting, make sure to gather data on your audience’s peak shopping hours. This can come from your Amazon sales reports or Google Analytics data if you correlate time-of-day patterns in traffic to your product’s overall purchase trends. Keep in mind that dayparting should be approached carefully. Cutting off ads during certain periods might cause you to miss unexpected spurts of sales, so test gradually and monitor results closely.
Seasonal Opportunities and Challenges Amazon experiences significant seasonal peaks—such as Prime Day, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the broader holiday season—where traffic and competition skyrocket. Leading up to these events, advertisers often raise bids and budgets to remain visible during surges in shopper activity. The potential for increased conversions can offset higher costs, as shoppers are more likely to be in a buying mood.
Once the peak passes, reevaluate your bids and budgets to prevent over-spending in slower periods. Some products experience “evergreen” demand year-round, while others are highly cyclical (such as a product that sells best during summer). If your product is seasonal, plan your PPC strategy accordingly. Ramp up ad spend a few weeks before the season starts to build momentum, and scale back when demand tapers off to maintain profitability.
Track and Control Your Ad Campaign Budget
For proper budgeting, first, you must compute for the break-even ACoS before setting your ad spend. This way, you’ll be able to determine the maximum amount that you can spend on your PPC campaigns to reach break-even. Next, if you want a profitable campaign, you can compute your target ACoS. Do this by determining your profit margin and the break-even ACoS. It is good to note that your hall not spend your target ACoS to assure a profit.
The Importance of Monitoring Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
The one metrics on Amazon PPC you MUST monitor: CPC
There are a lot of metrics in your Amazon advertising dashboard, if there is one metric that you really want to just keep an eye on and monitor, that would be the CPC (Cost per Click) stat. The reason why this is a very important metric is because:
It is direct proxy to competitiveness of the market, increase in CPC means increase in marketplace competitiveness. If that is the case you need be in high alert
Manipulating your CPC will directly lower your ACoS%/increase ROI (Bid Optimization)
Your CPC can be used to work out your CPA (cost per acquisition) and in turn your realistic target ACoS %
In the above example, is what your ACoS % you can expect if your CPC is $1.56 with an AOV of $15.28. Whether this ACoS is acceptable to you that will be based on your break even ACoS which will be discuss later. In the meantime calculate your realistic target ACoS % and have this figure in your back pocket.
Understanding and Calculating Yout Breakeven ACOS
Determining your breakeven ACoS % is quite simple, it is basically your profit margin on a per unit level.
ie your profit margin is 22%, therefore your breakeven ACoS is 22%. If you break down your individual product P&L it should looking something like the below:
If your Amazon PPC campaign is over the breakeven ACoS % of 22% than the campaign is in the red, on the other hand if the campaign is under the breakeven ACoS % than your campaign is profitable. Another important note is that your Breakeven ACoS does not have to be equal to your Target ACoS, but target ACoS should be close to your realistic Target ACoS based on your CPC.
Final Thoughts: How to Optimize Amazon PPC Campaigns
We hope this article has given you more insights about Amazon PPC optimization for sponsored products. In case you need more assistance in setting up your ad campaigns and navigating Amazon PPC… We offer an easy-to-use Amazon PPC software that helps you rank higher on Amazon’s search results pages. This way you can easily achieve your sales goals.
