Guide · Amazon PPC
Amazon PPC: how to run ads that stay profitable
PPC is not "spend more, get more." Profitable Amazon ads come from structure, search terms, and knowing when to cut — not from raising budgets on losing keywords.
ACOS vs TACOS — track both
ACOS = ad spend ÷ ad sales. TACOS = ad spend ÷ total sales (ad + organic). ACOS alone lies — it looks great when ads cannibalise organic sales. TACOS shows whether ads are actually growing the listing.
Structure that works
- Auto + manual, separate: auto for discovery, manual for winners. Move proven search terms from auto to manual exact / phrase.
- One goal per campaign: launch, rank, defend, or profit — not all four in one campaign.
- Negatives weekly: add irrelevant search terms as negatives, or they will eat budget forever.
Budgets & bids
- Start with a daily budget you can sustain for 30 days — stop-start budgets reset learning.
- Bid by placement: top-of-search converts differently from product pages. Check placement reports, not just averages.
- Scale winners slowly (10–20% at a time). Doubling budget overnight usually doubles waste first.
When to cut, when to scale
- Cut: high spend, no sales after enough clicks (judge by clicks, not days).
- Fix first: clicks but no sales usually means listing problem — price, images, reviews — not an ad problem.
- Scale: TACOS falling while total sales rise. That is real growth.
Common PPC leaks
- Same keyword in 5 campaigns competing with itself.
- No negatives, ever.
- One campaign for all products — winners subsidise losers.
- Chasing ACOS so low that sales stall.
BIZSHOP is not affiliated with Amazon. Results vary by product, price, reviews, and competition. No sales or rank guarantees.