Originally published March 23rd, 2023
Last updated June 3rd, 2025
Amazon PPC isn’t just a way to boost your sales on Amazon, it’s slowly becoming a requirement to be successful at all on the platform.
With that in mind, it’s vital that you have highly optimized campaigns that aren’t destroying your margins, as ads are getting more expensive to run seemingly every day.
We’ve compiled a list of great tips here that will help you maximize the effectiveness of your campaigns, lower your overall spend, and keep your ads relevant as possible.
Let’s dive straight into it.
Tip 1: Update Your Listing As Much As Possible
An ad is only as effective as the product page it leads to.
If your listings are perfect, then your ads by extension will be more effective.
Make sure you’re hitting every point of a properly filled listing:
- Have a great, clean, and accurate main product image (show off box if it’s specially designed)
- Utilize every image slot available (and video if you are Brand Registered)
- Fill out every description bullet point and description section (A+ content if Brand Registered)
- Make sure images are optimized and the proper pixel dimensions
- Good reviews certainly help
If your images are great and your copy is on point, you will increase your conversion rates and the performance of your ads will improve.
An attractive and informative listing does wonders for your conversion rate.
Optimized product listings are essential for Amazon PPC campaigns because they improve your click-through rate and increase your ad quality score.
Make sure to include relevant keywords in your bullet points and backend search terms to support your SEO strategy and improve organic rank.
Tip 2: Utilize Negative Keywords
If you’re already doing this, then hats off to you.
But if you aren’t, then you need to start implementing negative keywords into your campaigns right now.
If you didn’t already know, a negative keyword is a search term you tell Amazon specifically that you don’t want your product showing up for.
For example, if you are selling a red pair of shoes, and don’t want your product showing up for different colors, you can start adding all the colors you don’t want your shoes showing up for within search results.
(picture of a negative list showing different colors)
There are 2 easy ways to get inspiration for negative keywords if you’re having trouble thinking of some.
Find negative keywords to use for your campaign in your Search Terms report.
Find any campaign, and click through to an Ad Group. Within that Ad Group you’ll see menu items on the left where the Search Terms menu is.
This is what the Search term menu looks like:
Inside the Search terms section, you’ll find all the search terms users are using to find your ad listings.
Check out the list and look for keywords that are incompatible with your products.
Once you find them, add them as a negative phrase or exact match term by clicking the column “Actions” for the keyword you have in mind, and Amazon will stop serving ad listings for those keywords.
Simple as that and your campaigns are now more effective!
Using negative keywords helps you lower your advertising cost of sales (ACoS) by preventing wasted ad spend on irrelevant search terms.
A well-maintained keyword list—including phrase match and exact match negatives—helps you target high-converting customers more efficiently.
Tip 3: Use Every Type of Ad Available
On Amazon, there’s 3 main types of ads you can run.
As you can see, Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display are locked to accounts that aren’t Brand Registered.
Due to the barrier of entry to getting into Sponsored Brand and Sponsored Display, there are fewer companies advertising these 2 types.
When there’s fewer accounts utilizing the other 2 campaign types, it means that there’s fewer accounts bidding for ad space, which lowers the cost of ads for those who do have access.
So what’s the lesson here?
Get Brand Registered.
Sponsored Brands have access to high-value spots on the Amazon that Sponsored Products will never have access to.
The same can be said for Sponsored Display, although this campaign type works both on and off of Amazon.
Cheaper ads in better spots than Sponsored Products means a more optimal account profile.
Running Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display ads can significantly boost your brand awareness and increase your return on ad spend (ROAS).
Each campaign type serves a unique function in your Amazon advertising strategy and helps you reach customers at different points in the sales funnel.
Tip 4: Try Single Keyword Campaigns
If you’ve dabbled in Google Ads in the past, then you’ve probably heard of SKAGs (Single Keyword Ad Groups).
You can do something similar in Amazon’s Campaign Manager, where you have a single keyword targeted for an entire campaign.
What are the benefits of doing this?
- Accurate insights. You can see how often you are top-of-search, rest-of-search, and listed on product pages with complete accuracy on a keyword.
- Win more. You can increase bids for where your ads show up and perform best. If your ads do well on product pages, increase bids there to show up more.
- Optimize negatives. More effective use of negative keywords when it’s around a single keyword
Single Keyword Campaigns can provide a lot of benefits, but watch out if you have a lot of products and a lot of campaigns, as things can get unorganized and messy fast.
You can mitigate a potential mess by not using Single Keyword Campaigns for every keyword. Sometimes it’s better to utilize them only for your best performers.
Single keyword campaigns give you granular control over your bidding strategy and can help boost your quality score on high-performing ASINs.
Use campaign segmentation to test keyword performance and scale only the best-converting keywords for better campaign optimization.
Tip 5: Always Utilize Auto-Campaigns
Auto campaigns are a great tool that you can utilize in your campaign toolset.
Here are some benefits of using Auto Campaigns:
Get started fast. Auto campaigns are ready to go at the press of a button. If you adjust your bids and budgets properly, they will consistently generate sales and revenue for your business.
Keyword discovery. Auto campaigns can sometimes squeeze out keywords you would have never thought of yourself. Using the Search term report, you can see which keywords perform well and turn them into dedicated campaigns.
Cheaper conversions. Auto campaigns tend to have a lower cost per conversion than manual campaigns. People speculate that this has to do with how auto-campaigns work in the Amazon PPC system, bidding on “leftover” keywords at a discounted rate.
You can keep automatic campaigns running indefinitely alongside Manual campaigns. Don’t think you have to use one over the other.
Remember, keep everything within budget while maintaining healthy margins!
Amazon’s algorithm often rewards auto campaigns with higher visibility in lower-competition areas, making them ideal for testing new products.
When you combine auto campaigns with manual targeting, you create a more dynamic Amazon PPC strategy that adapts to customer behavior.
Tip 6: Revisit Campaigns Every Few Days
Your advertising campaigns should be always evolving and getting more optimal as time goes on.
To make sure your account health and performance is always at the highest level, you should be checking on your campaigns every 3-5 days.
When checking your campaigns, look at:
- Your bids. Do they need to be raised or can they be lowered a bit?
- Negative keywords. Are there new keywords in your search term reports you can use to make your campaigns function more effectively?
- New opportunities. Can you add a new campaign? Advertise against a specific product? Get started with video ads?
Campaigns need a bit of time to perform and gather new data to guide your actions, but if you ignore them for too long then you might have keywords being serviced too hard that kill your margins and drain your budget.
Regular campaign optimization is crucial for keeping your ACoS low and your profit margins healthy.
Set reminders in your seller central dashboard to analyze your ad performance, CTR, and keyword trends to stay competitive.
Conclusion
Mastering your Amazon PPC strategy means understanding how to implement keyword optimization, adjust campaign types, and track metrics that impact your conversions. By learning to use negative keywords effectively and analyzing your search term reports weekly, you’ll avoid wasted ad spend and improve your ROAS across the board. A good Amazon advertising campaign blends automation with manual campaigns, uses multiple ad formats like Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands, and incorporates data-driven bid adjustments for optimal performance. To succeed in Amazon FBA and grow your eCommerce business, PPC management needs to become a consistent part of your workflow—not an afterthought. To truly optimize Amazon PPC campaigns, sellers must monitor key metrics like ACOS, CTR, and CPC in real-time to maintain a healthy profit margin.
Every Amazon seller, from beginners to seasoned experts, can benefit from optimizing ad spend, refining match types, and building campaigns that scale intelligently. Whether you sell digital products or physical inventory, investing in PPC tips, long-tail keywords, and a comprehensive Amazon PPC optimization plan is one of the best ways to increase sales and reach potential customers.
If you're serious about improving your cost-per-click, targeting the right keywords, and ensuring your product detail pages are converting, you must commit to testing and refining your ad groups with every round of campaign performance data. Don’t just aim to rank—build a full-funnel strategy that prioritizes customer engagement, campaign optimization, and strategic automation.
Remember: PPC advertising isn't about throwing money at ads—it's about building a sustainable, high-converting marketing engine that turns data into profit.
