How to Optimize Amazon PPC Advertising Campaigns

Amazon PPC is no longer optional—it’s the lifeline of visibility for most brands.

As more sellers enter the marketplace and ad inventory becomes saturated, running a campaign isn’t enough. You need to optimize it. Continuously. Strategically. Intelligently.

And it’s not just about lowering ACoS. It’s about sustainable growth—spending smarter, targeting better, and outmaneuvering your competition.

At Seller Contacts, we work with brands, agencies, and service providers who depend on data-driven decisions to grow their Amazon presence. This guide will walk you through how to optimize your PPC campaigns step-by-step—from campaign structure and bidding to harvesting and competitive targeting.

We’ll also show you where Seller Contacts‘ insights fit into the process, especially when it comes to spying on your niche, identifying competitors, and targeting sellers for advertising and partnership opportunities.

Understanding the Core Metrics That Actually Matter

Before optimizing anything, you need to know which numbers to track—and what they mean. Too many sellers chase the wrong ones or don’t know what to benchmark against.

ACoS vs. TACoS: What’s the Real Metric?

ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sale) tells you how much you’re spending to earn a dollar in revenue from ads. But it doesn’t show the full picture.

TACoS (Total Advertising Cost of Sale) does. It measures your ad spend against your total revenue, including organic sales.

If your TACoS is decreasing over time while ad sales remain stable or grow, your organic rank is improving. That’s a good sign. It means your ads are doing more than just buying traffic—they’re building long-term rank.

Other Metrics You Can’t Ignore

CPC (Cost per Click): How much you’re paying for each click. High CPCs hurt margins quickly.
CTR (Click-Through Rate): Indicates if your ad is enticing. Low CTR? Maybe your creative or title needs help.
CVR (Conversion Rate): Of those who click, how many buy. Low CVR could mean bad reviews, high price, or poor listing quality.
ROAS (Return on Ad Spend): How much return you’re getting for every dollar spent.

Don’t Chase Impressions Without Sales

It’s tempting to celebrate impressions. But they’re vanity metrics unless they translate into clicks and sales. Always follow the funnel: Impressions → Clicks → Conversions → Profits.

Seller Contacts Tip:
You can use Seller Contacts to analyze top sellers in your category, giving you realistic performance benchmarks to measure against.

Structuring Campaigns for Control and Clarity

A lot of Amazon sellers struggle not because their keywords are bad, but because their campaign structure is messy. Poor structure leads to poor data, and poor data leads to poor decisions.

Here’s how to fix that.

Organize by Product or Objective

Your campaigns should be broken out by individual ASINs or clear goals.

Running multiple unrelated products in a single campaign? It becomes impossible to know which one is actually performing.

For example:

Campaign A = Product A: Manual – Exact match
Campaign B = Product A: Manual – Broad match
Campaign C = Product A: Auto campaign

Each structure serves a purpose. But don’t blend them together.

Segment Keywords by Match Type

Broad, phrase, and exact match should live in their own campaigns (or at least separate ad groups). This gives you more control over bids, budgets, and performance tracking.

A common beginner mistake is lumping all match types together, which makes optimization almost impossible. Keep it clean, and keep it separated.

Use Ad Groups Strategically

Don’t throw 50 keywords into one ad group. Keep it tight. Ideally, 5–10 keywords with thematic relevance so you can monitor performance and make decisions quickly.

Targeting Optimization: Find the Right Buyers, Not Just Clicks

Amazon is a massive marketplace. The key is not to show your ad to more people, but to show it to the right people.

Keyword Research: Go Beyond Amazon’s Built-In Suggestions

Yes, Amazon’s auto-suggestions are a decent starting point. But real gains come from uncovering the keywords your competitors already rank for and convert on.

Seller Contacts Tip:
Use Seller Contacts to reverse-engineer competitor listings. Identify which keywords they’re ranking on, what categories they dominate, and what terms their top reviews repeatedly mention. These often reveal buyer-intent keywords you won’t get from regular tools.

Also look at:

Amazon Brand Analytics (if you’re Brand Registered)
Search Query Performance Dashboard
Past converting terms in your own auto campaigns

Product Targeting and ASIN Harvesting

ASIN targeting allows you to run ads directly on your competitors’ product pages.

You can show up:

In “Sponsored Products Related to This Item”
On the product detail page
Under “4-star and above” recommendations

But how do you find the best ASINs to target?

Run an auto campaign for 7–10 days, pull the search term report, and look for high-converting ASINs.
Use a tool like Seller Contacts to build a target list of competitor ASINs based on sales rank, review count, or product category.

Then, create manual product targeting campaigns with lower CPCs and test performance.

Don’t Forget Negative Keywords

This is one of the most overlooked levers.

Adding negative keywords stops your ads from showing up for irrelevant or unprofitable searches. It prevents wasted clicks.

If you’re running auto campaigns without negatives, you’re leaking spend.

Set a routine:
Check search term reports weekly. Look for terms with high spend but no conversions. Add them as negatives.

Bidding and Budget Optimization: Smart Spending, Not Overspending

One of the easiest ways to improve profitability is by fixing your bids. Too high, and you bleed cash. Too low, and you lose placements.

Dynamic vs Fixed Bids: Which Is Better?

Amazon offers three bidding strategies:

Dynamic – down only
Dynamic – up and down
Fixed bids

In most cases, “Dynamic – down only” is a safe bet. It lets Amazon reduce your bid when a conversion seems less likely, protecting your ACoS.

If you’re in a highly competitive niche with a solid CVR, “up and down” can help you win more top-of-search placements—but monitor your CPCs closely.

Avoid fixed bids unless you’re running a strict test.

Placement Bidding Adjustments

Amazon lets you boost bids for:

Top of Search
Product Pages

Example:
Let’s say you’re bidding $1.00 and you apply a Top of Search modifier of 50%. Your max bid for that placement becomes $1.50.

If your CVR is much higher on Top of Search (it often is), that bump can be worth it.

But check your placement report first. Make sure you’re not paying more for worse results.

Budget Allocation by Campaign Type

Split your budget based on intent:

Branded Campaigns (defensive): Low cost, high return
Competitor Campaigns (offensive): Higher cost, slower return
Category or Generic (discovery): Higher volume, needs tight control

Try not to put all your spend into one area. A balanced strategy wins in the long run.

Harvesting Campaigns for High-Intent Keywords and ASINs

Optimization is not a one-time act. The best campaigns are living systems—constantly learning, evolving, and refining.

That’s where harvesting campaigns come in.

What is Keyword and ASIN Harvesting?

When you run auto campaigns or broad/phrase match campaigns, you’re casting a wide net. These campaigns help you discover:

Search terms that shoppers are actually using
ASINs where your ads are being placed (often competitor listings)

You can then “harvest” the high-performing ones into manual campaigns for tighter control.

For example:

A phrase match campaign reveals “organic turmeric capsules for women” as a top converter
You move that to a manual exact match campaign with a competitive bid
Now you monitor and scale that term directly, while reducing spend in the broad campaign

How Often Should You Harvest?

Ideally, once per week, especially if you’re actively scaling.

Use Amazon’s Search Term Report to identify:

High-converting terms (low ACoS, good CVR)
High-cost/no-sale terms (add as negatives)
Irrelevant traffic (optimize targeting or listing)

Then adjust your bids, campaign structure, and keyword lists accordingly.

Advanced Optimization Tactics Most Sellers Ignore

Once you’ve nailed the basics, it’s time to get a little more surgical. These tactics aren’t for beginners—but they can move the needle significantly.

Dayparting: Optimize by Time of Day

Dayparting means adjusting your ad spend based on when your audience is most likely to buy.

Amazon doesn’t offer this natively (yet), but you can do it manually—or use a 3rd-party tool.

Example:
If your conversion rates tank between 2 AM and 7 AM, consider pausing ads during those hours.
If they spike during weekday evenings, increase bids for those times.

It reduces waste and improves ROAS.

Creative Optimization: Main Image and Title Testing

Your ad only gets clicked if it stands out.
Amazon doesn’t let you A/B test ads like Meta or Google do—but you can test creative in the listing itself.

Tips:

Change the main image to see if CTR improves
Rework your title to emphasize a key differentiator (e.g., “clinically tested,” “vegan certified,” “for kids”)

Track CTR before and after each change. Improvements often come from the smallest tweaks.

Reporting and Data Analysis: Make Optimization Scalable

Most sellers optimize reactively—they notice a dip in performance, then try to fix it.

But great sellers work proactively. They build routines around reporting and review.

The 3 Reports You Should Pull Weekly

Search Term Report
- Shows which terms triggered your ads
- Used for harvesting and adding negatives
Placement Report
- Reveals how different placements (Top of Search, Product Pages, Rest of Search) are performing
- Helps you adjust bid multipliers smartly
Performance by Time Report (via 3rd-party tools or analytics exports)
- Uncovers patterns based on days and hours

Monthly Strategy Reviews

Every 30 days, zoom out.

Ask:

Which ASINs are winning? Which are draining spend?
Are branded vs. competitor campaigns balanced?
Are your ACoS and TACoS trending in the right direction?
Which keywords have matured? Which need fresh tests?

This is where Seller Contacts can help.

How Seller Contacts Supercharges Your PPC Optimization

Seller Contacts is not a PPC tool. But it’s an intelligence platform that feeds your campaigns with smarter targeting and broader strategy.

Here’s how to use it:

1. Spy on Competitors Before Launch

Let’s say you’re launching a new baby sleep aid.

With Seller Contacts, you can:

Identify top sellers in the category
See which ones are dominating specific keywords
Download their seller profiles and brand portfolios

Now, you know who to target with ASIN ads, and which keywords their audiences are likely converting on.

2. Build ASIN Lists for Targeting

Instead of guessing which competitor ASINs to target, Seller Contacts gives you pre-qualified ASIN lists based on filters like:

BSR (Best Sellers Rank)
Review count
Product category
Price point

You can export those and build highly focused product targeting campaigns.

3. Expand Into New Niches Intelligently

If you’re looking to grow into adjacent niches, Seller Contacts helps you map out emerging sellers, category trends, and white-space opportunities.

Run a PPC campaign targeting rising stars or newer sellers with weak conversion rates—often cheaper, but still highly relevant.

Final Takeaways: What It Takes to Win in Amazon PPC

Amazon Ads are no longer about who has the biggest budget. It’s about who understands the buyer journey, tracks the right data, and adapts faster than others.

If you want to win:

Structure your campaigns clearly
Harvest data continuously
Use negatives aggressively
Let performance—not guesswork—guide your bids
Spy smartly with tools like Seller Contacts
Run weekly and monthly reporting cycles
Test relentlessly

Optimization is not a destination. It’s a habit.

And when done right, Amazon PPC doesn’t just grow your ad sales. It amplifies your organic ranking, lowers your overall cost per sale, and builds real brand momentum.

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s a good ACoS on Amazon?

It depends on your margins.

For high-margin products, 30% ACoS may be acceptable.
For low-margin ones, you might need to stay under 15–20%.
Always compare against your TACoS and product lifetime value.

How often should I optimize Amazon PPC campaigns?

Weekly is ideal for active accounts.
Daily if you’re scaling aggressively.
Monthly reviews are critical for long-term strategy.

Can I run PPC without Brand Registry?

Yes, but you’ll miss out on Sponsored Brands and Brand Analytics.
Still, Sponsored Products (the core ad type) is available to all.

How does Seller Contacts help with PPC?

Seller Contacts helps you identify:

Competitor ASINs for targeting
Seller profiles and brand networks
High-opportunity niches to expand into
It’s like having X-ray vision into your category.