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.
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 (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.
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.
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.
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:
Each structure serves a purpose. But don’t blend them together.
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.
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.
Amazon is a massive marketplace. The key is not to show your ad to more people, but to show it to the right people.
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:
ASIN targeting allows you to run ads directly on your competitors’ product pages.
You can show up:
But how do you find the best ASINs to target?
Then, create manual product targeting campaigns with lower CPCs and test performance.
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.
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.
Amazon offers three bidding strategies:
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.
Amazon lets you boost bids for:
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.
Split your budget based on intent:
Try not to put all your spend into one area. A balanced strategy wins in the long run.
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.
When you run auto campaigns or broad/phrase match campaigns, you’re casting a wide net. These campaigns help you discover:
You can then “harvest” the high-performing ones into manual campaigns for tighter control.
For example:
Ideally, once per week, especially if you’re actively scaling.
Use Amazon’s Search Term Report to identify:
Then adjust your bids, campaign structure, and keyword lists accordingly.
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 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.
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:
Track CTR before and after each change. Improvements often come from the smallest tweaks.
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.
Every 30 days, zoom out.
Ask:
This is where Seller Contacts can help.
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:
Let’s say you’re launching a new baby sleep aid.
With Seller Contacts, you can:
Now, you know who to target with ASIN ads, and which keywords their audiences are likely converting on.
Instead of guessing which competitor ASINs to target, Seller Contacts gives you pre-qualified ASIN lists based on filters like:
You can export those and build highly focused product targeting campaigns.
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.
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:
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.
What’s a good ACoS on Amazon?
It depends on your margins.
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:
