Amazon PPC Optimization Techniques to Increase Sales and Maximize ROI

Whether you are an experienced seller or just getting started, Amazon PPC optimization can feel like a mountain, given all the complex considerations, such as campaign structure and ad types.

However, you don't have to struggle with your Amazon advertising strategy. In this guide, we’ll discuss how you can use different tactics to optimize your ads and boost your brand awareness and sales.

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What is Amazon PPC Optimization?

Amazon PPC optimization is the process of improving your pay-per-click campaigns to maximize Amazon results, such as quality traffic, brand recognition, and sales or revenue.

Simply put, it's the process of tweaking your Amazon ads to enhance performance, increase visibility on Amazon to the right audiences, and maximize your returns on investment.

Types of Amazon PPC Ads

Amazon offers three types of ads, the most recent type being Sponsored Display ads. Here's a quick look into how these types compare:

Since they are all PPC ads, you'll pay for each type on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis when a customer clicks on your advertisement.

How to Optimize Amazon PPC Campaigns

Optimizing your Amazon PPC campaigns can make a huge difference in your brand awareness, sales, and even profitability.

You'll want to regularly optimize your ads to enjoy these benefits. Here are some Amazon PPC strategies to consider:

1. Improve Your Products and Detail Pages

Your products and the corresponding detail pages are among the first things customers see when they visit your landing page.

You'll want these to be highly appealing to ensure you capture the buyer's attention within seconds and increase the chances of a successful purchase.

Below are some tactics to enhance your products and the detail pages:

• Ensure the products are of high quality and are in new condition.
• Use competitive pricing to attract buyers. For example, you can offer multiple pricing options or set your product price slightly lower than your competitors.
• Use compelling product titles that adequately name the product and reflect its value proposition where possible.
• Use high-quality product images or videos. You can even add real-life visuals of the product in use to provide further social proof.
• Use bullet points to highlight your product’s key features and the corresponding benefits.

2. Target the Right Audience With Informed Keyword Research

Use the right keywords to show your ads to customers who are more likely to buy your products or love your brand.

For example, Sponsored Display ads are usually seen by people who are already considering buying similar products. They can easily choose your competitors’ products, so you can't just say your work will be done once they see your ad.

Try to think of queries your buyers would type into the Amazon search bar and search for them to see what surfaces on the Amazon search results pages.

Alternatively, you can go to the “Reports" and Amazon's “Search Term Report" to see the search queries that brought in clicks, good click-through rate (CTR), and good conversion rate (CR). Optimize your campaign for these high-performing queries.

3. Use Positive Customer Reviews to Improve Your Ads

Positive reviews from past customers are ideal for building social proof, trust, and assurance. Adopt a proactive approach by regularly asking your customers to leave detailed reviews.

4. Manage Your PPC Bids

You'll want to monitor your CPC, advertising cost of sales (ACoS), and ad performance to see where to adjust. For instance, you can improve your Amazon ROI if you bid more for high-performing keywords.

5. Leverage Automatic and Manual Campaigns

When you use an automatic targeting campaign for Sponsored Products, Amazon automatically determines the search queries for which your ads should appear. The system helps you discover new keywords with minimal effort.

In manual targeting, you can research your own keywords. You can also shift your high-performance keywords from automatic targeting to manual targeting to boost campaign performance.

Moving the keywords ensures your ads only show up on exact-match queries to reduce ad spend.

6. Use Negative Targeting

You can use this Amazon PPC strategy to avoid keywords that bring irrelevant searches or have high impressions with low clicks and sales.

For example, if you sell winter jackets, you can avoid a keyword like “summer jackets" because the chances of it converting for you are pretty low.

You may also exclude specific brands or products to filter out the competitors and avoid brand or product mismatches.

For example, if you sell jackets but share the same brand name with a belt seller, you can use negative targeting to ensure your ads don't appear in irrelevant searches.

7. Increase Your Ad Spend During Peak Conversion Periods

You can optimize your budget to advertise more when you are likely to get the most sales. For example, you can leverage the high conversion rates on special days such as Black Friday, Prime Day, and Cyber Monday to boost seasonal sales on Amazon.

8. Use A/B Split Testing

While Amazon advertising optimization can feel like an art-like endeavor most of the time, you can also turn it into a little science project with A/B split testing.

You can try different ad formats, ad spends, product titles, prices, product headlines, or ad types to determine which option works best and optimize your ads accordingly.

For example, if you realize that sharing short real-life videos of people using your products boosts your ad reach and overall sales, you can add such videos to your next Amazon ads.

How to Structure Amazon PPC Campaign

The structure you use to set up your PPC for Amazon can vary depending on your goals, ad type, and product type.

Ideally, you'll set up a manual campaign using exact-match keywords for your Amazon Sponsored Products or Sponsored Brands.

You'll also set up an automatic campaign for your Sponsored Products using broad keywords.

The result is a simple structure where you set the exact-match keywords you hope will give the best results while the automatic campaign helps you find new potential targeted keywords.

Since most Amazon sellers usually start their journey selling only one variety of products, let's see what the structure would look like:

1. Create one manual campaign and one automatic campaign for every product with a specific ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number):

• In the automatic one, Amazon will figure out the best keywords based on your budget, product type, and product title.
• In the manual campaign, you can remove keywords with poor or zero conversions.

2. Use Three Separate Ad Groups in the Manual Campaign—Broad, Phrase, and Exact-Match:

• Use broad-match keywords to expand your campaign’s reach with a wider range of keywords.
• Use phrase-match keywords because they are more restrictive than broad keywords but can still expand your reach. For example, “winter jackets for men" is suitable if your broad keyword is “winter jackets."
• Use exact-match keywords because they are more relevant and highly targeted, hence higher chances of making a sale.

3. Run the campaigns for at least 1-2 weeks to determine the keywords that perform the most.

4. Go to the report section and pick the keywords with the best conversion rate, fairly enough search volume, and fewer competing products.

5. Add the keywords to your manual campaign and use the suggested bid.

6. Select the preferred duration for which you want the two campaigns to continue running and launch them.

7. Run both manual and automatic campaigns simultaneously.

8. Keep optimizing by bringing the high-performing keywords from the automatic campaign to the manual one.

9. Replicate the process, ensuring each well-performing ASIN product has at least 2-3 Sponsored Brands or Sponsored Products ads for the highest-performing keywords.

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Affiliates can boost your sales by promoting your products to their communities on external sources like social media, blogs and websites, and email lists.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Here are common questions to consider:

What is a Good ACoS for Amazon PPC?

There's no definitive good ACoS for Amazon ads. Generally, you'll want your ACoS to be below your break-even ACoS because that means you'll be making a profit.

The break-even Amazon ACoS is the point at which your advertising cost equals your profit margin.

How Much Does PPC Cost on Amazon?

Amazon PPC costs vary widely depending on your niche, ad types, keywords, and product value. Generally, you can expect between $0.10 and $6.00.

What is the Difference Between Automatic and Manual Targeting in Amazon PPC?

Manual targeting offers more control since you select the keywords you want to pursue in your ads. With automatic targeting, you have less control since Amazon selects the keywords for you and sets the bids.

Conclusion

When it comes to Amazon PPC optimization, adopting a proactive, multi-advert approach is beneficial to achieving better results. You'll want to target different ad types, products, landing pages, campaign structures, and results.

You can also work with affiliates to complement your Amazon advertising efforts. At Archer, we can help you work with the right affiliates for your brand to boost your traffic and conversions. Create your free account today to get started!