Amazon is a fiercely competitive marketplace. And if you want to win, mastering Amazon PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising isn’t optional. A well-optimised Amazon PPC strategy is your ticket to visibility, traffic, and ultimately, sales. In this guide, we will help you scale with clarity and control. As a leading Amazon PPC agency, Lezzat has helped countless sellers cut through the noise and turn paid ads into a profitable growth channel.
What is Amazon PPC?
Amazon PPC is Amazon’s internal advertising platform that allows sellers to bid on keywords to have their products appear prominently in search results and product detail pages. It works on an auction-based model where you’re charged only when a user clicks your ad.
There are three primary ad types:
- Sponsored Products – Place your listings in strategic locations like search results and product pages to increase visibility and drive sales.
- Sponsored Brands – Showcase your brand with a headline ad and multiple products.
- Sponsored Display – Target shoppers both on and off Amazon with display banners.
Why Amazon PPC Is a Game-Changer?
In Amazon’s pay-to-play environment, even the best products can remain invisible without strategic advertising. This is where Amazon PPC comes in. It’s a tool for visibility and a powerful engine for long-term growth when executed correctly.
- Accelerates Organic Rankings: PPC-generated sales send powerful conversion signals to Amazon’s algorithm, helping you climb organic results faster.
- Maximises Product Visibility: New or low-ranking products gain critical exposure in a crowded marketplace where visibility equals sales.
- Enables Brand Defence & Offencive Targeting: Protect your brand from competitors bidding on your name — or strategically conquest theirs.
- Delivers Actionable Keyword Data: Real-time performance insights help you refine SEO, product development, and future campaigns.
PPC Fundamentals
Before spending a single dollar, it’s critical to ensure that your foundation is rock-solid. Neglecting the essentials can lead to wasted ad spend, low conversions, and poor rankings.
1. Listing Optimisation
Your product title, bullets, description, and images must convert. A high click-through rate (CTR) is worthless if your conversion rate (CVR) is weak.
Checklist:
- High-resolution images and lifestyle photos
- Clear, benefit-driven titles
- Bullet points focused on USPs
- A+ Content where possible
2. Gather positive reviews
Before you start running any ads, you need to ensure that your listings have credibility. Positive product reviews are a prerequisite to successful PPC because they significantly influence conversion rates.
3. Keyword Research
Use tools like Helium 10, Jungle Scout, and Amazon Brand Analytics to find high-volume, relevant keywords. Don’t ignore long-tail keywords. They often convert better and are cheaper.
4. Learn Your Audience
Just like any good marketing strategy, PPC works best when you keep your audience in mind. Knowing who you’re targeting lets you create ads that resonate with their wants, needs, and challenges.
How to understand your audience better?
- Pay attention to the keywords they’re using
- Analyse customer behaviour data
- Use Market Basket Analysis (MBA) to find product pairings
- Use Brand Analysis to evaluate awareness and perception
MBA can help with bundling and cross-promotion, while brand analysis helps you identify which values your customers connect with. If you’re selling organic baby food, for instance, and your audience is health-conscious parents, target long-tail keywords like “healthy baby food pouches” or “all-natural baby snacks.”
Campaign Structure Best Practices
How you structure your PPC campaigns matters. Clean structure = easier optimisation.
1. Sponsored Products Strategy
- Auto Campaigns: Great for harvesting data. Set low bids and monitor search term reports.
- Manual Campaigns:
- Break into Broad, Phrase, and Exact match types.
- Use SKAGs (Single Keyword Ad Groups) for control.
- Branded vs Non-Branded: Separate campaigns to measure brand vs discovery performance.
2. Sponsored Brands
- Ideal for top-of-funnel awareness.
- Use compelling headlines and send traffic to your Storefront for a curated experience.
3. Sponsored Display
- Retarget view-based audiences.
- Target competitor ASINs for aggressive conquesting.
How to Win the Bid War
Launching ads is easy, but optimising them is where true growth happens. Once your campaigns are live, your next mission is to fine-tune performance. This is where strategy becomes gold. Well-thought-out tactics will help you take command of your campaigns and crush your ACoS goals.
1. Monitor & Optimise KPIs Weekly
Key Metrics:
- ACOS (Advertising Cost of Sale): Target ~15-30% depending on margins.
- TACOS (Total ACOS): Measures ads’ impact on overall sales. Aim to reduce over time.
- CTR, CVR, Impressions: Diagnose if the problem is visibility, relevance, or pricing.
2. Search Term Mining
- Download Search Term Reports weekly.
- Add high-converting terms as exact matches in manual campaigns.
- Add poor-performing terms as Negative Keywords to prevent wasted spend.
3. Bid Optimisation
- Use Amazon’s dynamic bidding strategies, but manual adjustment gives better control.
- Increase bids on profitable terms.
- Lower or pause keywords with high spend and low conversion.
4. Dayparting & Budget Controls
- Use tools (e.g. Perpetua, Quartile) to schedule ads during peak hours.
- Avoid “budget-out” situations by allocating funds to high-return campaigns first.
5. Increase Budget During Peak Conversion Times
As with any marketing campaign, timing is essential for Amazon PPC. You want to spend your ad budget when your target audience is most likely to buy.
How to find your peak times:
- Analyse your sales dashboard
- Break down data by day and hour
- Identify when conversions peak
As an example, if you’re selling beauty products and notice peak sales on Fridays and Saturdays between 6–9 p.m., increase your bids and budget during that window. Also consider holidays or industry events. Use a marketplace intelligence tool to generate reports, understand buyer behaviour, and optimise accordingly.
Scaling Your PPC Strategy
Once your campaigns are consistently profitable, it’s time to scale by reaching new audiences and increasing market share.
1. Expand Targeting
- ASIN targeting – Show your ads directly on competitor product detail pages or complementary items your audience is already browsing.
- Category targeting with refinements – Advertise across an entire category, but narrow your audience using filters (price, reviews, Prime eligibility)
- Complementary product targeting – Identify products frequently bought together with yours (via Market Basket Analysis) and place ads alongside them to maximise basket value.
- Defencive targeting – Don’t forget to target your own listings to prevent competitors from poaching your traffic.
2. Go International
- Use tools like Amazon’s Build International Listings to expand to EU/Canada markets.
- Run localised PPC with country-specific keyword data.
3. Leverage AI Tools
- Use automation software (e.g., Pacvue, Ad Badger) for bulk bidding, smart rules, and alerts.
- However, human oversight is crucial. Don’t blindly trust AI to replace your strategy.
Pro Tips from the Experts
- No to set and forget: Amazon PPC changes and evolves. Weekly optimisations are the bare minimum.
- Test headline variations in Sponsored Brands.
- Use Video Ads for higher CTR and engagement.
- Review share of voice against top competitors using third-party tools.
- Align with inventory: Avoid aggressive PPC when low on stock.
Give Your Campaigns Time
Keep in mind that not all campaigns see instant success. Don’t be tempted to abandon your strategy too soon or make drastic changes based on short-term performance. Amazon PPC is relatively low-risk, making it a great testing ground. Let it run for a reasonable period to collect data, then analyse, iterate, and optimise. The right blend of patience and precision is what separates the amateurs from the masters.
Final Thoughts
Amazon PPC is about buying profitable traffic and optimising every touchpoint of the shopper journey. With a structured approach, data-driven adjustments, and audience-centric strategy, PPC can become a powerful growth engine for your brand.
If you’re looking to take your Amazon PPC strategy to the next level, Lezzat is here to help. As experienced Amazon sellers ourselves, we know the platform inside out. You can trust our experts for tailored Amazon PPC management services that will help you scale successfully on Amazon. And if you’re in learning mode, feel free to browse through our other blog posts. We’ve got plenty of insights, tips, and proven strategies to help you grow your brand on Amazon.
