Overview

The Helium 10 podcast episode #571, recorded in early 2024, features Amazon advertising specialist Destaney Wishon answering a surge of seller‑submitted questions about pay‑per‑click (PPC) tactics. The conversation spotlights three core levers—keyword isolation, Sponsored Display retargeting, and Prime Day budget pacing—that can directly improve ad relevance, lower cost‑per‑click, and capture seasonal demand. Sellers who apply these tactics can expect tighter campaign performance and a stronger return on ad spend during high‑traffic events.

Key Points

• Keyword isolation — Moving top‑performing search terms into their own exact‑match ad groups raises relevance scores and can cut CPC, as a home‑goods seller saw click‑through rates climb after separating “organic cotton sheets.”
• Sponsored Display targeting — Retargeting shoppers who visited product detail pages but did not purchase helped a kitchen‑ware vendor recover roughly 12 % of abandoned carts.
• Prime Day budget pacing — Raising daily budgets by about 30 % and applying a 15 % bid uplift 48 hours before Prime Day prevents early‑day overspend while preserving visibility during traffic spikes.
• Negative keyword hygiene — Adding low‑intent terms such as “free” or “manual” to negative lists on a weekly basis blocks wasteful clicks and trims ACOS for many sellers.
• Search term reporting cadence — Reviewing the Search Term Report every 48 hours enables rapid identification of emerging high‑conversion keywords, allowing a new exact‑match campaign to launch within a single business day.
• Bid‑adjustment timing — Activating bid increases only after the final pre‑Prime Day window ensures that bids are competitive when shoppers are most active, without inflating spend during quieter periods.

How the Discussed PPC Strategies Work

1. Isolate high‑value keywords — Pull the Search Term Report, pick the five or six terms that consistently generate sales with an acceptable ACOS, then create a dedicated exact‑match ad group for each; a pet‑supplement brand that moved “joint health chews” into its own group reported higher ad relevance and a noticeable drop in average CPC.