Overview

In early 2024 a wave of Amazon sellers launched pay‑per‑click (PPC) ads without a coherent plan, causing advertising cost of sales (ACOS) to surge past 50 % for many brands. The fallout highlighted how mis‑structured campaigns can erode profit margins and diminish product visibility. Understanding the typical mistakes and rebuilding campaigns with proven tactics is essential for protecting earnings and gaining a competitive edge.

Key Points

• Broad‑match overuse — Relying solely on broad‑match keywords can consume 30‑40 % of a daily budget on irrelevant traffic; a kitchen‑gadgets vendor spent $1,200 on clicks that produced zero orders.
• Absence of negative keywords — Without a negative list, ads appear for low‑intent searches such as “free” or “cheap,” inflating spend; an apparel company added 150 negative terms and trimmed $800 of wasteful spend in one month.
• One‑size‑fits‑all campaign — Grouping every ASIN into a single campaign blocks granular bidding; a toy maker split a $5,000 daily budget into three product‑specific campaigns and lowered ACOS from 62 % to 38 %.
• Ignoring Search Term Reports — Skipping the report hides high‑performing queries; after inserting the top 10 discovered terms, a health‑supplement seller lifted sales by 22 % within two weeks.
• Overbidding generic keywords — Bidding $2.00 on broad terms like “gift” while the average CPC sits near $0.45 drives unnecessary costs; adjusting bids to match intent saved a home‑decor seller $1,150 each month.
• Skipping automatic campaigns — Omitting the automatic phase eliminates a key source of new keyword data; a pet‑product brand that reinstated an automatic campaign uncovered 45 high‑conversion terms in just 10 days.

How Amazon PPC Campaigns Work

1. Define Goal & Set Budget — Choose a clear objective (e.g., product launch or profit protection) and allocate a daily spend that aligns with the desired ACOS; a new smartwatch brand capped its budget at $150 per day to stay within a 25 % ACOS target.
2. Segment Ad Groups by Match Type — Inside each campaign, create separate ad groups for broad, phrase, and exact match keywords; the smartwatch brand placed the generic term “smartwatch” in a broad group and “water‑proof smartwatch” in an exact group, enabling distinct bid levels.