Mastering Amazon PPC: A Practical Guide to optimising Your Campaigns

Critical Terminology – Skip This Section At Your Peril

But before we get started it’s vital that you 100% understand a couple of terms. As with so many things, when it comes to Amazon PPC the devil is in the detail. Even a 95% understanding could cost you thousands in excess ad spend or lost sales. So let’s make certain that we’re all on the same page before we start.

1) Keywords vs Search Terms

Understanding the distinction between keywords and search terms is crucial for optimising your Amazon PPC campaigns. Here’s a quick overview of their similarities and differences:

Similarities:

• Both are essential components of Amazon PPC advertising
• They connect advertisers with potential customers
• Both influence ad visibility and performance

Key Differences:

Understanding these differences allows you to:

• Refine your keyword selection
• Discover new advertising opportunities
• Improve campaign relevance and efficiency

Read our detailed explanation of keywords vs. search terms in Amazon PPC

When you set up an Amazon Sponsored Product ad you can choose the keyword(s) that you want to target (along with the match type – BROAD, PHRASE or EXACT).

When you review the data from your ads you want to analyse at the lowest possible level, because that gives you the greatest flexibility and power for profit optimisation. And that optimum level for analysis is the “search terms” level.

2) Disabling Keywords vs Adding Negative Search Terms

If you disable a keyword in your campaign then, unsurprisingly, your ad will not be shown for any of the search terms related to that keyword… unless it is triggered by another keyword/match combination.

If you add a search term as a negative search term then all variations of that search term will be blocked within the relevant Campaign or Ad Group (depending on the level at which you set the negative search term)… regardless of how they were triggered.

So negative search terms have a wider effect than disabling a keyword… and that effect is wider still if you add the negative at the PHRASE match level as opposed to the EXACT match level.

On the flip side though, setting a negative search term means you can target a phrase a lot more precisely than simply disabling a PHRASE or BROAD match keyword.

For example:

• If you’re a seller of UK sweets and you target the keyword “box of sweets” at the phrase match level then disabling that will also disable all relevant variations, which you might not want to do
• If, instead, you add negative search terms then you can laser target terms which are irrelevant to you but keep the other terms which will generate you sales. e.g. you can add the following as negative search terms:
  • American box of sweets
  • Indian box of sweets
  • Irish box of sweets
  • Japanese box of sweets
  • etc

3) Amazon Match Types

If you think that, by choosing the keyword “box of sweets” with EXACT match, your ad will only display if a customer searches for the exact term “box of sweets” and nothing else… then you’re at risk of making some very expensive mistakes.

Even with EXACT match, the ad will display for many variations including:

• box of sweets
• boxes of sweets
• box of sweet
• boxes of sweet
• box for sweet
• boxes for sweets
• boxes for sweet
• box and sweet
• boxes and sweet
• boxes and sweets
• box sweet
• box sweets
• boxes sweet
• boxes sweets
• box with sweets
• boxes with sweets

And so on…

Now you might think that, given that many of the above are unlikely to be searched for very often, this isn’t really very important.

And that’s the costly mistake. Because… if Amazon considers all of that list to be identical it means that:

If you add any of these terms as a Negative Search Term then every other one of the variations will be blocked… Including any high selling, profitable variations.

For more details, read our detailed explanation of the various Amazon match types.

1. Stop Ads With Zero Sales

Why Should You Do It?

In the world of Amazon PPC, efficiency is key. One of the most impactful ways to improve your campaign’s performance is by identifying and stopping “zero sellers” – search terms that generate clicks and spend but fail to convert into sales.

If a search term isn’t generating sales then there’s absolutely no downside to stopping it as long as you take into account the variations that it will also block given how Amazon treats even EXACT match types (as we’ve explained above).

2. Review Your “Too Expensive” Ads

Why Should You Do It?

These are the ads where the ACoS is higher than your maximum value. So to make your advertising more profitable you need to do something about them.

Should You Stop Them?

Your first reaction might be to just stop them. I confess that’s what I used to do back in the day. After all, if my break-even ACoS was 20% and the ad had an ACoS of 30% then it was losing me money and I’d be better off if I stopped it.

Right?

Well actually the answer is… Yes. The overall profit would increase by stopping the ad from displaying for that search term.

But there’s an even better solution. That search term is generating sales… and by stopping it then we will lose those sales.

The better option is to lower the bid on that search term until its ACoS falls to or below your break-even, keeping the sales it generates.