13 Expert Amazon Ad Optimization Strategies for Higher Sales

Advertising on Amazon can dramatically boost visibility, traffic, and sales—but with competition rising daily, success now depends on strategy, not just budget. Top brands don’t simply run ads; they optimize them—constantly refining performance to drive profitable growth.

In this guide, you’ll learn 13 proven Amazon ad optimization strategies (from foundational to advanced) that improve efficiency, maximize ROI, and scale your results sustainably. Whether you manage one product or an entire catalog, these tactics will help you turn ads into a long-term growth engine.

What Is Amazon PPC Optimization?

Amazon ad optimization (also known as Amazon PPC optimization) means continuously improving your pay-per-click campaigns to achieve better visibility and more profitable sales. It involves refining keywords, bids, budgets, and creatives based on performance data.

The goal isn’t to spend more, but to spend smarter: lowering ACoS, improving ROAS, and scaling sales efficiently. By analyzing campaign data and making targeted adjustments, advertisers ensure every click counts — aligning ad spend with shopper intent and business goals.

Well-optimized Amazon ads are:

• Targeted: They show up for the right keywords and reach relevant audiences.

• Relevant: They lead to high-quality, retail-ready product listings that match shopper intent.

• Efficient: They minimize wasted spend and improve return on investment (more sales per ad dollar).

• Scalable: They drive sustainable growth, allowing you to increase sales over time without sacrificing profitability.

The Link Between Product Listing Quality and Ad Success: Even the best Amazon ads can’t convert if your product listing isn’t ready to sell. Success starts with retail readiness: clear, keyword-rich titles, quality images, competitive pricing, and strong reviews that build trust. For brand-registered sellers, A+ Content enhances credibility and boosts conversions. In short, ads drive traffic, but an optimized listing converts it, turning ad spend into real sales.

Core PPC Optimization Strategies

Running ads on Amazon without a clear strategy leads to wasted spend and missed opportunities. Top sellers know optimization is ongoing, not a one-time setup. So, here are 10 core, proven Amazon PPC strategies to boost visibility, cut waste, and maximize every ad dollar. Start with the core tactics, then layer in advanced ones as your campaigns grow.

1. Optimize Product Listings for Better Ad Performance

Start at the source: your product detail pages. Strong product listings are the foundation of high-performing Amazon ads. When your listing is tailored to match shopper intent, every click you pay for works harder – leading to better engagement, higher conversion rates, and a lower ACoS.

Here’s how seasoned Amazon advertisers approach listing optimization:

• Use titles that match real searches: Write titles using the exact phrases shoppers use, not technical jargon. Example: “Wall-Mount Foam Dispenser for Kitchen” performs better than “Model X100 Home Storage Unit.” Think like your customer.

• Focus bullet points on benefits: Turn features into clear customer value. Instead of “Stainless Steel Lid,” say “Spill-Proof Design – Keeps drinks sealed and leak-free during travel.” Benefits drive conversions.

• Leverage backend search terms: Use backend keyword fields for synonyms, alternate spellings, and misspellings (e.g., “coffee maker,” “coffeemaker,” “coffee machine”). This boosts visibility without cluttering your listing.

• Invest in high-quality visuals: Use crisp, professional images: product-only, lifestyle, feature close-ups, and infographics. Strong visuals build trust and lift click-through rates from ads.

• Ensure brand and ad consistency: Keep tone, messaging, and visuals aligned across ads and listings. A cohesive look reinforces your brand and improves conversion once shoppers click through.

Optimized listings make your ad traffic “stick”, turning more clicks into purchases and improving your ACoS over time. In short: better listings = better ads = better results.

2. Use Automatic Campaigns to Discover High-Performing Keywords

Amazon’s Automatic campaigns are a powerful (but often underused) tool for finding profitable keywords. They let Amazon match your ads to relevant searches based on your listing content and category, revealing real shopper behavior you might not expect.

Here’s how experienced advertisers extract value from automatic campaigns:

• Start broad, but segment smartly: Create separate auto campaigns by product or product category instead of lumping everything together. This gives you cleaner data and helps pinpoint which search terms perform best for each ASIN or group.

• Mine for long-tail keywords: Auto campaigns often surface highly specific, low-competition phrases (e.g., “non-slip toddler sippy cup”). Add strong performers from your Search Term Report to manual campaigns with phrase or exact match for more control.

• Identify irrelevant traffic (and add negatives): Auto campaigns reveal what doesn’t work too. Exclude irrelevant or poor-performing terms as negatives to stop wasted spend (e.g., “garage organizer” if you sell kitchen storage).

• Use targeting groups strategically: Split out Amazon’s auto targeting types—Close Match, Loose Match, Substitutes, and Complements—into separate campaigns. This helps you see which targeting style converts best and adjust bids accordingly.

• Harvest and transfer keywords regularly: Review your Search Term Reports every 1–2 weeks. Promote converting terms to manual campaigns and add non-performers as negatives. This ongoing loop turns auto campaigns into a reliable keyword discovery engine.

Think of auto campaigns as your scouting tool, collecting data on how customers actually search. Used strategically, they uncover hidden keyword opportunities, refine targeting, and strengthen your manual campaigns with evidence-based insights.

3. Transition to Manual Campaigns and Refine Your Match Types

Once your automatic campaigns surface top-performing search terms, it’s time to switch gears. Manual campaigns let you choose specific keywords, ASINs, and bids, offering tighter control and higher efficiency when managed well.

Here’s how advanced sellers maximize results with manual campaigns:

• Promote proven keywords to exact match: Move your best-performing search terms (from auto campaigns or research) into exact match. This ensures your ads show only for those precise queries, allowing confident bidding on highly relevant traffic.

• Use phrase match for controlled discovery: Add promising but unproven terms as phrase match to capture variations while maintaining relevance. For instance, “yoga mat” could also trigger “thick yoga mat for home,” uncovering new long-tail opportunities.

• Test broad match carefully: Broad match can reveal new trends but also trigger irrelevant clicks. Use it sparingly and always pair it with negative keywords to block unrelated searches. Monitor performance closely to avoid wasted spend.

• Segment by theme or intent: Group keywords logically—by product line, audience intent (e.g., “budget blender” vs “professional blender”), or brand type (branded, competitor, generic). This enables tailored bidding and clearer reporting.

• Keep ad groups tight and focused: Avoid stuffing ad groups with hundreds of keywords. Limit each to 10–20 closely related terms for cleaner data, better serving from Amazon’s algorithm, and easier bid management.

Think of manual campaigns as moving from a wide brush to a fine-tip pen, focusing your spend where it matters most. Over time, refining match types and groupings helps you scale profitably while maintaining precision and efficiency.

4. Leverage Negative Keywords to Reduce Wasted Spend

One of the simplest ways to improve Amazon ad efficiency is to eliminate waste. Negative keywords prevent your ads from appearing for irrelevant or unprofitable searches, ensuring your budget is spent only on high-intent queries that are more likely to convert.

Top advertisers use them proactively. Here’s how to apply the strategy effectively:

• Block irrelevant queries early: Identify terms that sound related but don’t match your product. For example, if you sell premium goods, exclude “cheap” or “free.” If you sell new items, add “used” or “refurbished.” Likewise, a kitchen organizer brand might block “garage organizer” or “toolbox” to avoid poor matches.

• Regularly mine search term reports: Check reports every 7–14 days to spot terms with high clicks or spend but no conversions. Add these to your negative list—they’re draining your budget without results. This pruning directly improves your ACoS by removing low-value traffic.

• Use both phrase and exact match negatives: Negative exact blocks that specific term, while negative phrase blocks any search containing that phrase. For instance, blocking “kids toy set” as an exact term stops only that query, but blocking “toy set” as a phrase covers all variations. Use both for balance: precision where needed and broad coverage where inefficiencies persist.

• Prevent internal competition: Avoid campaign cannibalisation by separating branded and non-branded targeting. In non-branded campaigns, add your brand name as a negative so branded searches go to their own campaign. Similarly, when transferring strong keywords from automatic to manual campaigns, negate them in the auto version for cleaner control.

• Apply negatives strategically by level: Use campaign-level negatives for universally irrelevant terms and ad-group-level negatives to direct traffic between ad groups. For example, if one ad group promotes “red widgets” and another “blue widgets,” block “blue” in the red group and vice versa.

Over time, your negative keyword list becomes a key Amazon ad optimization tool. It channels spend toward converting searches, improves ROAS, and reduces wasted impressions. Every irrelevant click you prevent frees up budget for clicks that drive actual sales.

5. Apply Dynamic Bidding Strategies to Bid Smarter (Not Just Higher)

Winning the ad auction on Amazon isn’t just about how much you bid, but how you bid. Amazon provides Dynamic Bidding options that automatically adjust your bids in real time based on the likelihood of conversion. Understanding these bidding strategies can help you bid more intelligently, so you capture high-converting opportunities without overspending on low-converting ones.

Amazon currently offers three core bidding strategy settings for Sponsored Products campaigns:

• Fixed Bids: Amazon will always use your exact bid, every time, for every auction (unless you’ve set manual adjustments for placements – more on that shortly). This means no automatic adjustments; you’re in full control, but it won’t account for any differences in conversion likelihood.

• Dynamic Bids – Down Only: Amazon will lower your bid if it thinks a click is less likely to convert. Essentially, you set a max bid, and Amazon can bid anywhere up to that amount, but might bid, say, 20% less if its data suggests a low conversion probability for that impression. This protects you from overspending on low-value clicks while never exceeding your max bid.

• Dynamic Bids – Up and Down: Amazon will either lower or raise your bid depending on the predicted conversion chance. If Amazon’s algorithm is highly confident that a particular impression (context, search query, placement, etc.) could convert, it may increase your bid (up to a maximum of +100% for placements like top of search, for example) to improve your chances of winning that auction. If the chance is low, it will decrease the bid. Essentially, it gives Amazon more freedom to optimize your bid in both directions.

Most sellers start new campaigns with “Down Only” or fixed bids to maintain cost control, but advanced advertisers often switch to “Up and Down” for their best campaigns to aggressively capture sales when the odds are in their favor. Here’s how to make the most of dynamic bidding:

• Choose strategy by campaign goal: Select the dynamic bidding type based on campaign intent. Use Dynamic Up & Down when you can’t afford to miss conversions, such as branded keyword or high-performing exact match campaigns. Amazon increases bids when it predicts a sale, often boosting volume. Choose Down Only for exploratory or newer campaigns where you want tighter cost control. If your campaigns are stable and predictable, Fixed Bids can work, but they require closer manual management.

• Combine dynamic bidding with placement multipliers: Amazon lets you adjust bids by placement—Top of Search or Product Pages. If Top of Search delivers stronger conversion rates, consider a +50% or +100% multiplier. Combined with Up & Down bidding, this amplifies top-position exposure when it matters most. Review your Placement Report in Amazon Ads to ensure those boosts align with actual performance.

• Let data guide your adjustments: After a few weeks, analyse campaign data. If Up & Down raises ACoS without lifting sales, shift to Down Only or reduce bids. Conversely, if Down Only yields excellent conversion rates, test Up & Down to capture more volume. Monitor CTR, conversion rate, and ACoS—dynamic bidding works best when refined by performance trends.

• Integrate with time-of-day and budgeting controls: Combine bidding with dayparting and smart budget pacing. For instance, use Up & Down during high-converting hours and Down Only overnight. If budgets are tight, ensure dynamic bidding doesn’t exhaust daily spend too early. Adjust pacing to maintain visibility throughout the day.

• Review performance regularly: Check weekly after any change. Dynamic bidding can shift ad delivery patterns—track spend, sales, ACoS, and ROAS closely. If costs spike without proportional gains, scale back. If conversions climb at a healthy ACoS, consider expanding the approach across campaigns.

Dynamic bidding leverages Amazon’s machine learning to adjust bids in real time, helping you win valuable impressions and avoid poor clicks. When used strategically, it automates smarter decision-making—the essence of effective Amazon ad optimization.

6. Manage Daily Budgets to Prevent Overspending (and Underspending)

Your daily campaign budgets determine how much you’re willing to spend on a given campaign per day. Mismanaging budgets can lead to two major issues: running out of budget too early (losing visibility later in the day when shoppers are still searching) or over-allocating budget to low-performing campaigns (wasting money that could be better used elsewhere). Effective budget management ensures your ads stay live during peak shopping hours and that every dollar is allocated to its best use.

Here’s how experienced advertisers handle daily budgets for optimal results:

• Anchor budgets to profitability: Start by understanding your margins. Calculate your break-even ACoS based on profit percentage—if your margin is 25%, anything above that means a loss. Decide your target ACoS (e.g., 30% for launches, 15% long-term) and reverse-engineer daily spend from your sales goal. For instance, to achieve $100 in daily ad sales at a 25% ACoS, set your daily budget to $25. This ensures full spending remains within profit limits.

• Monitor pacing through the day: Track how quickly campaigns reach their daily cap using Amazon’s “Budget usage” data. If a profitable campaign runs out of budget early, increase it or use dayparting to distribute spend more evenly. Conversely, if spend is consistently low, either lower the budget or investigate low bids or narrow targeting.

• Reallocate to high performers: Shift more budget to campaigns delivering better ROAS and ACoS. If one campaign has 15% ACoS and another 60%, scale up the efficient one and reduce or pause the underperformer. Regular budget reallocation maximises returns by funding proven winners.

• Control spend on test campaigns: For new or experimental campaigns—like broad match tests or new product launches—start with small budgets. Let them prove profitability before scaling. This “sandbox” approach limits risk and prevents heavy losses from untested ideas.

• Use alerts and automation: When managing many campaigns, budget automation is invaluable. Amazon’s Campaign Manager and tools like atom11 can flag or adjust budgets automatically. Set alerts for campaigns that spend 80% of their budget by midday or create rules such as “if spend >70% by 1 p.m., raise budget 20%” or “pause if $X spend yields zero sales.” These automations keep strong campaigns funded and prevent overspend.

Managing daily budgets is about spending smarter, not more. Align budgets with profitability, performance, and timing to ensure ads stay active when shoppers are most likely to buy. A well-balanced budget strategy is a cornerstone of Amazon ad optimization and long-term account scalability.

7. Test Dayparting to Capture Peak Shopping Hours

Not every hour on Amazon converts equally. Shoppers follow predictable rhythms: browsing in the morning, buying in the evening, or spiking activity at lunch or weekends. Dayparting lets you adjust bids or schedules by time of day or day of week so your budget works hardest during high-conversion windows.

Advanced Amazon PPC advertisers use dayparting to align their ad spend with peak shopping hours. Here’s how you can approach it:

• Research your peak hours: Use Amazon reports or Marketing Stream data to identify when clicks and sales peak. For instance, you may find conversion rates soar from 6–10 PM or weekends outperform weekdays. Patterns differ by category, so analyse your own data.

• Build your schedule: Increase bids or activate campaigns during strong hours, and lower or pause during weak ones. Tools can automate this even though Amazon’s console doesn’t natively allow scheduling for Sponsored Products.

• Automate for precision: Platforms like atom11 let you apply time-based rules automatically, such as “Weekdays 7–11 PM: +25% bids” or “1–6 AM: -50% bids.” Real-time data confirms which windows deliver the best ACoS or ROAS.

• Refine over time: Monitor how changes affect performance. You may discover cheap late-night conversions or missed midday spikes. Adjust as patterns evolve rather than set it once and forget it.

• Mind time zones & marketplaces: Reports default to Pacific Time for Amazon US. Account for regional differences and customer behaviour if you sell internationally.

• Align with budgets: Concentrating spend into short, high-performing windows can exhaust daily budgets faster. Ensure limits are high enough to sustain your boosted periods, and that higher spend is justified by better returns.

When done right, dayparting helps you spend smarter, not more, focusing your budget when shoppers are most ready to buy and conserving it during low-conversion hours. It’s one of the easiest ways to improve ACoS and drive more sales with the same budget.

| Related read: How to Use SP Hourly Report for Amazon PPC Dayparting

8. Structure Campaigns by Product, Category, or Audience for Clarity

How you structure your Amazon PPC campaigns directly affects performance and manageability. A disorganised setup wastes budget, clouds insights, and even causes your own ads to compete against each other. A clear structure, on the other hand, improves control, scalability, and visibility into what’s truly working.

There’s no universal structure—it depends on your catalogue and objectives. Advanced advertisers typically use one of three frameworks:

Option 1: Structure by Individual Product (ASIN)

Create a dedicated campaign for each product, especially for bestsellers or high-margin items.

Advantages:

• Clear performance visibility: Track each product’s ACoS and optimize independently.

• Budget control: Prevent one product from consuming spend meant for another.

• Testing flexibility: Experiment with promos or new keywords without affecting other products.

This model suits sellers with a smaller range of distinct products.

Option 2: Structure by Category or Product Group

If you have many products, group similar ones under shared campaigns (e.g., jars, pantry racks, spice organisers).

Advantages:

• Relevant targeting: Each campaign’s keywords and ads align closely with the category.

• Cross-product insights: Learnings from one item can improve others in the same group.

• Simplified reporting: Compare performance by category to guide budget allocation.
  Avoid mixing products with very different margins or conversion rates—it can distort your analysis.

Option 3: Structure by Audience Intent or Funnel Stage

Segment campaigns by shopper intent to control bids and budgets more precisely.

Examples include:

• Branded vs. Non-Branded: Defend your brand terms in one campaign, and use another for generic searches.

• Competitor Targeting: Target rival brands or ASINs to reach shoppers comparing alternatives.

• Category vs. Long-Tail Keywords: Separate broad high-volume terms from specific ones that convert better.

• Retargeting/Repurchasing: Use Sponsored Display to engage past viewers or loyal buyers.

Why this matters: Branded campaigns should maintain a low ACoS, while prospecting or competitor campaigns can tolerate higher costs as they reach new audiences.

The Benefits of Structured Campaigns

• Cleaner reporting: Each campaign has a clear purpose, making analysis straightforward.

• Smarter budget and bid control: Allocate funds and adjust bids confidently without overlap.

• Scalability: As your business expands, a logical structure makes adding new products or categories effortless.

Even small adjustments, such as isolating top performers or splitting mixed campaigns, can yield instant improvements in efficiency. In essence, campaign structure is the backbone of effective Amazon ad optimization: build it well, and every other element of your strategy performs better.

9. Track ACoS and TACoS to Guide PPC Profitability

Many advertisers focus solely on ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sale) to measure Amazon PPC performance. While it’s useful for judging ad efficiency, it doesn’t show how ads impact total business growth. That’s where TACoS (Total Advertising Cost of Sale) provides a fuller picture. Tracking both gives you insight into immediate campaign performance and long-term profitability.

ACoS: Ad Efficiency Metric

It shows what percentage of your ad-attributed revenue goes toward advertising. For instance, spending $50 to make $200 in ad sales equals a 25% ACoS.

• A lower ACoS means greater ad efficiency.

• If ACoS exceeds your profit margin, you’re losing money on each sale.

• A very low ACoS might mean you can scale bids and budgets more aggressively.

However, ACoS only covers ad-driven sales—it ignores the organic sales uplift that effective advertising can generate.

TACoS: Overall Profitability Indicator

It measures how ad spend affects your total Amazon revenue. For example, $50 in ad spend generating $200 ad sales and $300 organic sales equals a 10% TACoS.

• A declining TACoS means organic sales are growing faster than ad spend—a strong sign of healthy brand momentum.

• A rising TACoS signals growing dependence on paid traffic, often indicating overspending or weak organic rank.

| Related read: ACoS vs TACoS: Understanding Amazon Advertising Metrics

How to Use Both Metrics

• Use ACoS for tactical decisions. Track it daily or weekly to optimize bids, pause underperforming keywords, or raise budgets on efficient campaigns.

• Monitor TACoS for strategic trends. Review monthly or quarterly to assess if ad activity is boosting organic sales. A falling TACoS suggests your campaigns are building sustainable growth; a rising one means your ads aren’t translating into organic visibility.

• Interpret both together. Never judge performance on ACoS alone. A low ACoS could be misleading if you’re overspending on branded keywords that would convert organically. Meanwhile, a temporarily higher ACoS can be acceptable if TACoS improves—meaning ads are driving overall sales expansion. Always interpret both within context.

• Communicate the Bigger Picture. When reporting to stakeholders, TACoS illustrates how ads fuel total business growth. For instance, “ACoS rose from 22% to 25%, but TACoS fell from 12% to 9%, showing stronger organic sales from increased visibility.” This reframes ad spend as investment, not cost.

Set Goals by Product Lifecycle

• New Products: Expect high ACoS and TACoS initially as ads drive visibility and ranking.

• Growth Phase: Aim for a gradual TACoS decline as organic traction increases.

• Mature Products: Maintain steady, profitable ACoS and stable or declining TACoS as you rely more on organic reach.

Example goal progression:

Advanced PPC Optimization Tactics

Once you have your campaigns structured well and the fundamental optimizations in place, you can start leveraging advanced strategies to take your Amazon advertising to the next level. These tactics will help you scale more profitably, uncover new growth opportunities, and even automate complex decisions.

10. Automate Rules for Faster Data-Driven Decision Making

As your Amazon PPC portfolio grows, manually adjusting bids and keywords becomes unsustainable. Top advertisers rely on rule-based automation to handle repetitive optimizations quickly and consistently. The goal isn’t just to save time—it’s to react to performance shifts faster than manual management ever could.

Rule-based automation lets you define “if-then” conditions for your campaigns. In essence: if X happens, do Y. Here are common examples:

• Pause underperforming keywords: Example rule: If a search term spends over $20 with zero orders in seven days, pause it or add it as a negative keyword. This prevents wasted spend and catches budget drains before they escalate.

• Boost strong performers: Set rules such as if ACoS <10% and orders ≥5 in the past week, raise bid by 15%. Automation doubles down on winning keywords while you focus on strategy.

• Adjust for Buy Box ownership: Running ads when you don’t own the Buy Box wastes spend. Automate: If Buy Box lost → pause campaign until regained. This ensures ads only run when conversions benefit you directly.

• Reallocate budgets automatically: If one campaign overspends early with poor results, an automation can shift budget to better-performing campaigns or pause the underperformer for the rest of the day. Advanced tools can even rebalance budgets intra-day.

• Control bids based on inventory: Avoid advertising products close to selling out. Example: If inventory <20 units, cut bids by 50% or pause campaigns. This protects stock and prevents wasted ad spend on soon-to-be-unavailable items.

Tools like atom11 make it easy to implement and monitor these automations through intuitive dashboards. Pre-built templates, such as Budget Optimizer, Bid Optimizer, Search Term Negator, and Inventory Optimizer, let you enforce consistent, data-driven rules. You can also set safeguards like “never increase bids more than 20% at once” or “alert me if more than five keywords are paused daily.”

Automation doesn’t replace strategy—it enforces it. You define what good and bad performance look like; automation ensures those definitions are applied continuously and instantly. Over time, these rules become your first line of defence against wasted spend and missed opportunities, keeping campaigns efficient even while you’re offline.

11. Monitor Competitor Activity and Share of Voice

Amazon is a constantly shifting marketplace—your ads don’t operate in isolation. Competitor behaviour directly affects your visibility, costs, and conversion potential. If rivals raise bids or launch aggressive promotions, your CPC can rise overnight. If they run out of stock, your sales may spike. Staying alert to these changes through competitor monitoring and Share of Voice (SoV) tracking keeps you agile and competitive.

• Track your Share of Voice for key terms: Share of Voice measures how often your ads appear compared to competitors for a given keyword. Tools like atom11, Pacvue, or Helium 10 can estimate SoV using Amazon Brand Analytics data. Example: For “wireless earbuds,” if you hold 20% SoV, Competitor A 25%, and Competitor B 15%, a drop in your SoV signals rising bids or new competition. Respond by improving creative, refining targeting, or adjusting bids.

• Identify who’s outranking you and why: Check which competitors consistently appear above you in Sponsored Products or Brand Ads. Analyse their listings: do they use coupons, have stronger reviews, or lower prices? Understanding why they win helps you close the gap—either through improved bids, better ad content, or differentiation.

• Watch for new entrants: New competitors can disrupt established rankings fast. Regularly search your main keywords to spot emerging players. If they show strong potential—great reviews or pricing—plan your counterstrategy early. Highlight your strengths, improve your offers, or refresh your creative to maintain visibility.

• Defend branded searches: Competitors often bid on brand names to intercept ready-to-buy customers. Protect your brand by running Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands ads on your own brand terms. These clicks convert at high rates, so it’s worth maintaining aggressive bids to keep competitors off your turf.

• Monitor competitor pricing and reviews: A rival dropping price or gaining positive reviews can quickly boost their conversion rate, and their ability to bid higher. Use tracking tools to spot major shifts. Respond strategically:

  • Compete with a limited-time promotion if price pressure rises.

  • Emphasise superior features or quality if your price is higher.

  • Target poorly rated competitor ASINs for conquesting when their reputation dips.

• Refine ad content using competitive insights: Analyse the top ads for your target keywords. If every leading ad includes a coupon badge or a “Best Seller” tag, consider adding a similar incentive. Emphasise differentiators in your copy—if others claim “48-hour battery life” and yours lasts 72, make that advantage clear in your headlines or creatives.

• Automate competitor-based adjustments: Platforms like atom11 can link competitor monitoring to automation. For example:

  • If SoV drops and CPC rises, automatically raise your Top of Search multiplier.

  • If a competitor goes out of stock, temporarily boost bids to capture market share.
    Such rules let you react instantly to market movements instead of waiting for manual analysis.

• Why competitor monitoring matters: Amazon ad optimization isn’t just about refining your own campaigns—it’s about adapting to the market battlefield. Tracking SoV, pricing, and competitive behaviour keeps you proactive rather than reactive. The most successful brands combine solid internal optimization with real-time competitive awareness, ensuring they don’t just play the game; they stay ahead of it.

| Related read: Amazon Competitor Analysis: A Simple 7 Step Guide

12. Leverage Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) Insights for Deeper Analytics

Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) is a relatively new analytics platform that Amazon offers to advertisers, and it’s a game-changer for advanced analysis. In simple terms, AMC allows you to query anonymized, event-level data across Amazon’s advertising ecosystem to get insights that you can’t obtain from standard reports in Seller Central or Amazon Advertising console. While historically such deep analysis was only for data scientists, today, tools (and some third-party platforms like atom11) are making these insights more accessible.

Here’s how advanced advertisers use AMC to optimize their Amazon PPC strategy:

• Holistic attribution (beyond last-click): Standard reports credit only the last ad clicked before a sale. AMC enables multi-touch attribution, showing how different ads contribute across the journey. You might find upper-funnel ads—like Sponsored Display or video—assist conversions later via another ad. This helps justify awareness spend that influences sales indirectly.

• Custom audience retargeting using behavioral signals: AMC lets you build precise audience segments from complex behaviors. For instance, target shoppers who viewed your product page twice in two weeks but didn’t purchase, or frequent category buyers who purchase competitors’ products. You can then reach these high-intent segments through Amazon DSP or advanced Sponsored Display options.

• Journey analysis and purchase latency: AMC reveals how long it takes shoppers to convert after ad exposure and which ad types interact along the way. You might discover that customers often click a Sponsored Brands ad, then purchase after a Sponsored Products click three days later. Insights like these help you coordinate campaigns and ensure coverage when shoppers return.

• Event-specific insights (Prime Day, holiday season): During major events like Prime Day or Black Friday, AMC can show how behavior changes—more comparison clicks, delayed purchases, or cart abandonments. These insights clarify which campaigns drove incremental sales versus early pull-ins, and how post-event retargeting helped recover missed buyers.

• Informing bidding and budgeting with granular data: Feed AMC findings back into your bid rules. For example, if certain audiences have higher lifetime value (LTV), you can justify a higher ACoS target for those campaigns. If some products trigger repeat purchases, allocate more budget to them since each conversion drives greater long-term revenue.

• Combining AMC with automation (for the cutting edge): Platforms that integrate AMC data (like atom11) can automate adjustments based on behavior. If AMC shows users who see three ads convert twice as often, you can retarget two-time clickers automatically. Or, if research peaks at night and purchases in the morning, shift bids or creatives accordingly.

In summary, AMC is about connecting the dots across the entire customer journey on Amazon. When you leverage those insights, you can move from optimizing a single ad or keyword to optimizing the entire experience – from first impression to final sale, and even repeat purchases. It’s the frontier of Amazon advertising where data-driven meets holistic strategy.

| Related read: Amazon Marketing Cloud Benefits & Use Cases Explained

13. Test Creatives and Landing Pages to Improve CTR and Conversion Rate

In the early days of Amazon PPC, everything was mostly keyword and bid management. But Amazon’s advertising formats have evolved – now we have Sponsored Brands headlines, Sponsored Brands Video, Store Spotlight ads, rich media in Sponsored Display, and more. This means creative elements (your ad copy, images, videos) play a big role in attracting and converting shoppers. Continuously testing and optimizing your ad creatives and the landing pages (where the ad leads, e.g., product page vs Store) can yield significant improvements in click-through rate (CTR) and conversion rate (CVR), which in turn lower your ACoS and boost sales.

Advanced brands approach creative testing in a structured way:

• A/B test your ad copy and headlines: Test different headlines and messaging angles in Sponsored Brands or Sponsored Display ads. Even small wording changes can impact CTR; e.g., “Built for Busy Kitchens” may outperform “High-Quality Steel Utensils.” Use Amazon’s Manage Your Experiments tool (for listings) or rotate creatives manually to find what resonates most.

• Experiment with ad formats and media: Try multiple ad types: Sponsored Brands Video often outperforms static banners due to auto-play visibility. In Sponsored Display or DSP, test lifestyle versus product-only images. For example, lifestyle visuals may perform better in audience targeting, while product shots often convert best on detail pages.

• Test landing page destinations: Don’t always send Sponsored Brands traffic to a single product page. Try directing it to a Store subpage, like “Holiday Bundles” or “Top Picks Under $50.” Compare conversion rates. Product pages usually convert higher, but Store pages can lift order value and expose shoppers to your wider catalog.

• Align creatives with keyword intent: Match your ad message to the search. For “ergonomic office chair,” a headline like “Ergonomic Chairs for All-Day Comfort” will outperform a generic “Best Home Furniture.” If targeting competitor terms, use positioning like “Tired of [Competitor]? Try [YourBrand] for Better [Benefit].” Use Amazon’s dynamic keyword insertion when available for even tighter alignment.

• Monitor impact on organic performance: Better ad creatives can lift both ad and organic sales. Higher CTR and CVR drive sales velocity, which improves organic rank. Track organic trends for products with new ad creatives—you may see total sales rise beyond what’s attributed directly to ads.

• Refresh and retest regularly: Creative performance shifts with seasons, trends, and competition. Refresh visuals and messaging periodically, testing new variations. Continuous creative testing ensures higher CTR, better conversions, and improved efficiency—getting more sales from the same ad spend.

Creative testing is an ongoing process. Consumer preferences can change, seasons change (your summer imagery might not work in winter), and competitors will also evolve their branding. Make it a habit to periodically refresh your ad creatives and test new ideas. Don’t assume that the first ad you set up is the best – there’s almost always a better-performing version waiting to be discovered through testing.

By continually iterating on your ad messaging and visuals, you not only attract more shoppers (higher CTR) but also ensure that once they click, they find exactly what they’re looking for (higher conversion). Together, these improvements mean you get more sales from the same ad spend, improving efficiency and fueling growth.

Monitoring and Iteration: The Key to Continuous Improvement

Amazon PPC optimization isn’t a one-time task—it’s an ongoing cycle. The marketplace, competitors, and algorithms all evolve. To stay ahead, you need a routine for tracking results, learning from data, and refining campaigns. Think of it as a feedback loop: implement, measure, refine, repeat.

• Set a Regular Optimization Cadence (Weekly or Biweekly): Establish a consistent review schedule—weekly for most sellers, more frequent during busy periods like Prime Day. Review key metrics (spend, ACoS, ROAS, CTR, CVR), update bids, manage budgets, and catch anomalies early. A regular cadence ensures you react quickly to issues and scale what’s working without delays.

• Identify Keyword Trends and Bid Elasticity: Go beyond snapshots—track performance trends. Spot rising keywords and raise bids, flag declining ones for cuts, and learn how bid changes affect profitability. Monitor seasonal trends to anticipate shifts, and log major adjustments so you can connect results to specific actions later.

• Link PPC Performance to Organic Ranking: Paid ads can boost organic ranking by driving sales velocity. Track organic positions for key keywords and monitor TACoS to see how ad spend supports total growth. Use Brand Analytics and Search Query reports to identify when ads lift organic visibility, then reallocate spend to new growth areas once rankings stabilize.

By monitoring, learning, and iterating, you turn Amazon PPC into a living system—one that adapts with market changes and continuously improves performance.

How atom11 Optimizes Amazon PPC Performance

As your operation scales, take advantage of tools (like Amazon’s bulk operations, or platforms such as atom11) to automate routine tasks and surface insights, accelerating Amazon ad optimization. Automation doesn’t replace strategy, but it enforces your rules 24/7 and catches things you might miss. Atom11 helps advertisers go beyond manual campaign management by combining automation, analytics, and strategic insights, all within a single Amazon PPC platform.

• Rule-Based Automation for Smart Optimization: Automatically adjust bids, pause keywords, or shift budgets using preset rules (e.g., “if ACoS > 30% for 7 days, lower bid 15%”), keeping campaigns efficient without manual oversight.

• Budget Pacing and Reallocation: Monitors spend in real time and redistributes budgets so profitable campaigns stay active while underperformers stop wasting money.

• Negative Keyword and Search Term Management: Automatically identifies and excludes high-spend, no-sale terms to cut waste and improve ACoS without daily report checks.

• Bid and Placement Optimization: Dynamically increases bids for top-performing placements (like Top of Search) and reduces them for inefficient ones to maximize visibility at lower cost.

• Competitor & Share of Voice Tracking: Tracks your visibility against competitors, alerting you when rivals outbid you or go out of stock so you can react fast to protect market share.

• TACoS & ACoS Performance Dashboard: Provides unified dashboards tracking ad efficiency and growth, with real-time alerts when performance drifts to help maintain profitability.

• Buy Box & Inventory-Aware Safeguards: Automatically pauses ads when you lose the Buy Box or stock runs low, preventing wasted clicks and protecting your organic rank.

See all of these features in action and how they can improve your Amazon ad and sales performance. Book a demo today.

FAQs about Amazon Ad Optimization 

What is Amazon optimization? 

Amazon optimization is the ongoing process of refining a product listing and advertising campaigns to maximize visibility, increase the click-through rate (CTR), and drive sales conversions within the Amazon marketplace, essentially ensuring that both the A9 search algorithm (relevancy) and the shopper's purchasing intent (conversion) are addressed to improve organic search rankings and advertising profitability.

Can Amazon advertising help grow my brand? 

Yes, Amazon advertising is crucial for growing your brand by quickly increasing product visibility and driving the sales velocity needed to climb organic search rankings; solutions like Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display are specifically designed to help customers discover your brand and entire catalog, and video formats often lead to higher engagement and a significant percentage of new-to-brand customer purchases, strengthening overall brand recognition.

How are Amazon ads different from Google Ads? 

Amazon ads are fundamentally different from Google Ads because Amazon targets users who are primarily in the bottom-of-funnel (BOFU) or buying stage with very high purchase intent, leading to generally higher conversion rates; Google Ads, conversely, casts a wider net, reaching users at all stages, from initial research (top-of-funnel) to purchase, and focuses more on external traffic and brand awareness across its vast network.

How do you optimize your listing on Amazon? 

You optimize your listing on Amazon by focusing on key content elements: craft a compelling, keyword-rich Product Title (prioritizing primary keywords within the first 80 characters); use detailed, benefit-oriented Bullet Points; leverage high-quality, zoomable Images and lifestyle shots; and use A+ Content (for Brand Registered sellers) to enhance the visual story, all while incorporating relevant keywords in the backend search terms for maximum discoverability.

How much does it cost to run Amazon ads? 

The cost to run Amazon ads is variable because it operates on a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) auction model where you set the budget and bids; the average Cost-Per-Click (CPC) for a Sponsored Product ad typically ranges from $0.81 to $1.30 but can be higher for competitive keywords, meaning the total cost depends entirely on your daily budget and the volume of clicks you generate.

How to optimize sales on Amazon? 

To optimize sales on Amazon, you need a holistic strategy that ensures your listing is highly discoverable and highly persuasive: utilize PPC campaigns to drive initial sales velocity, maintain a competitive price to win the Buy Box, constantly encourage positive customer reviews to build trust, and ensure high inventory stock levels (ideally through FBA) so your products are consistently shown in top search results.

What are good TACoS on Amazon? 

A good TACoS (Total Advertising Cost of Sales) on Amazon is typically a low, single-digit percentage, with a range of 5% to 10% often being the target for mature, profitable brands, as this indicates that ads are effectively boosting organic sales and that the overall business is less reliant on ad spend for total revenue. For aggressive growth, a higher TACoS (15-25%) may be temporarily acceptable.

What is a good ACoS for Amazon ads? 

A good ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sales) for Amazon ads is defined by your profit margin, as a good ACoS must be lower than your break-even ACoS (which equals your product's gross profit margin); generally, ACoS targets for established, profitable products fall between 15% and 25%, although a higher ACoS (40-50%+) is often necessary and justifiable during a product's launch phase.

What is Amazon PPC? 

Amazon PPC stands for Pay-Per-Click advertising on the Amazon platform, which allows sellers and vendors to bid on keywords to display their product ads (Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display) in prominent locations within the marketplace, where the advertiser is charged a fee only when a shopper clicks on the ad.