Beginner’s guide to Amazon PPC: Supercharge your sales with pay-per-click advertising

Are you an Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) seller looking to skyrocket your product sales and outshine competitors in the ever-expanding Amazon Marketplace? If so, you’re in the right place. 

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll dive deep into the world of Amazon PPC (pay-per-click) advertising, equipping you with insights, strategies, and best practices to make your products shine and capture the attention of potential customers. Whether you’re a newcomer to PPC advertising or an experienced seller looking to fine-tune your tactics, this guide will provide you with the knowledge and tools to succeed.

Unpacking Amazon PPC

What is Amazon PPC, and how does it work?

Amazon PPC is a powerful advertising tool that allows sellers to promote their products directly within Amazon’s vast ecosystem. The essence of PPC lies in its cost-effectiveness – you only pay when a shopper clicks on your ad. These ads can appear in various prime locations on Amazon, including search results, product detail pages, and even the Amazon homepage.

How Amazon PPC Benefits Sellers

Before we delve into the nitty-gritty of Amazon PPC, let’s explore why it’s vital for your e-commerce success:

  • Enhanced visibility: Amazon is home to millions of products, making it easy for your listings to get lost in the crowd. PPC ads ensure your products stand out and are prominently displayed to potential buyers.
  • Precise targeting: With Amazon PPC, you have the power to select specific keywords and phrases to target, ensuring your ads reach shoppers who are actively searching for products like yours.
  • Budget control: You have complete control over your advertising budget, allowing you to set daily or campaign-specific limits based on your financial goals.
  • Measurable results: Amazon provides detailed metrics and insights, enabling you to track ad performance and make data-driven decisions to optimize your campaigns.

Exploring Amazon PPC ad types

Amazon offers several types of PPC ads, each designed to meet specific advertising objectives:

  • Sponsored Products: These ads promote individual product listings and typically appear in search results and on product detail pages. They are a fantastic way to boost visibility for your products.
  • Sponsored Brands: Sponsored Brands ads feature your brand logo, a custom headline, and multiple products. They often occupy premium real estate at the top of search results, making them perfect for brand promotion.
  • Sponsored Display: These ads enable you to retarget shoppers who have viewed your products or similar items, both on and off Amazon. This type of ad is excellent for re-engaging potential customers.

Since most of the ad creative options are limited to your existing product images, it’s critical to have an optimized Amazon main image so you’re not wasting ad dollars. You can use PickFu to get consumer feedback on your main images and reduce risk when running ads.

Image of different Amazon ad types: Sponsored Product ads, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display ads

Strategies and best practices for Amazon PPC

Now that you have a fundamental understanding of Amazon PPC, let’s explore the strategies and best practices that will help you excel:

1. In-depth keyword research:

Before launching your PPC campaigns, embark on a journey of comprehensive keyword research. Identify relevant and high-performing keywords that potential customers are likely to use when searching for products like yours. Tools like Amazon’s own Keyword Planner and third-party options can be immensely helpful.

2. Craft compelling ad copy:

Your ad copy is your sales pitch to potential customers. Craft a persuasive and engaging ad copy that not only highlights the unique selling points of your product but also encourages shoppers to click on your ad. An effective ad copy can make all the difference in attracting clicks.

3. Strategic bid management:

Effective bid management is crucial for Amazon PPC campaigns. Regularly adjusting bids based on keyword performance and competition is key. BidX can help by automating bid adjustments, providing insights into keyword performance, and optimizing your budget allocation. 

4. Utilize negative keywords:

Negative keywords are your shield against wasted ad spend. Implement negative keywords to prevent your ads from showing up for irrelevant search queries. This ensures that your budget is used efficiently and effectively, targeting only those who are genuinely interested in your products.

5. Thoughtful campaign structuring:

The way you structure your campaigns and ad groups can significantly impact ad relevance and performance. Organize your campaigns logically, grouping related products and keywords together. This will make it easier to manage and optimize your campaigns over time.

A step-by-step guide to Amazon PPC success

Let’s take a deeper dive into the practical steps you should follow to make the most out of Amazon PPC:

1. Product selection:

Start by selecting the products you want to promote through PPC advertising. Consider your best-selling products or those with the most potential for growth. (Check out this guide to Amazon product validation to learn how to find and optimize product concepts before launch).

2. Campaign creation:

When setting up your advertising campaigns, you’ll need to choose the right targeting options and budgets. Amazon offers various campaign types, including Manual and Automatic campaigns.

  • Manual campaigns: These campaigns offer greater control but require you to select your keywords manually. You have the power to tailor your campaign to specific keyword strategies, including Exact Match, Phrase Match, and Broad Match.
  • Automatic campaigns: If you prefer a more hands-off approach, Automatic campaigns can be beneficial. 

3. Keyword targeting:

Add the selected keywords to your campaigns, ensuring they are relevant to your products. Monitor their performance closely and make adjustments as needed. Leverage Amazon’s Keyword Match Types (Broad, Phrase, and Exact) to refine your targeting.

Screenshot from BidX's Ultimate PPC Guide
Excerpt from BidX PPC Guide

4. Bid adjustment:

Regularly adjust your bids based on keyword performance and competition. Test different bidding strategies, such as bidding higher on top-performing keywords, to optimize your ROI.

5. Data analysis:

Routinely analyze the data and metrics provided by Amazon, leveraging these insights to make informed decisions and optimize your campaigns. Look for trends and patterns, and be prepared to make adjustments accordingly.

6. A/B testing:

Experiment with different ad creatives, keywords, and bidding strategies to identify the most effective approaches for your products. A/B testing can help you uncover what resonates best with your target audience.

Conclusion: Elevate your sales with Amazon PPC

In conclusion, Amazon PPC stands as a game-changing tool for Amazon FBA sellers, offering the potential to significantly enhance product visibility and drive sales. Armed with the right strategies and best practices, you can harness the full power of PPC advertising and cultivate substantial growth on the world’s largest online marketplace.

So, there’s no need to delay – commence your Amazon PPC journey today and witness your sales soar! Dedication, continuous optimization, and a data-driven approach (using consumer research tools like PickFu) are your allies on this path to success. 

And for those looking to streamline their Amazon PPC efforts, platforms like BidX can prove instrumental in achieving remarkable results and maintaining a competitive edge.


Learn more: Optimize your product listings by testing design concepts, photos, and descriptions with a target audience of likely buyers.

Lena Trapp

Lena Trapp is a marketing manager at BidX. BidX empowers brands to accelerate their growth and scale their business by automating ads both on and off Amazon through their cutting-edge software. BidX is distinguished as the sole global platform capable of automatically creating and optimizing advertising campaigns encompassing Pay-Per-Click (PPC) as well as Demand-Side Platform (DSP) strategies. Furthermore, BidX capitalizes on the Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) for invaluable insights and leverages AMC Custom Audiences to maximize return on investment (ROI).