How to run your first PPC campaign on Amazon? Competing for the position of your product.

9 Feb 2019

Launching a new product on Amazon
Do you feel that in the jungle of products your product will quickly vanish, be hijacked, or receive bad reviews and disappear? This is a real scenario, but you cannot give up. You have to fight for visibility and Sales Rank of the product.

Amazon is the largest e-commerce platform in the world, where manufacturers, resellers, and brand owners vie for customer attention. The playing field is the same for everyone, and the tools are the same.

Remember: Rome wasn’t built in a day. You need tactics, tools, patience, and PPC to help your product stand out. It is a long-term process, but a well-managed campaign can even lead to the Amazon’s Choice badge.

Below you will find 4 steps to launching your first advertisement on Amazon.

What is Amazon PPC?

PPC (Pay Per Click)
– which means you pay for a click on an ad that redirects to your product listing. It is most commonly known by the name Sponsored Products.

If you manage it well, it becomes an effective promotional tool. If not, it can easily become a “budget eater”.

Basic metrics for PPC campaigns:

  • Bid – the rate per click.

  • Daily Budget – the daily budget of the campaign (e.g. 20 EUR with a bid of 0.40 EUR ≈ 50 visits per day).

  • Keywords – the keywords for which the ad is displayed.

  • ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sales) – the profitability indicator of the campaign:

    ACoS = (PPC spending / PPC sales) × 100.

Step 1: The product is the most important
Without a well-prepared listing, the advertisement will not work. The algorithm extracts keywords from:

  • product name,

  • bullet points,

  • description.

This data determines which phrases your ad will appear for.

Step 2: Choosing the type of campaign

Automatic campaign
Amazon selects keywords based on your listing and competition.

Pros: quick, easy, budget control.
Cons: lack of complete control, less transparent spending.

Manual campaign
You decide on the keywords and bids.

Pros: full control, visible return on investment, better budget allocation.
Cons: time-consuming, risk of burning through the budget at the beginning.

👉 The best approach? A combination of both. First, an automatic one for market research, then a manual one based on results.

Step 3: Selecting keywords
Types:

  • Broad Match – variations and similar words.

  • Phrase Match – the ad appears within the entire phrase (e.g. red teacup).

  • Exact Match – exact phrase, narrower scope, higher conversion.

Sources of keywords:

  • Amazon search engine,

  • competition (TOP 100 in category),

  • tools: Google Trends, Keyword Tool, Jungle Scout, Helium 10.

Goal: to find niche, well-converting keywords – cheaper, but together they can generate significant sales (lifting all boats).

Step 4: Invest, optimize, win
The PPC campaign is a continuous process. As sales from PPC increase:

  • Sales Velocity,

  • the number of reviews,

  • organic ranking.

How to optimize?

  1. Eliminate weak keywords – add them as Negative Keywords.

  2. Improve the listing – remove unproductive phrases.

  3. Develop effective keywords – look for variations.

  4. Test PPC bids – find a balance between costs and results.

PPC is not just the start of a product – it is a tool that should work steadily. It requires testing, analysis, and patience.
You have little time but want to try PPC? Leave it in the hands of specialists.

Let’s go and Happy Selling!
Go2Market Crew