You’ve launched your product on Amazon, and it has everything a customer could want. A precise description, competitive price, and even a few solid reviews. But you are still struggling to tap the right audience. In a marketplace as competitive as Amazon, even the best products need visibility to stand a chance. That’s where Amazon PPC ads come in.
Amazon PPC ads aren’t just another line item on your budget; they are your golden ticket to stand out against competitors. These ads allow you to place your product directly in front of the right customers, right when they’re searching for what you offer. Unlike organic ranking, which can take time and a solid strategy, PPC ads give you immediate access to a high-intent audience, increasing both traffic and the likelihood of conversions.
But the catch is that Amazon PPC campaigns are reliable and drive conclusions when they’re set up strategically. Many sellers jump into PPC hoping for quick wins, only to find themselves trapped in a cycle of ad spend with minimal results. That’s often because of avoidable mistakes, from ineffective keyword choices to ignoring negative keywords and failing to optimise bids.
This guide emphasises the common Amazon PPC pitfalls that may be holding you back and eleven actionable strategies to unlock the real power of Amazon PPC. Ready to elevate your product’s visibility and drive sales with confidence? Let’s explore how to make your Amazon PPC campaigns as effective as they can be.
Table of Contents
Amazon PPC advertising fails: 11 Common mistakes to avoid
1. Neglecting keyword research
Comprehensive keyword research is one of the fundamental pillars of a successful Amazon PPC campaign. Identifying and targeting the right keywords can lead to wasted ad spend and poor performance. To avoid this pitfall, utilise Amazon’s keyword research tools, such as Seller Central’s search term reports and Amazon’s Auto Campaign, to identify relevant and high-converting keywords for your product.
Diving into third-party platforms provides valuable insights into competitor keywords and trending search terms. Using these tools, you can better understand customer search behaviour, discover long-tail keywords, and optimise your campaigns accordingly.
2. Strategic Use of Negative Keywords
While negative keywords can work wonders in filtering out irrelevant traffic, there’s a danger in over-isolating your campaigns. Excessive negation might inadvertently restrict the reach of your ads and limit potential conversions. Striking the right balance is key to optimising your campaigns for success.
3. Structuring Your Campaigns for Optimal Performance
Organising your PPC campaigns into well-structured and segmented ad groups can significantly impact their success. Creating separate ad groups for different product variations or categories allows you to control your bids and budgets better. This segmentation enables you to tailor your ad copy and target specific keywords, improving the relevance of your ads and increasing click-through rates.
Consider breaking down your campaigns into three levels: broad match, phrase match, and exact match. Doing so allows you to manage bids more efficiently and measure the performance of different keyword variations.
Unclear campaign names lead to confusion and hinder effective PPC management. Learn how to organise campaigns with clear and descriptive names, streamlining your tracking and optimisation process.
4. Striking the Right Bid Balance
Bidding too low or too high can hinder the success of your PPC campaigns. If you bid too low, your ads may not receive enough visibility, resulting in poor performance. On the other hand, excessively high bids can quickly drain your budget without delivering the desired returns.
To find the right bidding strategy, regularly review your campaign’s performance metrics, including click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, and Advertising Cost of Sale (ACoS). Use Amazon’s Bid+ feature selectively to increase bids on keywords that are likely to convert automatically.
Implement an incremental bidding approach, starting with competitive but reasonable bids, and adjust them based on performance data. Strike a balance between maintaining visibility and profitability, and don’t hesitate to fine-tune your bids regularly.
5. Failing to Monitor and Adjust, Consider Data as Your Ally
Launching a PPC campaign is just the beginning; continuous monitoring and optimisation are essential for success. Track your campaign’s performance regularly and use data to make informed decisions. Keep a close eye on key metrics such as impressions, clicks, conversions, ACoS, and return on ad spend (ROAS).
ACoS Formula = Ad Spend ÷ Ad Revenue * 100
Analyse which keywords and ad groups drive the most sales and which are underperforming. Allocate your budget strategically based on performance and shift resources to top-performing keywords and products. Stay agile in your approach, test new strategies, and adapt to market trends and changes in customer behaviour.
6. Over-Granularity, Streamlining for Efficiency
While meticulous attention to detail is commendable, excessive over-granularity in your campaigns can lead to unnecessary complexity and hinder campaign management.
Discover the balance between granularity and efficiency, simplifying your campaigns without sacrificing relevancy. Learn how to consolidate similar products or keywords into manageable groups, streamlining your PPC operations and enabling you to focus on strategic growth.
7. Neglecting competitive analysis
Keep an eye on your competitors’ strategies and performances. Analyse their ad copy, pricing, promotions, and overall market positioning. Understanding the competitive landscape can help you identify opportunities and make informed decisions for your campaigns.
On Amazon, the competitive landscape is ever-changing. Ignoring your competitors’ strategies can put you at a significant disadvantage. Regularly monitor your competitors’ campaigns and tactics to stay ahead of the game.
Use digital shelf analytics tools to gain insights into competitor keywords, pricing, and promotions. Identify gaps in their strategies and capitalise on opportunities to differentiate your products and stand out in the marketplace.
By avoiding these common mistakes and adopting best practices, you can increase the effectiveness of your Amazon PPC advertising campaigns and drive better results for your business.
8. Combining products in campaigns, Make use of targeted segmentation
Mixing products in campaigns, where different products with varying characteristics are combined in the same ad group or campaign, can lead to bid management challenges, ad relevance issues, and difficulties in performance reporting. To overcome these pitfalls, embrace targeted segmentation by assigning each product to its dedicated ad group or campaign. This allows for fine-tuning bids, tailoring ad copy, and increasing relevancy, leading to higher conversions and a better ROI for your Amazon PPC advertising efforts.
9. Enhancing Product Listings for Better PPC Results
Your product listing quality directly impacts the effectiveness of your PPC campaigns. If your listings lack compelling images, informative bullet points, and relevant product descriptions, your ads may not attract enough clicks. Prioritise optimising your product listings to ensure they align with your PPC campaigns and draw in potential customers.
Make sure your product titles are clear, descriptive, and include relevant keywords. Utilize high-quality images and compelling product descriptions to showcase the unique selling points of your products. Additionally, leverage Enhanced Brand Content (EBC) or A+ Content to provide customers with an enhanced shopping experience and further boost conversion rates.
An example of a clear Product Description and High-Quality Image. Source: Amazon.in
Your ad copy also plays a crucial role in attracting potential customers. Avoid generic or unclear messaging, and make sure to highlight the unique selling points of your product. Use compelling CTAs to encourage clicks and conversions.
10. A Uniform Approach & last-minute Adjustments diminish the chance of conversions
Opting for a levelled & flexible strategy is better than using a uniformed one. Not every keyword has the same conversion potential. Increase bids on “High-Performing Keywords” to attract more traffic, and on the other hand, analyse the “Low-Performing Keywords” and incorporate them into the negative keywords list. Bid low on underperforming keywords and improve conversions by optimising your product listing.
Amazon’s PPC system uses campaign data to improve targeting, so frequent changes can disrupt its learning process. Here’s why consistency matters:
- Disrupting the Learning Algorithm: Constant adjustments prevent Amazon’s algorithm from gathering stable data, reducing the effectiveness of automated optimization. Like changing study strategies daily, it hinders long-term progress.
- Missing valuable trends: Overreacting to daily fluctuations can lead to premature changes. Short-term data might look problematic but often evens out with time.
11. Overlooking the potential of external tools
Managing Amazon PPC campaigns manually can be challenging and time-intensive, especially with extensive product catalogs. Leveraging external tools like Adbrew can simplify the process and improve campaign performance by offering:
- Efficient Bulk Edits and Automation: Streamline campaign management with bulk edits, scheduling, and automated rules, making it easier to scale efforts without manual input.
- Enhanced Keyword Insights: Identify top-performing keywords, uncover new targeting opportunities, and manage negative keywords to optimise your ad spend and ROI.
- Real-Time Performance Adjustments: Use live data to fine-tune bids and schedules, ensuring your ads are strategically optimised throughout the day.
- Competitive Visibility Monitoring: Track your brand’s share of voice and benchmark it against competitors, allowing you to refine your approach in real-time.
- In-depth Data Analysis: Access detailed reports and data visualisations to understand trends, pinpoint areas for improvement, and make data-driven decisions for sustained growth.
By integrating these tools into your Amazon PPC strategy, you’ll save time, minimise errors, and create more targeted, high-converting campaigns.
Maximize your potential with Paxcom
At Paxcom, we offer end-to-end campaign management services in sync with the brand’s objectives. The campaigns are managed by our advertising experts, who are AMS certified and supported by Paxcom’s eAdvertising360 software, and we manage multi-million spends across different platforms and categories across multiple platforms and geographies.
Discover how Paxcom drove 1.5x impressions for a home improvement brand with our 360-degree campaign approach by creating a tailor-made strategy to target potential customers. As a result, the brand experienced a surge in impressions and recorded 1.3x growth in orders.
Would you like to witness such growth for your brand as well? Fill out the form, or feel free to reach out to us at info@paxcom.net for more information.
