Amazon Ads Optimization: Beginner’s Guide

ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sale) is a key metric in advertising, calculated by dividing advertising spend by advertising sales. It's an indicator of a sale, showing that the keyword or product page leading to the order is effective and relevant.

If your ACoS is higher than your target, it often means your cost per click (CPC) bid is too high. This doesn't necessarily imply the keyword is ineffective, just that the cost to use it is more than you intended.

Managing High ACoS: Rather than removing keywords with a high ACoS, which can cut off valuable traffic, it's better to adjust your bids. Lowering the bid can help balance the ACoS, maintaining beneficial traffic without overspending.

To optimize Amazon ads, it's essential to calculate bids per click effectively. This process can be divided into two main categories: keywords with at least one order and keywords with many clicks but zero orders. Both approaches require different strategies and considerations.

Keywords with at Least 1 Order

For keywords that have generated at least one order, bid adjustment is key. This involves analyzing the Advertising Cost of Sale (ACoS) for each keyword. If the ACoS is above your target, consider lowering the bid. Conversely, for keywords with an ACoS below your target, increasing the bid might be beneficial. But the question arises: by how much should the bid be adjusted?

A widely used approach in the advertising industry is the "rational formula." This method allows for bid calculation based on individual keyword data or overall campaign performance. Deciding between these options depends on the specific data—such as the number of clicks and orders a keyword has. For example, if a keyword has minimal data (like 1 order and 3 clicks), it might be more accurate to calculate the conversion rate at the campaign level, then apply it to the keyword.

Keywords with Lots of Clicks but Zero Orders

When dealing with keywords that accrue clicks without orders, the approach is more nuanced. First, assess the keyword's relevance. If it aligns well with your product, consider keeping it in the campaign, as it may just require more clicks to convert. However, if it's costing more without yielding results, recalculating the bid is advisable.

In situations where there's no conversion rate to calculate due to a lack of orders, make an estimated bid based on similar keywords' conversion rates or the overall campaign's rate. For instance, if a keyword has 100 clicks without an order, assume that the next click will result in a sale, setting the conversion rate at approximately 1%. This assumption aids in managing bids for underperforming keywords.

Tools like Advigator can also handle this type of bid management, automatically adjusting bids based on these criteria for all your keywords.

Now, let's assume you've discovered that you're getting traffic from a keyword that doesn't relate to your product. You found this out by analyzing the search term report downloaded into Excel. This might come from automatic targeting campaigns or from phrase or broad match keywords.

For instance, imagine you're selling an iPhone cover. You've added the phrase/broad match keyword "apple." This keyword will bring traffic for "cover apple," but also for unrelated searches like "apple air pods," "apple mac," "apple mouse," and so on. Sure, Amazon does some of the work in filtering out irrelevant search terms, but some clicks might still slip through.

To solve this problem, add terms you definitely don’t want to be associated with your search terms as negative phrase match keywords. It makes sense to add "air pods," "mac," "mouse," etc., as negative phrases. Include them in all your campaigns (Sponsored Products auto, manual, Brand, and video).

Doing this will improve the efficiency of your budget spending.

Here are the reasons why an advertising campaign on Amazon might not generate impressions.

Low bids

The bids per click are too low and do not win the auctions. If this is the problem, you should see at least 1 impression within 24 hours of starting the campaign. If so, then to get more traffic you need to increase the bids per click. In Advigator, you do this by setting a slightly higher Target ACoS. Alternatively, you can enter a custom keyword and set a fixed bid per click that's higher than the average.

If you have 0 impressions after 24 hours:

Amazon Ads Policy

• Go to the Amazon Ads console.
• Select a campaign, go into an ad group until you see the list of sponsored ASINs/SKUs.
• Ensure the status is green.

A policy violation can relate to products restricted for sale in that marketplace (e.g., Alcohol, Beauty, sexual health, religious items, pharmaceuticals) or in the benefits described on the product page. Policy page: https://advertising.amazon.com/resources/ad-policy/sponsored-ads-policies

Once the issue is resolved, you may need to archive the campaign and recreate it. If you manage campaigns with Advigator, we recommend creating a test campaign (e.g., Sponsored Products Automatic) and wait for it to generate at least 1 click. After that, you can pause it and activate the one with Advigator.

Index suppression

• Copy the ASIN code and paste it into the Amazon search bar.
• Make sure the product appears in the search results.

Active offer

• Go to Amazon Seller Central > Inventory > search for the ASIN
• Check that the status is "Active".

Product listing alerts

• Go to Amazon Seller Central > Inventory > ASIN > click on edit
• Make sure no alerts appear in the Offer, Images, Keywords sections, etc.

Amazon Diagnosis

• Go to Amazon Seller Central > Help
• Enter the ASIN
• Open a case with Amazon support.