Amazon PPC Optimization Guide for Established Brands

Nowadays, in this competitive marketplace of Amazon, you won’t be able to scale or even to start your business on Amazon in a proper manner if you are not leveraging the power of Amazon PPC Advertisement. Without running ads your product is actually invisible in front of potential buyers.

Amazon PPC Campaign Advertising strategies vary and depend upon the scenarios and the potential of the accounts. The Strategy is different for New Launching products and different if you are considering or aiming to scale your account sales on amazon. And another scenario can be considered as the scenario when the established brands on Amazon face a decline in sales for the last couple of days then the PPC strategy is totally different. Today our main focus is particularly on how to optimize your campaigns if your Brand is facing a decline in overall accounts sales or how to optimize PPC to increase your profit margins.

Table Of Content 

• What is Amazon PPC Marketing and Optimization?
• Important Note on Attribution Window
• Alpha Optimization Strategy & Problem Identification Framework
• Two Possible Scenarios
• PPC : Organic Sales Ratio Analysis
• Sales vs Spend Analysis
• Initial Checks for Shrinking Margins
• Importance of Weekly Trends Tracking
• Approach to Analyze PPC Dashboard for Issues at Campaign Level
• Order of Troubleshooting Campaigns
• Optimization Decisions Based on Campaign Type
• PPC Dashboard Campaign Issue Classification
• (PPC-1) If Decrease in PPC Sales Then Follow Below Root Cause Analysis Plan
• Campaign Optimization Checks
• If Organic Sales Decrease
• 2. Organic : PPC Ratio
• 3. TACOS / Real ACOS is High
• If CPC is Increased Then
• Normal/Ideal Ratios or Values
• What should be your Launch Goal

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What is Amazon PPC Marketing and Optimization?

Amazon PPC (Pay-Per-Click) marketing is a form of paidadvertising on Amazon where sellers bid on keywords to display their productsin sponsored positions. You only pay when a shopper clicks on your ad that iswhy it is called pay-per-click. If you’re running ads with proper strategy thenyour product will appear in high-visibility spots such as on top of searchresults or on the product detail pages of your competitors depending on whichtype of ad you are running.

In simple terms, Amazon PPC helps you put your products infront of the right customers at the right time. It plays an important role inincreasing product visibility, generating sales, and ranking higher organicallyon Amazon. Whether you're launching a new product or scaling an existing one, PPCon Amazon is one of the most effective tools for growing your business andstaying ahead of the competition.

Amazon PPC optimization is the ongoing process of analyzingand adjusting campaigns—such as bids, keywords, placements, and budgets—toimprove performance metrics like ACOS, CVR, and TACOS, and to maximize returnon ad spend.

Important Note on Attribution Window

The very first thing to keep in mind is to not consideratleast last 2 days data of the PPC when you’re going to optimize or make anynoticeable changes in your PPC strategies, the reason for this is theattribution window is 7 days for sponsor product and 14 days for sponsor brandand display ads which means if any click happens through these ads and thesales for that particular click is made after during anything in thisattribution window it’ll be reflected with that click and so the stats canvary. So we recommend at least not to consider the last 2 days of data.

Alpha Optimization Strategy & Problem IdentificationFramework

Now let’s dig into all the possible scenarios if you’refacing the sales decline or poor PPC performance or optimization techniques ifyour margins are shrinking for the last couple of times.

Let’s name this strategy as the Alpha PPC campaignoptimization strategy or problem identification framework.

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Consider that sheet which has all your expenses mentioned in a numerical form, it can easily be accessed if you are using advanced tools for your account for example sellerboard, otherwise you can ask your finance manager or the account managers to create this type of finance sheet.

Now we recommend to consider weekly or monthly data comparison like WoW or MoM data to analyze the performance properly.

Two Possible Scenarios

1) The Sales Are Decreasing

If you are facing a decline in sales then you need to check the following external factors first before going for PPC Optimization Tweaks or making any changes in PPC. These external factors can be like:

• Recent Changes in price
• Any recent Coupon drops
• Reviews - any recent negative reviews
• Stockout on high volume variations/SKU
• Any hijackers on the listing you haven't noticed yet.
• Listing changes - Image, Bullet, Title, Backend
• Did I run a sale : Lightening deal, Prime exclusive etc
• Any promotions or prime discounts changes
• Anything that affects your CTR & Conversion affects your PPC performance

PPC : Organic Sales Ratio Analysis

If there is none of the above issues then check the PPC : Organic ratio. Check it from 2 perspectives.
Let's say in the last week, total orders were 200 and PPC were 100 and organic were 100 as well, meaning the ratio is 50/50 for both organic and PPC sales.
Now, this week, total sales are 150, PPC is 100, and organic is 50 — then it means your issue is a drop in organic ranking, which means either a slight issue is due to PPC or the issue is with some competitor strategy who is now ranked on your spot. But if this week, total orders are 150 and PPC is 75 and organic is 75, it means both organic and PPC sales have decreased — then most likely your organic order decrease is actually due to a decrease in PPC orders, as sponsored orders drive organic ranking and thus organic orders.
Now, if PPC orders are 75, then check if the budget was reduced. If it was reduced or there was less PPC spend this week, then this decrease in sales is self-imposed and your optimization has hit some good-performing keywords as well — and you need to revert the changes (revert only those changes which impacted good-performing keywords). And if PPC spend is the same as last week but still orders are reduced, then see all the workflow of PPC campaigns CVR (Conversion Rates) and CPC (Cost Per Click) to figure out the issue below.

This entire analysis is a critical part of your PPC optimization efforts and should be treated as an essential step in ongoing PPC campaign optimization.

Struggling with PPC? Let our Amazon marketing experts fix it—book a free strategy call today.

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Sales vs Spend Analysis

(It can be both ways.
a) PPC spend is the same and orders are reduced. It will show low sales.
b) Orders are the same and PPC spend is increased. It will show the same sales but margins are shrunk and the ACOS/TACOS for this week is high as compared to the previous week.

Reason for both above 2 points is either overall PPC conversion drop or increment in CPC)

2) If Sales Are Same and Profit Margin Is Shrinking Compared to Last Week/Month

If your sales are the same as it was in previous weeks/months, your PPC orders are the same and organic orders are the same, but the margins are shrinking, then it's possible that the same PPC orders are being achieved but with higher ad spend/cost. In this case, check out the CPC and PPC CVR guidelines shared below.

Initial Checks for Shrinking Margins

In case of shrunk margins but same sales, check the rare but easy to pick issues first like wrong increment in fba fee by amazon, storage fee charge by amazon, high ratio of returns, or inbound transport fee or if product sales are small then subscription fee and promo to rule out any deal like buy 2 get 5% off or prime discount coupon offer which you forgot was still running.

If all these above are checked and profit margins are shrunk, then most likely TACOS will be high. For high TACOS, refer to the workflow below SOP Link Here.

Importance of Weekly Trends Tracking

In weekly trends tracking, always check gross profit percentage as well. Sometimes, you still make profit. For example, in the last few weeks it was 17% and this week it was 5% or 10%. Even though we still were in profit, if it compromised our minimum committed profit margins then we need to probe it further as explained below.

Approach to Analyze PPC Dashboard for Issues at Campaign Level

Sort all campaigns for a certain date range (for example, last 14 days excluding past 2 days) by ACOS and by Orders.

Step-by-Step Analysis (Sponsored Products)

First, sort all the campaigns by Orders, filter by “Sponsored Products” and see the ratio of orders and clicks.
Let’s say, the first campaign has 80 orders on 200 clicks and the second campaign has 70 orders on 230 clicks, then it means this campaign has poor conversion. Now, the third campaign has 50 orders on 140 clicks, then it means this campaign has fine conversion.
Now, if a campaign has poor conversion, then check the ACOS of that campaign. If the ACOS is fine, then okay, otherwise, we need to optimize this campaign. Also compare the high sales contributing campaigns' performance from the previous date ranges. For example, if you made any change on 8th June like the changes in Placements percentages or bid optimizations or budget changes, or if it’s an auto or broad/phrase or multiple targeting campaign, don’t ever forget to check the search terms of that campaign. Maybe any irrelevant search term appears too many times in this specific date, then you may need to add it as a negative.
Check all these things for at least 7 days before the changes made by you and after 7 days of the changes made by you, to get a more clear picture of the effect of your changes on a campaign level.

These insights play a vital role in overall PPC optimization and should be documented as part of your PPC campaign optimization SOP.

Important Note

If you're noticing a significant change in your sales, ACOS, spend, or TACOS for a specific time period, it's highly likely that the issue lies within the high-contributing campaigns in your portfolio.

Order of Troubleshooting Campaigns

• Start by reviewing the top-performing or high-contributing campaigns — these have the biggest impact on your overall results.
  
  
• Next, check any recently created campaigns — they might start overspending and the results were not as engaging as you expect.
  
  
• Then, analyze the normal or low-contributing campaigns — while their impact is smaller, they can still influence efficiency and waste budget.

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Optimization Decisions Based on Campaign Type

For every PPC campaign type other than “Sponsored Products”, we will sort campaigns by ACOS and take optimization decisions on the basis of keeping ACOS under a certain check rather than keeping an eye on conversion.

The reason is: for example, if the ACOS was higher for exact targeting campaigns for the last couple of days, then we won’t recommend decreasing the placement, bids or budget in a hurry as exact campaigns are a kind of scaling campaigns and the aim is long-term success on these campaigns, and it contributes maximum in boosting the organic ranks.

While for Sponsored Display or Sponsored Brand Ads, you can consider making changes by focusing on the ACOS and considering the benchmark of the ACOS.

Important Note:

We only care for conversion KPI in Sponsored Products Campaigns.

PPC Dashboard Campaign Issue Classification

In case of PPC Dashboard analysis, we check the issues with campaigns first. There will be 2 scenarios:
a) Issues with selective campaigns
b) Issues with all campaigns

• In case of a), we need PPC optimization for our campaigns
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• In case of b), we need to optimize the creatives or product offer

(PPC-1) If Decrease in PPC Sales Then Follow Below Root Cause Analysis Plan

Then,

a) Check PPC ad spend. Is it the same as last week/month? If it's the same, then do nothing. If it's decreased, then revert the budget to previous weeks (if you decreased the budget cap for the portfolio or for any specific campaign last time). If it's increased, then please see the following steps:

b) Check PPC conversion. If it's the same as before, then do nothing. If it's increased, then do nothing.

If it's decreased, then check:

• If you have created new campaigns which started spending but have poor conversion.
  If YES, then make a decision on the basis of the strategy you are applying. If it's for launch or expansion or testing, then consider it an informed step and proceed as per strategy. If it's against the expected CVR and not part of any plan, then optimize the CVR of those new sets of campaigns, maybe by adjusting the placement or bids or budget caps or adding negatives — well, it totally depends upon the strategy.
  
  
• If you have NOT created new campaigns, then check if the CVR of existing campaigns dropped? If there is a drop in CVR overall in all campaigns, then the issue is in the external market/niche. It can be any deal, coupon, low-price activity by a competitor, entrance of a new player with an aggressive approach in the market, or any competitor who is playing aggressively just to secure the top spots on which you are organically ranked.
  
  
• If the drop in CVR is specific to a limited set of campaigns/keywords, then:

Campaign Optimization Checks

• See if the issue is in placements.
  If YES, then optimize the placement.
  If NO, then see your TOS Impression Share on keywords in those campaigns (Sometimes even if you don't change anything — either decrement or increment in placement or bids/budgets — but still the conversion is dropping for the specific keywords, then it may be because a competitor is playing aggressively on that keyword and securing higher ranks, so the conversion share on that particular keyword shifted more towards that competitor. Hence, your ranks and conversions are now decreasing on that keyword).
  
  
• Check and see if TOS Impression Share is decreased? For this analysis, we will compare the TOS Impression Share with the previous date range and will try to correlate if the decrease in Impression Share has led to a drop in CVR (as low placement [not TOS] can lead to showing the product at the middle or bottom of the page, which can lead to poor conversion — conversion is different at top of page and at middle or bottom of the page).
  
  
• TOS Impression Share depends upon the niche competitiveness, but technically speaking, if the TOS Impression Share (IS) is more than 20%, then fine — do nothing.
  And if TOS Impression Share (IS) is less than 20% and you can afford to increase the bid according to limits defined for that account, then go for it and aim to observe its positive impact on CVR.
  
  
• If the issue is neither in placements nor in TOS, then do nothing and apply a wait-and-watch policy for a week.
  
  
• If the campaign set showing poor CVR has an order contribution of 20% of your total PPC sales/units sold or more and it's having a negative impact, then you can move it all to a new portfolio (named as High ACOS portfolio) and put a budget limit on it to control the damage or loss. Till the campaigns are under wait, do continuous optimizations and apply the watch policy and observe the conversions of these campaigns. Once the CVR gets back to normal (sometimes, it happens when the competitor closes the deal or reverts back to a very low selling price or a similar thing), then we will move all these campaigns out of the portfolio.

Note: Once you put the budget limit on the portfolio, then you need to update it on a daily basis as it does not get updated by itself.

This troubleshooting process is an essential part of PPC optimization and should be considered a routine activity in your PPC campaign optimization workflow.

If Organic Sales Decrease

Then check the captured search volume on Helium10 based on top 10 ranks and top 5 ranks as well. Decrease in any of the two above windows can lead to fewer organic orders. We can see from the keyword tracker on which keywords we have lost ranks and then can work on those keywords particularly.

Important Note: Sometimes, your keyword ranks drop from top 3 positions to 5th–10th position, and your organic orders are decreased but your captured search volume is unchanged due to your keywords still being in the top 10, as the Helium 10 Keyword Tracker takes into account the data of top 10 ranks. In this case, check the following paragraph:

If your keyword ranks for a particular observed date range are the same as before but your session count in the Amazon business report is decreased, then understand that your ranks have dropped somewhere — or let’s say if your ranks dropped from 3rd to 7th position and sessions are decreased, then it shows that organic sales are not coming from the 7th spot. If it's not on relevant keywords, then maybe it's on an outlier keyword or any keyword which was bringing traffic for you — as session count shows the organic sessions (not PPC clicks) purely.

2. Organic : PPC Ratio

Check the Organic and PPC order ratio for the last and the present set of data ranges and compare where the sales declined.
Let’s say you had a total of 300 orders in which 150 were organic and 150 were PPC orders for the previous time range. For the current time range, total orders are 250 — in which 100 are from the organic side and 150 are from PPC. This means the sales dropped due to fewer organic orders.
If out of these 250 orders the proportion is like 125/125, then the sales dropped due to poor PPC performance for this selected time range — which also affected the organic orders, as of course the organic ranks are affected if your PPC performed poorly for consecutive days in a row.

3. TACOS / Real ACOS is High

Then check if CPC is increased or CVR is decreased.

You can check both KPIs of any date range by selecting clicks, orders, and CPC data metrics in the graph section of the advertising console at the main window and track these data points on a monthly basis. As shown in the image below, you can set a “lifetime” date range and select clicks, orders, and CPC. By hovering the cursor on the graph, you can basically check overall CVR = orders / clicks of the whole account or portfolio of any month in the past.

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If CPC is Increased Then

Sort the campaigns in the high-to-low overall sales contribution manner. (Always remember: if there is a noticeable change in any of the attributes in the dashboard, first look into the high sales-contributing campaigns and check if everything is going as per the flow or not. If the issue is from these types of campaigns, then do not change the bids or placement too much all of a sudden — in fact, revert the changes gradually. But the first and best immediate control step for poor performance is to apply the budget cap).

Then:

a) See the structure of the campaign — it should be 1 keyword per ad group per campaign (it is a must for all ranking campaigns. However, in some cases, there can be multiple keywords per campaign if the intention is not to rank but to increase the sales for that particular group of keywords).

b) Go and check the placement and see if we can optimize the placements to get a better CVR which can compensate for the impact of high CPC.

c) Check your sponsored ranks history via Helium10 keyword tracker. If the ranks are in top 2 already, then try to reduce the bids by 5–10 cents and observe if you manage to sustain the ranks. If yes, then keep repeating this step until your sponsored ranks drop. When this happens (drop in sponsored ranks), then revert the change and stick to it, as reducing further will hurt sponsored ranks, thus organic ranks, thus organic sales.

d) Another scenario is: bids and top-of-search placement are good and we see we have top-of-search impression share of very high value, let’s say 40%+, then in this case we can reduce bid by 5–10 cents per 2 days — or daily if urgent — and keep an eye on TOS Impression Share as it may keep reducing. We won’t decrease the bid further once the TOS Impression Share is 25%.

e) This approach is an indirect approach. (However, you must have a defense campaign — if not, then focus on adding defensive campaigns to avoid leakage of sales toward competitors who are running ads on our listings) or optimize listing (A/B testing of image and A+ content) for improving CVR. Or if the keyword we are aiming to reduce CPC for is already in the title, then shuffle its placement to the top 80 characters — if the keyword was in character range 80–150. Shuffling the keyword to the first half of the title will make it visible and readable in search results, which will increase your CVR on this particular keyword — which will reduce your CPC eventually.

f) The above approach is best for keyword targeting campaigns, but in case of poor CPC or even conversion for broad/phrase or auto campaigns, the very first thing is to look into the search terms for that campaign. Maybe for the selected time range, an irrelevant keyword was accidentally targeted and spent a lot with no sales. Rather than reducing the bids and placement, add that keyword in negative. But if the CPC is not engaging or none of the search terms perform well, then reduce the bids or placement gradually.
If any keywords or ASINs perform very well and all the rest are performing poorly, then extract those and create a separate campaign. Apply a tight budget cap to the poorly performing campaign and continuously reduce bids and placements to optimize CVR and CPC. If nothing works for that, you can consider pausing them entirely — since you already extracted the potential search terms.

g) If none of the above approaches are applicable or work for you, then accept the high CPC and try to target or create more broad match campaigns and auto campaigns to fetch keywords with better CPC — which can compensate for the high cost of existing PPC campaigns.

If broad and auto campaigns are expensive as well, then refer to the External Marketing Plan. In few days I’ll share a complete video tutorial of how external marketing helps in boosting ranks and why it is so important then never before 

For CVR decrease issues, optimize placement, images, or listing content. If all of the above are good, then you need to work on improving your product offer. (That could be better sourcing or offering better/different value at the same price.)

These detailed steps are a foundational part of both PPC optimization and your overall PPC campaign optimization strategy for controlling rising CPC and protecting profitability.

Normal/Ideal Ratios or Values

• PPC : Organic – 40% max PPC and minimum 60% organic for established brands
• Refund ratio – 4% maximum unless the niche has a higher return ratio (proven via Opportunity Explorer)
• Net profit/margin – Minimum 15%
• Real ACOS – Less than or equal to 20%
  
  

What should be your Launch Goal

• Stage 1 – Organic Ranking: KPIs tracking – increment in organic order ratio compared to PPC
• Stage 2 – Breakeven Stage: Keep organic order number same, decrease TACOS to equal profit margins
• Stage 3 – Profitability Stage: KPI tracking – Bring TACOS to 20%

Final Thoughts

Amazon PPC is not a set-it-and-forget-it game—it demands continuous observation, data-backed decision-making, and a strong understanding of how internal campaign metrics and external market dynamics affect performance. Whether you're managing rising CPCs, poor CVRs, or a sudden drop in sales, having a structured diagnostic and recovery plan like this can save both ad spend and ranking positions. The key is to treat PPC as a dynamic ecosystem—each adjustment, report, or insight is a piece of a larger puzzle. Stay proactive, track your KPIs regularly, and refine your strategy based on clear signals rather than assumptions. With consistency, discipline, and data intelligence, you can not only control your PPC outcomes but also scale profitably.

Need help with PPC optimization or campaign troubleshooting? As a full-service Amazon marketing agency, we handle everything—from strategy to execution—to help you scale profitably. Get in touch today!

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