When running Amazon PPC, products receive more visibility, and with visibility comes more leads that could be potential customers, thus increasing sales for the seller. A poorly run PPC campaign leads to wasted ad spend, an increased ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sales), and clicks that do not sell. Usually, poorly planned Amazon PPC campaigns suffer from poor keyword selection, ineffective bidding, and lack of usage of negative keywords. All these ultimately affect the overall profitability of the campaign.
This blog covers the various PPC management mistakes, explains the tactics to deal with these, and addresses the continual improvement of performance and growth through less costly integrated advertising.
Common Amazon PPC Mistakes That Quietly hurt Your Sales
Managing PPC campaigns is not simply a matter of starting campaigns. These campaigns can negatively affect profitability and drain budgeted advertising dollars. Here are the errors that all sellers should avoid fixing are costly.
1. Targeting Broad and Irrelevant Keywords
To increase the amount of traffic that leads to sales, many sellers target super broad keywords, thinking that a larger audience means more potential customers. This is not always true, as broad keywords generally cause ads to be shown to customers who may not be willing to buy your product.
As an example, take the case of premium office chairs that are ranked for the keyword ‘Chair’. The ad will be marketing to customers who are looking for dining chairs, gaming chairs, and chairs that are on the less expensive side.
Why it hurts sales:
- PPC budget is spent with no return
- CR drops
- ACoS spikes
- Irrelevant traffic is drawn to the ad
2. Ignoring Negative Keywords
Negative keywords are used to omit specific search terms. In their absence, Amazon may display your ads to shoppers who aren’t actively seeking your products.
How it taxes your budget:
- Customers who should not have been clicked
- Your budget is exhausted in less than a day
- The search term is in your wallet
- Campaign lessens over time
3. Running Ads on a Weak Product Listing
A poor product listing coupled with ads and poor user experience kills your budget and your product.
Where ads become ineffective:
- Users click ads, but not buying
- No change to ranking or performance
- Ads not desirable, clicks to nowhere
- Invisible, ads cost total value
4. Poor Campaign Structure
Most sellers downfall is opening one big campaign with all keywords, all products, and all match types. They focus so much, they forget the oversight.
Within your campaign:
- Weak structures become strong
- Uncontrolled ad spend
- Shifts to ambiguous spend
- Necessary focus becomes, less
5. Setting Bids Without Data
Some sellers overshoot bids for more visibility. Others are so afraid of showing poor results and keep bids low. These approaches are both targeting the wrong goals.
How wrong bids affect profit:
- Bigger bids mean smaller profits.
- Smaller bids result in ads being less visible.
- Cost per click can’t be managed.
- Campaigns can be erratic.
6. Not Checking Search Term Reports
Search term reports tell what potential buyers typed in before your ad was clicked. Ignoring these reports means you learn about your customers less than you need to.
Ignoring reports means:
- Some search terms that can be profitable go unseen.
- Inefficient search terms are still consuming the budget.
- No understanding of Buyer intent.
- Campaigns lack improvement over time.
7. Focusing Only on ACoS
While ACoS remains important, ACoS needs are time consuming. In some cases, ACoS campaigns are positive for ranking, visibility, and sales increase.
Negative effects include:
- Useful campaigns are terminated
- Sales increase is neglected
- Positive ranking is ignored
- Rather than profit, costs are prioritized
8. Advertising Products That Are Not Ready
PPC promotions are not suited for unfit products. If customer feedback is negative on the product along with bad pricing/bad images/issue with photos, Ads can develop traffic to the product but be of no use.
Failing promotions are a result of:
- Ads lost customer trust
- Sales to traffic ratio remains low
- Sales become of less economical
- Optimizing sales from ads becomes ineffective
Proven Strategies to Fix Amazon PPC Mistakes and Drive Higher Conversions & Sales
When Amazon PPC ads aren’t run strategically, you can easily burn through your budget and lower your profits. Even small PPC mistakes over time can reduce your conversions, increase your ACoS, and hurt your product rankings.
The good news is that you can effectively tackle issues like this with the right Amazon PPC optimization strategies. Here, are outline proven tactics to improve the productivity of your ads to optimize conversions and increase sales on Amazon.
1. Use High-Intent Keywords Instead of Broad Keywords
Targeting PPC ads around general keywords leads to more traffic. However, more traffic does not equal more purchases. More purchases come from targeting keywords that demonstrate a buying intent.
Some smart strategies include:
- Targeting keywords proven to show buying intent
- Targeting longer keywords
- Focusing on buying intent
- Using broad match just for initial keyword discovery
Targeting keywords around purchase intent with example ads:
- “Insulated Stainless Steel Water Bottle”
- “Gym Water Bottle Leak Proof”
2. Add Negative Keywords to Stop Wasting Budget
Using keywords are imperative, but the most egregious mistake sellers are making is not using negative keywords. In the absence of negative keywords, sellers End your ads for ineffective, misaligned user search keywords.
Check It:
- Search Term Report → Frequent checks are needed.
- Unconvertable Clicks → Clicks with keywords but zero conversion → Identify.
- Negative Keywords → Irrelevant search terms such as above or related terms.
- Search Term Removal → Search terms with low search traffic are of no use.
Example:
If you supply “quality office chairs” make sure to include negative keywords such as:
- “Cheap”
- “Kids”
- “Plastic”
Benefits:
- ® ACOS Decline
- ® Target Accuracy Improvement
- ® Advertising Budget Preservation
- ® ROAS Increase
3. Optimize Product Listings Before Running PPC Ads
Even if you have the best Amazon ads, if the product listing is weak, the ads will fail. PPC will drive traffic, but traffic alone is not enough. It needs to be converted on the product page.
Areas of Optimization:
- product title with SEO
- product images
- bullet points
- product description
- backend keywords
- price
Listing Optimization Importance:
- higher conversion
- better ads
- lower CPC
- more trust
4. Separate Campaigns Based on Goals
Running all keywords in one campaign makes optimization impossible. Useful campaign structure makes optimization possible, as well as campaign control and campaign performance.
Best Example:
Automatic Campaigns
For
- Keyword Discovery
- New Search Term Breach
Manual Campaigns
For
- Extension of existing offerings
- Pricing Control
- Conversion Improvement
Campaign Structure
- Division → Match Type
- Division → Product Category
- Division → Performance
- Division → Target
Benefits:
- PPC Control Improved
- Optimization Simplified
- Keyword Tracking Improved
- Ad Control Improved
5. Adjust Bids Based on Performance
There are many Sellers that either raise the bids excessively or never change the bids. Both of these outcomes are not profitable.
Smart Bidding Tips:
- Bid more on high-converting keywords
- Bid less on low-performing high-cost keywords
- Regularly check CPC
- Experiment with different bidding strategies
Consider:
- Conversion rate
- Click-through rate (CTR)
- ACoS
- Total sales generated
You Will Get
- Better management of your budget
- Higher profitability
- Better ad positioning
6. Improve Click-Through Rate (CTR)
If customers aren’t clicking your ads, your PPC campaign as a whole will have poor performance.
How You Can Improve CTR:
- Design appealing product titles
- Have clear primary images
- Describe product advantages
- Have better price products
- Have coupons, discounts, etc.
Why Is CTR Important?
Better CTR means that your ads are more relevant to Amazon:
- Enhances where your ad will show
- Lowers the price of your ad
- More people will see your ad
- Increases your sales
7. Analyze PPC Data Regularly
PPC campaigns are often called “Set and Forget” centered systems. But on Amazon, we would prefer to forget. Regularly analyze your ads to stay 7 steps ahead.
The Analytics You Should Use:
- ACoS
- CTR
- Conversion Rate
- Impressions
- CPC
- ROAS
Weekly Optimization:
- Reduce “keyword sales”
- Increase the terms that proved to be effective
- Create the keywords for total ad control
- Review your total ad control
- Use keywords
The Benefits You Receive:
- Informed choices
- Unstoppable growth
- Slideshow of successful ad campaigns
Final Thoughts
PPC advertising on Amazon is an effective growth tool as long as a seller is using a proper strategy. Running ads using broad keywords, neglecting to include negative keywords, getting listings active to weak ads, and undisciplined bidding is a quick way to a profitless ad spend. The idea of an advertising strategy is to obtain the appropriate shopper to increase sales in a profitable way.
High converting, strong, and high-intent keywords and product listings, along with bid discipline and a clean structured campaign, facilitate the growth of advertising sustainably on Amazon. Unlike traditional advertising channels, once PPC is live, continuous work is required. In a structured way, campaigns must always be tested and improved. Advertising positively on a low ACoS and high ROAS, will positively increase product listings and listings, along with the overall growth of the seller.
