Small group workshops to help you learn, optimize, and grow.
.svg){kind=logo}
Getting a successful Amazon pay-per-click (PPC) campaign off the ground requires a number of things - the right keywords, the right bids, and more - but a crucial aspect sometimes overlooked is the structure of the campaign itself.
Having an organized, coherent structure is essential to executing a cost-effective ad campaign. If you don’t, you can end up wasting a lot of money going after keywords that don’t help you sell and paying too much for clicks.
The basic principle is to put relevant keywords to relevant products, but how do you do that? And how do you maximize the efficiency of your campaign?
Do you go automatic to free up your time? Do you go manual for more control? How should you set up your ad groups? There are a number of routes you can take, but also a lot of pitfalls to look out for.
The heart of the campaign, of course, is the keywords, and targeting the right ones is the name of the game. So how do you know which to go for?
You don’t have to fly blind. To get a better idea of which ones to target, you could set two campaigns for each ASIN - first an automatic one then a manual one.
Setting an automatic campaign and letting it run for at least a week or two will let you collect a good amount of data about the highest converting keywords to then feed back into your more tailored manual campaign.
If you want to cover multiple bases down the conversion funnel, you could have separate sets of keywords for different stages - throwing down keywords that cover broad matches, phrase matches and exact matches, respectively, to cast both a wide net and a targeted line in a single campaign.
For example, Umbrella in the first, Compact Umbrella in the second, and Compact Umbrella Automatic in the third.
To maximize your capture of the narrower parts of the conversion funnel, also be sure to keep an eye on your Search Term Report and look for the long-tail keywords. Not only do these have a higher conversion rate because they are more specific, but they also tend to be cheaper because there is less competition for them.
You will also have something to gain from looking at your competitors - allocate some budget to targeting their keywords and putting yourself on their buyers' radar. Keep in mind they are likely doing this to you.
By a similar token, target the products you're competing against in your campaign in order to appear inside their listing, drawing their customers to you.
Probably the most important question to ask yourself when determining your campaign structure is how much control you want.
In simple terms, more control means more time. If you want to invest your time elsewhere in other parts of your business and have the campaign automated to a larger degree, you can do that, but it means handing the reins over to Amazon to determine where your budget gets allocated.
Having the three ad group structure is a solid solution, but creating a campaign with multiple ad groups also means you have little to no control over the budget allocation into each of them, that’s entirely up to Amazon’s discretion based on its algorithm.
If your campaign is set up to have, for example, three ad groups, it doesn’t mean that each will get the same amount of budget put behind it by Amazon’s system.
You could have a $1,000 budget and one ad tier could get $500, the other $350, and the other $150.
If you do want to have a stronger hand in your campaign dynamics, you can have just one ad group per campaign. Yes, this means slightly more time and effort on your part, but you know where everything is going ahead of time, focusing on the group of keywords you want to prioritize.
Even when you go the single ad group route, though, you still don’t get to determine how much gets spent for each keyword. You could put all your eggs in one basket and put one keyword per ad group, but that would probably be overly tedious and translate into one keyword per campaign.
A good middle ground tends to be around 10 words per ad group, a solid number that gives both the flexibility of having multiple keywords but also the likelihood that they each get decent spending. You can calibrate either way from there, though fewer keywords mean less reach, while more of them may mean some get anemic spend. Use the same match type for these (broad keywords will attract search terms, for example, while exact matches will not), and experiment with which is the most effective match type to have for a given set of keywords.
Another important thing not to forget - make sure that any keywords you have in an ad group have search volumes in a similar range. If their respective search volumes vary, then what ends up happening is the ones with the higher search volume get the lion’s share of the budget and all the impressions, leaving the lower ones with next to nothing.
Lastly, always keep an eye on optimizing your CPC bids - making sure your actual average cost of sale (ACoS) stays in the same range as your target ACoS. If it’s bigger, you might be overspending, if it’s smaller, then you’ve got a surplus budget that you could try deploying to get a wider reach.
Don’t waste time on keywords that keep coming up empty and not generating profit - sometimes they just won’t generate results even if you had a strong hunch, remove them if they’re not effective after a long period of time and put money into better options!
Threecolts is a comprehensive suite of advanced ecommerce software solutions. We're designed to empower retail vendors and marketplace sellers on Amazon, Walmart, and beyond. Our tools optimize every aspect of ecommerce operations to ensure maximum profitability.
For sellers aiming to earn through reselling, Tactical Arbitrage helps you find hidden deals 5X faster. ScoutIQ provides instant insights for scoring in stores. DataSpark helps you get your next bestseller on Walmart Marketplace across over 14 million products in its database.
If you want to sell globally without storing, shipping, or risking money on inventory, SellerRunning simplifies cross-border dropshipping. We let you manage and expand your ecommerce business across multiple Amazon marketplaces seamlessly.
Managing products across leading ecommerce channels has never been easier either. ExportYourStore ensures hassle-free cross-listing and product syncing. Meanwhile, Hemi integrates over 100 ecommerce platforms, handling everything from inventory to logistics.
For efficient financial operations, FeedbackWhiz Profits offers a robust ecommerce accounting solution. We give you total control over your finances. You can track earnings and spending and visualize financial data without much effort.
You can also enhance your customer service with ChannelReply. Centralize marketplace communications through order data alongside support tickets from major marketplaces. Meanwhile, Onsite Support combines AI tools and custom-built help centers to amp up your support capacity. With these two, you can ensure that your customer service team can do more with less work.
Simplify Amazon operations with InventoryLab. It's an all-in-one solution that enhances everything from sourcing to logistics to accounting. We make inventory management and business workflows as streamlined as possible, so you won’t have to think about it.
Protect your profits with our advanced recovery solutions. DimeTyd Amazon helps 1P vendors recover lost revenues from overbilling and inventory discrepancies. DimeTyd Walmart simplifies the process of disputing unacknowledged shipments and organizing deductions. DimeTyd Sellers offers comprehensive monitoring and dispute resolution for Amazon FBA.
Automate your pricing strategies with SmartRepricer. We'll help you stay competitive by adjusting prices automatically based on custom rules. You can make sure that you always win the Buy Box with just a few clicks.
Finally, safeguard your online reputation with our reviews and alerts solutions. FeedbackWhiz Emails lets you handle Amazon review requests with personalized feedback campaigns. CR Feedback offers cost-effective feedback gathering for eBay and Amazon review requests. FeedbackWhiz Alerts keeps you informed with timely notifications on reviews, threats to your listings, and other important events.
