Amazon PPC management built around profit.
Most Amazon PPC work optimises to ACoS and stops there. We manage campaigns against product margin, using your own Search Query Performance data to decide where the budget goes. Structure first, bids second.
Campaign architecture
4 separated layers
SEARCH DEMAND
Protect your own name
TARGET: LOW
Take share, accept higher cost
TARGET: HIGH
The volume engine
TARGET: MARGIN
Find terms research missed
CAPPED
MEASURED vs MARGIN
Blended into one campaign, the average ACoS tells you nothing. Separated, every layer can be judged on the job it is doing.
Ad spend is growing faster than profit.
Bid adjustments can only do so much inside a campaign that was never structured properly. These are the patterns we find most often when we audit an account.
ACoS looks stable, but net profit keeps sliding quarter on quarter.
Branded, generic and competitor keywords share one campaign, so no layer has its own target.
Auto campaigns have run for months with no search-term review behind them.
Paid and organic performance are never compared, so nobody knows which branded clicks are defending the listing and which are buying a sale you already had.
Reporting shows ad-attributed sales, but never total revenue, fees or margin.
Nobody can say which campaigns are profitable once FBA fees and COGS are counted.
Why cutting spend doesn’t fix it
Lowering budgets is the fastest way to drop ACoS, and it usually costs you ranking. Sales velocity falls, organic position slips, and getting back can cost more than was saved.
The alternative is removing waste without removing volume. Negate what does not convert, right-size the overbids, and improve conversion so each click earns more.
ACoS falls because efficiency rose, not because you spent less.
Our Amazon PPC strategy: structure first, bids second.
Bidding is the last decision, not the first. Until traffic types are separated, every number you are optimising is an average of things that should never have been averaged.
Amazon PPC campaign architecture
Each layer answers a different commercial question, so each gets its own target, budget and rules. This is what the diagram at the top of the page shows in practice.
Brand defence
Holds your own branded search. Judged on defending the listing against competitors bidding on your name, not on incremental sales alone.
Low target
Competitor
Conquesting on competitor ASINs and brand terms. Expected to run at a higher cost per sale, because the sale is genuinely new.
Higher target
Category & generic
The volume engine, and where most waste hides. Bid against contribution margin per product rather than one account-wide ACoS goal.
Margin-based
Discovery
Auto and broad targeting on a capped budget, run to find search terms that research missed. Converting terms are promoted out; the rest are negated.
Capped budget
Once these are separated, ACoS stops being one number to defend and becomes four numbers you can act on. That single change does more for profitability than any bidding tactic we apply afterwards.
What we manage, week to week.
One senior strategist owns all of it. Nothing is sold as a separate module, and the scope does not quietly shrink after month three.
Campaign architecture rebuild
Sponsored Products, Brands and Display restructured into the four separated layers above, each with its own target and budget. Existing top performers are migrated carefully so ranking momentum is not dropped mid-rebuild.
Keyword research and SQPR analysis
Your Search Query Performance Report is one of the strongest first-party sources available, showing how your own ASINs earn impressions, clicks and purchases at query level. We start there, then use Helium 10 and DataDive reverse-ASIN research to fill the gaps.
Weekly search-term review
Search Term Report audited every week. Non-converting queries negated at the right match type; converting queries promoted into exact match before competitors find them.
Bid, budget and placement control
Bids managed against product margin rather than a blanket target. Placement modifiers and dayparting concentrate spend on the slots and hours that convert for your category.
Ad and listing alignment
Ad creative matched to the search terms that actually convert. Where the listing is the constraint, we flag it, because there is a ceiling on how efficient ads can get when the page converts poorly.
Profit reporting
One weekly report tying ad spend, fees, organic sales and contribution margin together in Sellerboard. You see TACoS and margin, not a screenshot of the Advertising Console.
The first 90 days, in order.
The sequence matters. Rebuilding structure before establishing a baseline is why most account rebuilds cannot prove what they achieved.
Week 1
Audit and baseline
Full diagnostic across the Advertising Console, Seller Central and your P&L. We record where ACoS, TACoS, CPC and contribution margin sit before touching anything, so any change is measurable rather than claimed.
Weeks 2–3
Structure rebuild
Campaigns rebuilt into the four separated layers, each with its own target. Top performers protected and migrated first.
Weeks 4–6
Waste removal and harvesting
Weekly search-term cycles begin. Wasted spend negated, converting terms harvested into exact match, bids brought into line with product margin.
Weeks 7–12
Scale what works
Budget shifted toward the layers proving profitable, placement and dayparting tuned, listing constraints fed back in.
Early efficiency changes can become visible within the first few weeks. The larger effects, where TACoS falls while total sales keep rising, usually need a longer measurement window, because organic ranking responds slowly. We will tell you at the audit stage what is realistic for your category rather than promising a timeline we cannot control.
What you are buying, and what you are not.
Clear boundaries prevent both scope disputes and poor-fit enquiries. This is the standard shape of a PPC management engagement.
Included
In every PPC engagement
Not included by default
Quoted separately where needed
Fees and terms
A flat monthly retainer, scoped after the free audit against catalogue size, marketplaces and account condition. Month to month, with no long lock-in
We do not charge a percentage of ad spend. A significant part of this job is finding spend to remove, and we would rather not be paid less for doing it well. For how the models compare across the market, see our guide to Amazon PPC agency cost.
Single-digit ACoS, held across consecutive quarters.
Our flagship UK account arrived with ACoS in the mid-thirties and blended campaigns. It now runs in single digits, with revenue more than doubling year on year on broadly flat ad spend. Every figure, screenshot and date sits on one page so it is always current.
What your free Amazon PPC audit covers
Share read-only access to your Amazon Advertising and Seller Central accounts. You get back a written diagnostic, not a sales call.
- Wasted ad spend, mapped to campaign and placement.
- Structure problems that make your reported ACoS misleading.
- Branded and organic overlap worth reviewing for incrementality.
- Listing conversion gaps making your ads work harder than they should.
- The first three changes we would make, in priority order.
No obligation. We reply within one business day.
PPC does not run in a vacuum.
Ads get cheaper when the listing converts and the account is healthy. These are the services most often run alongside PPC management.
Listing Optimization & SEO
Keyword-led copy, backend search terms and image strategy. A listing that converts better lowers the cost of every click you buy.
Full Account Management
Advertising, catalogue, account health and profitability under one senior strategist rather than split across suppliers.
Product Launch Strategy
Launch PPC sequencing built around early velocity and review pace, so new ASINs reach rank before the budget runs dry.