How to Increase Amazon Sales With PPC Ads

Amazon PPC is the most effective mechanism for generating initial sales velocity on Amazon. No other lever delivers traffic with the same speed or level of control. Pricing, reviews, content, and inventory only start to matter after traffic is acquired, and Amazon PPC is the system that captures this traffic and converts it into sales.

The problem with most PPC accounts is that they are structurally incapable of scaling sales. They mix different intent levels, allow algorithmic bleed between keywords, and rely on ACoS instead of contribution margin and market share. These structural flaws make sustainable growth difficult, regardless of budget or bids.

This article treats Amazon PPC as a controllable sales system. Every strategy that follows is designed to increase total revenue and unit volume.

1. Optimize Your Product Listings First

Before pouring budget into ads, make sure your product pages convert well. High-quality images and content are important and no amount of ad spend can “fix” a listing that doesn’t convert.

• Use a crisp, professional main image highlighting your product’s key benefit
• Add lifestyle or infographic images in the gallery. Write a clear, keyword-optimized title and bullet points focused on customer needs.
• If you have Brand Registry, enable A+ (Enhanced Brand) Content with rich images and detailed descriptions as this can significantly lift conversion rates.
• Set competitive pricing and gather reviews to boost conversion (higher CVR lowers ACoS).
• A/B test different listing elements. Test one listing element at a time (images, title, A+ modules) so you know what drives more clicks and sales.

2. Keyword Isolation and Segmentation

Isolate” keywords by match type and intent for maximize control. The Keyword Isolation Strategy involves starting wide (broad or auto) then moving winners to phrase and exact campaigns

• Run Auto or Broad campaigns to identify converting search terms. Each week, add the highest-converting terms as new keywords in Exact/ Phrase campaigns. Simultaneously, add non-converting or irrelevant terms as negative keywords to prune waste.
• Never mix match types in one campaign or ad group. Set up separate campaigns/ad groups for Broad, Phrase, and Exact. This lets you tailor bids and budgets by match type.
• For your absolute top keywords, consider SKAGs where each ad group contains one exact keyword. This yields 100% attribution and precision.
• Automatic campaigns are best used as discovery tools, not long-term drivers. For aggressive growth, one tactic is to run an auto campaign in parallel with manual ones, harvesting search terms and then negating them in auto once moved to manual. However, true control comes from manual campaigns on all valuable keywords.
• Don’t rely solely on auto or broad match indefinitely it burns budget on irrelevant clicks.

3. Smart Bidding and Budget Optimization

Your bids determine how often your ads show and ultimately how much sales you get. Apply these advanced bidding tactics:

• Calculate Break-even ACoS: First, know your profit margin. Break-even ACoS = (Profit per unit / Sale price)×100. For example, if a $50 product has $30 total cost (including Amazon fees), profit is $20. Break-even ACoS is (20/50)=40%. Above 40% ACoS, you lose money on each sale. Use this to set targets: bids should aim to keep your actual ACoS below this threshold.
• Raise bids on winners, cut losers: Routinely increase bids on high-converting keywords (to grab more volume) and lower or pause bids on keywords with high ACoS . For instance, if Keyword A converts 20% and Keyword B 9%, allocate more budget to A. Amazon’s reporting
• Dynamic Bidding Strategy: Use Amazon’s automated bid rules. Enhanced CPC (eCPC) can increase your bid when a click is likely to convert, or decrease bids on low-conv auctions. Starting with dynamic (down-only) bidding for most of the campaigns often yields faster profitable sales.
• Budget Allocation: Channel more budget to high-ROI campaigns. If one campaign is hitting target ACoS and converting, consider raising its daily budget or pulling spend from underperformers. Also align spending with inventory and margins: only bid heavily on SKUs with healthy stock and profit margin. For example, spend spree on SKUs with 60+ days of inventory, but throttle campaigns if stock dips below 30 days. This avoids lost rank from stockouts while maximizing sales on items you can support.

4. Placement Bid Modifiers

Amazon now offers bid adjustments for all major placements. Use placement multipliers to fine-tune where your Sponsored Product ads appear:

• Top of Search (TOS): High visibility but expensive. Increase bids (+X%) for your strongest keywords on TOS if conversions warrant it.
• Product Detail Pages (PDP): These often convert well, especially for cross-sells. Adjust bids upward on keywords that lead to PDP impressions.
• Rest of Search (ROS): As of 2024, ROS bid multipliers are available. ROS can yield cheaper clicks and good volume. Starting with a 20–50% multiplier on ROS and then adjusting after a week to see how spend shifts. Use lower multiples initially.

A strategic approach is ASIN-by-ASIN placement allocation. Not all SKUs need to be in TOS. You might reserve Top-of-Search for your best-converting, highest-margin products, while routing weaker or new products primarily to ROS. This avoids overbidding on items that won’t yield ROI even with high exposure.

A best practice: “Top performing ASINs for TOS… Less competitive ASINs for ROS” . Over time, analyse the Placement Report to ensure your spend is balanced – if one placement is overconsuming budget, adjust the multiplier or budget split.

Your product listing is the final destination for every click you pay for. If that destination isn’t compelling, clear, and trustworthy, shoppers will leave without a second thought. This wastes your ad spend and signals to Amazon’s A9 algorithm that your product isn’t relevant, which can hurt your organic ranking over time.

5. Multi-Layered Campaign Funnel Structure

A professional PPC account is organized into a multi-tier funnel that separates discovery, consideration, and conversion stages. This often means dedicated campaigns for broad, phrase, and exact match keywords, as well as product targeting and audience-based ads.

For example, top-of-funnel “discovery” campaigns use broad match or automatic targeting to gather data and uncover new keywords, while mid-funnel campaigns use phrase match for targeted discovery and bottom-funnel campaigns use exact match for maximum efficiency. Each funnel layer has its own budget and goals:

• Broad Match / Automatic (Top-Funnel): Cast a wide net for new keywords. Regularly review search term reports to identify converting queries, then move them to lower-funnel campaigns. Use Amazon sponsored brand ads to build awareness targeting highly relevant keywords.
• Phrase Match (Mid-Funnel): Target high-potential keyword phrases discovered in broad/auto. Keep bids moderate to let more variants come through, harvesting additional keywords over time. Phrase match helps bridge discovery and precision. Exact Match (Bottom-Funnel): Laser-focus on top-converting terms. Use exact match only for proven keywords, with higher bids to capture position. This is your scale and profitability layer; shift budget here as campaigns mature.
• Product & ASIN Targeting: Include campaigns that target specific ASINs (yours or competitors’) or categories. Use these to cross-sell to customers browsing related products or to defend key product pages from competitor encroachment.
• Sponsored Brands/Display: Layer in Sponsored Brands ads (including video) at the top of search to bolster brand awareness and capture high-intent traffic, and Sponsored Display (SD) for post-visit retargeting or interest-based targeting.

Structuring campaigns by match type and intent avoids “keyword cannibalization” and makes performance easier to analyze. Single-match, single-intent ad groups enable granular bidding. Create separate ad groups or campaigns for each match type” and allocate bids accordingly (lowest bids for broad, highest for exact).

6. Use All Ad Formats for Growth

Amazon offers multiple PPC formats. Use each where it amplifies sales:

• Sponsored Products (SP): This is your bread-and-butter for direct sales . Use Manual SP for your core keywords (exact and phrase), and let Auto or Broad SP discover new terms. Promote your best-selling ASINs aggressively here, as SP directly drives sales and improves organic ranking over time.
• Sponsored Brands (SB): These ads (banner or video) appear at the top of search and can showcase 3 products or a brand logo. They often have lower CPCs and higher CTRs than SP because of their prominent placement . Use SB to highlight your product range or bundles.
• Sponsored Brands Video: A powerful but underused tool. Amazon shoppers respond well to video. Create a short (ideally ≤45s) “problem-solution” video showing key features . It can be as simple as a smartphone-shot demo. Video ads tend to grab attention and explain benefits quickly, increasing conversion rates.
• Sponsored Display (SD): Use SD for retargeting and audience targeting. Set up SD campaigns to reach shoppers who viewed your product detail pages (or similar products) but didn’t buy.

7. Branded vs. Non-Branded Campaigns

Segmenting branded (your brand name or specific product names) versus non-branded (generic and competitor terms) traffic is a critical advanced tactic. The logic is simple: branded searches convert best but saturate quickly, whereas generic searches are broader but cost more. To maximize ROI:

• Separate Campaigns: Run distinct campaigns for branded and non-branded keywords. One approach is even to set up two automatic campaigns: one allowing your brand terms, another excluding them to capture generic queries. Manual campaigns should similarly be split. Allocate Bids Differently: Since branded terms have high CTR and CVR, bids can be lower. Generic campaigns usually require higher bids and careful selection of long-tail keywords.
• Negative Targets: In your branded campaigns, add generic terms (including competitor names) as negative to prevent dilution. In your generic campaigns, negate your own brand terms so that only non-branded traffic is captured .
• Budget Strategy: It’s common to “own” your brand by allocating significant budget to branded campaigns at very low ACoS. This both protects against competitors bidding on your brand and ensures maximum visibility for brand seekers. Any leftover budget can fund more expensive generic campaigns aimed at growth.
• Cross-Product Branding: If you have multiple products, protect your brand across them. Consider targeting branded keywords that include your brand but generic product terms in the same campaign group, or use targeted Sponsored Brands ads highlighting multiple ASINs.

8. Keyword Harvesting and Negative Keyword Cycles

Treat keywords as dynamic assets. A weekly (or even more frequent) routine is:

• Review Search Term reports to find any keyword that drove profitable sales (e.g. ≥10 orders). Add those as new exact-match keywords in manual campaigns. This is often called search term isolation.
• Identify terms with significant clicks but zero sales. Add these as exact-match negative keywords to stop wasting budget.
• When a search term is promoted to exact, immediately negate it in any overlapping broader campaigns (broad, phrase, or auto) to prevent duplication.
• For each new keyword, set an initial bid based on its performance: lower for marginal hits, higher for star performers.
• Re-run these steps weekly. Automated tools can streamline this process, but the logic remains the same: carve out the best-performing terms and cut out the worst continually. This “harvest and prune” cycle is the technical baseline for Amazon ads management to separate the search terms that waste budget from the ones that actually generate profit.

This “harvest and prune” cycle ensures your funnel remains tight and efficient. Over time, your broad campaigns dwindle as most traffic moves into finely-tuned exact match zones. Meanwhile, new broad/ search campaigns (or fresh autopilots for newly launched SKUs) are used to continuously feed the funnel with potential keywords.

The rise of AI tools on the platform is also changing the landscape. According to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, shoppers using the AI-powered tool Rufus are 60% more likely to complete a purchase. This technology is projected to drive over $10 billion in incremental sales in 2025, which is part of Amazon’s impressive 13.4% year-over-year sales growth. For third-party sellers, who account for over half of all units sold, optimizing for such technology is becoming key. You can learn more by checking these in-depth Amazon statistics and trends.

9. Campaign Life Stages: Launch vs. Growth vs. Profit

Amazon PPC should change as the product matures. What works at launch will usually destroy efficiency later, and what works for profit will stall growth if applied too early. Think of PPC as evolving with your product lifecycle:

• Launch Phase: The goal is velocity and rank. Accept higher ACoS temporarily. Use broad match and auto campaigns to drive impressions and gather reviews. Aggressive promotions, coupons, or Lightning Deals can amplify early sales. Run an automatic campaign for the first 1–2 weeks to mine converting keywords, then systematically move winners into manual campaigns.
• Growth Phase: With initial rank and reviews established, shift focus to efficient scale. Move budget from broad to exact and phrase. Rank near ranked keyword with organic positions between 20-40. Introduce Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display to widen the funnel. Increase bids on top keywords until reaching target ACoS.
• Profit / Optimization Phase: Once growth is secured, optimize for profitability. Reallocate excess budget from saturated keywords into top performers. For mature products, lower ACoS targets, refine bids by time of day (dayparting), and consider price increases or bundling to improve margins and reduce break-even ACoS.

10. Use Promotions with Ad Campaigns

Running PPC ads to a full-priced item is standard practice. But running those same ads to an item with an active promotion can seriously increase your conversion rates. From a shopper’s perspective, they see your ad, click through, and are greeted with an eye-catching coupon or a deal that’s about to expire. That extra incentive is often the final push they need to click “Add to Cart.”

Here are a couple of ways to combine these two tools:

• Coupons: The bright green coupon tag is a proven attention-grabber in search results. It makes your listing stand out against the competition and can give your click-through rate (CTR) an immediate lift. When you’re running ads, that higher CTR signals to Amazon that your offer is highly relevant, which can lead to a better ad rank and even a lower cost-per-click (CPC).
• Lightning Deals: These are short-term, high-visibility promotions featured on Amazon’s popular “Today’s Deals” page. Combining a Lightning Deal with a targeted PPC campaign is a classic strategy to increase your sales velocity, especially during a new product launch on Amazon. The combined traffic from both sources creates a large sales spike that Amazon’s A9 algorithm favors.

11. Capitalize on High-Traffic Events

High-traffic events like Prime Day or the Cyber Monday rush are golden opportunities. During these peak shopping periods, millions of customers are on Amazon with one thing on their minds: buying. Your job is to make your product the most attractive option.

Preparing for these events can have a significant impact on your sales. This was evident during the record-breaking 2025 Prime Day, the first to span four days, where independent sellers hit all-time sales records. The sellers who capitalized on that traffic surge were the ones who had their Lightning Deals and competitive pricing locked in ahead of time.

Plan your deals and increase your ad budgets at least two to four weeks in advance of a major event. Don’t wait until the last minute. Submission windows for these deals often close much earlier than you’d expect.

12. Build Reviews to Improve Ad Conversion Rates

Running PPC ads for a product with zero reviews is like shouting into the wind. You can spend a lot of money, but few will listen.

On Amazon, positive reviews are the currency of trust. A product with a 4.5-star rating and a good number of reviews will almost always have a better conversion rate than a similar product with none. This has a direct, measurable impact on your ad performance.

1. Use Amazon’s “Request a Review” Button

One of the easiest and safest ways to get reviews is by using the “Request a Review” button in Seller Central.

You can use this feature between 5 and 30 days after the order is delivered. Make it a consistent part of your post-sale process, especially for your top sellers.

2. Get Early Reviews with Amazon Vine

Launching a new product is tough, and getting the first few reviews is a major hurdle. The Amazon Vine program is a great solution here.

Vine lets you send your product to a group of Amazon’s most trusted reviewers, known as Vine Voices. In return, they provide honest opinions. Enrolling a new product can help you secure up to 30 high-quality reviews quickly.

Those initial reviews give you the social proof needed to make your launch-phase PPC campaigns work. A product with 10-15 Vine reviews has a much higher chance of converting ad clicks than one with zero.

13. Turn FBA into a Conversion Machine

Enrolling your products in Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is one of the most effective moves you can make to improve sales. It’s not just about logistics; it’s about getting the Prime badge on your listing.

Customers trust Prime. They expect fast, free, and reliable shipping. Fast delivery is a proven sales driver. With Amazon pushing for its fastest Prime delivery speeds ever in 2025, sellers who use FBA gain a significant competitive edge.

More importantly, Prime eligibility is a huge factor in winning the Buy Box, where 80-90% of all sales happen. This fulfillment strategy is a core reason behind Amazon’s incredible average annual sales growth. You can explore these numbers further with Amazon sales growth statistics on Oberlo.com.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Long Does It Take to See an Increase in Sales from PPC?

You should start seeing results within the first 2 to 4 weeks after launching a solid set of campaigns. That initial period is about gathering data and getting your first ad-driven sales.

The long-term goal is building sustainable organic rank, which usually takes 3 to 6 months of consistent ad spend and optimization. This timeline can vary depending on your category’s competitiveness, your budget, and how well-optimized your listing is. A promotion might give you a temporary boost, but the real goal is to build a foundation that pays off for months and years.

What Is a Good ACoS for Amazon PPC Campaigns?

There’s no single magic number. A “good” ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sale) is tied to your product’s profit margin. Before setting a target, you must calculate your break-even ACoS.

If your total profit margin on a product is 30%, then your break-even ACoS is also 30%. Stay under that number, and every ad sale is profitable.

Your target ACoS should change based on your goal. If you’re launching a new product, you might accept a high, even unprofitable, ACoS (like 40-60%) to gain initial traction and reviews. For a mature product, the focus shifts to profitability. You’ll want to aim for an ACoS well below your break-even point, often in the 15-25% range for most categories.

Can I Increase Sales Without Using Amazon PPC?

It’s possible, but it’s a slow and difficult path in today’s crowded marketplace.

Without ads, you’re relying entirely on Amazon SEO to slowly climb the organic rankings and building an external traffic source, like a large social media following or email list, to drive people to your listing.

These are great assets, but PPC is an accelerator. It buys you immediate visibility on page one, provides valuable keyword data, and sparks the initial sales velocity needed to climb the organic ladder much faster.

What’s Most Important to Focus On Besides My Listing?

Once your listing is optimized, inventory management is the single most critical factor for growing sales. Nothing kills your momentum faster than a stockout.

The moment you run out of stock:

• You instantly lose the Buy Box.
• Your sales velocity drops to zero.
• Your organic keyword rankings start to fall.
• Amazon pauses all your PPC campaigns, grinding your ad momentum to a halt.

It can take weeks, sometimes months, to regain the rank and visibility lost from just a few days of being out of stock. All the marketing and ad spend in the world is worthless if your customer can’t click the “Add to Cart” button. A solid supply chain and smart inventory forecasting are everything.