Back to Resources

As a brand entrepreneur, you know how competitive Amazon pay-per-click advertising has become.

It’s become harder than ever to stand out.

Without a good Amazon advertising strategy in place, you can end up wasting the money you could have otherwise put into scaling your e-commerce business. 

Achieving great results with your Amazon PPC ads requires more than just following the crowd and covering the basics. 

Effective Amazon PPC management – everything from keyword research and Amazon Sponsored Products ads to product targeting – is crucial for success on the platform.

The 10 following strategies will help to push your products to the top of the page.

Best Amazon Advertising Campaign Strategies for 2025

1. Improve Brand Awareness
2. Focus On Product Profitability
3. Know Your Advertising Cost of Sales (ACoS)
4. Use Negative Keywords and Phrases
5. Utilize Match Types
6. Optimize Your Bids
7. Take Advantage of Sponsored Display Ads
8. Cancel Ineffective Ad Campaigns
9. Don’t Forget About Amazon DSP and Contextual Targeting
10. Leverage AI for Your Amazon Listings 

1. Improve Awareness with a Sponsored Brands Campaign

In 2024, Amazon rolled out its low priced, “Haul” mobile shopping channel that’s apparently designed to compete with Shein and Temu. 

It’s one more reason that brand building is more important than ever for online entrepreneurs.  

To put your Brand’s Amazon Store in the spotlight, it’s time to take a close look at Amazon Sponsored Brands advertising. 

Here’s why:

When a customer searches for an Amazon product listing, Sponsored Brands ads appear in the header’s first column of the search results page. That makes Sponsored ads incredibly impactful. 

Because Amazon Sponsored Brand ads occupy a lot of real estate at the top of page one on mobile, take advantage of custom creative images, and are able to highlight multiple brand products, their ability to improve brand awareness has exploded.

This prominent placement of this ad type has shown to have a sales conversion rate of 9.5% for products placed on the search results page, regardless of whether it was the actual Amazon product that was searched for. 

These ads are ideal for top-of-the-funnel brand awareness and product reach. When you pair them with keyword phrases and exact match keywords that highlight your product, they’re even more powerful!

2. Focus On Product Profitability

It might seem obvious, but an important step in strategizing your Amazon ad campaigns involves understanding your Amazon products’ profit margins and how they impact your advertising campaign.

Every SKU has unique selling data points you can analyze. Using the data, ranging from cost to promote to manufacturing and selling costs, you can determine whether your profit margins are big enough to pour more ad dollars into that particular product.

Analyze which of your products has a higher profit margin before you think about spending anything more on paid ads. The last thing you want to do is waste money on ads for a product that barely makes it worthwhile.

This analysis will help your organic rank. By dedicating resources towards more profitable products, shoppers have a clearer view of ASINs that you’ve prioritized. 

3. Know Your Advertising Cost of Sales Metrics

Everyone wants to make a lot of sales, but at what cost? 

With Amazon’s marketplace becoming more competitive every day, sometimes the difference between profitability and a black hole of advertising spend is a matter of pennies.

That’s why it’s critical that you understand your Advertising Cost of Sales (ACoS) before you begin implementing your advertising campaigns. A precise ACoS will help you to come up with a realistic, sustainable ad budget.

ACoS is a measurement of your Amazon ads’ overall efficiency and represents the ratio of ad spend to ad revenue in percentage. You can calculate your Advertising Cost of Sales with this formula:

Break-even ACoS is the point where your advertising cost becomes equal to your profit margin (calculated after all fees and costs involved with selling on Amazon are subtracted).

For example, once you’ve added your product costs, shipping costs, Amazon costs etc, your profit margin is what remains. If your profit margin is 30%, that’s also your break-even ACoS.

After you have done the math and determined your target profit margin, subtract that from the break-even ACoS. At that point what remains is your target ACoS. 

If you’ve determined that you have a 30% profit margin to work with and you’d like to end up with a 12% target profit margin, that leaves 18% as the target ACoS.

Not only is an understanding of your ACoS a great way to judge the health of your Amazon listing, it also functions as a sort of ad-campaign gas pedal. Depending on your specific goals, you might want to have your foot pressed firmly on the accelerator.

That can lead to a higher ACoS and also hints at the fact that a low ACoS isn’t always better.

For example, a Sponsored Product ad campaign with higher ACoS may be better at driving traffic higher up in the marketing funnel.

Let’s say that you were launching a new Amazon FBA product. In that case, your goal would be quickly getting the maximum number of eyes on your product. In this case, your ACoS would be higher than during a time of relative ecommerce calm.

The key is knowing where the line is.

4. Use Negative Keywords and Phrases

Not every Amazon ad campaign should be designed to focus attention on your listing. 

Broad search results can lead to an overwhelming number of potentially confusing product matches. That’s why setting up your negative phrases and keywords is crucial. 

You definitely don’t want your product showing up in irrelevant search results.

That’s because of: 

• Wasted Ad Spend – Showing up for irrelevant searches means paying for clicks from shoppers who have no interest in your product, draining your budget.
• Low Conversion Rates – Irrelevant traffic leads to poor engagement, low sales, and a declining conversion rate, which can hurt organic ranking.
• Negative Customer Experience – Shoppers who land on mismatched listings may leave negative reviews or poor ratings, damaging your brand reputation.

For example, if you’re selling over-the-ear headphones, you wouldn’t want to target and rank earbuds as a keyword. You may get some clicks and maybe even make a sale or two, but in the end, you’ll spend a lot of advertising dollars just to get in front of customers looking for something very different to what you are offering.

That’s a recipe for unhappy Amazon shoppers.

Your Ultimate Goal Is to SELL Your Product, Not Gather Clicks!

Remember, your objective is SELLING your product, not getting the most clicks on a keyword. 

Utilize this strategy to increase your ad dollar return.

When utilizing negative keywords, use these targeted terms to adjust the amount you spend on your bids. Then, refocus your efforts on the high-volume, converting words with higher bids and lower your bid amount on broad, low-converting terms.

By doing so, your product will appear more relevant to those exact match results while also allowing you to have a smaller presence for any broad terms that may crossover with your keywords.

Lastly, take the time to fine tune your Amazon PPC strategies so that utilizing the data of keywords that are converting for you. Use the search results that customers find your product with, and build your negative keyword list to exclude those terms that drain your budget without converting any sales.

5. Utilize Match Types

Similar to Google Ads, Amazon uses the broad, exact, phrase, and negative match types to allow advertisers to refine their targeted keywords. The objective is to use crossover terms and match types to hone-in on your target prospect and their search terms used.

To improve your click-through-rate and conversion rate, it’s important not to forget to include the appropriate modifiers that suit your individual campaigns.

Broad Match

Broad match types are the terms most used and least defined. It’s the widest net possible and is the lowest converting of your terms but can help drive traffic to your product sales pages and increase brand awareness.

Phrase Match

You can add broad match terms with keywords in front or after them to add descriptors. For example, if you are selling headphones, you can add terms such as “over-the-ear headphones,” “red headphones,” and more options.

For more specific targeting, phrase match types are the better option. With phrase match, you target terms that customers are using, like “best red over ear headphones” in their search. 

You can use plural forms, misspelled words, whatever your research is turning up concerning customer search terms. Phrase match is more defined than broad search but is not as specific as an exact match.

Exact Match

Exact match is highly defined, and targeted key phrases match exactly your keywords used with their search query.

You can use plural words and misspelled words, but the search result will not include your products if the query isn’t 100% identical to the searched terms.

Again, let’s use the headphones as a product example.

If you’re selling headphones and using the exact match as a strategy, you can use a key phrase like “best red over-the-ear headphones for $100.” Any search that includes all those terms will appear on the results page but will disregard anything different from your key phrase.

Negative Match

 As detailed in the section above, negative match terms can make an enormous difference as you optimize your marketing strategy. Doing so will eliminate wasteful spending by disregarding unnecessary terms.

6. Optimize Your Bids

Every few weeks you should be taking a close look at your keywords to analyze their effectiveness. Be careful not to take a knee-jerk approach to adjust your keyword strategy too quickly. 

Instead, consider your overall campaign bidding strategy to adjust bids based on keyword performance.

The keywords and phrases that also impact your Amazon SEO may change a little over time. Their popularity and usage could arise from their prominence in popular culture, or everyday market fluctuations.

For example, if you think a phrase or two is an outlier and performing well, you can add it to your campaign. Don’t go overboard and change every key phrase based on a small sample of data.

Instead, use Automatic Targeting to discover the recent terms your customers are using and test the new phrase. If it continues to perform, you can optimize your product content to match, and iterate your ads to adjust to the new search terms, then discard your underperforming terms.

Be sure to optimize for your product’s seasonality as well. Advertising success on Amazon is a moving target. That’s particularly apparent when selling products with an uneven yearly trajectory.

Again, this step is crucial and needs to be conducted with caution. Using Automatic Targeting will take a lot of the experimentation and risk associated with trial and error.

Don’t ignore the possibilities of artificial intelligence. 

AI-Based Dynamic Budget Allocation 

Much of advanced Amazon PPC strategy involves AI. 

AI tools can also analyze performance data across multiple campaigns and allocate budget where it’s most effective. For example, if one campaign is generating better ACoS or ROI than others, AI can shift budget toward high-performing campaigns, ensuring every dollar spent contributes to overall profitability. 

This data-backed approach to budget management is especially valuable if you’re running multiple ad types like Sponsored Product, Sponsored Brand, and Amazon DSP ads.

7. Take Advantage of Amazon Sponsored Display Ads

In 2025, Amazon Sponsored Display Ads are poised to become a vital component of e-commerce marketing strategies. These ads target customers based on shopping behaviors rather than solely on keywords, enabling precise audience targeting both on and off Amazon. 

This approach enhances brand visibility and product discovery, meeting the demand for personalized shopping experiences. Their retargeting capabilities, which display products across various platforms, will be especially valuable as consumer attention becomes more fragmented. 

Amazon Sponsored Display Ads use intuitive, retail-centric controls that are tailored to your brand and product’s own requirements. An Amazon display ad can help attract audiences while they’re browsing specific detail pages, on Amazon’s own home page, and across third-party apps and websites.

Amazon says that sellers who used Sponsored Display Ads had an average of twice the impressions and half again as many clicks on their listings.

While all other bid optimizations use CPC (cost-per-click) billing, Amazon Sponsored Display Ads are priced on a vCPM (cost per thousand viewable impressions) basis. With your customers’ journey frequently consisting of 5 or 10 touchpoints, why not buy them by the thousand with vCPM?

8. Cancel Ineffective Campaigns

Now that you’ve looked at the data of your best-performing ad campaigns, it’s time to shut down those that underperform. Monitoring which keywords seem to be performing well and those that just aren’t pulling their weight is a crucial step in your optimizing strategy.

Evaluating the performance of your Amazon PPC advertising is essential to ensure that your advertising budget is being used effectively.

You also want to consider which products aren’t performing at all or have low sales. When something requires a significant amount of advertising to get a single sale, you need to consider if the product is worth selling.

When the return and profit margin is slim, perhaps you should discontinue the product or consider it as potential upsell rather than a dedicated product with a marketing budget that drains funds away from other better-performing products.

9. Don’t Forget About Amazon DSP and Contextual Targeting 

The many restrictions that have come from Apple, Google, and other platforms focused on the sharing of data to third parties has forever changed the game for Amazon brand entrepreneurs. That’s where DSP can be invaluable.

What is Amazon DSP?

Amazon DSP (Demand-Side Platform) is Amazon’s programmatic advertising platform that enables advertisers to purchase and manage ad placements both on and off Amazon. 

Through Amazon DSP, you can reach audiences based on Amazon’s first-party data, which includes insights from millions of Amazon shoppers, allowing highly targeted and personalized ad campaigns.

Contextual and Behavioral Targeting

There’s a reason why e-commerce brand entrepreneurs refer to DSP as a next-level advertising platform. 

AI-powered contextual and behavioral targeting allows Amazon DSP campaigns to go beyond basic keyword targeting by analyzing shopper behavior and preferences. By serving ads that align with users’ browsing habits and past interactions, AI-driven targeting makes ads more relevant and increases the likelihood of user engagement. 

This strategy not only boosts ad effectiveness but also contributes to brand recognition and loyalty.

Amazon DSP might be the best way to use previously unattainable data to reach your prospective buyers. 

There are two ways to take advantage of Amazon DSP. The Managed by Amazon service option typically requires a minimum spend of $50,000 USD (minimum may vary per country).Or, if you’re looking for more flexibility, you can reach out to a third-party agency like Canopy Management.

This option offers an attractive blend of control, combined with ready access to DSP expertise.

10. Leverage AI for Your Amazon Listings

Although artificial intelligence has the potential to help with pretty much EVERY aspect of your Amazon advertising, Amazon ad creatives are ground zero for AI’s powerful influence. 

AI-powered tools have transformed how Amazon brand entrepreneurs approach ad creative optimization, enabling personalized and high-impact ad experiences. 

By analyzing consumer data, these tools dynamically tailor creatives to resonate with specific audience segments, driving higher engagement and effectiveness.

Here’s how:

Amazon’s AI Image Generation Tools

• Effortless Image Creation: Sellers can produce high-quality, custom images with a simple product selection and prompt, eliminating the need for costly photoshoots.
• Improved Engagement: Amazon claims that AI-generated lifestyle and brand-themed images can increase click-through rates by up to 40%.
• Versatile Applications: Ideal for Sponsored Brands campaigns, Amazon Posts, and A/B testing, this tool allows you to create engaging visuals at no additional cost.

Dynamic Creative Testing

AI facilitates rapid A/B testing of key ad elements, such as:

• Headlines: Finds the messaging that resonates best.
• Images: Identifies the most engaging visuals.
• Call-to-Action (CTA): Optimizes language for click-through rates.

AI platforms continuously learn from performance data, automatically adjusting creatives to maximize results.

Optimize Your Amazon PPC Strategy for Voice Search

The rise of voice-activated devices like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple’s Siri is reshaping how consumers shop. With millions using Alexa-enabled devices for hands-free purchasing, optimizing your Amazon PPC strategy for voice search provides a significant competitive edge.

Unlike traditional text-based searches, voice queries are longer, conversational, and question-based. To capture this growing segment, your PPC strategy must focus on long-tail keywords, optimized product listings, and targeted ad campaigns.

Voice search users phrase their queries naturally, asking full questions instead of short, fragmented keywords.

Instead of “best wireless headphones,” a voice search might be:

• “What are the best wireless headphones for working out?”
• “Which wireless headphones have the longest battery life?”

Optimizing Results for Voice Search

• Your Amazon product listings should be structured to match voice search behavior, improving their chances of being read aloud by Alexa.
• Use natural, question-based phrasing in titles and descriptions and incorporate FAQ-style content to directly address common voice queries.
• Enhance readability with clear, structured language that voice assistants can easily interpret.
• Make sure that some of your PPC keywords are aligned with your longer-tailed voice optimized listing content.

How Canopy Management Can Help

Canopy Management can help you to build the best Amazon advertising strategy that aligns with your unique business needs. We’ll help you get more from your marketing budget so you can do more for your business.

If you’d like to give yourself the same advantage that many of Amazon’s top brands have used to dominate their niche, reach out to the team at Canopy Management. 

Canopy Management is a full-service marketing agency for Amazon, Walmart, and TikTok sellers. Our team consists of multi-million dollar, omni-channel entrepreneurs, industry leaders, and award-winning experts.