Back to Resources

Ever notice that the more blog posts there are on a topic, the harder it is to stand out? There are so many posts on Amazon Pay per Click (PPC) advertising strategy that you’d think there would be very little left uncovered.

Sometimes, with all the focus on bidding tactics and granular placement settings, that big picture can get lost pretty fast.

We recently took the time to look more closely at Google’s 5 top-ranked articles on PPC strategies for 2024. In doing so, we noticed a few critical optimization opportunities that even experts seem to be missing consistently.

Here are the results:

#1 Purchases Over Clicks 

If you randomly picked ten paid search articles talking strategy, how many do you think would have headlines focused on “increasing clicks” or “improving click through rate (CTR)?” I’d bet most if not all. 

A platform-wide focus on click-based metrics dominates the Amazon advertising space.

And it’s not necessarily bad advice. Clicks indicate interest levels, allow tracking customer journeys, and factor into your quality score. Highly-relevant, attractively displayed ads are designed specifically to draw clicks. But ultimately, clicks themselves don’t define campaign success or failure.

At the end of the day, what truly matters are purchases and conversion rate. Did your Amazon ad spend drive sales? When you have multiple options for how to bid or target, a significant part of your focus should be on purchases first.  

Keep a close eye on your return on ad spend (ROAS). On Amazon, your RoAS can be found under the Advertising tab. Here, you’ll find information about impressions, clicks, and your overall cost per sale. 

If you’re using an Amazon Sponsored Products ad, rule-based bidding can help take the guesswork out of adjusting bids to achieve your target ROAS. For any existing campaign running for at least 10 days, you can apply a rule with a guardrail of ROAS and Amazon Ads will be able to adjust your base bids up and down to increase conversions while maintaining your guardrails.

Consider viewing optimizations through the lens of whether it will drive more revenue, rather than getting stuck chasing click volume.

Design ads to get attention without being misleading. Then, adjust your bids and matching strategies based on conversion behaviors. This shift from clicks to purchases is overlooked more often than it should be.

#2 Automation + Agency = Advertising Excellence

Winning the Amazon Buy Box – and the PPC advertising needed to do it – is becoming more challenging every day. When it comes time to scale an Amazon brand, individual sellers simply cannot manage bids, ads, keywords, and settings across thousands of product listings or locations. 

Best practices like close variant matching, flexible bid strategies, and custom bids by segments are nearly impossible for a human alone when you hit a few hundred or thousand products.

If you’re not fortunate enough to have an Amazon agency doing this for you, this is where automation and algorithms enter the game. Leveraging artificial intelligence, machine learning, and automation can help overwhelmed advertisers keep up.

For an Amazon agency, automation of standard practices is particularly impactful because it frees up the humans to attend to the volatile situations that require years of specific eCommerce experience to untangle.

We’d argue that automation alone isn’t enough to help you scale. That’s where advanced advertising management comes in. 

Sure, an AI program might help you to manage a few dozen product bids and produce just-ok performance. But it’s when the best Amazon agencies strategically combine cutting-edge, closely monitored automation with the latest advances in artificial intelligence that we really see exponential growth.

#3 Advanced Segmentation

The vast majority of paid search targeting still comes down to picking products, keywords, and match types. But there is a much wider world of options to precision-target the right potential customers. Variables like demographics, user intent, behaviors, and devices used allow customization at a person-by-person level. 

For example, “Similar to advertised products” product targeting for Sponsored Display is a dynamic Amazon ad segmentation option that allows advertisers to leverage machine learning to help reach hyper-relevant audiences.  

Advertisers can use dynamic segments through the Amazon Ads API by creating a contextual targeting clause of type “similarProduct”.

Using dynamic segments, advertisers can target additional products that are similar to those being advertised and help sellers reach relevant audiences most likely to click and help drive traffic to advertised products. 

Imagine you find mobile phone buyers from higher incomes households have exceptionally high conversion rates. You can create a specific ad group and set aggressive mobile bids just for this audience.

Here are three ways to boost segmentation for even better campaign results:

Leverage multiple data signals  

Combining variables like income and mobile users is more powerful than a single trait. It creates exponential benefits. You can build segments using site analytics, CRM data, and third party sources.

Test new variants frequently 

Customer data and behaviors evolve rapidly. Routinely build and experiment with new segments to catch trends. Take advantage of the rapid advances in artificial intelligence to move quickly. 

Assign dedicated budgets 

Rather than evenly spreading funds, dynamically shift budgets to your best performing segments to maximize ROI. Again, AI can help you filter through multiple accounts and ad campaigns to make changes quickly enough to affect your ROAS and ultimately, your bottom line.

How Canopy Management Can Help

Even with no shortage of paid search advice and education out there, a few of the most important strategies can be overlooked. And, as Amazon accounts and online competition both grow increasingly complex, entrepreneurs need to keep the big picture in focus. 

Combining existing best practices with emerging techniques for conversions, automation, and segmentation is critical to stay ahead.

That’s where the assistance of a great Amazon Agency can be the difference between a run-away eCommerce success, and a failed brand. 

Canopy Management is a full-service marketing agency for Walmart and Amazon sellers. Our team consists of former Amazonians, multi-million dollar sellers, and award-winning experts. 

When you consider the many ways that Canopy Management can help you grow your business, you’ll see why selling on Amazon is much easier “under the Canopy”

• Strategic Growth Planning
• Listing Copywriting Optimization
• Listing Photography
• Product Videography
• Advertising Management
• Customer Service
• Demand Side Platform (Amazon DSP)
• Amazon Posts
• Full Service Management
• Amazon Review Aggregation