Amazon sponsored products management

Campaign types and their roles

Match types

Amazon's manual keyword targeting uses broad, phrase and exact match. Exact match is matched word for word with close variations, giving the most control; phrase and broad reach wider variations. A common approach is to explore with broader matches and move proven terms into exact-match campaigns with their own bids.

Harvesting search terms

Search term reports from automatic and broad campaigns show which real searches converted. Add converting terms to exact-match campaigns, and consider adding them as negatives in the discovery campaign so the two do not compete. Do this on a regular schedule.

Negative keywords

Amazon describes negative keywords as preventing ads appearing on results that do not meet campaign objectives, with negative phrase and negative exact options. Add irrelevant searches, such as other product types or uses your product does not serve, and terms that repeatedly spend without converting.

Managing Sponsored Products

1. 01

   Eligibility

   Featured Offer, stock, listing quality.

   Output: Ready products

2. 02

   Launch

   Automatic plus manual campaigns.

   Output: Initial structure

3. 03

   Harvest

   Converting terms to exact.

   Output: Exact campaigns

4. 04

   Prune

   Negatives for waste.

   Output: Cleaner spend

5. 05

   Adjust

   Bids against margin targets.

   Output: Profitable targets

Example: structuring a new product's campaigns

Sponsored Products checks

Product targeting

Product targeting shows ads on specific products or categories. It can place your product beside comparable or complementary items, or defend your own listings from competitors' ads. Measure it separately from keyword campaigns. Check that targeted products are genuinely comparable.

Bids from margins

Amazon defines ACOS as ad spend divided by ad revenue. Set each product's target from its margin, then adjust bids on targets with enough clicks to judge. Small, regular adjustments are easier to read than big swings.

Eligibility and the Featured Offer

Amazon says advertised products must be eligible for the Featured Offer. If your offer loses it, for example through price or stock, ads may stop serving. Watch for this, especially on products with several sellers.

Reporting

Report results by product and campaign type, and set them against total sales so you can see whether Sponsored Products grow the business or only take credit for sales that would have happened. Compare periods of similar seasonality.

Budgets

Daily budgets cap spend per campaign. If a campaign with profitable targets regularly runs out of budget early in the day, it misses sales in the afternoon and evening. Check how often campaigns hit their cap and move budget from weaker campaigns to stronger ones. Keep exploratory campaigns on modest budgets until they prove themselves.

Grouping products

Products with very different margins or prices should not share one bid. Group similar products together so a single bid makes sense for all of them, and keep best sellers in their own ad groups where they need closer control.

Seasonality

Search volume and competition change through the year. Raise budgets and review bids before peak periods for your products, and expect costs per click to rise when competition does.