A Practical Amazon PPC Guide for New Sellers

New sellers often either avoid PPC entirely (leaving a new listing with no visibility) or launch a dozen campaigns at once with no way to tell which spend is doing anything. Both mistakes come from skipping the same first step: a clean, simple structure.

Start with one automatic campaign

An automatic campaign lets Amazon match your ad to relevant searches based on your listing content — which, for a new listing with no keyword performance history, is the fastest way to discover which search terms actually convert for your product.

Mine the search term report

After a week or two of data, the search term report shows exactly which queries led to clicks and sales. This is where your real keyword list comes from — not guesswork, but terms that have already proven they convert for your specific listing.

Move winners into a manual campaign

Once you have proven search terms, a manual campaign lets you bid on them directly with more control, while your automatic campaign keeps discovering new terms in the background. This two-campaign structure — one for discovery, one for precision — covers most of what a new seller needs before things get more sophisticated.

Set a real ACOS target, not a universal one

A "good" ACOS depends entirely on your margin after product cost and fees. Calculate your breakeven ACOS first — the point where ad spend stops being profitable — and use that as your ceiling, not a number you saw in a forum.

Don't ignore negative keywords

Every irrelevant search term that got a click and no sale is a candidate for a negative keyword. Reviewing the search term report weekly and adding negatives is one of the highest-leverage five-minute habits in PPC management.

A first-month routine that fits in an hour a week

New advertisers tend to check their campaigns daily and change bids on a hunch. Data from one day says very little. A weekly rhythm works better, and it is easier to keep up.

• Week one: launch the automatic campaign with a modest daily budget and leave it alone.
• Week two: download the search term report. Mark terms with sales, and terms with ten or more clicks and no sale.
• Week three: move the winners into the manual campaign as exact match. Add the losers as negatives.
• Week four: compare spend with sales for the whole month, then adjust bids by small steps, not by half.

Check the listing before you blame the ads

Ads buy clicks. The product page has to turn them into orders. If clicks are coming in and sales are not, look at the main image, the price against rivals, and the review count before raising a bid. A weak page makes every click cost more.

To find your ceiling, use our free ACOS calculator. Enter price, product cost and fees, and it returns the break-even figure for that SKU. If you would rather hand the whole thing over, book a free call and we will look at the account with you.

Frequently asked questions

How much should a new seller spend on ads?

Enough to collect data, which means a steady daily budget for at least two weeks. A budget that runs out by mid-morning hides how the evening shoppers behave. Start small, keep it constant, then scale what works.

When should I lower a bid?

When a term has enough clicks to judge, usually ten or more, and its cost per sale sits above your break-even point. Lower it in small steps and look again after a week.

Are automatic campaigns worth keeping long term?

Yes, at a lower bid. They keep finding new search terms that shoppers invent, and those feed your manual campaigns later.

Sources and further reading

Marketplace rules change; these are the official pages to check against before you act on anything here.

• Sponsored Products
• Amazon Ads
• Amazon advertising policies
• Amazon PPC & Advertising Management (our service page)