7 Amazon Sponsored Ads Settings I Check Before Launching a PPC Campaign

When I set up or audit an Amazon Sponsored Products campaign, there are certain settings I check almost automatically.

Not because Amazon's settings are necessarily wrong. But because Amazon doesn't know my complete strategy.

It doesn't know exactly how much profit I want to make. It doesn't know whether I'm trying to rank a new product, defend an established position, harvest profitable keywords or simply maintain sales. And it certainly doesn't have responsibility for my advertising budget.

I do.

I've been working with Amazon PPC for more than 10 years, first as an Amazon brand owner myself and now as an Amazon FBA coach, consultant and PPC specialist. One lesson I've learned repeatedly is this:

Small settings can make a very big difference to how your PPC budget is spent.

I've seen sellers spend hours researching keywords and creating campaigns, only to rush through the final campaign settings and accept whatever Amazon has selected or recommended. That's something I try not to do.

Here are seven Sponsored Products settings I check before I press Launch Campaign.

1. Check Your Campaign Bidding Strategy

This is probably the first setting I look at. For Sponsored Products, you'll commonly encounter bidding strategies including:

• Dynamic bids – down only
• Dynamic bids – up and down
• Fixed bids

They sound straightforward, but they can significantly change what you're actually prepared to bid.

Dynamic Bids – Up and Down

With Dynamic bids – up and down, you're giving Amazon permission to increase or decrease your bid depending on how likely Amazon believes the click is to convert. This can be useful. But you need to understand what you're agreeing to.

If you've entered a £1.00 bid, don't automatically assume £1.00 is the most Amazon could bid. Amazon's current Sponsored Products guidance states that with Dynamic bids – up and down, bids may be increased or decreased by up to 100% based on the likelihood of conversion.

£1.00 base bid → potentially £2.00 bid. That's quite a difference.

For a proven campaign with strong historical conversion data, good margins and a clear reason for being aggressive, I may absolutely use up and down bidding. But that's very different from allowing it automatically on a brand-new campaign where I have little or no performance data.

Why I Often Start With Dynamic Bids – Down Only

For many new campaigns, particularly when I'm testing keywords, I'll consider starting with Dynamic bids – down only. This means Amazon can reduce my bid when it believes a click is less likely to convert, but it isn't using the same up-and-down approach to increase that base bid.

For me, that's about control. I want to understand:

• Which keywords receive impressions
• What shoppers click
• Which searches convert
• What CPC I'm actually paying
• What my conversion rate looks like
• Which targets deserve more investment

Once I have the data, I can become more aggressive.

My principle is simple: earn the right to increase your bids with data.

2. Check Your Placement Bid Adjustments

This is another area where sellers can accidentally become far more aggressive than they intended. Sponsored Products can appear across placements including Top of Search, Rest of Search and Product Pages.

Amazon allows advertisers to apply percentage bid adjustments to placements. That can be extremely useful. But I don't want to increase a placement simply because the option exists.

Because your base bid is only part of the bidding equation. Imagine I've already decided that £1.00 is my sensible starting bid. I then start adding aggressive placement adjustments. Suddenly my actual auction exposure can be considerably higher than the £1.00 I had in my head when I created the campaign. And if I'm also using an aggressive dynamic bidding strategy, I've introduced another variable.

This is why I check placement percentages carefully before launch.

My Approach

On a new campaign, I usually want the initial data to tell me:

• Which placement generates the best CTR?
• Which placement generates the strongest CVR?
• Where are my sales coming from?
• What is the ACoS by placement?
• Is Top of Search actually worth paying more for?
• Are Product Pages converting better than expected?

Then I use the Sponsored Products Placement Report to make the decision. If Top of Search clearly outperforms other placements, I can increase it deliberately. That's very different from increasing it because I assume Top of Search must be better.

Placement increases should be earned by performance data.

3. Check Expanded Product Targeting

This is one setting I think more sellers need to understand. Let's say I've done my competitor research and found a specific ASIN that I want to target. I create a Sponsored Products product targeting campaign. I select that competitor ASIN. I may think: "Great. I'm advertising against that product." Not necessarily.

Amazon's current product targeting setup uses Expanded product targeting as a default setting. With Expanded enabled, Amazon can use the product you've selected to discover and target additional closely related products. That can be useful for discovery. But again — is that what I actually want this campaign to do?

If my objective is to target a very specific competitor ASIN because its price is higher than mine, its reviews are weaker, my product has a particular advantage, or I know its product page converts well for me — then I may want Exact product targeting, rather than giving Amazon permission to expand beyond my selected target.

Expanded vs Exact

Think of it simply. Exact: "I've chosen this product. Target this product." Expanded: "I've chosen this product. Amazon, you can also find other related products you think may work."

Neither is inherently wrong. They're doing different jobs. For controlled competitor targeting, I generally want to know exactly what I'm targeting. For discovery, Expanded can be useful.

The mistake isn't using Expanded. The mistake is using it without realising you've selected it.

4. Don't Automatically Accept Amazon's Suggested Bid

Suggested bids are useful. I look at them. But I don't treat them as instructions. Amazon doesn't know my complete product economics.

Before setting my bid, I want to understand:

• Selling price
• Gross margin
• Profit per unit
• Break-even ACoS
• Target ACoS
• Conversion rate
• Product lifecycle
• Ranking objective

For example, two sellers could both advertise against the same keyword. Seller A has 45% margin. Seller B has 15% margin. The same suggested bid cannot automatically be commercially appropriate for both businesses.

Start With Your Numbers

If my product converts at approximately 10%, that means roughly 10 clicks → 1 order. If my average CPC is £1: 10 clicks × £1 = £10 advertising cost per order. If I'm only making £7 contribution before advertising, I've got a problem.

This is why PPC should start with product economics — not the Suggested Bid box.

5. Check Your Daily Campaign Budget

Another common mistake is thinking: "I'll just give Amazon plenty of budget and let it run."

Budget isn't strategy.

I want to know why I'm giving a campaign £10, £20, £50 or £100 per day. Is it ranking? Keyword discovery? Brand defence? Competitor targeting? Keyword harvesting? Profitability? Testing? The answer determines how I treat the budget.

Don't Starve Your Winners

There's another side to this. Being too cautious with budget can also damage performance. If I've got a campaign producing strong CVR, acceptable ACoS, good ROAS and profitable sales — and it's running out of budget every afternoon, I may be restricting something that's actually working.

So I don't simply say "keep budgets low." I say:

Make your budget deliberate. Spend should follow performance.

6. Check Your Automatic Targeting Groups

Automatic campaigns can be extremely useful. I still use them. But I don't believe in: create Auto, set one bid, forget about it.

Amazon automatic Sponsored Products targeting can include groups such as close match, loose match, substitutes and complements. These can behave very differently. A close-match search could perform brilliantly. Complements might spend money without producing the same return. Substitutes may uncover excellent competitor opportunities. That's why I analyse them individually.

Auto Is a Research Tool — Not Your Entire PPC Strategy

For a new product, Auto can help me discover new search terms, long-tail keywords, customer language, competitor ASINs and unexpected converting searches.

I then take that information and harvest it. A converting search term can move into a more controlled Exact campaign. A poor search can become a negative. A converting competitor ASIN can move into dedicated product targeting.

That's how Auto becomes part of a system rather than just somewhere you keep spending money.

7. Check Negative Targeting Before and After Launch

Negative keywords aren't something I only think about after I've wasted money. If I've already completed proper keyword research, I may know before launch that certain searches aren't relevant. That gives me the opportunity to prevent obvious wasted spend from day one.

But I'm also careful here. I don't want to overuse negatives and accidentally block useful discovery.

After launch, the Search Term Report becomes one of my most important PPC reports. I'm looking for:

• Converting searches → Harvest
• High-spend non-converting searches → Investigate / potentially negative
• Clearly irrelevant searches → Negative
• Unexpected converting searches → Opportunity

Negative targeting isn't simply about reducing ACoS. It's about improving the quality of the traffic I'm paying for.

The Setting Isn't the Strategy

This is probably the most important point in this article. I don't believe there is one perfect Amazon PPC setting. If there were, PPC would be very easy.

The right setting depends on product lifecycle, profit margin, competition, conversion rate, review position, organic ranking, advertising objective and historical PPC data.

A brand-new product with no PPC history is very different from an established bestseller with thousands of orders of conversion data. That's why I don't blindly use the same settings for every campaign.

My Approach: Rank → Defend → Harvest

I prefer to give campaigns a clear purpose.

Rank

The initial objective is to establish the product and discover what works. This can include automatic targeting, broad and phrase discovery, exact high-priority keywords, controlled product targeting and ranking-focused campaigns.

The aim isn't simply "get a low ACoS." I'm collecting information while generating sales and building ranking.

Defend

Once the product has established visibility, I want to protect it. That can include brand terms, product targeting against my own ASINs, important converting keywords and strategic placements.

I'm trying to make it harder for competitors to take customers I've already worked hard to attract.

Harvest

Now I take what the data has taught me. Search terms and targets that have demonstrated they can convert are moved into controlled campaigns where I can manage bids, match type, budget, placement and profitability.

That's how PPC becomes progressively more controlled.

What I Check Before Clicking "Launch Campaign"

Before launching a Sponsored Products campaign, I run through a simple mental checklist:

• Is the campaign's purpose clear?
• Have I checked the bidding strategy?
• Do I actually want Dynamic Up & Down?
• Are placement bid adjustments appropriate?
• Is Expanded product targeting selected?
• Do I want Expanded or Exact targeting?
• Are my starting bids commercially sensible?
• Is my daily budget appropriate?
• Have I separated targeting properly?
• Have I considered obvious negative targets?
• Is the campaign named clearly enough to analyse later?

It only takes a few minutes. But those few minutes can save a lot of wasted spend.

What Should You Do After Launch?

This is another mistake I see. A seller sets everything up correctly, then either leaves it untouched for months, or starts changing bids the following morning. Neither is particularly helpful.

You need enough data to make meaningful decisions. Once I've collected sufficient data, I'm analysing:

CTR

Are shoppers clicking when they see the product? Low CTR may point towards main image, title, price, reviews, offer or poor keyword relevance.

CVR

Are those clicks becoming sales? If shoppers click but don't buy, I start looking at listing quality, images, benefits, price, reviews and keyword relevance.

CPC

What am I actually paying for traffic? High CPC isn't automatically bad. If the traffic converts profitably, it may be completely justified.

ACoS and ROAS

ACoS shows how efficiently my ads are generating attributed sales — useful, but never viewed in isolation. ROAS shows how much advertising revenue I'm generating for each £1 spent — again useful, but it needs to be considered alongside margin.

TACoS

This is where I start looking beyond the Advertising Console. Total Advertising Cost of Sales = Advertising Spend ÷ Total Product Sales. If PPC is successfully helping me rank organically, I want to see the relationship between advertising and total sales improve over time.

That's why I believe TACoS is one of the most important metrics for established Amazon sellers to understand.

A Real PPC Specialist Shouldn't Just Reduce Your ACoS

This is something I'm particularly passionate about. If someone takes over your advertising and their entire strategy is "reduce bids until ACoS comes down," they can probably reduce your ACoS. But what happens to sales, organic ranking, market share, keyword positions, total profit and TACoS?

That's the bigger question. I've been on the brand-owner side of this. I know that the objective isn't to produce a beautiful-looking advertising dashboard.

The objective is to build a profitable Amazon business. PPC is one of the tools we use to achieve that.

Final Thoughts: Control First, Automation Second

Amazon Sponsored Ads has become increasingly sophisticated. That's good. Automation can save time, discover opportunities and make bidding more intelligent. But I still believe sellers need to understand what's happening behind those settings.

My approach is:

Start with control → collect data → analyse performance → make deliberate changes → scale what works.

Not: accept every recommendation → increase everything → hope Amazon finds the sales.

Amazon's recommendations and automated settings can be useful. But they're inputs into your strategy. They shouldn't replace your strategy.

Need Help With Your Amazon PPC?

If you're running Sponsored Ads but aren't sure whether your campaigns are structured correctly, where your advertising spend is going, or what your PPC data is actually telling you, this is exactly the type of work I help sellers with.

I'm an Amazon FBA coach, consultant and PPC specialist with more than 10 years of hands-on Amazon experience, including building and selling my own Amazon brand.

I'm not an Amazon agency. You work directly with someone who's actually been on the seller side of the Advertising Console and understands the difference between making an advertising metric look good and building a profitable Amazon business.