17:21
Amazon PPC
Darren (FBA Elite) argues that Amazon's default ad settings and search-results layout are engineered to push sellers into overspending, and that sellers who strip out these hidden 'spam settings,' segment campaigns by search volume, delay negations, choose a conservative bid strategy, and — above all — judge PPC performance against organic rank movement (not ACOS alone) will convert ad spend into sustainable organic sales rather than wasted spend.
Remove Amazon's 'spam settings': untick substitutes and complements (and consider disabling loose match) in auto campaigns when launching for rank, and remove the hidden 'keywords related to your product category' option in manual campaigns.
Avoid product targeting campaigns when the goal is ranking a new product, since sales attributable to a clear search term matter more for ranking than sales 'stolen' via another product's detail page.
Split search terms into separate campaigns by search volume instead of mixing high- and low-volume keywords together, since high-volume terms will consume a shared budget and starve low-volume terms.
Don't negate too early or too late: give a non-exact-match search term at least 20 clicks before deciding to negate it, and remember negations only apply to auto, phrase, or broad match, never exact match.
Choose a bid strategy deliberately: the presenter prefers 'bids down only' over Amazon's default 'dynamic bids up and down' (which can bid up to 100% higher) or plain fixed bids.
Leave placement bid modifiers (Top of Search, Rest of Search, Product Pages) untouched for about the first two weeks of a new campaign before adjusting them based on data.
Layer in sponsored brand video ads after a couple of weeks of static-ad data, since video pre-qualifies clicks and stands out more in search results.
Don't judge PPC purely by ACOS/TACOS/ROAS in isolation; weigh it against the campaign's goal (profitability vs. ranking), listing quality (e.g., main image), and organic rank tracking.
X-Ray (Helium 10) — A Helium 10 browser tool that overlays Amazon search results to show which listings are sponsored vs. organic and which ad type (e.g., sponsored brand video, sponsored product) each placement is. Apply: Bring up X-Ray on a search results page to audit exactly how much of the page is sponsored versus organic before planning a PPC strategy.
Automatic targeting groups (close match / loose match / substitutes / complements) — Amazon's auto-campaign setting that lets sellers 'set bids by targeting group' and choose which of four match types (close match, loose match, substitutes, complements) the campaign can advertise against. Apply: Open 'set bids by targeting group' inside an automatic campaign to selectively enable or disable each of the four targeting groups rather than leaving all four active.
Removing auto-campaign 'spam settings' for ranking launches — The presenter's recommendation to untick substitutes and complements (and consider disabling loose match) in an auto campaign so that sales are attributable to clear search terms rather than unknown traffic sources. Apply: When launching a new product to build rank, untick substitutes and complements in the auto campaign's targeting groups, and optionally turn off loose match to keep the campaign tightly focused on close-match search terms.
Removing 'keywords related to your product category' (manual campaigns) — A hidden option Amazon adds to manual campaigns beyond the exact/phrase/broad keywords a seller enters, which can expand targeting to hundreds or thousands of unintended search terms. Apply: In a manual targeting campaign, click the cross to remove the 'keywords related to your product category' option so the campaign only targets the keywords explicitly entered.
Product targeting (avoid for ranking launches) — A manual campaign type that places ads on other products' detail pages rather than against search terms; it can be low-cost and effective but the seller doesn't know how the customer arrived at that page. Apply: Avoid product targeting campaigns when the specific goal is to rank a new product via search-term-attributable sales, but consider using them once a product is established since they can produce excellent, low-ACOS results.
Three ranking metrics (sales velocity, CTR, conversion rate) — The presenter's framework for what Amazon rewards when ranking a listing: overall sales velocity, click-through rate, and conversion rate, ideally tied to specific search terms. Apply: Prioritize campaigns/keywords that demonstrably show good CTR and conversion rate against real search terms over tactics (like product targeting) that generate sales without clear search-term attribution.
Search-term volume segmentation — A campaign structure rule of splitting keywords across campaigns by similar search volume instead of mixing high- and low-volume terms in one campaign, since high-volume terms can consume an entire shared budget. Apply: Give very high-volume keywords their own individual campaigns, and group remaining low/mid-volume search terms together (roughly 2-3 per campaign, or 5-15 for very low-volume terms).
20-click negation threshold — A rule of thumb that negations should apply only to auto, phrase, or broad match (never exact match) and that a search term should get at least 20 clicks before being negated, unless it's clearly irrelevant. Apply: Let a non-exact-match search term accumulate at least 20 clicks before deciding to negate it, negating earlier only if there's an obvious relevancy mismatch.
Bid strategy: dynamic up/down vs. fixed vs. down-only — Three bidding modes Amazon offers: dynamic bids up and down (Amazon can bid up to 100% higher than the set bid), fixed bids (the exact bid every auction), and bids down only (Amazon can only lower, never raise, the bid). Apply: Set campaigns to 'bids down only' as the presenter's preferred middle ground, since it avoids handing Amazon full budget control (as with dynamic up/down) while still avoiding the wasted spend of always bidding the fixed maximum.
Placement bid modifiers (Top of Search, Rest of Search, Product Pages) — Bid adjustments applied per placement type within a campaign to increase or decrease bids for Top of Search, Rest of Search, or Product Pages placements. Apply: Leave placement modifiers untouched for the first roughly two weeks of a new campaign to gather data, then either raise modifiers on underperforming placements or instead lower the core bid and apply a smaller (e.g., 20-30%) modifier to bring that placement back to the prior effective bid.
Sponsored Brand video ads — A distinct ad type set up under sponsored brand ads (not standard sponsored products) that shows video creative in search results, which can pre-qualify clicks and stand out visually. Apply: After collecting a couple of weeks of data from standard static ads to learn which keywords convert, layer in sponsored brand video ads (using AI tools to help produce the video if needed) and test cost-per-click against the static campaigns.
Holistic PPC evaluation (beyond ACOS/TACOS/ROAS) — An approach to judging PPC performance that combines the raw metrics (ACOS/TACOS/ROAS) with the campaign's underlying goal (long-term profitability vs. ranking push), listing quality (e.g., main image), and organic rank movement, rather than adjusting bids off metrics alone. Apply: Before pausing or adjusting a campaign based on a metric like ACOS, check whether a listing issue (like a poor main image) or organic rank trend better explains the number, since many PPC software tools only look at ACOS/TACOS/ROAS in isolation.
PPC-to-organic growth loop — A model where PPC investment drives PPC sales, which drives organic rank improvement, which allows (though rarely eliminates) reduced PPC reliance as more profit shifts to organic sales. Apply: Plan PPC spend expecting to run campaigns long-term at reduced (not zero) levels once organic ranks improve, rather than expecting to fully switch off ads after a launch period.
Organic rank tracking (via Data Dive) as the deciding signal — A recommended practice of tracking a listing's organic rank for specific search terms (using the Data Dive tool) to interpret whether PPC spend is working, since ACOS alone can't show whether a keyword is near a rank breakthrough or already stalled. Apply: Before pausing a search term based on high ACOS, check its rank trend: continue investing if rank is climbing toward a breakthrough (e.g., moving from position 200 toward top 15), but pause it if spend hasn't moved rank at all after a meaningful spend.
Amazon's automatic targeting and manual 'category keyword' defaults are structured to expand spend beyond what the seller explicitly configured, which the presenter frames as effectively hidden 'spam settings' rather than as neutral defaults.
Ranking rewards sales tied to a demonstrable search term (via close/loose match) more than the same raw sales volume generated through product targeting, because Amazon's ranking signals (sales velocity, CTR, conversion rate) are strongest when attributable to specific converting search terms.
ACOS is framed as a relative, moving target rather than an absolute threshold: 50% ACOS can be 'quite good' in week one of a launch, or a false alarm that causes a seller to prematurely pause a keyword that's actually on the verge of a rank breakthrough.
Rank trajectory, not raw ACOS, is offered as the real decision signal for continuing or pausing a search term — e.g., a keyword moving from rank 200 toward rank 25 justifies continued spend even at high ACOS, whereas spend that produces zero rank movement after a few hundred pounds should be cut.
A weak main image can make an otherwise well-performing PPC campaign look bad on paper (inflating ACOS), so the presenter argues listing-level factors should be diagnosed before blaming or cutting the PPC campaign itself — and ultimately ranks main image above PPC as the bigger driver of individual product success.
«It's absolutely ridiculous.»
— 00:33
«If you give Amazon free rein, they will spend your budget every single day.»
— 02:23
«You are targeting hundreds, if not thousands, of other search terms that you don't realize you're currently targeting.»
— 04:53
«I recommend giving a search term at least 20 clicks before deciding whether it is worth negating or not.»
— 09:04
«If you're on the first week of launch, 50% ACOS is quite good.»
— 09:29
«Personally, I don't trust Amazon that much.»
— 10:39
«You're selling yourself short because you might actually have a really good PPC campaign, but your ACOS is still at 50% because maybe you've got a terrible main image.»
— 14:39
«If you aren't tracking your ranks on Amazon, you're probably going to fail or you're going to have a huge amount of wasted PPC spend.»
— 15:00
«And if you do that, your sales are going to explode.»
— 15:54
«Now, PPC is one of the most important aspects of becoming a successful seller. But individual product success depends more on one other thing and that is your main image.»
— 16:51
Reception
Comments are mostly substantive and positive-to-neutral discussion of Amazon ranking strategy, with minimal engagement overall and some spam/self-promo noise.
The video presents itself as pragmatic, non-dogmatic PPC guidance from an experienced seller who explicitly frames each tip as one valid approach among many rather than a universal rule, while weaving affiliate promotions for Data Dive, Helium 10, and the presenter's own course/mentorship into the same tutorial.
17:21