3 Must-Try Amazon PPC Strategies for Higher ROAS & Lower ACOS

February 26, 2025
By The Badger

Too many Amazon sellers are running ads, but not getting the results they could be. If you’re not implementing the right optimizations, you’re leaving money on the table. The good news is that with just a few strategic moves, you can make your campaigns more efficient and profitable.

Let me share with you three must-do strategies that I always recommend for any Amazon seller who’s serious about boosting their PPC results. These optimizations are simple, powerful, and can transform your ads—so why aren’t you doing them yet?

This blog post is a highlight of The PPC Den podcast, episode 316, and I strongly recommend you check out the full episode here for even more in-depth insights!

Strategy One: Full Business SKU Economics Optimization

When it comes to Amazon PPC, it’s easy to focus only on the ad metrics—clicks, orders, and revenue—but that’s just the surface. Over time, I’ve realized that true success on Amazon PPC goes far beyond just looking at paid performance. The key is understanding the full picture, which includes SKU economics and target ACOS optimization.

Unlike Google Ads, where your SEO and ad performance are separate, Amazon PPC is tightly intertwined with organic performance. Simply put, if you bid more on a keyword, it can directly influence your organic rankings for that keyword.

So, increasing orders through paid campaigns can lead to increased organic sales over time. This makes analyzing your PPC campaigns in conjunction with organic performance absolutely critical.

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How to Optimize: Full Business SKU Economics, Budget & Target ACOS

Start by tracking the overall revenue and ad costs for a product or product family, as well as organic sales and ACOTS (Ad Cost of Total Sales, sometimes known as TACOS). This gives you a more comprehensive view of your performance—not just how your ads are doing but how they’re impacting your business as a whole.

Month 1: Begin with baseline numbers—let’s say you have $1000 in total sales, with an ACOS of 30% and ACOTS of 10%.

Month 2: Start ramping up your PPC efforts. Now you might see $1500 in total sales, with an ACOS of 40% and ACOTS of 13%. You’ve spent more on ads, but that extra spend has resulted in an increase in paid sales.

Month 3: This is where things get interesting. Your total sales are still at $1500, but now your ACOS is back to 30%, and ACOTS is 10%. The key change here is that the extra 500 units of sales have shifted from paid to organic because your keyword rankings have improved as a result of the increased spend on PPC.

This shows how your ads can drive organic success and lower the reliance on paid campaigns over time, resulting in better overall profitability.

By analyzing the interplay between paid ads and organic sales, you’ll see how optimizing your ACOS and budget allocation can not only improve immediate returns but also lead to long-term success. The more insight you gain into your SKU economics, the easier it becomes to make informed decisions that balance both ad spend and organic growth for maximum profitability.

Strategy Two: Non-Converting Spend Analysis

One of the biggest pitfalls for Amazon sellers is overspending on ads that just don’t convert. Identifying and trimming those non-performing search terms is a classic strategy that I absolutely love. It’s straightforward, powerful, and can save you a huge chunk of your budget each month.

Here’s how I do it:

I track my non-converting spend on a monthly basis by downloading search term reports from both Sponsored Products (SP) and Sponsored Brands (SB). I then filter the data to isolate search terms that resulted in zero orders.

In some accounts, this non-converting spend can be as high as 70%—meaning if you’re spending $10k a month, $7k could be wasted!

Step 1: Over-Threshold Search Terms
Identify search terms with more than 25 clicks that haven’t generated any orders. This helps pinpoint where the bulk of your wasted spend is occurring.
Step 2: N-gram Analysis
Use our free n-gram analysis tool to uncover patterns and trends within these non-converting terms. This detailed insight allows you to refine your targeting and trim the fat from your campaigns.

If you’re new to this process, be sure to check out our Amazon PPC Checklist too.

Strategy Three: Low-Hanging Fruit

When it comes to Amazon PPC, sometimes the biggest wins come from the simplest tweaks. This strategy is all about capitalizing on what’s already working for you—without any heavy lifting. Many sellers overlook two key opportunities that can dramatically boost their campaign performance.

First, there’s a goldmine in the keywords you already rank for organically but aren’t actively targeting in your PPC campaigns. By downloading your Search Query Performance Report directly from Amazon, you can spot those high-performing search terms that are missing from your current ad groups. Since Amazon already favors these keywords for you, adding bids on them is an easy win.

The second opportunity lies with products that are generating organic sales without any advertising support. In the Amazon Ads Console, you can access the “All Sold Products” report under the Products section. This report reveals which items are selling on their own—and these are the perfect candidates for a new, low-risk campaign.

By simply advertising these products, you can potentially capture even more sales with minimal effort.

Summary

Together, these strategies form a comprehensive approach to Amazon PPC.

By tracking full business SKU economics and optimizing Target ACOS, you connect your ad spend to organic performance and overall profitability—ensuring that every dollar invested drives both immediate sales and long-term growth.

Next, through non-converting spend analysis and search term trimming, you identify and eliminate waste by cutting out high-spend, low-return keywords, sharpening your campaign’s efficiency.

Finally, by targeting low-hanging fruit—keywords you already rank for organically and products generating unpaid sales—you capture quick wins with minimal effort, leveraging your existing organic success for even better results.

Implementing these three strategies can transform your Amazon PPC approach, turning your campaigns into powerful tools for both boosting sales and enhancing overall profitability.