Posted by Nojus Latvinskas
Every PPC advertiser knows that having the right campaign structure is the foundation for successful advertising. The right campaign structure not only streamlines the process of optimizing bids, setting budgets, and applying placement modifiers but also ensures that your ads are cost-effective and highly targeted.
Before we get into the specifics, it’s important to understand why having a solid Amazon PPC campaign structure is crucial. A proper Amazon PPC campaign structure allows:
When there is a specific structure, it takes a lot less time to optimize bids, set budgets, and apply placement bid modifiers. Moreover, you can allocate the ad spend to the best performing keywords and spread it evenly across targets without hindering the visibility of important targets.
Each ASIN should have its own portfolio, composed of campaigns.
This approach allows you to quickly analyze the performance of each product by simply clicking on the portfolio.
For sellers with a wide range of SKUs, this organization is crucial for managing large accounts and ensuring that each product gets the attention it deserves.
Pro Tip: When you organize your campaigns by ASIN portfolio, you can easily spot trends in performance and adjust your strategy accordingly. This granular level of organization is particularly helpful when scaling your Amazon business.
When you are advertising only 1 SKU instead of all products in the campaign, you can make sure that only that product picks up on the search term that you are targeting.
If we lump all SKUs together, you lose the control over which product will show up for a certain search term, thus it could lead to irrelevant clicks and wanted ad spend.
How about variations? Should you break them down into individual campaigns?
If you have multiple variations (child ASINs) under 1 parent ASIN, you should have a unique campaign for each product in case the variation theme is different.
For variations like scent, where the search terms between variations differ significantly, having separate campaigns allows you to align the ad with the search intention of a customer.
For example, if you sell a candle in various scents, each scent should have its own campaign since the keywords for "lavender candle" will differ from those for "vanilla candle."
However, if you do not see these search terms raking up any search volume, then you do not have to segement each variation by a separate campaign. You can keep them all under the same campaign to avoid complexity.
If you create more than 1 ad group within the same campaign, you will run into accidental budget allocation issues.
This means that you are not able to decide to which ad group the campaign budget flows.
You might have an exact match type ad group performing better than broad or phrase adgroups, but how can you guarantee that the exact will consume the majority of the deserved ad budget?
To maintain a high level of control, segregate ad groups by a campaign and split them up. If I am launching all keyword match types, it would look like that:
When we are not mixing up all ad groups together, we gain the ability to adjust the budget, set the right placement modifiers for each group of keywords and raise or lower bids without influencing the visibility of other targets.
To maximize the potential of each keyword or product target, limit the number of keywords or product targets per ad group to the maximum of 10.
When you cram too many keywords into a single ad group, the high search volume (SV) keywords tend to take up the majority of the budget, leaving the low SV keywords compromised.
While your low SV keywords might be extremely profitable and cost-effective, they are not able to perform following such a faulty and clunky structure where you target 100 or more keywords.
When migrating search terms from automatic campaigns to manual campaigns, use tools like the Helium 10 Magnet Tool to assess search volume.
Extract all search terms that have generated sales in your auto campaigns using the search term report
You will pull up the search volume of each individual keyword and put them into groups of 5-10 keywords per campaign based on a similar search volume.
This way, you can better manage your bids and budgets, ensuring that each group of keywords has the right amount of budget to perform optimally.
Practical Example: After running an automatic campaign, you find that the term "organic face cream" has a higher SV than "natural face moisturizer." By separating these into different campaigns, you block the way to accidental clicks for the wrong product and steamline all clicks of the search term to the right ASIN.
To further refine your campaign structure, use negative keywords and do not forget to regularly isolate ineffective search terms
Negative keywords help prevent your ads from showing for irrelevant searches, thus saving your budget for more relevant clicks.
When you find the search term that has gotten a lot of clicks (usually higher than 20), consider isolating that keyword so your ad is not triggered by the same search of a customer ever again, resulting in freed up ad spend for better performing targets.
Keep in mind that this tip will apply to broad, auto and phrase match type campaigns that have the chance to trigger additional search terms, similar to the root keyword that you are targeting.
Example: If you’re selling premium products, you might add "cheap" or "bargain" as negative keywords to avoid clicks from users looking for lower-priced alternatives.
By following these best practices for structuring your Amazon PPC campaigns, you’ll create a more organized, efficient, and profitable advertising strategy. Remember, the key to success lies in regular optimization and staying informed about the latest trends and updates in Amazon’s algorithm.
Incorporate these strategies into your campaigns, and you’ll see significant improvements in your ad performance and overall sales. Whether you’re a seasoned seller or just starting, a well-structured Amazon PPC campaign is your ticket to success in the competitive Amazon marketplace.