By Nojus Latvinskas
October 06, 2023
If you're running Amazon PPC campaigns and noticing that your ads are not getting impressions, you're not alone. Many sellers encounter this frustrating issue, which directly impacts the visibility and sales of their products. In this guide, we’ll explore the most common reasons behind this problem and provide actionable solutions to get your Amazon PPC campaigns delivering impressions and driving sales.
Impressions are a key metric for measuring the visibility of your Amazon ads. Without impressions, your ads won’t be shown to potential customers, meaning no clicks or sales. Several factors could be hindering your campaigns, and it’s essential to identify the root cause to make the necessary adjustments.
One of the most common reasons Amazon PPC ads fail to get impressions is due to low bids. Amazon PPC operates as an auction system where advertisers compete for ad placements by bidding on keywords. If your bid is too low, your ads may not qualify to appear in search results.
Every time a shopper searches for a product, Amazon runs an auction to determine which ads will appear and in what order. Your bid competes against other advertisers targeting the same keywords. If your bid doesn’t meet the minimum required to enter the auction, your ad simply won’t be shown, leading to no impressions.
To fix this, increase your bids on important keywords. Start by analyzing your campaign’s performance data, especially the impression share and average CPC (Cost-Per-Click). If your bids are consistently below the average CPC for your keywords, adjust them upwards to compete effectively in the auction.
Pro Tip: Use Up & Down bidding strategy to automatically increase your bids based on the likelihood of conversion. This helps you remain competitive without underbidding on keywords even if you are not likely to convert. It is a common issue especially for new products that do not have enough historical data, Amazon will decrease bids for your ads in the ad auction automatically since they deem your product will not generate conversions just because it’s fresh and recently launched.
Another reason your Amazon PPC ads might not be getting impressions is that you have crammed too many keywords into one campaign. When too many keywords are grouped into a single campaign or ad group, the budget is spread too thin, and not all keywords get the chance to deliver impressions.
Each keyword in your campaign requires a portion of your budget to show ads. However, when there are too many keywords in one ad group, some keywords won’t get enough budget allocation or will compete with one another for limited resources. As a result, only a few keywords will get impressions while the others are essentially "left out."
Streamline your keyword list by focusing on the most relevant and high-performing keywords. Create separate ad groups or campaigns to avoid overcrowding. This allows you to better allocate your budget and ensures that all keywords get a fair share of impressions.
Pro Tip: Start by removing low-performing or irrelevant keywords that aren't driving results. Use Amazon’s search term reports to identify which keywords are bringing in traffic and which ones aren’t delivering impressions.
Your ads may not be showing because your targeted keywords are not relevant to the products you’re advertising. Amazon places a high value on relevance and is less likely to show ads that don’t match the customer’s search intent.
Ensure that the keywords you are bidding on align closely with the product listings you’re promoting. For example, if you’re selling "organic baby lotion," avoid using overly broad or unrelated keywords like "body lotion" or "moisturizer," as these may not convert well.
Pro Tip: Use exact match or phrase match keywords to refine your targeting and improve relevance. This will increase your chances of qualifying for the ad auction and getting impressions for the right search terms.
Your campaign budget may be too low to sustain consistent impressions throughout the day. If your daily budget is exhausted early on, your ads will stop showing, and you'll miss out on impressions for the rest of the day.
Monitor your daily budget and ensure it’s sufficient to cover all of your active keywords. If your budget is low, increase it, especially for high-performing campaigns that are generating sales.
Pro Tip: Use Amazon’s budget rules feature to adjust your budget during peak shopping periods, like weekends or holidays, when customer activity is higher.
If you’re targeting the wrong audience or using broad match keywords, your ads may not be shown to the right shoppers, leading to low or no impressions.
Reevaluate your campaign targeting settings. If you’re using automatic targeting, check Amazon’s search term report to identify which keywords are driving impressions. If necessary, switch to manual targeting to gain more control over which keywords and products your ads show for.
To effectively troubleshoot and optimize your campaigns, you’ll need to monitor the right metrics. Use Amazon’s Campaign Manager and search term reports to track:
By regularly reviewing these metrics, you can make informed decisions to improve your Amazon PPC performance and start seeing impressions where they count.
If your Amazon PPC campaigns are not getting impressions, it’s likely due to low bids or overcrowded keywords in a single campaign. By increasing your bids, streamlining your keyword strategy, and ensuring relevance between keywords and your product listings, you can improve your ad’s visibility and start generating more impressions.
Optimizing your Amazon PPC campaigns takes time, but with consistent monitoring and fine-tuning, you can overcome these hurdles and maximize the performance of your ads.
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