In this article, I will share the exact strategy I personally use to scale my Amazon products with only PPC.
PPC is not complicated, but it is not easy as well. So it is normal to feel confused and frustrated over this monster that is Amazon PPC.
Let’s list down the life-cycle of any product on Amazon.
- Launch
- Scaling
- Maturity
- Stability
This article focuses on the stage where you need to scale and break at least US$1k a day in sales.
The way you treat PPC at the point of launch is a lot different than at the stage where you need to scale up your product.
Table of Contents
Who is this for?
- If you already launched but have not seen the success you were expecting
- If you haven’t launched but want to know how to scale after you do
- If you have a successful product, but haven’t used the power of PPC to its potential
- If you are worried you don’t know how to scale when you start selling
What majority of people would do with PPC…
Before we go into the best practises, let’s find out what NOT to do with our PPC campaigns at all times.
Do not…
- Only run 1 Auto PPC Campaign for 7-10 days
- Only have 1 Manual Campaing
- Think that PPC is a set once and leave it forever tool
The PPC Funnel
Disclaimer: Get at least 11 reviews first before you attempt this. This process is for scaling up your product sales via PPC AFTER launch.
Are you ready to jump down the rabbit hole? This is going to get interesting. Just follow this strategy step by step.
PPC Scaling Strategy [Step 1 of 5] – Auto/Broad Level
Auto Campaign
- Have 3 Auto PPC campaigns at US$10 budget each
- 4-10% higher bid per keyword than suggested with Dynamic bids down
- Leave it running for 7 days without touching
Manual Campaign
- Have one manual campaign with a US$10 budget [Broad Match]
- Target keyword to broad phrase containing only 1 keyword taken from the first 3 relevant keyword from your title. (Title: Reusable Party Cups for New Year, your keywords are “Reusable”, “Party” and “Cups”)
- 4-10% higher bid per keyword than suggested with Dynamic Bids down
- Leave it running for 7 days
EXPLANATION
Why 3 Auto PPC campaigns and not just one?
When you have 1 US$30 budget auto PPC campaign running and Amazon finds a keyword that a lot of people are clicking on, it will focus on that one thereby draining your budget fast. Up to 90% of the budget may go to that one keyword. That’s not what we want at this phase.
Compared with 3 US$10 budget auto PPC campaigns, such a scenario happening will be lesser and you are more spread out (broad).
Why target single keywords in the manual campaign?
This acts as a faster guidance for PPC to search for highly relevant keywords with respect to your title. This actually acts like an auto campaign except it is more targeted to the keywords which you have defined.
Once again, you are more spread out and broad in your targeting which is the goal.
PPC Scaling Strategy [Step 2 of 5] – Phrase/ASIN Level
Auto Campaigns
- Optimize Auto PPC Campaign
- If profitable, raise budget from US$10 to US$20 on each profitable campaign
- Take best keywords out and start a new Manual Campaign – Phrase Match Campaign
- Take best ASINs out and start a new Manual Campaign – Product Targeting
- Both new Manual Campaign to be 4-6% above suggested bid with max bid at US$1.5 dynamic bid down
- New Manual Campaigns at US$10 budget per day
- Let it run for 5 days and do not touch
Manual Campaigns
- Optimize Manual PPC Campaign
- If profitable, raise budget from US$10 to US$20 on each profitable campaign
- Take best keywords out and start a new Manual Campaign – Phrase Match Campaign together with the ones from Auto Campaigns (See above)
PPC Scaling Strategy [Step 3 of 5] – Exact Level 1
Auto Campaigns
- Optimize Auto PPC Campaign
- Keep running all auto PPC Campaigns [Never turn it off!]
- If profitable, raise budget from US$20 to US$30-US$40 on each profitable campaign
- Take Best keywords out and input into Phrase Match Manual Campaign
Manual Campaigns
- Optimize Manual PPC Campaign [You should have 3 Manual campaigns: Board Match, Phrase Match and Product Targeting]
- If profitable, raise budget from US$20 to US$30-US$40 on each profitable campaign
- Take best keywords out and Start new Manual campaign – Exact Match
- US$10 budget for Exact Match Campaign with keywords to be 8-10% above the suggested bid with Dynamic Bid Down
- Let it run for 5 days and do not touch
PPC Scaling Strategy [Step 4 of 5] – Exact Level 2
At this stage, you just need to repeat step 1 to 3 for auto campaigns. We will focus on your manual campaigns from this step onward.
Note: If you notice that your auto campaigns have high ACOS (100% and above), you may want to consider finding better keywords for your listing title, bullet points and description
Manual Campaigns
- Optimize Manual PPC Campaign [You should have 4 Manual campaigns: Board Match, Phrase Match Product Targeting and Exact Match]
- For PPC keywords campaigns that is not profitable, turn off keyword
- If profitable, raise budget by US$10 to US$20 per day for each campaign
- Take best keywords from Exact and put into another Exact Match Campaign with 8-10% above suggested bid Dynamic Bid Up or Down
- US$10 per day budget for the newest Exact Match Campaign
- Wait 3 Days and do not touch
PPC Scaling Strategy [Step 5 of 5] – Kaching!
For the newest Exact Match, if it is profitable, optimize bids and increase budget of US$20-US$50 per day until budget cannot be used up.
Why? Since this is your most profitable keyword, keep raising the budget until you reach saturation. It is at this point where there are no more additional searches that you can capture with that keyword.
Continuous Funnel of Keywords
Remember that PPC isn’t a do it once and leave it kind of machine. It has to be tweaked and optimized continuously and this strategy can be a guide for you.
And remember to keep repeating this and keywords that sells changes from time to time.
Phew, that’s a lot of read at one go and if you feel overwhelmed, fret not. This is indeed complex and a more advance strategy. Take your time and stick to this over the month and you will start to see results coming in.
To your huge success!