![\"Amazon](\"https:\/\/www.sellerapp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/amazon-ad-performance.gif\" "\\"\\"")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nWe\u2019ve created this checklist to walk you through auditing your advertising campaigns<\/a> step-by-step and improving the ROAS<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s get started!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Quick Peak:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You have numerous elements to consider in Amazon advertising. From campaign goals, campaign structure<\/a>, keywords, ad groups, and performance metrics, each element plays a crucial role in the success of your campaigns.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n While this process requires effort, it\u2019s the key to maximizing the effectiveness of your campaigns.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n After all, what business wouldn\u2019t want to cut ad spending and increase revenue?<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s why a regular PPC audit can be the eureka moment for you to find missed optimization opportunities <\/strong>and maximize ROI<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pro tip<\/strong>: While you can find one-time quick wins with advertising performance grading, it\u2019s recommended to conduct the process repeatedly to get long-term results.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n This checklist helps you get started with auditing your Amazon advertising campaigns and ensures you cover all the essential elements to get the most out of advertising on Amazon.<\/p>\n\n\n Every stage of your business has different goals with different KPIs<\/a>. That\u2019s why it\u2019s crucial to check your goals first to see if you are hitting your targets.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n You need to look at different metrics at every stage to grade advertising performance. Let\u2019s understand how to do that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n An Amazon product launch<\/a> stage usually lasts from 3-4 months before launch to 3-4 months after the launch of the product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this stage, your primary goal is to get more impressions on your product from the target audience.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Evaluate the success of the product launch stage by analyzing impressions<\/a> and clicks. You want to see the impressions rising, followed by an increase in clicks and sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The ACoS tends to stay high at this stage since you focus more on impressions than conversion.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The growth phase follows the launch phase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here, the advertising goal is to grow the sales volume and reduce ACoS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Look at the improvement in CTR<\/strong> and sales volume to evaluate success at the growth stage.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once your product surpasses the growth stage, it\u2019s important to increase the efficiency of the campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At this stage, your goal slowly shifts to doubling down on high-performing campaigns to maximize ROAS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Use keyword harvesting to discover high-performing keywords from auto campaigns, and add them to manual campaigns to get more targeted sales and reduce the ACoS.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Measure the reduction of ACoS to evaluate the advertising performance during the profitability stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Note: <\/strong>You can utilize Amazon dayparting<\/a> in this stage to maximize sales during peak hours. And reduce wasted ad spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes, when a product performs poorly, you want to empty the inventory as quickly as possible to free up warehouse space or avoid long-term storage fees<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n At this point, you can consider increasing bids on high-performing keywords and increasing the daily ad budget to maximize sales.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now that you know different campaign goals, you can grade the advertising performance according to the goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s no secret that most sellers struggle with organizing advertising campaigns. The more organized your campaigns are, the easier it is to navigate through and optimize.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n When evaluating the campaign structure, see if it follows a logical hierarchy.<\/p>\n\n\n Portfolio: <\/strong>Separate ad campaigns for different products with different portfolios. For example, if you have two different products, such as \u201cSunscreen Lotion<\/strong>\u201d and \u201cAnti-aging Lotion<\/strong>,\u201d they should be in separate portfolios.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Campaign: <\/strong>A consistent naming convention for campaigns helps stay organized. For example, group products with similar goals together in a single campaign. And make sure the campaign names are as detailed as possible. Whenever the goal changes, update the campaign name to reflect the changes.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The campaign name should include\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example: <\/strong>GROWTH | Sunscreen | SP | Auto<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ad Groups: <\/strong>Use ad groups to separate different product ads based on targeting or keyword type. We recommend keeping one ad group per campaign to keep the campaign structure easy to navigate.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Quick Tip<\/strong>: A consistent Amazon PPC campaign structure will decide the efficiency of your future audits. So, take time and standardize your campaign structure to ensure your future audits get smoother.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amazon offers three distinct advertising types to get in front of the audience.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sponsored Product and Brand ads<\/a> use keyword and product targeting to show ads to shoppers. Sponsored Display ads use audience demographic data to reach high-intent customers and retarget customers based on shopping behavior.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n While evaluating Amazon advertising, ensure you use the right ad type for specific goals.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n While these three ad types have different goals, you need all three in some moderation to maximize your return on investment in the long run.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Learn more about different ad types from this detailed Amazon PPC Guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The target ACoS<\/a> is the center of all your PPC decisions. It\u2019s the benchmark to ensure your products achieve the desired profit margin<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, the target ACoS eventually comes down to business goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If your goal is to launch a product, the target ACoS will be higher to drive traffic and generate reviews. And if your goal is to increase profit margin<\/a>, the target ACoS will be lower.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n While evaluating your advertising <\/a>campaigns, calculate the target ACoS based on your business goal. Check if the ACoS is above or below the target ACoS at the campaign and keyword levels.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pause bids on keywords that have higher ACoS than the target ACoS. And add the keywords with low ACoS for tracking to see its organic performance.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your ultimate goal is to maximize organic sales and reduce ad spending on high-performing keywords.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sounds difficult?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n It doesn\u2019t have to be.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Go to SellerApp Free PPC Audit tool<\/strong><\/a> \u2192 Upload your search term report, set a target ACoS and see how your campaigns perform against the target ACoS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Total ACoS (TACoS) in Amazon PPC is the ratio of ad spend to total sales in percentage.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Total ACoS = Ad spend \/ Total Sales * 100.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It helps you understand the overall profitability of the products.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Generally, a reduced TACoS indicates the product sells more with fewer ad spends or has a strong organic ranking and sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can increase ad spending for these products to boost overall sales and improve profit margin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the other hand, an increased TACoS means the product is highly dependent on advertising <\/a>and doesn\u2019t have a strong organic ranking.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this case, optimizing the product listing with images, A+ content<\/a>, ratings, and reviews will improve the conversion rate and, in turn, increase the chance of getting into a positive sales cycle.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Note: <\/strong>Increased TACoS is not bad if you\u2019re in the product launch phase. You invest heavily in advertising to maximize impressions and sales at this stage.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s normal to see an increased TACoS for a short period of time. In the long run, however, you aim to reduce the TACoS to maximize the profitability of your products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After reviewing the campaign structure, evaluate the targeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s recommended to move from automatic targeting campaigns to manual targeting campaigns as your campaigns mature.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, keep at least a 10 \u2013 20% budget for automatic campaigns to keep discovering new relevant high-performing keywords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whether you\u2019re using automatic or manual campaigns, ensure that each keyword is helping you reach your campaign goal without wasting ad budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Audit the search term report from the Amazon advertising account<\/strong> to see each search term metric and make informed decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this Search Term report, <\/strong>look at the following metrics:<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you see search terms with high impressions<\/strong> but little to no<\/strong> clicks<\/strong> or keywords with good clicks but no sales \u2013 Add them as negative<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Move the search terms with low ACoS<\/strong> and good sales volume<\/strong> from broad or phrase match to exact match types<\/a> to refine targeting and reduce wasted ad spend.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also, find duplicate search terms in your campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Recommended read: How can you effectively analyze Amazon Data over time<\/a>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can also see how your search terms perform from the SellerApp Free PPC Audit tool.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Bid higher on the cost-effective search terms to get more visibility, and mark the keywords with clicks buy no sales as negative keywords<\/a> to reduce wasted ad spend.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you know the 80-20 rule<\/strong>? 80% of results come from 20% of the efforts.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s the same for ad campaigns. There will always be a few products that would generate more ROAS<\/strong> or sales than the rest of your products.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Evaluate your ad campaigns regularly to identify these high and low-performing products.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Try to enhance the performance of low-performing products by adding relevant copy and high-performing keywords in the listing.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also, use product targeting<\/a> to display these ads on competitors\u2019 product listings or product listings on complementary products to improve performance.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, sometimes the performance of a product can\u2019t be influenced externally.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, if other competitors are selling the same product at a lower price or if they have a well-known brand, it may be difficult to compete against them.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n In those cases, it\u2019s best to stop running ads on these products and move the ad budget to more profitable products to maximize ROI.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n A 0.5% CTR is considered good on Amazon. But CTR below 0.3% indicates your ads are not performing well.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n A low CTR on your products indicates that customers are viewing your ads but not clicking on them.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this case, improve these four factors of your listing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n If any of your campaigns fail to get impressions, there might be multiple reasons such as<\/p>\n\n\n\n Audit your campaigns periodically to identify low impressions and take the following steps to get them out of the low impression rut.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, you need to constantly monitor your ad spending to ensure you\u2019re not wasting your ad budget with higher bids.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sponsored Product ads primarily have three types of ad placement.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Increase the percentage bid on the better-performing ad placement<\/a> to increase the visibility and efficiency of the campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can also optimize the bid placement based on your campaign goals. For example, if your goal is more conversions<\/strong>, increase bids on the \u2018Top of search<\/strong>\u2019 ad placement. If you\u2019re in the consideration stage, increase bids on \u2018Product page<\/strong>\u2019 ad placements.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amazon offers three types of bid modifiers at the campaign level.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Each of these modifiers has its pros and cons, but the best bidding strategy depends on the advertising goals.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n If your focus is to reduce ACoS<\/strong> and increase profitability<\/strong>, use \u2018Dynamic bids \u2013 down only.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the product launch stage, where your main focus is to bring awareness and visibility,<\/strong> use the \u201cDynamic bids \u2013 up and down\u201d strategy.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Avoid using fixed bids on your campaigns, as they can consume a large chunk of your ad budget. Still, if you want, use this strategy to increase brand visibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019re missing out on sales opportunities if you\u2019re not spending the entire budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There can be many reasons for it.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whatever the case, you need to identify relevant high-volume keywords to bid on, increase bids on existing keywords or reoptimize the product listing with relevant keywords to hit the allocated daily budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the other hand, if you\u2019re constantly running out of budget in your campaigns, increase the daily budget to maximize sales or pause bids on keywords that are driving clicks but not generating sales.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have a low daily budget, or you\u2019re constantly running out of budget, audit the Sales Dashboard<\/strong> on Seller Central to identify times of the days your product gets the maximum sales.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this example, you can see the products get more sales between 2 \u2013 9 am and 3 \u2013 9 pm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Set up a high ad budget for these peak hours from the SellerApp Automation tool to optimize budget utilization and reduce wasted ad spending on your campaigns.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Grading your advertising campaigns regularly cannot be overlooked \u2013 especially in the current eCommerce market, where shopping trends and customers\u2019 buying habits are constantly evolving.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n With auditing, you can discover ways to improve strategy, reduce ad spending and find new keywords to target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, Amazon advertising needs constant auditing and fine-tuning to maximize ROAS.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re looking for help with managing and improving your PPC campaigns, use SellerApp Managed Services<\/a>. Not only are we well known on the Amazon Advertising Partner Network<\/a> but our dedicated PPC experts helped 20000+ sellers, e-commerce brands, and entrepreneurs manage $1.8B+ total ad spends \u2013 with unprecedented success. And we can help you scale your business to the next level too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our dedicated PPC experts helped 20000+ sellers, e-commerce brands, and entrepreneurs manage $1.8B+ total ad spends \u2013 with unprecedented success. And we can help you scale your business to the next level too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Happy selling!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Additional Guide:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Power of Digital Shelf Analytics for E-Commerce Success<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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1. Why is auditing Amazon advertising essential?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
2. Amazon advertising performance grading checklist<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"amazon](\"https:\/\/www.sellerapp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/amazon-advertising-performance-grading.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nAre your campaigns running according to your goals?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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During product launch<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
During growth\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
During profitability\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
During liquidation\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Is your campaign structure easy to follow?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"amazon](\"https:\/\/www.sellerapp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/amazon-campaign-structure.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Are you using all ad types optimally?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Is your ACoS lesser than the target ACoS?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Why](\"https:\/\/www.sellerapp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/detailed-analysis-report-1100x543.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nIs the Total ACoS reducing over time?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Is<\/strong> your keyword targeting performing well?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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![\"Amazon](\"https:\/\/www.sellerapp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/amazon-advertising-important-1100x654.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nAre all your products performing well?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Do your products have a low CTR?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Do any of your campaigns get little to zero impressions?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Are you weighing bids more on high-performing ad placements?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Are you using the right bid modifiers based on your goal?\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Are you utilizing your ad budget effectively?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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What are the peak times you get more sales?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"What](\"https:\/\/www.sellerapp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/sales-dashboard-1100x575.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nFinal Thoughts<\/h4>\n\n\n\n