Amazon PPC: The Ultimate 2025 Guide

If you’re selling on Amazon in 2025 and not running pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns, you might as well be mindlessly doomscrolling social media. The competition is fierce, and the algorithms evolve faster than cringey memes.

This guide will help you understand Amazon PPC, whether you’re just getting started, an experienced pro or just someone who accidentally spent their entire Amazon marketing budget on late-night Uber Eats.

What Is Amazon PPC?

Amazon PPC is an advertising model that allows sellers to bid on keywords so their products appear in top search results. Every time someone clicks on your ad, you pay Amazon a small fee. Sounds simple, right? Well, as with most things in life, the devil is in the details.

Types of Amazon PPC Ads

Amazon offers three main types of Amazon PPC ads:

1. Sponsored Product Ads – These are the most common and appear in search results or product detail pages. They promote individual product listings.
2. Sponsored Brand Ads – These ads showcase your brand logo, custom headline and multiple products. They appear at the top of search results and help build brand awareness.
3. Sponsored Display Ads – These ads target shoppers on and off Amazon based on their browsing behavior. They’re great for remarketing and expanding your reach beyond Amazon’s platform.

How Is an Amazon Bid Calculated?

Amazon PPC advertising operates on a second-price auction model. This means you only pay slightly more than the second-highest bidder rather than your maximum bid. The key factors influencing bid calculation include:

• Your Bid Amount: The maximum you’re willing to pay per click.
• Competitor Bids: If competitors bid lower than you, you pay just above their bid.
• Ad Relevance & Quality Score: Amazon favors ads that are relevant to the search term, sometimes allowing lower bids to win if the ad quality is high.
• Campaign Settings: Factors such as bid adjustments, dynamic bidding and placement multipliers affect the final cost-per-click.

Who Needs Amazon PPC? (Spoiler: Basically Everyone)

Amazon Sellers (New & Experienced)

As you probably know, sales velocity and early sales are crucial for product ranking on Amazon – the more you sell, the higher you rank. Good old PPC creates a consistent purchase activity for new sellers, helping them rank higher, and it generates data to analyze and adjust their offering – and win more customers.

Experienced sellers use PPC to preserve and reclaim their positions in search and often use advanced techniques like dynamic bid management to capture peak opportunities or counter aggressive competitor campaigns with budget reallocation and tracking shifts in competitors’ strategies.

Brands & Private Label Owners

Imagine you’ve spent months designing and perfecting your own line of organic skincare. You’ve got beautiful packaging, a killer formula and a solid product listing. But there’s a problem – no one knows your brand exists.

Amazon PPC helps you get your product in front of shoppers who are searching for terms like “organic face cream.” With the right ad strategy, you can gain visibility, increase sales and start building brand recognition. Without PPC, your product might sit on page 20, and might as well live in the Bermuda Triangle.

E-Commerce Agencies

You run an e-commerce agency managing Amazon accounts for multiple clients. One of your clients, a small but ambitious fitness brand, is struggling with sales. You devise a PPC strategy that includes Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands campaigns to drive targeted traffic. Within a few months, their sales double, and they see a significant boost in organic ranking. Your agency’s ability to manage PPC campaigns effectively becomes a key selling point for attracting new clients.

Manufacturers & Wholesalers

As a manufacturer or wholesaler, you typically rely on bulk sales and B2B clients. But you decide to test direct-to-consumer sales on Amazon. Without brand recognition, it’s a jungle out there.

By running PPC campaigns, you position your products directly in front of shoppers who are actively searching for them. Over time, you build a direct revenue stream and reduce reliance on third-party retailers, increasing your margins and expanding your business model.

When Should You Start Running Amazon PPC?

Amazon PPC isn’t just for launching a product – it’s also a powerful tool for a seller’s long game. Here are some instances where PPC saves the day:

• Launching a new product? PPC = instant visibility
• Sales slowing down? PPC = fresh traffic and renewed interest
• Competitors outranking you? PPC = reclaiming your territory
• Ad costs rising? PPC optimization = profitability maintained
• Expanding to new markets? PPC = low-risk market testing

Bottom line: If your product is hanging out with dust bunnies on a warehouse shelf, it’s past time to get those PPC campaigns up and running.

What Tools Are Typically Used for Amazon PPC?

Amazon’s own infrastructure is great, but you can’t expect results without the right tools. Here's what we recommend:

• Teikametrics – Our partner in crime for advertising optimization. This tool helps us collect semantic data and automate tasks so we can focus on improving your Amazon ads.
• Helium 10’s Adtomic – A robust Amazon advertising tool for campaign optimization.
• Amazon Seller Central – Official go-to for managing Amazon PPC campaigns.

What to Expect When Launching

Running PPC isn’t just about emptying your pockets and hoping for the best. Here are some must-have strategies:

• Keyword Targeting: Broad, phrase and exact match – use them wisely.
• Negative Keywords: Stop paying for irrelevant clicks. If you sell “organic dog treats,” you don’t want to show up under “cheap plastic dog toys.”
• Bid Adjustments: Amazon is like a competitive sport. Sometimes you need to raise the stakes, and sometimes you need to back off.
• A/B Testing: Try different ad creatives and copy – don’t set it and forget it.
• Monitoring & Optimization: PPC isn’t a slow cooker recipe. You need to check in regularly and tweak the ingredients as needed.

The Sneaky (and Genius) Non-Standard PPC Tactic

Want to play PPC on hard mode? A smart Amazon advertising campaign strategy is advertising monopolization – aka, buying up all the ad spots on your product page so visitors don’t get lured away by competitors.

Example: Xado, a motor oil and additives brand, launched a PPC strategy ensuring that when customers landed on their page, all the ads led to … more Xado products. No competitor distractions. Just pure, unfiltered brand domination. Here’s how that looked:

How We Scaled Real Brands With PPC

• Sister’s Aroma (fragrances): +333% increase in orders
• Xado (vehicle transmission and fuel additives): +33% total sales growth
• Biosphere (household products): +300% month-over-month sales increase

FAQ

Why should I invest in PPC if I’m just starting out?

Because Amazon’s search algorithm doesn’t care that your grandma thinks your product is the best thing since sliced bread. PPC gives you traffic now, while organic rankings take time to grow.

How much budget should I allocate?

It depends on your product, competition and goals. Start small, optimize, then scale. Just don’t blow your rent money on ads, please.

I already rank well organically. Do I still need PPC?

Unless you want competitors stealing your hard-earned spot, yes. PPC protects your ranking and lets you dominate even more performing keywords.

How do I reduce ACoS without losing sales?

Optimize bids, refine targeting and improve your ad creatives. Also, maybe steer clear of bidding on broad keywords like “women’s fashion” if you're in the business of selling women’s wool sweaters.

Can you guarantee results?

Nope. No one can guarantee results, and last I checked, crystal balls weren’t exactly accurate.

Benefits and Risks of Amazon PPC

Benefits:

1. Accelerated Product Visibility – PPC ensures your product appears in prime Amazon search positions, bypassing the slow organic ranking process.
2. Data-Driven Adjustments – PPC provides real-time data on consumer behavior, keyword performance and conversion rates, enabling you to spend money where it actually matters.
3. Improved Organic Ranking – Consistent PPC success boosts organic search placement, creating a compounding effect on visibility and sales.
4. Scalability & Predictability – When optimized correctly, PPC campaigns provide a reliable sales pipeline, allowing for revenue growth you can count on.
5. Competitive Edge – Outranking competitors through strategic bidding and keyword selection ensures that your product stands out in crowded categories.
6. Clear Feedback – Understanding which ads and performing keywords work helps you understand what your customers are vibing with.

Risks:

1. Budget Drain Without ROI – Poorly managed PPC can lead to costs quickly getting out of control.
2. High Competition & Rising Costs – Bidding wars can drive up costs, especially in saturated markets, making it harder to maintain a sustainable ACoS.
3. Complexity & Time-Intensive Optimization – PPC isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it tool; constant tweaks and strategic shifts are necessary to stay ahead.
4. Dependence on Amazon’s Algorithm – Changes in Amazon’s ad policies and Amazon search algorithms can impact campaign performance, requiring sellers to remain adaptable.
5. Click Fraud & Wasteful Ad Spend – Non-converting clicks from competitors or unqualified traffic can inflate costs without generating real sales.
6. Complex Data – The detailed information from ad campaigns can be confusing, leading to bad decisions if not interpreted correctly.

With a good strategy, Amazon PPC can be a game-changer for business growth. Proceed wisely, optimize relentlessly and watch your brand thrive in the Amazon marketplace.

The Smart Seller’s PPC Checklist

1. Don’t just spend – optimize. It’s not about throwing spaghetti at a wall to see if it sticks; it’s about targeting smarter for a sustainable advertising cost.
2. Monitor ACoS and ROAS. Ads should make you money, not just drain your bank account.
3. Leverage AI automation tools. Smarter bids = better results.
4. Combine PPC with SEO. Use PPC data to refine your organic keyword strategy. It’s the best of both worlds.
5. Be patient. Like fine wine, PPC campaigns get better with time (and testing).

Ready to Master Amazon PPC in 2025?

Amazon PPC isn’t magic – it’s science. With the right strategy, a bit of patience and probably a few deep breaths, you can transform your Amazon advertising campaign into a revenue-driving machine.

Need help getting going? Let’s chat.