If youโre already running Amazon PPC campaigns to promote your products, youโve taken a great first step.
But launching campaigns is only the beginning. To truly optimize performance and maximize ROI, it's essential to regularly conduct a PPC audit.
An in-depth audit helps you understand the health of your ad portfolio, identify whatโs working, and uncover areas that need improvement at the campaign, ad group, and keyword level.
While there are Amazon PPC tools that can assist, performing a manual audit offers valuable insights that automated reports often miss.
In this blog, weโll walk you through the key steps to effectively audit your Amazon PPC account. Letโs dive in.
Campaign Structure
1. Start your PPC audit by analyzing the overall structure of your campaigns. At the top level, you have portfolios, which contain various campaigns, and within each campaign are ad groups targeting specific ASINs (Amazon Standard Identification Numbers).
2. Begin by identifying how many campaigns are currently active. Break them down by type, automatic vs. manual, and evaluate which is delivering better results. This comparison helps you understand which targeting approach is more effective for your products.
3. A clear and consistent naming convention is crucial for easy management and future optimization. Ideally, your campaign names should include key identifiers such as the campaign type (e.g., SP for Sponsored Products), product type, and match type (e.g., exact, phrase, broad). For example: SP_Supplements_Exact.
4. Next, evaluate how your campaigns are grouped. Are they structured by product category, marketing objective (like brand awareness or conversions), or targeting strategy? A well-organized campaign structure not only improves visibility into performance but also simplifies optimization across your account.
Campaign Types
Amazon offers three primary Amazon ad types and campaigns: Sponsored Products (SP), Sponsored Brands (SB), and Sponsored Display (SD), each designed to support different advertising goals throughout the customer journey.
- Sponsored Products are ideal for driving both awareness and conversions for individual product listings. They appear directly within shopping results, making them a high-intent format.
- Sponsored Brands help with brand awareness and consideration by showcasing your brand logo, a custom headline, and multiple products at the top of the search results.
- Sponsored Display targets audiences both on and off Amazon, helping you re-engage shoppers and increase top-of-funnel visibility.
As part of your audit, here is your review checklist:
- Which campaign types are currently active in your account?
- How is each one performing?
- Are you relying too heavily on one type, like Sponsored Products, while missing opportunities higher up the funnel?
- Are you seeing strong performance in Sponsored Brands that could justify increased investment?
By aligning campaign types with your advertising goals, youโll discover opportunities to diversify your strategy, test new formats, or double down on whatโs already working.
Read our expert guide on the Amazon PPC checklist to achieve higher ROI on your Amazon PPC campaigns.
Budgets Across Campaigns
With your campaign structure and types defined, the next step in your Amazon PPC audit is to review how budgets are being allocated across your account. Budgets on Amazon can be set at either the portfolio level or individual campaign level, offering flexibility in how you manage spend.
Start by checking whether any of your campaigns are frequently running out of budget. If high-performing campaigns are getting capped early in the day, it may be time to increase their budgets to avoid missing out on potential sales.
Conduct a performance-based budget analysis:
- Reallocate budget from underperforming campaigns to those with strong ROI.
- Ensure that top-performing campaigns have enough budget
- Watch for campaigns with consistent spend but low conversions; these may need optimization or reduced funding.
Ad Group Structure
Ad groups are within your campaigns and play a key role in supporting the overall campaign objective. During your audit, assess whether each ad group is tightly focused and relevant, or if itโs too broad.
If you notice multiple ad groups within a single campaign that target different product types or goals, consider separating them into distinct campaigns. This improves clarity and gives you greater control over budget, targeting, and performance tracking.
Keep your ad group structure clean by following these best practices:
- Group similar ASINs or keywords within the same ad group.
- Ensure that each ad group aligns with a specific targeting strategy (e.g., branded vs. non-branded terms).
- Use clear, descriptive naming conventions to make management and reporting easier.
Learn smarter ways to automate your Amazon PPC campaigns from our expert guide.
Match Type Utilization
Amazon offers a range of match types, including broad, phrase, exact, as well as category, product, and audience targeting, each serving a different purpose in your PPC strategy.
- Broad match is ideal during the early stages of a campaign when you're exploring which keywords resonate most with your audience.
- Phrase and exact match offer greater precision and are better suited for campaigns focused on driving conversions.
- Category, product, and audience targeting are commonly used in Sponsored Display or Sponsored Products campaigns, helping you reach shoppers browsing related items or categories.
As part of your audit, assess how each match type is performing:
- Are you using a balanced mix of match types to capture both broad reach and conversion-focused traffic?
- Are there match types that are consistently underperforming and draining your budget?
- Can successful match types be scaled further?
The goal is to double down on whatโs working and cut back on low-performing.
Bonus read: How to use Amazon Negative Keywords to improve performance
Placement Performance
Amazon ads appear across three key placements:
- Top of Search (first page)
- Rest of Search
- Product Pages
Each placement has a different impact on visibility and conversion rates. As part of your audit, dive into the placement reports to evaluate how your campaigns are performing in each area, focusing on these key metrics: ACOS and ROAS
Identify which placements are delivering low ACOS and high ROAS, and consider increasing placement bid adjustments to boost visibility in those high-performing spots. For example, if your campaign performs exceptionally well in "Top of Search," increasing the bid modifier here can help capture more prime real estate and drive better results.
Bid Optimization
When you manually add keywords to your campaigns, each one carries a specific bid that directly affects its visibility and performance. As part of your audit, itโs essential to review and optimize these bids based on actual performance data.
Start by analyzing key metrics for each keyword, including clicks, conversions, impressions, and ACOS
Identify keywords that are performing well, those driving conversions at a profitable ACOS, and consider increasing their bids to further boost visibility and sales. On the other hand, if a keyword is generating clicks without conversions or has a high ACOS, it may be time to lower the bid or pause it altogether.
Regular bid adjustments help you stay competitive, prevent overspending, and ensure your ad spend is focused on high-return opportunities.
Bonus Read: Amazon PPC Cost Breakdown: What Sellers Need to Know in 2025
Bidding Strategy
Amazon offers three bidding strategies that determine how your bids are adjusted in real-time during auctions:
- Fixed Bids โ Your bids remain constant regardless of the likelihood of conversion.
- Dynamic Bidding (Down Only) โ Amazon lowers your bid when a conversion is less likely.
- Dynamic Bidding (Up and Down) โ Amazon adjusts your bid both up and down based on the likelihood of conversion.
For most advertisers, itโs advisable to use dynamic bidding (up and down) or down only, as these provide greater flexibility, increasing bids when thereโs a higher chance of conversion and reducing spend when the chances are low.
When auditing your bidding strategies:
- Align your strategy with your ACOS targets and campaign goals.
- If you're aiming for higher visibility and have a lower ACOS, consider using up and down.
- If you're on a tighter budget or aiming to maintain a higher ROAS, down only might be more suitable.
Read our ultimate Amazon advertising strategy guide that will help your sales with proven tactics.
Underperforming Campaigns & Wasted Ad Spend
A critical part of your Amazon PPC audit is identifying where your budget is being wasted. Start by reviewing campaigns with high impressions but low clicks or conversions, which indicate poor targeting or a lack of relevance to the shopperโs intent.
Use the Search Term Report to dig deeper. Look for:
- Keywords or search terms with high spend but no conversions
- Terms that consistently generate clicks without resulting in sales
- Poor-performing ASIN targets or audience segments
Once identified, act by:
- Pausing or adjusting bids on underperforming keywords
- Negative targeting of irrelevant terms
- Reallocating budget from low-performing campaigns to those that are driving better results
Bonus Read: How to optimize your Amazon PPC ad campaigns by calculating wasted ad spend.
Why Choose SalesDuo for Your Amazon PPC Needs?
Conducting a thorough Amazon PPC audit isnโt just a one-time task; itโs a recurring process that helps you stay aligned with your advertising goals, uncover hidden opportunities, and eliminate inefficiencies.
By examining your campaign structure, budgets, bidding strategies, and keyword performance, you gain deeper insights into whatโs working and where adjustments are needed.
Remember, even the most optimized campaigns can fall short if your product listings arenโt conversion-ready. So always pair your PPC efforts with strong product pages that drive results.
At SalesDuo, we specialize in Amazon advertising with an edgeโ85% of our team members are ex-Amazon insiders, giving us unique insights into Amazon's algorithm and the latest trends. Our cutting-edge proprietary BI dashboard empowers brands to streamline their eCommerce operations and optimize PPC campaigns with precision.
Hereโs why you should reach out to SalesDuo for your Amazon PPC and Ads needs:
- Proven Expertise: With years of experience and an insider understanding of Amazonโs platform, we deliver results that matter.
- Tailored PPC Strategies: We craft custom Amazon Ads strategies that fit your brandโs goals, ensuring you get the most out of your advertising spend.
- Data-Driven Decisions: Our proprietary Business Intelligence tools allow us to monitor and optimize your campaigns in real time, delivering tangible ROI.
- Free PPC Audit: Let us help you identify hidden opportunities and inefficiencies in your current campaignsโschedule your FREE PPC audit today!
Ready to elevate your Amazon PPC performance? Book your 1:1 growth call to get started and experience the difference that our insider knowledge and cutting-edge tools can make.
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About the Author
Shiny Silvaraju is an energetic young professional whoโs passionate about solving real-world business problems. As an Amazon ads expert, sheโs making her mark by turning challenges into exciting opportunities. Beyond her hustle, Shiny loves brainstorming creative ideas and getting lost in inspiring books.
