Amazon PPC Time Management: Your Complete Weekly Task Schedule

Your Amazon PPC is a mess. You’re drowning in data, constantly tweaking bids, and still not seeing the results you want. Most Amazon sellers feel this way, especially as their business grows.

Here’s the reality: effective PPC management requires consistent effort, but it doesn’t have to consume your entire week. In this article, we’ll break down a complete weekly task schedule for managing your Amazon PPC campaigns, so you can optimize your time and maximize your returns. Let’s get started.

Monday: Data Dive and Performance Review

Start your week by reviewing the previous week’s performance. This sets the stage for making informed decisions throughout the week.

Analyze Overall Account Performance

Look at your overall account performance. What were your sales, ad spend, and ACOS (Advertising Cost of Sale)? Identify any significant changes or trends.

• Example: If your ACOS jumped from 25% to 35% last week, that’s a red flag. Dig deeper to find out why.

Review Campaign Performance

Now, drill down into individual campaigns. Which campaigns performed well? Which ones struggled? Pay close attention to campaigns with significant spend.

• Example: You might notice that your branded campaign had a lower ACOS than your product targeting campaigns. This could indicate an opportunity to scale back on product targeting and focus on branded terms.

Check Top Performing Keywords

Identify your top-performing keywords. These are the keywords that are driving the most sales at a profitable ACOS.

• Example: If a specific keyword is consistently generating sales with a 15% ACOS, consider increasing its bid to capture more impressions.

Analyze Search Term Report

Your search term report reveals what customers are actually searching for when they click on your ads. This is a goldmine for finding new keywords and negative keywords.

• Example: You might discover that customers are searching for “organic [your product]” even though you don’t sell organic products. Add “organic” as a negative keyword to prevent wasted ad spend.

Tuesday: Bid Optimization and Budget Adjustments

Tuesday is all about optimizing your bids and budgets based on the data you gathered on Monday.

Adjust Bids Based on ACOS

The most important task is to adjust your bids based on ACOS. If a keyword has a high ACOS, lower the bid. If it has a low ACOS, raise the bid.

• Example: If a keyword has a 50% ACOS, reduce the bid by 10-15%. If a keyword has a 10% ACOS, increase the bid by 10-15%.

Implement Rule-Based Bidding

Consider using rule-based bidding to automate your bid adjustments. This allows you to set specific rules for bid adjustments based on performance metrics.

• Example: You can set a rule to automatically lower the bid for any keyword with an ACOS above 40%.

Optimize Budgets

Review your campaign budgets and make adjustments as needed. If a campaign is consistently running out of budget, increase the budget. If a campaign is underperforming, consider reducing the budget.

• Example: If your top-performing campaign is running out of budget by noon every day, increase the daily budget by 20-30%.

Wednesday: Keyword Research and Expansion

Mid-week, focus on expanding your keyword reach.

Conduct Keyword Research

Use Amazon’s keyword research tools (like the brand analytics search term report) and third-party tools to find new keywords related to your products.

• Example: Use the Amazon Brand Analytics search term report to identify the most popular search terms for your product category.

Add New Keywords to Campaigns

Add the new keywords you found to your campaigns. Start with a lower bid to test their performance.

• Example: Add the new keywords as broad match or phrase match to reach a wider audience.

Launch New Campaigns

Consider launching new campaigns targeting specific product categories or customer segments.

• Example: Launch a new campaign targeting customers who are searching for “gifts for [your product].”

Thursday: Negative Keyword Management

Thursday is all about refining your campaigns by adding negative keywords.

Review Search Term Report Again

Review your search term report again to identify irrelevant search terms that are triggering your ads.

• Example: You might find that customers are searching for “used [your product]” when you only sell new products. Add “used” as a negative keyword.

Add Negative Keywords to Campaigns

Add the irrelevant search terms as negative keywords to your campaigns. This will prevent your ads from showing up for those searches and save you money.

• Example: Add negative keywords as exact match to prevent your ads from showing up for those specific searches.

Friday: A/B Testing and Creative Review

End the week by testing new ad creatives and reviewing your overall strategy.

A/B Test Ad Creatives

Test different ad headlines, images, and product descriptions to see which ones perform best.

• Example: Test two different headlines for your sponsored product ads. One headline could focus on the product’s features, while the other could focus on its benefits.

Review Overall Strategy

Review your overall PPC strategy. Are you on track to meet your goals? Are there any adjustments you need to make?

• Example: If your goal is to increase sales by 20% this quarter, track your progress and make adjustments to your strategy as needed.

Optimize Product Pages

Ensure your product pages are fully optimized with keywords and high-quality images. Your PPC ads drive traffic, but your product pages close the deal.

• Example: A client improved their conversion rate by 15% just by adding high-quality lifestyle images to their product pages.

Managing Amazon PPC doesn’t have to be a daily grind. By following this weekly task schedule, you can stay on top of your campaigns, optimize your performance, and achieve your advertising goals without feeling overwhelmed. By implementing this weekly task schedule in AdLabs, you can calculate recommended bid adjustments based on your performance metrics.

Key Discussion Points from the Episode

Here are some of the most valuable insights Andrew and Stephen shared during the full episode discussion:

As an Amazon advertising manager, there are hundreds of tasks you need to do. But how do you know which ones to prioritize? And how often should each task be done?

Daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or maybe it’s something you’re only doing on an annual basis? We’re giving you the Amazon PPC Managers, routine tasks, and workflow today on that Amazon Ads podcast. Alexa, play that Amazon Ads podcast.

Which one would you like to hear? The best one. Okay, now playing that Amazon Ads podcast.

Thanks, gentlemen, our completely changing the game. After listening to that Amazon Ads podcast, my ads are finally profitable. I also heard they’re pretty cute.

This article is based on Episode 118 of That Amazon Ads Podcast. Subscribe for weekly Amazon PPC strategies.