How To Maintain And Optimize A Successful PPC Campaign With Ad Badger

Amazon PPC campaigns are like a car: they get the job done if you perform regularly scheduled maintenance. You can’t just set it and forget it when it comes to PPC. Every once in a while you have to pop the trunk open and make some adjustments. 

That’s why Jon, our CEO, invited Michael Facchin, founder and CEO of Ad Badger and host of the PPC Den Podcast, to join him for Episode 21 of Amazon Seller Insights. Ad Badger advises Amazon Private Label businesses of all sizes on how to best spend their PPC advertising budget and provides them with a PPC optimization tool suite to help them decipher the data. 

Their chat revolved around Michael’s strategy towards structuring a successful PPC campaign, as well as what maintenance you should perform on a weekly and monthly basis. Let’s dive in!

How Ad Badger’s RPSB Strategy Keeps Your PPC Campaigns Optimized

In Michael’s view, a successful PPC strategy consists of what he calls the RPSB, or, “Research, Peel, Stick, Block” method. Long story short, this means having 2 campaigns: one that’s for performing research on potentially successful keywords, and another only for proven keywords (what Michael calls the “Winner’s Circle”). Why’s that? Because you: 

• Research keywords in one campaign.
• Peel the ones performing well out of it.
• Stick them into the Winner’s Circle campaign.‍
• Block the research campaign from access to the Winner’s Circle campaign so one campaign doesn’t cannibalize the other.

Another term for this is “search term graduation.” By “graduating” keywords to your Winner’s Circle campaign, you know exactly which ones to dedicate more ad spend on. All while still harvesting cheap, useful data through your research campaign! 

In a previous Amazon Seller Insights episode, we had a chat with PPC expert Howard Lee breaking down exactly how you should structure your research and Winner’s Circle campaigns. Check it out here!

Curious about what kind of keywords you need to put in these campaigns? Check out our deep-dive into The Halo Effect and how it helps scale your business with easy-to-own keywords and unlock some exclusive video content along the way.

Both of these campaigns need regular tune-ups, though. That means every once in a while you need to toss some underperforming keywords out. When is it time to make that decision? 

When It’s Time to Throw Away Underperforming Keywords

When thinking about whether or not to throw a keyword out, Michael recommends answering this question: is this keyword not getting clicks, or is this keyword getting clicks but not converting? Let’s start with the former first. 

What To Do With PPC Keywords That Get No Clicks

If your keyword isn’t getting clicks, it might just be because you have too many keywords in one ad group. Think of it as a cup of tea; with just the right amount of water it tastes great, but if you keep adding water it dilutes the flavor. If you keep adding more and more keywords to one ad group, its relevance becomes diluted.

So, let’s say you have an ad group with 100 keywords in it, and the last 20 keywords on it aren’t getting clicks. Chop off those 20 keywords, throw them in a new ad group, and see how they perform. With a smaller sample group, the A10 algorithm might consider them more relevant and give them some unexpected rankings love. If they still don’t perform, then you know it’s time to throw them out!

What To Do With PPC Keywords That Get Clicks But No Conversions

Keywords that get clicks but don’t get conversions are a little more complicated. They bring up an interesting question: how much money should you spend on a keyword that gets you exposure, but doesn’t get you sales? 

According to Michael, if a PPC keyword gets 2x-3x above your average conversion rate, it’s time to pull the plug. To break that down, let’s say that you have an ad group with an average conversion rate of $10/conversion (i.e., on average, you get one sale for every $10 worth of clicks within that ad group). If you see a keyword in there that’s costing you anywhere between $20-$30 per click, you need to get rid of it. At that point, all you’re doing is burning money and raising your ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sale). 

Want to save some time and find just the best performing keywords around? Check out how our Halo Effect Method helps you rank up and get a free step-by-step guide detailing how to harness it along the way!

Now that you know how to perform basic maintenance on your PPC campaigns, how often should you do it?

Weekly And Monthly PPC Campaign Checkups

Michael recently read a study he found quite fascinating: FBA business performance improves drastically the more often owners make changes to their campaigns. Remember the car analogy from the beginning? The same principle applies. The more time you spend tweaking and repairing your car, the better it runs.

Running your own FBA business is a lot of work, though. Making daily PPC adjustments might be asking a lot of some business owners. That’s why Michael recommends these weekly and monthly PPC checkups:

Weekly PPC Checkups

• Analyze your search results either manually or with the help of a PPC tool.
• Remove keywords that aren’t working for you anymore based on what was discussed in the last section.
• Narrow in on keywords that are working and adjust your bids for them based on their ratio of bid price/total revenue.
• Perform negative keyword (i.e., keywords you don’t want your products to appear for) research. 

Monthly PPC Checkups

• Check-in with yourself and ask, “is my campaign structured in a way that makes sense for my business?”  
• Double-check to see if you have any upcoming product launches, as this will decide where your ad spend goes.
• Check the overall health of each campaign and make repairs as necessary
• Make sure you’re running the right ad types (Sponsored Product, Sponsored Brand, Sponsored Display).
  

With these routine PPC check ups, you’re setting yourself up for success! It won’t happen fast, though. PPC is a game of patience and competitive problem-solving; you have to be prepared to make decisions where you won’t see immediate results. When launching a new product, almost all of your generated revenue should go right back into PPC. That’s because you’re making an investment for your business’ future. 

That doesn’t mean there isn’t help out there, though! Our Keywords on Fire tool is here to help you grab easy-to-dominate, powerful, long-tail keywords that use the Halo Effect to rank you up. Want to know how to harness it, and get some free goodies along the way? Head over here to find out more!