In order for Amazon PPC Advertising to work for your products, you would need the following:

1. Products That Sell:

   If no one is interested in buying the products you sell, no matter how much money you spend on Amazon Advertising and how efficiently you do it, chances are good that you are not going to see results or make money out of it.

2. Products That Are Priced Competitively:

   Amazon is a fiercely competitive marketplace and you know this being a seller. Now imagine showing your products above your competitors that offer lesser prices, customers are more likely to buy those. The pricing difference could be countered to an extent if your products have more positive reviews and ratings and if you are a trusted brand.

3. Products That Have Good Ratings and Reviews:

   On Amazon marketplace ratings and reviews can make your break your products. Before starting with Amazon PPC ads it's a good idea to get some ratings and reviews on your products to increase your chances of selling more with ads.

4. Products That Have Good Profit Margin:

   Amazon PPC ads cost money, every time someone clicks your sponsored product listing. Plus there is huge competition out there driving CPC (cost per click) higher. This cost of advertising will eat into your profit margin.

   Also, the success with Amazon PPC ads will not happen overnight. You would most likely start with high ACoS and work your down to break even and eventually lowering your ACoS to make profits.

   Therefore, it’s important to have good margins on your products so you could afford the additional cost of advertising as well as have some buffer to advertise for a longer time before finding the idea ACoS. Higher the profit margin on your products, better the chances of your success with Amazon PPC Advertising.

5. Private Label (Optional):

   Although not mandatory,having a private label and a registered brand will provide you additional advantage with Amazon PPC Advertising. While every seller can advertise with Sponsored Product Ads, only those sellers with brand registry can use Sponsored Brand Ads on Amazon. The sponsored brand ads are shown on top of the page, above all sponsored product ads.

Amazon ads are charged on CPC (cost per click basis). This means every time someone clicks on your sponsored product or sponsored brand ad, Amazon will charge you a CPC. This CPC is different across categories and changes as per the level of competition from other advertisers. We have CPCs as low as $0.02 for least competitive keywords ands products to as high as $15 for fiercely competitive ones.

While setting up an Amazon PPC campaign, Amazon shows suggested CPC bid for most of the keywords or product/category targeting you choose. So you could have an approximate idea of what your CPC is likely going to be. You could do this exercise yourself or ask your agency partner to provide you estimates and projections for your campaigns.

You can send a request for a Free Proposal with forecasts and budgets.

In order to manage Amazon PPC Advertising and make the best out of it the following is required:

• In-depth knowledge of how Amazon PPC Advertising works which includes ad formats, automatic and manual campaign types, targeting options, bidding strategies and more.
• Plenty of time to dedicate setting up campaigns, monitoring performings, optimizing bids, search terms and more.

When Should You Do It Yourself?

There are multiple scenarios when it makes sense to do it yourself, here are some we recommend:

• You are just starting out and you want to test the waters first.
• You want to play it ultra safe with your advertising budget
• Your margins are low (you shouldn’t do any advertising in this case)
• You have trust issues and it’s hard to trust an agency with your money
• You do not plan to grow your sales fast
• You are a control freak and you like to micromanage everything

When Should You Outsource?

We usually hear our clients say the following reasons why they decided to outsource Amazon PPC Advertising:

• They are busy growing their business so they don’t have time to do this themselves
• They tried doing it themselves and were overwhelmed by the time it takes
• Also, they ran into high ACoS and thought it was best to let an expert do this
• They are looking to grow their sales aggressively and crush the competition
• They have a private label and registered their brand with Amazon

Great, we are great match here. We like working with businesses like you and help your sales grow multifold.

The most important metric that tells you whether Amazon PPC advertising is working for you or not is ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sales).

If the ACoS on your campaigns is running above the target, you are losing money and you should stop advertising.

You would be however making money if ACoS is below your target. You should spend unlimited amount on advertising as long as the ACoS is below your target.

So how do you know your target ACoS? Well, first figure out your profit margin on your products. Your target ACoS should be below your profit margins. That said, you may have target ACoS for every product or range/category.

There are no guarantees. When you advertise on Amazon, you pay for the clicks not sales (conversions). In order to get the most sales out of the clicks on your product ads, there are multiple aspects that need to be efficiently managed.

Targeting to reach the right customers, optimal bids to get your ads there without burning a hole, and optimization of product listings to high the core benefits and unique selling propositions of your products to name a few.

Now you know why an specialist is needed to manage all this for you on the advertising side of things while you focus on sourcing your products, managing your orders and growing your business.

There are plenty of tools for Amazon PPC advertising, both free and paid. These tools can help you research keywords, suggest keywords, bids, monitor performance and some of the tools even offer automation of tasks.

None of these tools though can just take your products and deliver you sales. At their very best these tools are meant to make Amazon PPC management job easier.