Mastering bid optimisation is crucial for running profitable Amazon PPC campaigns. In Part 1 - The Fundamentals of Bid Optimisation, we covered the basics – when to increase, decrease, or lower bids based on performance. Now, let’s dive into more advanced strategies that can help you maximise efficiency and scale your campaigns profitably.
Optimise Bids in Stages
One effective strategy is to take a more detailed, step-by-step approach to bid optimisation. Rather than applying fixed bid increases or decreases based solely on whether a target’s ACOS is above or below your goal, you can adjust bids in stages based on how far the actual ACOS is from the target.
How to Optimise?
Instead of making uniform bid changes, adjusting bids incrementally based on ACOS allows for more precise optimisation. The lower the ACOS, the more room there is to scale bids aggressively while maintaining profitability.
For example, if your target ACOS is 20%, here's how you could adjust bids:
- If ACOS is below 15% → Increase bids by 15%
- If ACOS is 15-20% → Increase bids by 10%
- If ACOS is 20-30% → Decrease bids by 10%
- If ACOS exceeds 30% → Decrease bids by 20%
This gradual approach allows you to fine-tune performance while maintaining control, and you could imagine adding even more steps to it. However, it’s important to strike a balance – using too many incremental ranges could overcomplicate your process and make it harder to manage in the long term.
Increase Bids for Low-Impression Targets
A helpful addition to the foundational bid optimisation process – especially when launching new campaigns or adding new targets with limited data – is to increase bids for targets that aren’t receiving enough impressions or clicks. Without sufficient data, it’s impossible to optimise effectively based on performance, so increasing bids can help jumpstart new campaigns to start gathering data and gain the visibility they need to perform.
When adding new targets to a campaign, you might start with a bid based on the average CPC of similar keywords or Amazon’s suggested bid. However, it’s possible the starting bid is too low to compete for ad visibility, leaving your target underperforming in terms of impressions. These low-impression targets often fly under the radar because they don’t consume significant ad spend, but they can represent missed opportunities if left unchecked.
How to Optimise?
To address this, consider gradually increasing the bid for these targets – typically by a small percentage, such as 5%. Gradual increases reduce the risk of overspending and allow you to monitor results carefully.
It’s also important to filter for low-impression targets that have a minimal number of clicks (as you would decrease the bid for targets generating many clicks with no conversions already) as well as no sales (as you would optimise bids for targets that have already converted).
To keep spend under control, it’s a good idea to set a maximum bid threshold based on your goal CPC or expected ACOS. If a target still isn’t gaining impressions after reaching this bid limit, it may indicate low relevance or high competition, in which case other optimisation tactics may be more effective such as refining keyword match types or testing alternative targets.
Lastly, space out bid increases for these targets to maintain control and ensure data-driven optimisation. Allow a few days after making these bid changes before evaluating performance again and considering further increases. This buffer period ensures you maintain control. Additionally, impressions can vary due to external factors like search volume, so allowing time for adjustments helps you make informed changes rather than reacting too quickly.
How We Can Help
Manually managing bid optimisation can be tedious and inconsistent, making it difficult to maintain efficiency at scale. At fern, we simplify the process with advanced automation and expert support, helping you achieve better results with less effort.
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Our automation allows you to create powerful rules with precise conditions, ensuring your optimisation strategy aligns perfectly with your goals.
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Quickly implement optimisation strategies with pre-built customisable templates.
💡 Expert PPC Coaching
Through our 1-on-1 coaching services, we work closely with you to optimise your campaigns and achieve your goals.
Take full control of your bid strategy with easy-to-use, customisable templates that adapt to any approach. Set up your rules in minutes and fine-tune your optimisation with precision. Let’s chat!
