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Sponsored Products: Campaigns & Optimization

Campaign types, match types, bid strategies, and search-term harvesting.

Campaign types

Sponsored Products campaigns are either automatic or manual. Most accounts run both.

Automatic campaigns

Automatic campaigns let Amazon target queries and similar ASINs based on your listing.

  • Discovery: Surfaces queries you might not have guessed.
  • Coverage: Complements manual campaigns by filling gaps.

Review the search terms report regularly and promote winners into manual campaigns.

Manual campaigns

Manual campaigns give you explicit control over keywords, product targets, bids, and match types.

  • Converters: Build ad groups around terms that already drive sales.
  • Category targeting: Target relevant ASINs and branded queries deliberately.
  • Costs: Watch CPC and placement — manual control doesn't guarantee efficiency without tuning.
Run auto and manual together
Use automatic campaigns to learn; use manual campaigns to scale what you've validated.

Keyword targeting

Group keywords by intent and performance. Keep branded, generic, and category terms in separate campaigns.

Match types

Match type controls how strictly a query must relate to your keyword.

Broad matchWide

Matches queries that relate to your keyword, including synonyms and variations.

Phrase matchMedium

Matches queries that include your phrase in order.

Exact matchTight

Matches queries that closely match your keyword.

Use negatives to sculpt broad and phrase traffic.

Negative keywords

Negative keywords prevent ads from showing on irrelevant queries.

  • Terms with spend but no orders after a reasonable window
  • Queries that don't match your product's use case
  • Category brand terms you choose not to target
  • Use negative exact for surgical removals; negative phrase for broader exclusions

Bid strategies

Dynamic bidding adjusts offers based on likelihood to convert.

Down only

Amazon can lower bids when conversion likelihood is lower.

Up and down

Allows bid increases or decreases by placement.

Fixed bids

Uses your exact bid without automatic adjustments.

After changes, wait for enough impressions before judging.

Ongoing optimization

Optimization is a weekly rhythm: review efficiency, placements, and budgets.

  1. Efficiency: Compare ACoS and ROAS to your targets.
  2. Placements: Use placement adjustments when top of search or product pages over- or under-perform.
  3. Budget: Shift spend toward winners.
  4. Seasonality: Pre-adjust bids and promos for peaks.

Search term harvesting

Harvesting turns customer queries into structured targets.

  1. Download or review the search terms report on a set cadence.
  2. Promote high-performing queries into manual campaigns.
  3. Add negatives for irrelevant or unprofitable queries.
  4. Record changes so you can measure impact next week.

One source of truth

Keep a simple tracker of promotions and negatives so the whole team aligns.

When you're ready to align budgets with funnel stages, read the campaign strategy guide.

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Advertising overview

How Amazon ad formats fit together.

Campaign strategy

Structure budgets and scale across the funnel.