Amazon PPC management, set against your margin.
Shelfcrest runs Amazon PPC management services for private label and DTC brands: Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands and display ads, with every bid decision tied to what a sale is actually worth to you.
What Amazon PPC management actually involves
Amazon PPC is the pay-per-click advertising inside Amazon: you pay when a shopper clicks your ad, and the ad appears in search results and on product pages. Amazon PPC management is the ongoing work of deciding which searches and products to show up for, how much each click is worth, and which spend to cut.
Most of that work is not setup. Launching a campaign takes minutes. What costs money is everything after: search terms that eat budget without selling, bids set once and never revisited, the same shopper search bought by three campaigns at three prices, and branded searches paid for by customers who were already going to buy.
An Amazon advertising agency or Amazon PPC specialist does that work every week, reads the reports, and changes the account on purpose. Shelfcrest does it with one rule at the center: a campaign is judged by the profit it leaves after the ad cost, not by how low its ACoS looks.
Six signs your Amazon ads need management
ACoS keeps rising while sales stay flat
Clicks cost more every month, and the extra spend is not bringing extra orders.
TACoS is climbing
Ads are taking a larger share of total sales, which usually means they are replacing organic sales instead of adding to them.
Nobody has read the search term report in weeks
Money is going to searches that have nothing to do with the product.
Every campaign is automatic
Auto campaigns find search terms, but left alone they keep paying for the bad ones too.
You do not know your break-even ACoS
Without it, there is no way to tell a profitable campaign from an expensive one.
A launch is coming
A new ASIN needs a deliberate campaign plan to build sales history, with a budget and an end date.
The three Amazon ad types, and when each one earns its budget
| Ad type | Where it shows | What it is for | Needs Brand Registry |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sponsored Products | Search results and product pages, looks like a regular listing | Direct sales on the search terms that convert; the base of almost every account | No |
| Sponsored Brands | Top of search with your logo, headline and several products, or a video in results | Owning branded and category searches, sending traffic to the Brand Store | Yes |
| Display ads (formerly Sponsored Display) | Product pages, other Amazon properties and placements across the web | Defending your own product pages and reaching shoppers who viewed them | Check eligibility in the Ads console |
Most private label accounts spend the majority of their budget on Sponsored Products. Sponsored Brands gets added once the brand is registered, and display ads once the Sponsored Products structure is clean enough to measure against.
Eight areas of an Amazon PPC account, and the question behind each
- Campaign structure
- Are exact, phrase, broad, auto and product targeting separated, so each one can have its own bid and its own report?
- Search term harvesting
- Which search terms from auto and broad campaigns converted, and have they been moved into exact match where their bid can be controlled?
- Negative keywords
- Which search terms spent money without a sale, and are the converting ones negated in the campaigns they came from, so they are not bought twice?
- Bids
- Is each bid set from the value of a click, meaning conversion rate times price times break-even ACoS, or from a number someone typed once?
- Placements
- Does top of search convert better than product pages for this product, and is the placement adjustment reflecting that?
- Budgets
- Do profitable campaigns run out of budget before the day ends, while weak ones never spend theirs?
- Branded search
- How much goes to shoppers searching your own brand name, and is that spend defending against competitors or paying for sales you already had?
- Product targeting
- Which competitor ASINs and categories send shoppers who buy, and which of your own product pages need defending?
Break-even ACoS, and why it decides every bid
ACoS is ad spend divided by ad sales. It only means something next to break-even ACoS, which is your profit margin before advertising. If a product earns 30 percent before ad costs, an ACoS of 30 percent means each ad sale made zero profit.
Break-even ACoS = (price minus all costs except ads) / price
Target ACoS = break-even ACoS minus the profit you want to keep
Maximum bid = price × conversion rate × target ACoS
Worked example, illustrative
A product sells for $40. Product cost, Amazon referral and FBA fees, and shipping to Amazon add up to $26, leaving $14.
- Break-even ACoS is 14 / 40 = 35 percent.
- Keeping 10 points of profit gives a target ACoS of 25 percent.
- The keyword converts 12 percent of clicks, so the maximum bid is 40 × 0.12 × 0.25 = $1.20.
- Bidding $1.80 on that keyword means every ad sale from it loses money, even if the ACoS report looks acceptable at the account level.
| Metric | Formula | Where to find it | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|---|
| ACoS | ad spend / ad sales | Campaign Manager | Cost of ad sales, judged against break-even |
| TACoS | ad spend / total sales | Ad spend from Campaign Manager, total sales from Business Reports | Whether ads build organic sales or replace them |
| ROAS | ad sales / ad spend | Campaign Manager | The same information as ACoS, inverted |
| Conversion rate | orders / clicks | Search term and targeting reports | How much a click is worth for that search term |
| CPC | ad spend / clicks | Campaign Manager | What you actually pay per click, next to the bid |
What findings look like
Illustrative examples on an unnamed account. Not client results.
An auto campaign spent on 140 search terms with no order in 60 days
Budget that could have gone to converting terms
Negate the terms with enough clicks to judge, keep watching the rest
The best converting search term runs only in broad match
Its bid is shared with every loose variation broad match picks up
Move it to exact match with its own bid, negate it in broad
Branded search takes a large share of spend at a very low ACoS
The account ACoS looks healthy while non-branded campaigns lose money
Report branded and non-branded separately, set each budget on purpose
The main campaign runs out of budget by early afternoon
It is absent during the hours when shoppers buy
Shift budget from campaigns above break-even
The first 30 days, then every month
Week 1: audit and margins
Read access to the ad account, 60 days of search term and targeting reports, your cost per unit for each ASIN. Output: break-even ACoS per product and the ranked list of what is costing money.
Week 2: cleanup
Negatives for proven waste, budget moved away from campaigns above break-even, the most expensive overlaps removed. Nothing is paused that is still learning.
Week 3: structure
Converting search terms moved into exact match campaigns, auto and broad kept for discovery with the harvested terms negated, product targeting separated from keyword targeting.
Week 4: bids and first report
Bids set from value per click, placement adjustments from real placement data, and a first report that compares the account with where it started.
Every week after
Search term review, new negatives, harvesting into exact match, bid changes on terms with enough data.
Every month
A written report: spend, ad sales, ACoS against break-even, TACoS, conversion rate, the changes made and the reason for each, and the plan for the next month.
Included in Amazon PPC management
- Break-even and target ACoS for every advertised ASIN
- Campaign structure built by match type and targeting type
- Weekly search term review, harvesting and negatives
- Bid and placement changes based on value per click
- Budget allocation reviewed weekly
- Sponsored Products and display ads, and Sponsored Brands where the brand is registered
- Launch campaigns for new ASINs with a set budget and end date
- A written monthly report with every change explained
- Your ad account, campaigns and reports stay yours
Listing changes are not part of this service. When an audit shows the listing is the reason clicks do not convert, that goes into the report and is covered by Amazon SEO and listing optimization or full account management.
A 10-step Amazon PPC checkup you can run this week
- Work out break-even ACoS for each advertised product: price minus every cost except ads, divided by price.
- Download the search term report for the last 60 days.
- Sort by spend and mark every search term with clicks but no orders.
- Add the clearly irrelevant ones as negative exact in the campaign that bought them.
- Mark every search term with orders at an ACoS under break-even.
- Add those as exact match keywords in a separate campaign, and negate them where they came from.
- Compare each campaign's ACoS with break-even and move budget toward the ones below it.
- Check which campaigns run out of budget before the end of the day.
- Split out branded search terms and look at non-branded ACoS on its own.
- Calculate TACoS for the last three months and see which way it is moving.
If those ten steps take an afternoon every week and the account keeps drifting, that is the point where management pays for itself.
In-house, freelancer, software or an Amazon PPC agency
| Option | Works well when | Where it breaks |
|---|---|---|
| Doing it yourself | One or two products and time every week | The weekly search term work is the first thing skipped when you are busy |
| In-house hire | A large catalog and ad spend big enough to justify a salary | One person without a second opinion, and a hard gap when they leave |
| Freelancer | A clear, limited task such as a campaign rebuild | Availability, and no view of the listing or inventory behind the ads |
| Bid software or AI PPC management tools | Many keywords with enough data for rules to act on | Software changes bids; it does not decide which products deserve budget, set margins, or notice that the listing is the problem |
| Amazon PPC agency | Ads are a real part of your sales and you want a person accountable for them | Agencies that bill on ad spend, hide the account, or never tell you who does the work |
Who this service is for
A good fit
- Private label brands already advertising, with ACoS or TACoS moving the wrong way
- Brands launching a product that needs a campaign plan
- Brands that know their costs per unit, or are willing to work them out
Not a fit
- Accounts that want a guaranteed ACoS number before anyone has seen the data
- Listings that cannot convert yet: no reviews, poor images, suppressed; the listing comes first
- Vendor Central only accounts
What Amazon PPC management costs
PPC plan: published at launch
Shelfcrest charges a flat monthly fee for PPC management. The fee does not rise when your ad spend rises, so there is never a reason to recommend spending more than the numbers support. The price and exactly what it includes are on the pricing page.
Amazon PPC management FAQ
What are Amazon PPC management services?
Amazon PPC management services are the ongoing work of running a brand's Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands and display ad campaigns: structure, bids, budgets, negative keywords and reporting, done every week instead of once at setup.
What is a good ACoS for Amazon PPC?
One below your break-even ACoS, which equals your profit margin before ad costs. With a 35 percent margin, an ACoS of 25 percent leaves 10 points of profit, and an ACoS of 40 percent loses money on every ad sale.
How long until Amazon PPC management shows results?
Wasted spend usually drops within the first weeks, because negatives and budget moves act immediately. Structural changes need a few weeks of new data before bids can be tuned. Organic rank effects take longer and depend on the category.
Do you need access to my Seller Central account?
You authorize Shelfcrest as a service provider in Seller Central, with access to the advertising tools, and you can remove it at any time. Your password is never shared.
Will you increase my ad spend?
Only where the numbers show campaigns earning a profit under break-even and running out of budget. The fee is flat, so more spend never means a larger invoice from Shelfcrest.
What is the difference between ACoS and TACoS?
ACoS compares ad spend with sales from ads. TACoS compares ad spend with all sales, including organic. A falling TACoS with stable or growing sales means advertising is helping organic rank.
Should branded keywords be in my campaigns?
Often, in their own campaign with their own budget. Competitors can bid on your brand name, so some defense is usually worth it. Mixed in with other keywords, cheap branded sales hide what non-branded campaigns really cost.
Do you use AI or automated bidding?
Amazon's own bidding strategies and rules based on search term data are used where they fit. Decisions about margins, budget between products and campaign structure are made by a person reading the account.
Can you manage Sponsored Brands and display ads?
Yes. Sponsored Brands requires Amazon Brand Registry for sellers. Amazon Ads has renamed Sponsored Display to display ads: new display campaigns are created under Display in the Ads console, existing Sponsored Display campaigns keep running, and eligibility is checked in the Ads console for each account. Amazon Ads, "Sponsored Display is now known as display ads". Last verified September 24, 2026.
What do I need to provide?
Advertising access, your cost per unit for each advertised product, and a monthly budget you are comfortable with. Everything else comes from the account.
What happens if I stop?
The campaigns, structure, negatives and reports stay in your account. Nothing is deleted or locked.
Does Shelfcrest have partner status with Amazon Ads?
Not yet. Partner status with Amazon Ads depends on managed spend and certifications, and this page will say so when it is true.
Get a free Amazon PPC audit.
Send your store link. You get a written audit of your ad account: waste, structure, break-even ACoS and the first changes to make.