Click Less. Sell More. Smile Bigger.

How to Win with Amazon PPC (Without Burning Cash) 💸

Let me be blunt.

Running Amazon PPC without a game plan is like tossing lit matches onto a pile of dollar bills… and hoping for a bonfire that cooks dinner.

Spoiler: You’re just gonna get burned. 🔥

But here’s the good news…

You can win with Amazon PPC — without bleeding your wallet dry.

Let me show you how, with a real story, a simple strategy, and a lesson every seller needs to tattoo on their brain. Let’s roll. 💪

🚀 The Day My Student Olivia Nearly Quit

I’ll never forget Olivia.

Single mom. Selling baby swaddle wraps on Amazon. Dreaming of quitting her 9-to-5 at the bank.

She launched her first product, turned on automatic campaigns, and let 'er rip.

Sales ticked up.

So did her ad spend. 😬

In one month, she spent $3,200 on PPC.

She made back $2,600 in sales.

Yep — she paid Amazon to lose money.

Olivia messaged me:

We jumped on a call. I had her screen share her campaign manager.

It was a graveyard of wasted clicks and zero strategy.

No search term reports.
No negative keywords.
No optimized bids.
No segmentation.

Just vibes.

What we did next turned her money pit into a money printer.

Let me break it down.

📈 The Step-by-Step PPC Profit System

Step 1: 🛑 Stop the Bleeding

Before we grow anything, we cut the waste.

Here’s what I had Olivia do:

• Turn off ALL automatic campaigns (they were like a toddler with a flamethrower).

• Pull her search term report.

• Sort by "Spend" and "ACOS".

• Pause keywords over 70% ACOS with zero sales.

She had 113 keywords bleeding money. We cut 85 of them. 💉

Lesson: Cut fast. Bleed less.

Step 2: 🧠 Separate Campaigns by Intent

Olivia was lumping everything into one campaign.

We split things like this:

• Branded: Keywords with her brand name.

• Competitor: Keywords with competitor names.

• Generic: “baby wrap”, “soft swaddle”, etc.

• ASIN targeting: Targeting related or weaker competitors.

Each campaign got its own budget and rules.

That way, we knew exactly what was working (and what wasn’t).

Step 3: 🎯 Use Exact Match to Target Winners

Olivia had been using broad match only. It was messy.

We flipped it:

• Moved best-performing search terms into exact match campaigns.

• Lowered bids on broad match.

• Kept a few phrase matches to discover new gems.

Her clicks got cheaper. Her conversions got tighter.

In two weeks, her ACOS dropped from 123% to 41%.

Not perfect. But no longer panic-inducing.

Step 4: 🧼 Clean with Negatives

Every week, Olivia pulled her search term reports.

We asked:

• What keywords cost us money but didn’t convert?

• What irrelevant stuff are we showing for?

If a keyword burned $10+ without a sale — it got slapped with a negative keyword.

She stopped paying for “baby carrier shirt” and other nonsense.

This one change alone saved her $400/month. 💥

Step 5: 📊 Optimize Like a Scientist

Here’s the thing.

PPC isn’t a slot machine. It’s a lab.

Every week, Olivia:

• Adjusted bids (down for high ACOS, up for low ACOS).

• Expanded exact match campaigns with new winners.

• Refined product listings to improve conversion rates.

In 60 days?

• Her ACOS dropped to 27%.

• She doubled her monthly sales.

• And she finally hit her goal of quitting her job.

All without spending more.

💡 The Big Lesson

Amazon PPC is not about outspending your competition.
It’s about outsmarting them.

Most sellers think more ad spend = more sales.
That’s like watering a plant with Red Bull.

What it needs is care, structure, and a little pruning. 🌿

When you:

✅ Cut waste fast
✅ Segment by intent
✅ Target winners with exact match
✅ Use negatives like a boss
✅ Test and tweak weekly

You’ll turn your PPC from a raging bonfire… into a controlled furnace that prints profit.

🧠 Say it With Me…

“Don’t feed the beast. Train it.” 🧨

If this hit home for you, do me a favor:

💬 Drop a comment and tell me your #1 PPC struggle.
⭐ Save this post so you don’t forget these steps.
📤 Share it with a fellow seller who needs a lifeline.

Here’s to smarter ads, better margins, and finally giving your bank account a breather. 💰

Let’s grow,
Ryan “ACOS Assassin” Keene 👊
Your Amazon Growth Wingman