The Ad Diet Plan for Amazon Sellers (Yes, Really)

Most sellers are bleeding money on ads they don’t even need.
Not because they’re lazy.
Not because they’re bad at business.
But because Amazon’s ad stack has turned into a buffet—everything looks good, but try to eat it all and you’ll end up bloated… and broke.

Let’s fix that.
Because if you’re running Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display, DSP, and now the shiny new Performance+ tools—chances are you’re overspending, under-tracking, and confusing your buyer (and Amazon’s algorithm).

📖 Meet Carlos—The Overwhelmed Optimizer
Carlos is a dad of two, works full-time in logistics, and sells phone cases on Amazon at night.
He’s sharp, tactical, and puts in the hours. But in 2025, his ads started looking like a Jackson Pollock painting—chaotic, messy, and expensive.

He was running:

• Sponsored Products (Auto + Manual)

• Sponsored Brands (Video + Store Spotlight)

• Sponsored Display (Retargeting + Audiences)

• Amazon DSP (through a fancy agency)

• Performance+ campaigns with A/B tests

His ACoS ballooned to 48%.
His tacos weren’t tasty anymore.
He was ready to quit.

Until he did one thing…
He simplified.

Here’s how he cleaned house and rebuilt his 2026 ad stack for max ROAS.

🔢 Carlos’ 3-Step Ad Stack Reset (You Can Steal This)

✅ Step 1: Keep What’s Driving First-Touch Sales

Carlos pulled 90 days of data into a simple spreadsheet (no fancy software).
He tracked:

• Spend

• Sales

• Orders

• New-to-brand %

Then he asked:
👉 “Which campaigns bring in new shoppers AND turn a profit?”

Here’s what made the cut:

• Sponsored Products Manual – Keyword Targeting
  Still the workhorse.
  He split branded and non-branded terms, added negative keywords weekly.

• Sponsored Brands Video – Top 2 SKUs Only
  Short, punchy, mobile-friendly videos with real unboxings.
  These worked like charm on cold audiences.

Everything else?

❌ Step 2: Cut the Dead Weight
Carlos paused:

• Auto Campaigns that had over 50% ACoS

• Sponsored Display - Audiences that ate budget but didn’t close

• DSP that cost him $3,500/month and gave him stress ulcers

He didn’t cancel DSP entirely—he parked it.
(You can’t optimize what you can’t measure.)

🔁 Step 3: Combine What’s Fragmented
Instead of 27 campaigns, Carlos built:

• 3 hero keyword campaigns (Top Sellers)

• 1 cross-sell Sponsored Display targeting his own listings

• 1 Sponsored Brands campaign pointing to a custom storefront with bundles

He also added brand follow campaigns—those cheap clicks from Amazon Posts and Store Followers.

By combining ad types with the same goal (like awareness or cross-sell), his campaign manager finally looked like a tidy garage—not an episode of Hoarders.

🎯 His results?

• ROAS went from 1.7 to 3.9

• ACoS dropped to 23%

• He hit his first 5-figure profit month in October 2026

• And—he actually took his kids trick-or-treating (for once)

💡 Big Takeaway: Complexity Kills Clarity
The 2026 Amazon Ad Stack is more powerful than ever—but only if you’re ruthless about ROI.
Carlos didn’t scale by adding more.
He scaled by cutting, keeping, and combining.

So the question is:

What are YOU running that’s dragging you down?

💬 “Cut the fat, keep the steak.”

🙋‍♂️ Need help trimming the ad fat?
Drop a comment if you’ve been there 👇
Forward this to a seller friend 💌
Or just hit the ⭐ if this helped!

Until next time—keep making each click count.

Andy Splichal
Founder & Managing Partner of True Online Presence & Author of the Make Each Click Count Book Series

P.S. Overwhelmed by Amazon ads? I get it. Most sellers are throwing darts in the dark. If you want a pro in your corner running your PPC while you focus on growing your brand, let's hop on a call. 👉 Schedule your call here — we’ll see if it’s a fit 👊

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