The core Amazon PPC formula: Auto campaigns to discover keywords → Manual Exact campaigns to scale winners → aggressive negative keyword mining to cut waste. Most Indian sellers lose 35–50% of ad spend on irrelevant search terms. Fixing that alone often halves ACoS.
EcomSarthi PPC Team··18 min read
Amazon PPC Advertising Strategy India 2026 — The Complete Playbook
I've managed Amazon PPC accounts spending ₹50L+ per month. And the honest truth? Most sellers are throwing money away — not because Amazon PPC doesn't work, but because nobody showed them the proper structure. This guide gives you the full system: campaign architecture, bid rules, keyword research, scaling tactics and how to stop bleeding ad spend.
1. Amazon PPC Ad Types Explained
Amazon India offers three types of PPC ads. Understanding when and why to use each changes your results dramatically.
Sponsored Products (SP)
The most important. These are the keyword-targeted ads that appear in search results and on product pages. Start here. SP drives 80%+ of most sellers' ad revenue.
Best for all sellers. High intent — buyers are actively searching for your product type.
Sponsored Brands (SB)
Banner ads at the top of search. Show your logo, brand headline and 3 products. Brand awareness and brand keyword defence. Requires Brand Registry.
Best for brand-registered sellers. Use to defend your brand keywords and target competitor brand searches.
Sponsored Display (SD)
Retargeting ads shown to buyers who viewed your listing or competitors' listings. Also appears off-Amazon on websites and apps.
Best for retargeting and competitor conquest. Allocate 10–15% of ad budget here once SP is optimised.
2. The Proven Campaign Structure — Auto-to-Manual Funnel
Most sellers either run only auto campaigns (missing scale) or only manual campaigns (missing new keyword discovery). The right approach combines both in a funnel:
Phase 1
₹300–500/day
Week 1–2: Auto Campaign (Discovery)
Run a broad auto campaign targeting all match types. Amazon finds keywords for you. Your job is to collect the Search Term Report data — what people actually searched before buying your product.
Phase 2
60% of total budget
Week 3+: Manual Exact Campaign (Scale)
Export Search Term Report. Add all keywords that got 2+ sales as exact match keywords in a new manual campaign with bids 20–30% higher than what auto was spending on them.
Phase 3
30% of total budget
Week 3+: Manual Broad/Phrase Campaign (Expand)
Use your best keywords in broad and phrase match to discover related variations. Mine this weekly for new exact match additions.
Ongoing
Daily 10-min task
Negative Keywords (Control)
Block irrelevant search terms from ALL campaigns every week. This is where most of your ACoS reduction comes from. Never skip this.
💡 Pro Tip: Separate campaigns = separate budgets
Never put auto and manual keywords in the same campaign. Keep them separate so you can allocate different budgets, see separate performance data, and prevent auto-discovered keywords from competing with your manually targeted ones.
3. Keyword Research for Amazon India — Beyond the Obvious
Most Indian sellers start with the obvious broad keyword — "cotton kurta" or "phone case for iPhone 15". Those high-volume keywords are expensive and competitive. The real wins come from the long-tail:
Amazon Search Bar Autocomplete
Type your seed keyword + each letter of the alphabet in the Amazon search bar. The suggestions are based on real search volume. Screenshot every suggestion — these are buyer-validated keywords.
Competitor Listing Bullets
Read your top 5 competitors' listing titles, bullets and descriptions. They've already done keyword research. Extract unique terms you're not using.
Amazon Brand Analytics (ABA)
If you have Brand Registry, ABA shows the exact search terms that drove clicks and conversions to your ASINs — and your competitors'. This is gold.
Your Own Search Term Reports
After 2 weeks of auto campaigns, your own Search Term Report shows what actual buyers searched. These are your highest-converting seed keywords for manual campaigns.
Use EcomSarthi's free keyword research tool to find Amazon search volumes for Indian keywords. Type any keyword and get search volume estimates + related terms.
4. Negative Keywords — Your Biggest ACoS Quick-Win
I want to spend extra time here because this is the most underused lever in Amazon PPC India. In almost every account I audit, 30–50% of ad spend is going to completely irrelevant searches — and nobody is adding negative keywords to stop it.
Weekly Search Term Report analysis is the single most impactful 30-minute activity for any Amazon PPC account.
The weekly negative keyword process:
Download your Search Term Report from Amazon Seller Central (Advertising → Search Term Report)
Filter for last 30 days, minimum 10 clicks
Sort by ACoS descending
Add as Exact Negative any search term with: 10+ clicks and 0 sales
Add as Exact Negative any term with ACoS more than 2× your target ACoS
Add as Phrase Negative any irrelevant word pattern (e.g., if you sell men's products, add "women", "ladies", "female" as phrase negatives)
Real Example: Negative Keywords Saving ₹40,000/month
A client selling "bamboo toothbrush" was spending ₹15,000/month on searches like "bamboo plant", "bamboo furniture", "bamboo flooring" — all from broad match catching the word "bamboo". Adding those as phrase negatives reduced ad spend by 27% with zero revenue loss. That's ₹4,000/month saved from one 15-minute exercise.
5. Bid Optimisation Rules — The Numbers
Don't change bids randomly. Use these rules consistently every week:
Situation
Action
Amount
Why
ACoS below target by >10% AND ROAS above target
Increase bid
↑ 15–20%
You're underinvesting in a profitable keyword. Pay more to get more volume.
ACoS above target by >5%
Decrease bid
↓ 10–15%
Still getting conversions, just too expensive. Reduce until breakeven.
Good keyword, zero impressions
Increase bid aggressively
↑ 30–50%
You're probably below the floor CPC for this keyword. Bid to get into the auction.
High impressions, CTR below 0.3%
Improve listing or reduce bid
↓ 15–25%
Buyers are seeing you but not clicking. Listing or image problem. Pause expensive bid.
20+ clicks, zero sales, ACoS ∞
Pause keyword
Remove
This keyword does not convert for you. Add as negative exact.
Keyword converting well — running out of budget
Increase daily budget
↑ 30–50%
Don't let budget cap limit a profitable keyword. Scale it.
One important rule: Change only one variable at a time. If you change the bid AND the ad copy in the same week, you can't tell which drove any change in performance. Change bids first, wait 7 days, then evaluate.
6. How to Set Your Target ACoS — The Right Framework
ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sale) = Ad Spend ÷ Ad Revenue × 100. If you spend ₹1,000 and it generates ₹5,000 in ad revenue, your ACoS is 20%.
The common question: "What's a good ACoS?" The answer is: it depends on your margin. Here's the formula:
# Target ACoS = 50-70% of break-even (leave profit buffer)
Target ACoS = 25-35% for this product
New product launch
Accept ACoS up to break-even (even 60-80%)
You're buying rank and reviews. Profitability comes later.
Growing phase
Target ACoS = 50-60% of gross margin
Balance between visibility investment and profit.
Mature product
Target ACoS = 30-40% of gross margin
Optimise for profitability. Scale only proven keywords.
Defensive (brand protection)
Target ACoS can exceed break-even
Paying to keep competitors off your brand keyword. Worth it.
7. Dayparting on Amazon India — When to Run Ads
Amazon India shopping traffic peaks at two windows: 9am–12pm (morning commute + WFH browsing) and 7pm–11pm (evening shopping). Late night (1am–7am) has very low conversion despite moderate traffic.
Amazon's native campaign manager doesn't support true dayparting (scheduling ads by hour). But there are two workarounds:
Amazon Budget Rules: Set automated budget rules to increase budget by 50% during 9am–12pm and 7pm–10pm, and decrease it by 50% from 12am–7am.
Third-party tools like Teikametrics, Perpetua or SellerApp (all support Indian marketplaces) allow true hourly dayparting. Worth it if you spend ₹30,000+/month on PPC.
8. Sponsored Brands & Sponsored Display — When to Use Them
Sponsored Brands (SB) — 3 Use Cases
Brand defence: Target your own brand name to own the top result and prevent competitors from stealing your branded traffic.
Competitor conquest: Target competitor brand names. Your ad appears when buyers search for a competitor — capturing consideration at the moment of search.
Category awareness: Target broad category terms with a hero product selection to build brand recall among buyers who haven't searched for you yet.
SB Video ads get ~2× the CTR of static banner SB ads. If you have 30–60 second product demo videos, use SB Video campaigns.
Sponsored Display (SD) — Retargeting Strategy
Audience retargeting: Target buyers who viewed your listing in the last 30 days but didn't purchase. These are high-intent browsers who just need another reminder.
Views retargeting: Target buyers who viewed competitor listings. They're in the market — show them your product at a better price or offer.
Product targeting: Appear on competitor product pages. When a buyer is viewing your competitor, your SD ad appears as an alternative.
Allocate 10–15% of total PPC budget to SD retargeting. CPCs are lower than SP, and the intent is high because these buyers already showed interest.
9. When and How to Scale Amazon PPC
The biggest mistake in PPC scaling: increasing budgets before you've optimised the structure. Scale prematurely and you just amplify the waste. Here's the scaling checklist:
✅Before scaling: minimum 2 weeks of auto campaign data
✅Before scaling: manual exact match campaigns running for top 10–15 keywords
✅Before scaling: negative keyword list of at least 30–50 terms in place
✅Before scaling: ACoS at or below target for 7 consecutive days
✅Before scaling: listing conversion rate above 8% (check in Business Reports)
🚀Scale signal: manual exact campaign hitting daily budget cap consistently
🚀Scale signal: top keywords ranking on page 1 organically — scale down PPC bids to harvest organic
🚀Scale signal: ACoS well below target — room to increase bids for more volume
When scaling, increase budgets in 20–30% increments and wait 7 days before the next increase. Doubling budgets overnight often spikes ACoS because the algorithm pushes your ads into lower-quality placements.
10. 8 Amazon PPC Mistakes Indian Sellers Make
1
Only running auto campaigns
Auto campaigns discover keywords but they don't scale. Without manual exact match campaigns, you're leaving 60-70% of your potential revenue on the table.
Fix: Build the auto→manual funnel described in Section 2.
2
Never checking Search Term Report
Running PPC without weekly Search Term Report review is like driving blindfolded. You don't know where your money is going.
Fix: Set a weekly 30-minute calendar block for STR review and negative keyword addition.
3
Bidding the same on all keywords
Not all keywords are equal. A keyword converting at 8% ACoS deserves 3× the bid of one converting at 40%.
Fix: Segment keywords by performance and set tiered bids based on conversion rate.
4
Running ads on products with poor listings
If your main image, title and bullets are weak, no amount of PPC spending will fix a bad conversion rate.
Fix: Optimise listing CVR to 8%+ before scaling ad spend. Use our listing image maker tool.
5
No structure — one campaign for everything
One campaign mixing auto and manual, all products, all match types = impossible to optimise.
Fix: Separate campaigns: one product type, one match type per campaign minimum.
6
Pausing ads when sales are good
When organic ranking is strong, many sellers pause PPC. But organic ranking is often powered by ad velocity. Pausing can tank your rank.
Fix: Reduce bids to harvest organic — don't fully pause. Reduce budget to minimum maintenance level.
7
Bidding on brand keywords without Brand Registry
Without Brand Registry, you can't run Sponsored Brands. And bidding on your brand keywords via SP is wasted spend if your listing already ranks #1.
Fix: Apply for Brand Registry first. Then use SB to own branded searches completely.
8
Ignoring impression share
Low impressions on a manual keyword usually means bid is below floor CPC — not that the keyword is bad.
Fix: Increase bid by 50% and wait 48 hours. If impressions appear, you found the floor. If not, the keyword genuinely has no volume.
Want EcomSarthi to manage your Amazon PPC?
We implement this full strategy for 100+ Amazon India sellers. Average result: 35–50% ACoS reduction in 60 days with revenue growth. Free audit includes a full breakdown of where your current spend is wasted.
A good ACoS depends entirely on your product's net margin. If your margin before ads is 40%, an ACoS of 20–25% leaves you profitable after ad spend. Rule of thumb: Target ACoS = Net Margin / 2 as a starting point. For new launches, accept higher ACoS temporarily to build organic rank.
How much budget should I start with for Amazon PPC in India?
Start with ₹300–500/day for an auto campaign on your top 1–3 ASINs. After 2 weeks of data, build manual exact match campaigns from your Search Term Report and split budget accordingly. Scale once you have a positive ACoS baseline.
What is the difference between ACoS and TACoS?
ACoS = Ad Spend / Ad Revenue. TACoS = Ad Spend / Total Revenue (ads + organic). TACoS is the better long-term health metric — it shows whether your advertising is growing total business or just buying revenue that would have come organically anyway. A falling TACoS over time means ads are building organic ranking (good).
Should I use auto or manual campaigns?
Always both. Auto campaigns discover new converting keywords from actual buyer search behaviour. Manual campaigns scale those proven keywords at optimised bids. The auto→manual funnel described in this guide is the foundation every account needs.
How do I reduce Amazon PPC ACoS?
Fastest methods: (1) add negative keywords weekly from Search Term Report, (2) pause keywords with 20+ clicks and zero sales, (3) lower bids 10–15% on keywords above target ACoS, (4) improve listing conversion rate — every % improvement in CVR reduces effective ACoS.
How long does it take to see Amazon PPC results?
Initial data takes 1–2 weeks. First optimisation cycle (negative keywords, bid adjustments) shows ACoS improvement within 2–4 weeks. Full structural optimisation — correct campaigns, harvested keywords, clean negatives — typically takes 60–90 days to fully compound.
EcomSarthi PPC Team·
·18 min read
