Amazon Ads: Account Structure Basics In 5 Minutes

We’ve all heard the good old “Run an auto campaign to find new keywords and put the best ones in a manual.” That’s, for the most part, some sound advice, but the concept is actually not new at all. In Google Ads, we used to call it the Alpha & Beta campaign structure.

But why would I want to learn this?

Simple — to use any strategy to its fullest potential, you need to know not only what to do, but also why you do it.

Learning this strategy would allow you to play with different variations of the “auto => manual” idea, like adding a second manual for more targeted keyword discovery or ditching the auto altogether.

Having knowledge like this gives you an edge over your competitors, who most likely use the “auto => manual,” but have no idea why it works, how it works and what are the alternatives.

Okay, you got me. What’s the alpha thingy?

An Alpha campaign is a place for your best-performing keywords.

• High CTR;
• Low ACOS;
• High purchase intent;

Here’s how a typical one looks:

• A low number of keywords;
• Phrase & exact match;
• Big budget;
• High bids;
• Tons of data;

60% to 80% of your sales are going to come from this single campaign.

Here are some general rules to keep in mind:

1. No weak keywords allowed. Do not even consider adding average or below average keywords to your Alpha campaign, as the more you push a keyword, the worse it gets. If the term is performing just decent on a low budget, chances are it’s going to crack on a bigger one.
2. Meticulously control underperformers. Always do your weekly/monthly checks and don’t be afraid to bid down keywords once you have proper data.
3. Systematically bid up the good performers. There are going to be keywords that perform a lot better than the mass. Try increasing their to see if you can get more volume out of them. Keep in mind, that if you don’t get much more reach, but your ACOS sharply increases, the keyword is most likely maxed out, so bid it down to where it was.
4. Don’t feel bad about pausing keywords. Of course, make sure you have all the data you need to make an informed decision, but don’t leave a bad performer in there, just because back in the day it used to do well.

But where should you get all those awesome keywords? Helium 10? Jungle Scout? Those are cool, but you are going to be paying a minimum of $100 per month for either one. What if there was a better way? What if you could pay Amazon directly for keyword research? Actually, you can.

The forgotten art of Beta campaigns.

Here comes the exciting part. Beta campaigns are all about keyword discovery — their only purpose is to inform you about the best terms around town.

And because you are not working with some third-party software, the data you get is completely accurate, field-tested, and overall a much better representation of reality.

The main idea is to run an auto campaign or a manual filled with loose keywords, either of which will show your ads on a huge amount of searches.

In an average month, most of those are going to stink. A few are going to be okay. But three or four will make you go WOW. They are going to have:

• High CTR;
• Low ACOS;
• High purchase intent;

Those are the ones destined for your Alpha campaign.

Now the question becomes how to get them without going broke.

Here’s how a proper Beta campaign should look:

• Tiny budget;
• Tiny bids;
• Just enough data;

A few general rules to keep in mind:

1. Auto campaigns are not always optimal, especially when it comes to new products. Always check what keywords Amazon suggests for a product. If they are mostly irrelevant, go with a manual.
2. Don’t stuff your campaign with keywords. Two well-selected phrase matches could find you more relevant keywords than 50 broads. Besides, the more keywords you have, the more budget you will eat up.
3. Be clear on what budget you are willing to devote to your beta. Generally, don't let a Beta campaign consume more than a quarter of your account budget.
4. Your KPI is not ACOS. It’s cost per keyword discovered (CPK). Nevertheless, if you are losing a ton of money, you are most likely doing something wrong — excessively aggressive bids, too many keywords, or no negatives. Which brings me to the next point . . .
5. Negative keywords are key. Always check your entire search term report for bad terms and ruthlessly exclude them.

I’ve actually had a Beta campaign that turned out extremely profitable, nearly surpassingthe Alpha, because over the past few months, I had simply blocked 95% of the irrelevant search terms.

Knowing all that, how would I approach my next build?

Let’s end with a simple example.

Say I am starting a brand new account, with the goal of advertising wireless earbuds. Here’s what I’d do:

Alpha:

• Keywords like [true wireless earbuds], [bluetooth earbuds], [tws earbuds];
• Bids at the high range of Amazon recommendations (say $3);
• 75% of the account budget;

Beta:

• Manual;
• Wireless earbuds as a broad;
• Bid at $0.3 — $0.5;
• 25% of the account budget;

Something as simple as this is perfectly sufficient to get me started.

Now, if the budget is bigger, I am going to do some more manual keyword research for the Alpha, probably add a phrase match or something, but you get the point.

I am going to add Sponsored Brands, Remarketing, an Auto, and god knows what else later down the line, but these two campaigns are definitely going to be my primary focus in the first one to two months of managing the account.

No matter how we look at it, those two campaigns will always be that 20% of the effort that generates 80% of the results.

But how many products should I have in a campaign? Sadly, that’s a question for another day. Going to write an article on that as soon as I can :)