What is Amazon PPC?
Amazon PPC (Pay-Per-Click) is Amazon’s internal advertising platform where sellers and vendors bid to have their products shown in sponsored placements — at the top of search results, within search result pages, on competitor product pages, and throughout the Amazon ecosystem. Advertisers pay only when a shopper clicks their ad.
Why It Matters
Amazon PPC is the fastest and most controllable way to drive product visibility on Amazon. It is essential for new product launches (before organic rankings develop), for defending market share against competitors targeting your brand terms, for pushing into competitive categories, and for maximizing sales during peak seasons like Prime Day and Q4.
How It Works
Amazon PPC has three main campaign types: Sponsored Products (most common — single product ads appearing in search results), Sponsored Brands (banner ads showing your brand logo + 3 products — available to Brand Registered sellers), and Sponsored Display (retargeting ads appearing on product pages and off Amazon). Campaigns use two keyword match types: broad/phrase/exact match (targeted by keyword) and automatic targeting (Amazon selects relevant search terms). Success is measured primarily through ACOS (Advertising Cost of Sale) and TACOS (Total Advertising Cost of Sale).
Real-World Example
A seller launching a new bamboo cutting board invests $1,000 in Sponsored Products ads over the first 30 days. Auto campaigns discover high-converting search terms they’d missed. After 30 days, their top-performing manual keyword campaigns produce an ACOS of 18% against a product margin of 55% — highly profitable advertising that is also building organic ranking simultaneously.

