How should I ramp Amazon PPC for Q4 and Prime Day?
Start 30 days before the event. Raise budgets on proven exact and SP category campaigns, warm up bids gradually to build search rank, then scale hard during the 48 hours before and through the event. Do not launch new keywords for the first time on event day; the CPC premium is brutal.
The 30-day playbook
T-30: expand budgets by 20% on proven campaigns. T-14: raise bids by 10 to 20% on top exact keywords. T-3: unlock daily budget caps. T-0: monitor hourly and defend against competitor spikes. T+7: taper bids back before spend runs away on lower-intent traffic.
What to avoid
Launching brand-new keywords on event day, adding untested SB creative, or shifting to aggressive dynamic bidding up on the same day. Save experiments for T-30 through T-14.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to raise bids or just budgets?
Both, but bids matter more. A capped budget with a low bid still loses the auction.
What about Sponsored Display for Prime Day?
SD retargeting of recent detail-page visitors is a strong Prime Day play. Warm the audience 14 days out.
Do I taper after Prime Day?
Yes. CPCs stay elevated for a few days post-event. Taper bids and budgets by roughly 10 to 15% for 5 to 7 days.
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What percent of Amazon revenue should I spend on PPC?
A common range is 8% to 15% of Amazon revenue for private-label brands, tracked as TACoS. Under 8% often means you are under-invested and leaving growth on the table. Over 15% for a mature brand usually means acquisition costs are eating margin faster than repeat revenue can fund them.
How do I find wasted Amazon PPC spend?
Pull 60 days of search-term reports. Flag any search term with 15+ clicks and 0 orders as negative candidates. Flag campaigns whose 30-day ACoS is 2x your target with no volume gain as pause candidates. Between the two, most accounts recover 5% to 15% of budget in a week.
How do I plan Amazon FBA inventory for Q4?
Place your Q4 hero SKU POs by early July, second wave by late August, and a small third wave for post-Cyber Monday replenishment by mid-October. Amazon FC intake slows in November and early December, so units that miss check-in windows sit outside FBA during the peak.
How often should I harvest keywords from Amazon PPC?
Weekly for active accounts, bi-weekly for smaller ones. Pull the search-term report from the last 7 to 14 days, promote high-converting search terms into exact-match campaigns, and add wasteful ones as negatives. Any longer than 2 weeks and you burn budget on losers.