How to Optimize Amazon Ads: A Weekly Routine

To optimize Amazon ads, run the same routine every week: read the search term report, scale the searches that perform and add negative keywords for the ones that don't, raise placement bids where placements convert, keep campaigns in budget, and fix the listings behind the ads. Amazon's own pages set the rules for each step.

A paid ads lead put the question to me: "our campaigns are live, so what should we change each week without guessing?" Most advice is a list of tactics. The work is a routine, run the same way each week, so one week's change can be read against the last.

Our agent ran the routine through the Amazon Ads MCP. It pulled the search term report, split scale candidates from wasted spend with the search-term Skill, and checked each change against the rules Amazon Agent Atlas holds from Amazon's pages. The change set went through the account's workspace policy before anything reached Amazon.

The search term report is where Amazon ads optimization starts

The Search term report for Sponsored Products lists the searches that led to at least one ad click, including terms Amazon inferred as the best match in non-search placements. It is available to sellers, vendors, authors and book vendors running Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands. Amazon's advice is to use it to find high-performing searches and to create negative keyword or product targets for the searches that don't meet your goals.

The report counts only searches with a click, so Amazon notes its impressions may not match the campaign manager's.

The search-term Skill turns the report into decisions. It returns two scale tables, a negative list once the data is sufficient, rising terms to watch, and a separate stream of product (ASIN) targets. On a thin observation window it holds the negatives rather than guessing.

Negative keywords stop spend on searches that don't convert

Add negative keywords or negative products sets two match types for negatives:

An existing negative keyword's match type can't be changed, so fixing a wrong match type means adding a new negative. Product targets are a separate lever: the search-term Skill keeps ASIN targets in their own stream instead of treating them as keyword negatives.

Raise placement bids where the placement report shows conversions

Adjust Sponsored Products bids lets you raise a bid by a percentage for each placement, and Amazon frames it as a move for placements you have seen convert better:

• Top of search: the first page's top row, up to the first 5 positions on desktop and 4 on mobile.
• Rest of search: the middle or bottom of shopping results, and page two onward.
• Product pages: detail pages and other non-shopping placements such as the add-to-cart page.
• Amazon Business placements.

Placement and audience adjustments combine, up to a 900% increase on the base bid. Amazon's own example: a $1 bid with 50% for top of search, 100% for Amazon Business and 50% for an audience becomes $4.50. The agent reads each placement's results through the Amazon Ads MCP before it proposes an adjustment.

Bidding strategies for Sponsored Products sets how Amazon moves the bid itself: dynamic down only, dynamic up and down, fixed, or rule-based, where you set a return on ad spend (ROAS) goal and Amazon adjusts each bid toward it without guaranteeing it. The Amazon PPC guides explain each.

Budgets and listings decide whether good bids get to work

Budget recommendations and missed opportunities reports three things for a campaign:

• a recommended daily budget to keep it in budget for the full 24 hours
• the share of time it was in budget over the past seven days
• estimated missed impressions, clicks and sales, which Amazon labels as estimates and not guaranteed

Amazon's own tip: look for high-performing campaigns with less than 100% average time in budget and estimated missed sales, and raise their budget.

The budget pacing Skill compares spend with the month's plan, forecasts the rest of the month, and returns a budget change set that remains a proposal until approved.

Ads send shoppers to listings. Optimize products for advertising shows listing recommendations in campaign manager for advertised products, and its tips include a title of about 60 characters, 4 or more images at least 1,000 pixels on a side, and 3 or more bullet points. The agent reads the listings through the Selling Partner MCP and flags the ones short on those tips. For portfolio structure, the Sponsored Products campaign audit separates serving problems, concentration risk and structural hints.

What happens next: run the routine on the same day each week and compare against last week

Run the five steps in order, on the same day each week, and read each result against the week before. A change you can't compare is a change you can't judge. Saved as a Skill, the routine runs the same way every time, and the Amazon Agent Data layer keeps the weekly history the comparison needs.

The metric that tells you whether the routine is working is ACoS against TACoS, covered in TACoS vs ACoS. If the campaigns aren't live yet, start with Amazon advertising services.

Next: how to reduce ACoS on Amazon across bids, negatives, targeting and listings.