🚀 May Ask Amazon Series: 5 Ways to Lower Your ACOS Before Prime Day
Hi sellers,
Prime Day returns this June, and we're dedicating the entire month of May to helping you prepare. Our Ask Amazon series this month is focused entirely on Prime Day readiness, covering the topics you've told us matter most.
🗓️ Save the Date: Join our Ask Amazon session on May 27th - Amazon partner teams will be answering your Prime Day readiness questions across Ads, Listings, Returns, and more.
_____________________________________
With all that traffic headed your way, the last thing you want is inefficient ad spend eating into your margins. A few strategic moves now can significantly lower your ACOS (Advertising Cost of Sales) so you're converting more efficiently when shoppers are ready to buy.
Here are 5 proven ways to tighten up your campaigns before the big event:
1. Mine Your Search Term Report for Winners (and Losers)
Your Search Term report is a goldmine. Download it from Campaign Manager and look for:
- High-converting search terms - move these into manual campaigns with exact match targeting for tighter bid control
- High-spend, zero-sale terms - add these as negative keywords immediately
This single step can dramatically reduce wasted spend.
2. Add Negative Keywords Aggressively
Negative keywords prevent your ads from showing on irrelevant searches. Review your campaigns and add negatives at both the campaign and ad group level using Negative Exact or Negative Phrase match types. Focus on terms that are eating budget without generating sales.
3. Optimize Your Product Detail Pages
Your ads can drive all the clicks in the world, but if your listing doesn't convert, your ACOS suffers. Before Prime Day, make sure your advertised products have:
- High-quality images (1,000x1,000 pixels minimum)
- Keyword-rich titles and bullet points
- 15+ customer reviews and a 3.5+ star rating
Better conversion rates = lower ACOS without changing a single bid.
4. Use Dynamic Bidding (Up and Down)
Switch your bidding strategy to "Dynamic bids – up and down." This lets Amazon increase your bid when a conversion is more likely and decrease it when it's not, helping you spend smarter during high-traffic periods.
5. Ramp Your Budget Gradually, Don't Spike It
Start increasing your daily budgets 2 weeks before Prime Day rather than waiting until the event. A gradual ramp gives Amazon's algorithms time to optimize your targeting and bidding, resulting in better CPC efficiency than last-minute budget spikes.
💡 Pro Tip: Use Scheduled Budget Rules to automatically increase budgets during the event window so your campaigns don't go dark at peak traffic times.
Helpful Resources
- Sponsored Products Best Practices Guide
- Budget Rules for Advertising Campaigns
- How to optimize your Sponsored Products campaigns: Targeting, bidding, and budget
- Amazon Search Terms report
- Optimize your product discoverability
- Amazon Ads Help Center
What's your go-to strategy for keeping ACOS in check during peak events? Have you found a tactic that consistently works for your campaigns? Share your tips below - let's help each other crush it this Prime Day! 🎯
🚀 May Ask Amazon Series: 5 Ways to Lower Your ACOS Before Prime Day
Hi sellers,
Prime Day returns this June, and we're dedicating the entire month of May to helping you prepare. Our Ask Amazon series this month is focused entirely on Prime Day readiness, covering the topics you've told us matter most.
🗓️ Save the Date: Join our Ask Amazon session on May 27th - Amazon partner teams will be answering your Prime Day readiness questions across Ads, Listings, Returns, and more.
_____________________________________
With all that traffic headed your way, the last thing you want is inefficient ad spend eating into your margins. A few strategic moves now can significantly lower your ACOS (Advertising Cost of Sales) so you're converting more efficiently when shoppers are ready to buy.
Here are 5 proven ways to tighten up your campaigns before the big event:
1. Mine Your Search Term Report for Winners (and Losers)
Your Search Term report is a goldmine. Download it from Campaign Manager and look for:
- High-converting search terms - move these into manual campaigns with exact match targeting for tighter bid control
- High-spend, zero-sale terms - add these as negative keywords immediately
This single step can dramatically reduce wasted spend.
2. Add Negative Keywords Aggressively
Negative keywords prevent your ads from showing on irrelevant searches. Review your campaigns and add negatives at both the campaign and ad group level using Negative Exact or Negative Phrase match types. Focus on terms that are eating budget without generating sales.
3. Optimize Your Product Detail Pages
Your ads can drive all the clicks in the world, but if your listing doesn't convert, your ACOS suffers. Before Prime Day, make sure your advertised products have:
- High-quality images (1,000x1,000 pixels minimum)
- Keyword-rich titles and bullet points
- 15+ customer reviews and a 3.5+ star rating
Better conversion rates = lower ACOS without changing a single bid.
4. Use Dynamic Bidding (Up and Down)
Switch your bidding strategy to "Dynamic bids – up and down." This lets Amazon increase your bid when a conversion is more likely and decrease it when it's not, helping you spend smarter during high-traffic periods.
5. Ramp Your Budget Gradually, Don't Spike It
Start increasing your daily budgets 2 weeks before Prime Day rather than waiting until the event. A gradual ramp gives Amazon's algorithms time to optimize your targeting and bidding, resulting in better CPC efficiency than last-minute budget spikes.
💡 Pro Tip: Use Scheduled Budget Rules to automatically increase budgets during the event window so your campaigns don't go dark at peak traffic times.
Helpful Resources
- Sponsored Products Best Practices Guide
- Budget Rules for Advertising Campaigns
- How to optimize your Sponsored Products campaigns: Targeting, bidding, and budget
- Amazon Search Terms report
- Optimize your product discoverability
- Amazon Ads Help Center
What's your go-to strategy for keeping ACOS in check during peak events? Have you found a tactic that consistently works for your campaigns? Share your tips below - let's help each other crush it this Prime Day! 🎯
3 replies
Seller_r9wMm8LrE5iKj
6. Don't advertise, particularly on a platform with such a fuzzy definition of "conversion" and no way to track the actual funnel. If ACOS is what we're optimizing for, this is a guaranteed winner. In fact, giving as little of your money to Amazon is possible is a good strategy in general, particularly for ACOS reasons.
Also: "Keyword-rich titles and bullet points" is a great way to make a site look like it was written by an SEO firm, rather than the supposedly consumer-centric, UI/UX-aware monopoly buyers previously came to expect.
Please continue to bury your site in off-topic sponsored products and keyword-salad listings. I'd love to see you flame out.
Seller_yKsH1VcZkLlOV
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-forums/discussions/t/ab4b1415-7f56-4bc1-af2a-480b6f7b9c0d?postId=9676c655-8d82-4370-9511-b904c338c4b0
Before prime day will be a good idea to clean not authorized sellers who are using the brand I sell, I am sure Amazon is open to enforce all the rules, polies and Federal laws, same rules Amazon is trying to enforce with legit sellers like me, let's help Amazon buyers stay away from low quality products, not authorized and in some cases a counterfeits. I am willing to help Amazon and the brand I am selling for the past 25 years, let's do it for the good of Amazon customers.
Seller_z1JDNz6de1lqc
How many additional days will Amazon hold funds after Prime day? Will Amazon give customers longer to return and swap items out or any other changes that sellers should be made aware of?