How Can I Optimise My Amazon Bids for Better Performance?

If you’ve been running Amazon ads for a while, you’ve probably hit a frustrating plateau at some point. Your campaigns were working, and then suddenly - stuck. Sales aren’t growing, your ad spend feels inefficient, and no matter what you tweak, the results just aren’t matching up. If this sounds familiar, it might be time to rethink your approach to bid optimisation.

Advanced bid optimisation is key to taking your campaigns to the next level. By making data-driven, strategic adjustments, you can break through stagnation, stretch your advertising budget further, and grow intelligently. Here’s how to do it.

Data-Driven Bidding

The days of setting bids and leaving them alone are behind us. To optimise performance, every bidding decision needs to be supported by data. Instead of relying on guesswork or gut instinct, dig into the metrics to understand what’s actually happening in your campaigns.

Metrics to Focus On

ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sales)

Measures the efficiency of your ad spend. Lower ACoS indicates better profitability.

ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)

The inverse of ACoS, it focuses on how much revenue is generated for every pound spent. Higher is better.

Conversion Rate

Tracks how often clicks turn into purchases. Low conversion rates might signal issues with product listing or targeting.

CTR (Click-Through Rate)

A strong CTR means your ad creative and targeting are working effectively.

Impression Share

Shows your visibility compared to competitors. Low impression share might mean your bids are too conservative.

Total Advertising Cost of Sales (TACoS)

A commonly forgotten metric but in our opinion, probably the most important. It measures your total advertising spend as a % of your total sales, giving you a broader perspective than ACoS. 

These metrics don’t work in isolation. For example, strong CTR combined with low conversion rates might mean you’re attracting clicks from the wrong audience. Analyse them together to get a full picture of what’s working and what isn’t.

Bring these insights into every decision. Adjust bids proactively rather than reactively, and you’ll start to see more meaningful improvements.

Granular Keyword Optimisation (Precision targeting)

Not all keywords are created equal. Granular optimisation revolves around segmenting your target keywords and treating them as individual opportunities to refine your bids.

Steps for Keyword Optimisation

Group Keywords by Theme

Divide your keywords into tightly themed ad groups. This ensures more relevant targeting, and lets you adjust bids based on the performance of specific keyword groups. Our secret, don't target based on product groups, group them based on audience groups. And critically, never have more than 12-15 keywords in any campaign group. 

Identify High vs. Low Performers

Your high-performing keywords - those with strong CTRs and high sales - deserve higher bids to ensure top placement. Low performers, on the other hand, might need lower bids or removal altogether. Grouping them tactically is important and so consider separating the low performing keywords into their own campaigns in case the high-frequency ones are cannibalising the budget and not giving the others a chance to shine.

Adjust Bids Strategically

For high-performing keywords, gradually raise bids to capture more impressions without sacrificing profitability. For low performers, experiment with bid reductions or pause them entirely if the results don’t improve.

An Example

Say you’re selling winter boots. If “waterproof boots” has a strong ROAS, you can afford to increase the bid to gain more visibility. If “snow boots for kids” has lots of impressions but few sales, reduce the bid or re-evaluate its relevance to your campaign.

Granularity makes your bids more precise, eliminates waste, and ensures resources are allocated where they’ll have the most impact.

Product-Level Bidding Strategies (Tailoring to each product/audience group)

Different products or audience groups have different sales dynamics, profit margins, and levels of competition. Optimising your bids at the product or audience level ensures tailored strategies for each one.

Steps for Product-Level Optimisation

Analyse Profitability

Not every product benefits equally from aggressive bidding. Focus your ad spend on high-margin, high-velocity products.

Segment and Prioritise

Group products or audiences by their business goals. A new product launch might justify higher bids, while clearance products might need careful budget control.

Tailor Bids by Price Points

For higher-ticket items, you may be able to sustain higher bids since fewer conversions are needed to stay profitable. For lower-ticket items, keep bids conservative to avoid an unprofitable ACoS.

In Practice 

If you’re promoting both a £100 product and a £10 product, the ad budgets and bid adjustments should differ dramatically. The former can justify higher bids since one conversion generates more revenue. The latter requires careful control to avoid overspending relative to small profits.

Optimising bids individually to product performance ensures you’re not treating vastly different items with a one-size-fits-all approach.

Advanced A/B Testing for Bids

When performance stalls, testing is your best tool for discovering new opportunities. A/B testing allows you to trial changes to your bid strategies and keep what works.

How to Structure A/B Tests

1. Set a Clear Hypothesis

For example, “Will increasing bids for my top keyword by 20% improve ROAS?”

2. Control Variables

Compare two versions of the campaign - one where the changes are applied, and one where everything else stays the same.

3. Run for Enough Time

Allow the test to gather sufficient data to produce statistically significant results.

Testing Ideas

• Test dynamic bids (up and down) versus fixed bids to see which delivers better results.

• Experiment with raising or lowering bids in specific ad groups to assess the impact on ACoS and CTR.

• Trial different bid increments for high-performing keywords to identify the sweet spot for maximising performance without overspending.

Systematic A/B testing refines your approach and helps uncover opportunities that might otherwise go unnoticed.

Scaling Your Bids Strategically

When campaigns succeed, there’s a natural urge to scale them up - but scaling isn’t just about throwing more money into the mix. Done right, scaling ensures continued profitability and sustainable growth.

3 Strategies for Scaling Bids

Start Small

Gradually increase bids on high-performing keywords or products. Monitor the impact before making significant changes.

Focus on Efficiency

High ROAS or low ACoS should remain your benchmark as you scale. Avoid sacrificing efficiency for volume.

Expand While Monitoring

Use the additional budget to test new keywords or audience segments while maintaining tight control on performance metrics.

Remember, scaling is a balancing act - you want to maximise growth without eroding your campaign’s profitability.

Incorporate Digital Tools to Make Things Easier (and Efficient!)

It doesn’t all have to be a manual process, and in practice, if you’re going to scale you are going to need to be able to do things faster and more efficiently. That’s where tools like Teikametrics come in. It automates your bidding using A.I., based on parameters you set. It then optimises your bids across all campaigns several times a day making your budget go further, your profits easier to maintain and makes your life easier.

Key Takeaways

Optimising your Amazon bids for better performance requires a step beyond the basics. By taking a granular, data-driven approach and using advanced techniques like A/B testing and product-level adjustments, you can fine-tune campaigns for maximum impact.

Remember, the key to sustainable growth is strategic decision-making. 

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