Most Amazon sellers run campaigns the way their dashboard suggests - a few auto campaigns, some keywords copied from a competitor tool, and bids adjusted when the ACoS looks too high. The result is wasted spend on untargeted impressions, cannibalised budgets, and no way to know which keywords are actually earning their keep. This guide covers how to build a campaign structure that gives you real control from day one.
Auto vs Manual: What Each Campaign Type Is Actually For
The single biggest structural mistake sellers make is treating auto campaigns as the primary vehicle for their ad spend. Auto campaigns are a discovery tool - they are not a long-term efficiency strategy.
Amazon's algorithm selects which search terms to show your ad against, using close matches, loose matches, substitutes, and complements as targeting types. You have no control over individual keywords - only the overall bid. The value of an auto campaign is the Search Term Report it generates - two to four weeks of data that shows you exactly which search terms real buyers used when they found (and bought) your product. Once you have that data, migrate converting terms into manual campaigns and reduce auto campaign budget to 15–20% of total spend.
You choose every keyword and set individual bids. Manual campaigns take more time to set up and require more active management, but they give you something auto campaigns never will: the ability to invest more in what works and cut what doesn't at a keyword level. Manual campaigns should carry 80–85% of your total PPC budget for any ASIN that's been live more than 30 days. If you're spending most of your budget on auto, you're flying blind.
Match Types Explained - and Why They Must Be Separated
In manual campaigns, every keyword has a match type that determines which search queries trigger your ad. Mixing match types inside the same campaign is one of the most common structural errors - and it's one that silently inflates your ACoS.
| Match Type | What It Matches | Best Used For | Bid Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exact | Only the precise keyword (and minor variations like plurals) | Proven converting terms from your Search Term Report | Highest - these are your proven winners |
| Phrase | Your keyword appearing in order within a longer query | Expanding reach around proven terms while keeping intent | Medium |
| Broad | Any order of your keyword's words, plus related terms | Discovering new converting terms - treated like a semi-auto | Lowest - high discovery risk, harvest converting terms |
When exact and broad keywords share a campaign, Amazon's algorithm allocates budget to whichever keyword bids highest - not whichever converts best. A broad keyword at ₹80 will steal budget from an exact keyword at ₹70, even if the exact keyword converts at three times the rate. Separate match types into separate campaigns entirely. This gives each match type its own budget, its own bid logic, and clean data that tells you how each targeting level is performing independently.
The campaign is the budget container. If exact-match and broad-match share a campaign, you can't control how much goes to each. Separating them is the only way to spend precisely where it works.
The 3-Campaign Launch Structure for a New ASIN
Here is the campaign structure we use at ItsMyView when launching a new product. Three campaigns per ASIN, each with a defined purpose and budget allocation from day one.
Budget: 30–40% of total ASIN spend in weeks 1–4, dropping to 15–20% after. Set dynamic bids - down only. Use a moderate bid (₹15–25 for most categories). Enable all four auto targeting types: close match, loose match, substitutes, complements. Add a master negative keyword list immediately - every term you know won't convert (competitor brand names, irrelevant categories, unrelated use cases). Review the Search Term Report weekly and harvest converting terms into Campaign B or C.
Budget: 50–60% of total ASIN spend. Start with 5–10 of your highest-confidence exact-match keywords - terms from your category research that you'd bet convert for your product. Bid from your margin calculation (Selling Price × Gross Margin × Target ACoS ÷ Conversion Rate). Use dynamic bids - down only initially. As conversions accumulate and you have statistically meaningful data (30+ clicks per keyword), graduate to fixed bids on proven keywords and pause the underperformers. This campaign grows as you harvest from Campaign A.
Budget: 15–20% of total ASIN spend. Add phrase-match versions of your top exact-match keywords. This captures longer-tail variations with the right intent while keeping tighter control than broad match. Bid 20–30% below your exact-match bids for the same root keyword. Use this campaign's Search Term Report as a secondary harvesting source - converting phrase-match queries that aren't already in Campaign B should be added as exact-match keywords there.
In week 1, lead with Campaign A at 60% of budget and Campaign B at 40% - you don't have enough data yet to run phrase-match efficiently. Add Campaign C in week 3 or 4 once Campaign A's Search Term Report gives you phrase-match targets worth pursuing.
Naming Conventions and Portfolios
If you're managing more than three ASINs or selling across multiple categories, campaign naming and portfolio organisation become essential. A Campaign Manager with 40 unnamed campaigns is unmanageable, and bulk operations on unnamed campaigns produce errors.
[Brand] | [ASIN / Product Short Name] | [Campaign Type] | [Match Type]
# Examples
IMV | CopperBottle-500ml | SP-Auto | Discovery
IMV | CopperBottle-500ml | SP-Manual | Exact
IMV | CopperBottle-500ml | SP-Manual | Phrase
IMV | LeatherWallet-Brown | SP-Auto | Discovery
IMV | LeatherWallet-Brown | SP-Manual | Exact
Portfolios are campaign containers inside Seller Central that let you set a shared budget cap across multiple campaigns for a single product. Use one portfolio per ASIN - this prevents a well-performing campaign from burning through budget meant for the whole product, and makes it easy to see total spend per ASIN at a glance without running a report.
| Portfolio | Campaigns Inside | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Copper Bottle 500ml | Auto + Exact + Phrase | Total spend cap for this ASIN |
| Leather Wallet Brown | Auto + Exact + Phrase | Total spend cap for this ASIN |
| New Launch - Oct 2026 | Multiple ASINs, launch phase only | Track launch-phase spend across products |
Weekly Campaign Management Rhythm
A well-structured campaign still needs weekly attention. The structure gives you clean data - the routine is what turns that data into better performance.
Download the Search Term Report from Reports → Bulk Reports. Filter for: search terms with 1+ orders (add as exact-match to Campaign B if not already there), and search terms with spend above 3× your target CPA and zero orders (add as campaign-level negatives immediately). Do this every 7 days. Skipping even one week means you've been paying for non-converting terms for 14 days.
Sort by spend, descending. For every keyword above your break-even ACoS with 30+ clicks: reduce the bid by 15–20%. For every keyword with an ACoS well below break-even and enough volume: increase the bid by 10–15% to capture more impression share. Make only one change per keyword per week - changing bid and match type simultaneously makes it impossible to know which variable drove the result.
In Campaign B (Exact), open the Placement tab. Compare ACoS across Top of Search, Rest of Search, and Product Pages. If Rest of Search ACoS is above your break-even, reduce that placement modifier. If Top of Search is performing well below break-even, increase the Top of Search multiplier to win more of those slots. Placement adjustments compound over time - make them part of every weekly review.
Campaigns structured, but ACoS still high?
We audit Amazon PPC accounts weekly. If your structure is right but the numbers aren't moving, the issue is usually bid logic or listing conversion - we'll find it.