Common Pitfalls to Avoid in Amazon Advertising

Amazon advertising is a powerful tool, but even experienced advertisers often overlook key strategies that can significantly impact performance. Based on numerous account audits, here are some of the most common mistakes we encounter—and actionable advice to address them.

1. Neglecting Defensive Strategies

A recurring oversight we find is the absence of defensive campaigns, even among top-performing brands.

Moreover, brands not running defensive campaigns with Sponsored Brand Ads, Sponsored Products, or Sponsored Display Ads leave room for competitors to appear on their own brand terms. When customers search for a brand, it’s critical to dominate all top placements to reinforce brand loyalty and prevent competitors from siphoning away traffic.

Further, it's even more valuable to use product detail page ad placements for cross-promotion at the same time. This is beneficial to get your product traffic to know about other products in your catalog. We often see brands not using it. For instance, one brand with a #1 bestseller (44,000+ reviews) was receiving immense traffic to their product but failed to leverage that position to promote other items in their catalog.

2. Misconceptions About Defensive Campaign ROI

Some advertisers avoid defensive campaigns, fearing wasted ad spend or cannibalization of organic sales. While these concerns can apply to certain categories, defensive strategies often lead to improved brand visibility.

To tackle cannibalization, we recommend weekly tracking of organic rankings and adjusting bids for branded keywords. For instance, if your product ranks in the top 10 organically, you can lower the bid for that keyword to minimize overlap while maintaining a presence.

3. Overlooking Campaign Structure and Budget Allocation

Campaign mismanagement is another frequent issue. Brands often have disorganized campaigns where:

• Too many products or ad groups are included in a single campaign, diluting performance tracking.
• Limited budgets are allocated inefficiently, with non-performing campaigns consuming resources that could fuel high-performing ones.

We advise conducting regular audits to identify "bleeder" campaigns—those with high spend but low returns. Reallocate the budget to top-performing keywords and campaigns with strong ROI. Tools like Helium 10 or even simple Excel trackers can help monitor campaign performance and keyword rankings.

4. Underutilizing Placement Adjustments

Many advertisers fail to use top-of-search placement percentage adjustments, a feature that can boost visibility where it matters most. Over 70% of Amazon traffic converts on page 1, with the majority focusing on top placements.

Here’s a common scenario: an advertiser increases base bids but doesn’t adjust placement percentages. This can lead to higher spending on lower-performing placements (like rest-of-search or product pages) instead of dominating the high-converting top-of-search area. To optimize, test small increments in top-of-search percentages (e.g., 10–15%) weekly and monitor the impact.

5. Ignoring Sponsored Display Retargeting

Sponsored Display retargeting campaigns are underutilized despite their potential. These campaigns can target shoppers who:

• Visited your product page but didn’t convert.
• Added your product to their cart but didn’t complete the purchase.
• Previously purchased your product and may need a replenishment (ideal for consumables like multivitamins or beauty products).

Especially around events and sales periods, retargeting ads can convert indecisive shoppers or remind them of products they’ve shown interest in. Set a controlled budget and look-back windows (e.g., 7–30 days) for better results.

6. Not Experimenting with All Ad Types

We often find advertisers avoiding certain ad types without proper testing. For instance, some dismiss Sponsored Brand Video Ads or Sponsored Display Ads, assuming they won’t perform. However, accounts that combine multiple ad types (e.g., Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Brand Video) have seen up to a 21% increase in CTR, according to Amazon data.

Testing is critical. Launch small-budget campaigns for underutilized ad types, analyze performance after 14–20 days, and scale successful ones. Even if a campaign doesn’t work initially, revisit it periodically as audience behavior and platform features evolve.

7. Failing to Maximize Impression Share on High-Performing Keywords

Brands often spread their budget thin across too many keywords or campaigns instead of focusing on high-performing, relevant ones first. Check your search term impression share for top-performing keywords—if you’re not dominating these terms, competitors are likely capturing that traffic.

Final Thoughts

Every Amazon ad account is unique, but many of these mistakes stem from a lack of regular monitoring, testing, and strategy refinement. By addressing these issues, brands can unlock untapped potential, improve ROI, and gain a competitive edge. Whether it's implementing defensive strategies, restructuring campaigns, or experimenting with ad types, consistent optimization is key to success.

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