What Is Amazon PPC? A Beginner’s Guide to Amazon Ads
Amazon PPC is Amazon’s advertising system for sellers. You pay to show your products in Amazon’s search results and on product pages, and you pay only when a shopper clicks. “PPC” stands for pay-per-click.
This guide is for sellers who are new to Amazon ads, or who run them without being sure how they work. It explains how Amazon PPC works, the ad types, what it costs and how to start without wasting money.
The short version
- Amazon PPC ads show your product in search results and on product pages. You pay when someone clicks.
- There are three main ad types: Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display.
- Across US stores in Sophie Hub in September 2026, ads drove 34.5% of sales, at an average of $1.17 per click.
- The goal isn’t only ad sales. Good PPC pushes your product up the organic rankings, so more of your sales come without paying for a click.
In this guide
- How Amazon PPC Works
- The Three Amazon Ad Types
- What Amazon PPC Costs
- The Numbers That Matter
- How to Start Your First Campaigns
- Why Ads Help Organic Rank
- Do It Yourself, Software or an Agency?
- FAQ
1. How Amazon PPC Works
When a shopper searches on Amazon, some of the results are ads, marked “Sponsored”. Sellers bid to appear there. Amazon runs an auction for every search and decides which ads to show based on each seller’s bid and how relevant the product is to the search.
You tell Amazon who to show your ad to in one of four ways:
- Automatic: Amazon chooses the searches and products based on your listing.
- Keywords: you choose the searches.
- Products: you choose product pages or categories to appear on.
- Audiences: you choose shoppers by what they’ve viewed or bought.
When a shopper clicks, you pay. What you pay depends on what the competition bids. You set a daily budget, so you control the maximum you spend.
2. The Three Amazon Ad Types
| Ad type | What it looks like | Where it shows | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sponsored Products | A single product, like a normal search result, marked “Sponsored” | Search results and product pages | Most sales; where almost every seller starts |
| Sponsored Brands | Your logo, a headline and several products, or a video | Top of search results and within results | Brand awareness and getting shoppers to more of your range |
| Sponsored Display | Image ads | Product pages, Amazon’s home page and off Amazon | Bringing back shoppers who viewed your product |
Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display need Brand Registry. Sponsored Products is open to any professional seller.
In the 198 largest US accounts in Sophie Hub, Sponsored Products took most of the budget. The median account put about 11% into Sponsored Brands and under 1% into Sponsored Display.
3. What Amazon PPC Costs
There’s no fixed price. You pay per click, and the price is set by the auction.
- Across all US stores in Sophie Hub in September 2026, the average cost per click was $1.17.
- Among the 198 largest US accounts, the median was $1.33, with a quarter of accounts paying $1.96 or more.
What you can afford to pay depends on your margin and how well your listing converts:
Max cost per click = price × target ACoS × conversion rate
A $30 product, a 30% target and a 12% conversion rate can afford about $1.08 a click. Our bidding and budget strategy explains how to set those numbers.
4. The Numbers That Matter
| Metric | What it means | Formula |
|---|---|---|
| ACoS | Advertising cost of sale: what you spend on ads per dollar of ad sales | Ad spend ÷ ad sales |
| TACoS | Total advertising cost of sale: ad spend compared with all your sales | Ad spend ÷ total sales |
| ROAS | Return on ad spend: ad sales per dollar spent | Ad sales ÷ ad spend |
| CTR | Click-through rate: the share of people who see your ad and click | Clicks ÷ impressions |
| Conversion rate | The share of clicks that become orders | Orders ÷ clicks |
| CPC | Cost per click | Ad spend ÷ clicks |
Across US stores in Sophie Hub, the blended ACoS was 30.6% in September 2026. What a good ACoS is for your products depends on your margin, which we explain in What Is a Good ACoS on Amazon?
5. How to Start Your First Campaigns
- Make sure the listing is ready. Good main image, clear title, competitive price, some reviews. Ads send traffic; the listing has to convert it. See how to improve product visibility on Amazon.
- Know your break-even ACoS. Price minus product cost and Amazon’s fees, divided by price. Our guide to Amazon seller fees shows how.
- Start with two Sponsored Products campaigns: one automatic, to find searches, and one manual with a handful of keywords you’re confident in.
- Set a daily budget you can sustain, enough that campaigns don’t run out by midday.
- After two weeks, read the search term report. Move searches that sell into exact-match keywords, and add irrelevant ones as negatives.
- Review weekly. Adjust bids toward your target, not by feel.
The mistakes to avoid on the way are in 12 Amazon PPC Mistakes We Find in Almost Every Account Audit.
6. Why Ads Help Organic Rank
Amazon ranks products that sell. When ads bring sales for a search, your product’s sales history for that search improves, and its organic rank tends to rise with it. Over time, more of your sales come from organic results you don’t pay for.
That’s why judging ads only on ACoS can mislead. Across the 198 largest US accounts in Sophie Hub, the median brand got 54% of its sales from ads. For a mature product, we aim for closer to 20% from ads and 80% organic. TACoS, ad spend divided by total sales, is the number that shows whether you’re getting there.
7. Do It Yourself, Software or an Agency?
| Option | Good for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Do it yourself | Small catalogs, sellers who want to learn | Time, and mistakes that are easy to miss |
| Software | Sellers with PPC knowledge who want to save time | Automation with nobody checking the target |
| Agency | Brands that want the work done by specialists | Agencies judged only on ACoS |
We compare the tools we use in The Amazon PPC Tools We Actually Use. If you’d like a team to run it, see how we work as an Amazon PPC agency.
Want to know how your ads are doing? We’ll look at your account and show you where the margin is going. You decide what to do with it. Get my free audit
8. FAQ
What does PPC stand for on Amazon?
Pay-per-click. You pay Amazon each time a shopper clicks your ad, not when the ad is shown.
Is Amazon PPC worth it?
For most sellers, yes, because a large share of sales on Amazon comes from ads and ads help organic rank. It’s worth it when ad spend stays below your margin as a share of total sales.
How much should I spend on Amazon PPC?
Enough to keep profitable campaigns running all day, plus a testing budget for new keywords. Keep total ad spend as a share of total sales (TACoS) below your margin.
What’s the difference between Amazon PPC and Amazon Ads?
Amazon Ads is Amazon’s whole advertising business, including streaming TV and display ads off Amazon. Amazon PPC usually means the pay-per-click ads sellers run on Amazon itself: Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display.
Do I need Brand Registry for Amazon PPC?
Not for Sponsored Products. You need it for Sponsored Brands, most Sponsored Display options and Brand Analytics.
Data note: Sophie Hub figures cover US-marketplace stores connected to Sophie Hub in September 2026 (all stores, or the 198 largest with $5K/Month or more in ad spend, as stated). These are accounts connected to the platform, not only accounts Sophie Society manages.