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Amazon Advertising Strategy Full-Funnel Guide
A well-designed ad architecture is the foundation of efficient advertising. A full-funnel strategy covers the complete buyer decision path from awareness to conversion.
Full-Funnel Advertising Model:
Upper funnel (Awareness) - goal: reach new users
• Ad types: Sponsored Display (audience targeting), DSP (brand display), SB (Sponsored Brands)
• KPIs: impressions, share of new customers, lift in branded searches
• Budget share: 20%-30%
• Target ACOS: no limit (focus on impression and awareness metrics)
Mid funnel (Consideration) - goal: build purchase intent
• Ad types: SP (auto campaigns, broad match), SB (brand video), SD (product targeting)
• KPIs: click-through rate, add-to-cart rate, save rate
• Budget share: 30%-40%
• Target ACOS: 30%-50%
Lower funnel (Conversion) - goal: drive purchases
• Ad types: SP (exact match, phrase match), SB (brand store), SD (retargeting)
• KPIs: ACOS, ROAS, conversion rate
• Budget share: 40%-50%
• Target ACOS: 15%-25%
Building the Ad Account Structure:
• Build Portfolios by category (for example an electronics portfolio and a home goods portfolio)
• Build Campaigns by ad type (for example SP-Auto, SP-Exact and SB-Video)
• Build Ad Groups by keyword theme (for example core terms, long-tail terms and branded terms)
• Campaign naming convention: [Category]_[AdType]_[Objective]_[Date]
• Example: "Home_SP_Exact_BestSeller_2026Q3"
Sensible budget allocation is the key to maximizing advertising ROI.
Budget Allocation Principles:
• The 80/20 rule: allocate 80% of budget to the top 20% of best-selling products (the ASINs that generate 80% of sales)
• Allocation by life cycle:
- Launch phase (months 1-3): ad budget at 20%-30% of sales
- Growth phase (months 4-6): ad budget at 15%-20% of sales
- Mature phase (month 7 onward): ad budget at 10%-15% of sales
Budget Allocation Across Ad Types:
• SP ads (search ads): 50%-60% of total budget
• SB ads (Sponsored Brands): 20%-25% of total budget
• SD ads (display ads): 15%-25% of total budget
• DSP ads (programmatic): a separate budget (suited to sellers spending $10K+ a month on ads)
Ad Combination Strategies:
New product cold-start combination:
• SP auto campaigns (to discover keywords) + SB brand ads (brand awareness) + Coupon (to accelerate conversion)
• Budget split: SP 60% + SB 25% + SD 15%
Peak season combination:
• SP exact match (core converting terms) + SB video (brand exposure) + SD retargeting (abandoned carts)
• Budget increase: raise the total budget 2-3 times during peak season
• Dayparting: raise bids 30%-50% during peak hours
Clearance and inventory reduction combination:
• SP auto campaigns (broad reach at low bids) + SD audience targeting (retargeting) + Coupon (steep discounts)
• Budget control: relax the target ACOS to 50% or more
• Bidding strategy: lower bids while keeping exposure
Ad optimization is essentially a continuous, data-driven iteration.
Building an Advertising Data Dashboard:
We recommend a weekly dashboard covering the following dimensions:
Account-level metrics:
• Total spend, total sales, total ACOS, total ROAS
• Ad sales share (sales generated by ads / total sales)
• Spend and ACOS distribution by ad type
Campaign-level metrics:
• Spend, impressions, clicks and ACOS for each Campaign
• Budget utilization (actual spend / budget)
• Impression share and click-through rate trends
Keyword-level metrics:
• Search term performance (the 3P attribution: purchases, clicks, impressions)
• Keyword ACOS ranking
• New term discovery (high-converting new terms found in auto campaigns)
• Negative keyword list updates
Optimization Cadence:
Daily:
• Check budget consumption and ACOS anomalies
• Handle Campaigns that have hit their budget cap
• Check whether any new products need advertising switched on
Weekly:
• Update the negative keyword list
• Move well-performing terms from auto campaigns into manual campaigns
• Adjust bids and budgets
• Check whether the Campaign structure needs adjusting
Monthly:
• Review the whole ad architecture and delivery performance
• Update the keyword library (using the latest Brand Analytics data)
• Test new ad types and creative
• Set the advertising budget plan for the coming month
Advanced Advertising Optimization Techniques:
• Use Portfolio budget management: distribute budget flexibly across multiple Campaigns
• Use bidding adjustments: optimize placement based on top-of-search impression share and placement adjustments
• Seasonal budget reserves: raise budget gradually in the month before peak season
• New customer share optimization: run a separate Campaign aimed at new-to-brand customers
• Link ads to organic ranking: the sales lift from advertising can raise organic ranking
Ad delivery is not uniform across the year; it has to be adjusted dynamically with the selling season and the product life cycle.
Advertising Strategy by Product Life Cycle:
Launch phase (months 1-3):
• Ad goal: test keywords, accumulate data, earn early reviews
• Ad types: SP auto campaigns + SP broad match
• Budget: 20%-30% of sales
• ACOS target: 40%-60% (a loss up front is acceptable to build data for later)
• Metrics to watch: click-through rate, new term discovery, review accumulation speed
Growth phase (months 4-9):
• Ad goal: expand keywords, lift ranking, grow sales
• Ad types: SP exact match + SP phrase match + SB brand ads
• Budget: 15%-20% of sales
• ACOS target: 25%-40%
• Metrics to watch: organic ranking gains, keyword expansion, ACOS optimization
Mature phase (month 10 onward):
• Ad goal: hold ranking, improve profit, defend against competitors
• Ad types: SP exact match + SD competitor interception + SB brand defense
• Budget: 10%-15% of sales
• ACOS target: 15%-25%
• Metrics to watch: ACOS optimization, profit maximization, branded search volume
Seasonal Advertising Adjustment Cadence:
• Off season (Q1, September): cut budget to 60% of peak season and focus on high-converting terms
• Warm-up (4-6 weeks before peak season): raise budget gradually and test peak-season keywords
• Peak season (Prime Day/Black Friday/Christmas): raise budget 2-3 times and cover every keyword
• After peak season: reduce budget gradually and clear out ineffective keywords
• Keep a 5%-10% off Coupon running all year to maintain the green badge effect
© 2026 Ylishi Tools — Amazon Seller In-Depth Guide Series
Data sources: Amazon Advertising official documentation and Sponsored Products bid analysis.
Reference links:
• Amazon Sponsored Products
Disclaimer: PPC performance depends on many factors; this analysis is for reference only.
Amazon Sponsored Brands Brand Advertising Guide
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Written and maintained by the ylishi.tools editorial team, which has tracked Amazon, Temu and TikTok Shop seller fees since 2019. Spotted an error or a stale rate? Email support@ylishi.tools — figures on this page are corrected whenever the published fee schedule changes.