Amazon PPC in 2026: The Campaign Structure That Still Wins
Brainwave Technologies 1 min read
Most Amazon accounts we audit share the same disease: three years of accumulated campaign sprawl. Duplicate targets bidding against each other, auto campaigns never harvested, and zero negative keyword hygiene.
The single-intent principle
Every campaign should answer one question: what buyer intent am I capturing? That means:
- One ad group per intent cluster, not one per product line
- Exact-match performance campaigns fed by broad/auto discovery campaigns
- Weekly negative mining so discovery spend keeps getting cheaper
The structure
- Discovery layer: auto + broad campaigns with modest bids. Their job is data, not profit.
- Performance layer: exact match campaigns holding your proven converters at aggressive bids.
- Defense layer: branded and ASIN-targeting campaigns protecting your listings from competitors.
Why it works
Separation lets you measure each layer against its actual job. Discovery gets judged on new-keyword yield; performance on ACoS; defense on impression share. Blend them and every metric lies to you.
If your ACoS has crept above target and stayed there for a quarter, the problem is almost certainly structure, and structure is fixable in weeks.