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How to Structure Your Amazon PPC Campaigns

How to Structure Your Amazon PPC Campaigns

Welcome to the Ad Badger Den Blog — where we make your Amazon advertising life a little easier and a whole lot more profitable.

It’s summertime here in Austin. The sun’s out, the lake is calling, and if you’re anything like me, you’re dreaming of blue skies, green trees, and maybe even a boat day on Lake Travis. But before we jump into vacation mode, we’ve got something important — and honestly, something I love talking about — Amazon PPC campaign structure.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: structure doesn’t sound fancy.

But hear me out — this is one of the most misunderstood (and misused) aspects of running Amazon ads. It’s also one of the most powerful levers you have when it comes to making your account run smoother, perform better, and scale faster.

In this post, we’re diving into the core principles — the building blocks — of a smart campaign structure.

No spreadsheets yet, no overcomplicated tactics. Just six essential concepts that will help you rethink how you set up your campaigns and give you a clear, strategic path to follow.

Let’s jump in.

In this article Ad Badger talks about:

The Goldilocks Principle

Let’s start with the most common mistake in Amazon PPC campaign structure — segmentation. Should you break everything into a million tiny campaigns? Or lump all your keywords into one giant bucket?

Neither.

This is where the Goldilocks Principle comes in.

Just like in the fairy tale, you’re looking for that “just right” zone. Not too hot, not too cold — and definitely not too segmented or too broad.

Here’s what happens at both extremes:

  • Too little segmentation: You throw all your keywords and products into one campaign. You can’t see what’s working, what’s not, or which keywords are actually driving conversions.
  • Too much segmentation: You get overly surgical. You pull out every keyword that gets one sale and move it to its own campaign. Now you’ve got dozens (or hundreds) of campaigns running, most of which don’t have enough data to optimize anything.

That second one? It’s surprisingly common — and it leads to accounts that are technically “organized” but practically unmanageable.

What’s the solution?

Aim for meaningful segmentation that matches volume.

A good rule of thumb: each keyword or target in your campaign should ideally generate at least one order per week. That gives you enough data to make smart optimization decisions without drowning in micro-campaigns.

If you’re not hitting that? It’s time to combine low-volume targets or pause underperformers. 

In upcoming chapters, we’ll talk about how to spot when you’ve overdone it, and how to strike the right balance based on your product volume and goals.

But for now, remember this: organized ≠ optimized.

Structure your campaigns to be manageable, data-rich, and flexible — just like Goldilocks would.

The Race Car Principle

Let’s get one thing straight: there’s no such thing as a perfect Amazon PPC campaign structure.

It doesn’t matter how beautiful your setup looks on a whiteboard. As soon as it goes live, real data starts flowing, and that’s when the real work begins. That’s what we call the Race Car Principle — because, just like a race car, your campaigns are built to be tuned, adjusted, and improved over time.

Here’s the reality:

Campaign structure is not static. It’s a living, breathing part of your account that evolves as your data does.

Let’s say you launch a campaign with a handful of ASINs in one ad group.

A week later, you notice a search term showing up that only makes sense for one of those products. That’s your cue. Time to tweak the structure — maybe split those ASINs or adjust targeting. That’s racing. That’s optimizing.

Another example:

You separate keywords into exact-match campaigns. One performs beautifully. Another barely gets any impressions. You may need to recombine, reallocate, or test a broader match type.

The key takeaway?

Treat campaign structure like you treat bids and budgets — something you check in on and improve regularly.

The moment you stop tweaking, you fall behind. Amazon changes. Your competition changes. Your customers change. And your structure needs to keep up.

So when someone asks, “What’s the best campaign structure?”, the honest answer is: “It depends — and it changes.”

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The Relevance Principle

Let’s talk about something that sounds obvious — but trips up even experienced advertisers: relevance.

If you show your ad to the wrong shopper at the wrong time… it doesn’t matter how good your product is. You’re wasting money.

That’s why the Relevance Principle exists. At its core, it’s about ensuring your keywords and product targets are a good match for what you’re actually selling.

Sounds simple, right? But here’s where it goes wrong:

Imagine you’re selling a USB-C dongle.

It’s sleek, modern, and works with MacBooks. So you add a bunch of keywords like “computer adapter,” “tech accessory,” maybe even “laptop part.”

But… some of those keywords are way too broad.

Someone searching for “computer adapter” might be looking for something completely different — like a power brick or an HDMI hub. And now you’re paying for clicks from shoppers who were never going to buy your product.

That’s a relevance problem.

Same goes for product targeting.

Let’s say you’re targeting a competing product — but yours is double the price. Or yours lacks a feature that theirs has. Even if you get impressions, you’re not likely to convert .

So how do you fix it?

Look at your search term reports and ask:

    • Does this term really match what my product does?
    • Would I click on this ad if I searched that term?
    • Am I showing up next to products that make sense to compete with?

Search Term Frequency Rank

High relevance = higher CTR, better conversion rates, and more efficient spend.

Low relevance? That’s where wasted ad dollars pile up fast.

Group by Goal and Theme

Here’s where your Amazon PPC starts to feel less like a cluttered to-do list and more like a well-organized battle plan.

Welcome to the Group by Goal and Theme principle.

This one’s about organizing your campaigns by what you actually want to achieve — not just by ad type or keyword match. It’s about giving each campaign a clear job, and letting it focus on just that.

Let’s break it down.

Say you want to:

  • Defend your branded keywords
  • Capture market share from a competitor
  • Launch a new product
  • Rank higher for a set of keywords

Each of those is a different goal — so each one deserves its own space. If you mix them all into one campaign, it’s like trying to run four races with one pair of shoes. No one wins.

A quick example:

Imagine you’re running competitor targeting.

You’re going after a rival brand with 10 ASINs. If your competitor-related targets are scattered across 15 different campaigns, it’s really hard to track performance, allocate budget, or even know if your strategy’s working.

But if you group them into one or two “competitor conquest” campaigns?

Now you’ve got visibility. Control. Clarity. You can scale what works and cut what doesn’t — fast.

Same logic applies to brand defense, ranking, seasonal pushes, or product launches. When your structure reflects your strategy, you manage it better, measure it faster, and optimize with purpose.

So ask yourself:

  • What is this campaign trying to do?
  • Do all the keywords and ASINs inside support that mission?
  • Or is this a junk drawer of mixed goals?

Group by theme. Group by outcome.

That feeling when Amazon PPC data is easy to read.

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The Structural Limits Principle

Here’s the truth: Amazon PPC isn’t built around your products — it’s built around its own system. And that system comes with guardrails.

That’s what the Structural Limits Principle is all about.

It means understanding how Amazon’s ad platform actually works — and structuring your campaigns in a way that respects its rules, instead of fighting them.

Let’s look at some real examples:

  • Want to give 70% of your budget to Product A and 30% to Product B in the same campaign? Sorry — you can’t. If both products are in one campaign, you have no control over how the budget is split.
  • Placement settings are also set at the campaign level. Let’s say you want to aggressively push one product to the top of search. But that product shares a campaign with five others. If you adjust your top-of-search placement, all products in that campaign get affected, even if they don’t need that push.
  • If you pack too many ASINs into one ad group, it becomes really hard to see which product is driving which result — especially with broad targeting.

All of this adds up to one big point:

Campaign structure isn’t just about strategy — it’s about logistics.

You need to know what Amazon allows, what it restricts, and how to work within that framework to get the results you want.

Trying to force your ideal structure onto Amazon is like trying to build a custom kitchen in a prefab apartment. You’re gonna hit walls — fast.

So instead, ask:

  • What control do I actually have at the campaign, ad group, and product level?
  • How can I shape my structure to match that — without losing strategic intent?

The better you understand Amazon’s architecture, the smarter and more scalable your campaigns become.

The Rome Principle

Let’s be honest — sometimes your campaign structure is a mess.

Maybe you’ve got oversegmentation in one place, undersegmentation in another, budgets all over the map, and naming conventions that only make sense at 2AM.

So what do you do? Nuke it and rebuild from scratch?

Nope. 

Introducing: The Rome Principle — because, as the saying goes, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither is a high-performing Amazon PPC account.

Here’s the deal:

Even if your structure is far from ideal, there’s still value in what you’ve already built. Aged campaigns carry historical data. That history feeds Amazon’s algorithm. Turning everything off and starting fresh can do more harm than good.

Instead, fix it piece by piece — like renovating a house while still living in it.

Here’s what that looks like:

  • Identify one messy area each week and clean it up.
  • Consolidate where things are oversegmented.
  • Break out high-performing targets where more control is needed.
  • Gradually align your campaigns to your goals and themes.
  • Use performance data to guide every step.

This approach gives you validation as you go. You’re not guessing — you’re improving based on real feedback.

Yes, it’s slower. But it’s smarter.

Most importantly, it respects all the factors that make your structure unique — your product count, pricing, parent/child ASINs, competitive space, and even your margins.

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Summary

So, here they are — the six key principles to help you build an Amazon PPC campaign structure that actually works.

It’s important not to over-segment and lose control over your data, but also not to cram everything into one chaotic bucket. Remember, there’s no perfect structure — it’s a continuous process of tweaking and improving based on real results.

The core idea is relevance: your ads need to show up for the right people, at the right time, when they’re ready to buy. Organize your campaigns around clear goals and themes to make managing budgets and measuring success much easier. At the same time, keep in mind that Amazon has its own rules — budgets and settings work at the campaign level, so your structure should reflect those limitations.

And finally, don’t try to rebuild everything at once. As the saying goes, Rome wasn’t built in a day. It’s better to improve your structure gradually, step by step, using data and real experience. This way, you preserve your account’s history and make smarter moves.

See you in the next post!

The PPC Den Podcast

If you enjoy supplementing your long reads with audio or video, we cover this topic on our podcast as well, The PPC Den.

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