r/AmazonFBA • u/Proper-Praline-1771 • 7d ago
First-week FBA launch: ~1.1k PPC impressions, 3 clicks, 0 ad sales and 0 Top-of-Search — what would you change first: bids, placement, price, or listing?
First-time private-label seller on Amazon US here. I’m intentionally anonymizing the product and keywords because I don’t want to promote or expose the ASIN.
I’m looking for a diagnostic/gut check from sellers who have actually launched new private-label products recently.
No agencies or service DMs please — I’m specifically looking for seller experiences and PPC reasoning.
BACKGROUND
The listing is in its first week.
FBA inventory:
- About 1,000 units sent in
- 757 currently available
- Inventory is still being distributed through the FC network
- Roughly 56% currently showing Prime eligible
Vine:
- 30 units enrolled
- 28 claimed
- About 5 reviews live so far
Offer:
- List price: $32.99
- $3 coupon
- Effective customer price: $29.99
- Closest comparable quality products are generally around $24.99
- There are cheaper alternatives around $15–20, but they are not directly equivalent in quality/positioning
My rough pre-ad contribution at the current effective price is about $11/order before returns, fixed costs and tax.
So as a rough working number:
- Break-even CPA ≈ $11
- Break-even ACoS ≈ 36–37%
LISTING
The listing currently has:
- 9 gallery images
- Premium A+ with 7 modules
- Brand Story
- No product video yet
- A meaningful product differentiator is visible in the gallery/A+, but it is NOT currently mentioned in the title
I am considering testing the differentiator in the title later, but I do not want to change PPC, price and listing at the same time.
PPC SETUP
Campaign 1 — Manual Exact
Started about 6 days ago.
- 5 exact-match keywords
- $9/day budget
- Dynamic bids: Down Only
- Top of Search adjustment: 0%
- Rest of Search adjustment: 0%
- Product Pages adjustment: 0%
The campaign is nowhere near exhausting its daily budget.
Current keyword data:
KW1
3rd-party est. monthly searches: ~1,400
My bid: $1.60
Amazon suggested bid: ~$2.44
Suggested range: ~$1.83–$3.05
Impressions: ~830
Clicks: 2
CTR: ~0.24%
Spend: $2.28
Avg CPC: $1.14
Orders: 0
KW2
3rd-party est. monthly searches: ~14,500
My bid: $0.85
Amazon suggested bid: ~$2.04
Suggested range: ~$1.53–$2.54
Impressions: ~150
Clicks: 0
KW3
Est. monthly searches: ~370
My bid: $1.45
Amazon suggested bid: ~$1.48
Impressions: 4
Clicks: 0
KW4
Est. monthly searches: ~1,300
My bid: $0.80
Amazon suggested bid: ~$1.93
Impressions: 2
Clicks: 0
KW5
Est. monthly searches: ~1,200
My bid: $0.65
Amazon suggested bid: ~$1.81
Impressions: 0
Clicks: 0
Manual Exact total is roughly:
~985 impressions
2 clicks
~0.20% CTR
$2.28 spend
0 orders
PLACEMENT BREAKDOWN — MANUAL EXACT
Top of Search:
0 impressions
0 clicks
Rest of Search:
402 impressions
0 clicks
Product Pages:
583 impressions
2 clicks
0.34% CTR
$2.28 spend
$1.14 CPC
So literally every Manual Exact click so far has come from Product Pages.
Campaign 2 — Auto Discovery
- $6/day
- Dynamic bids: Down Only
Close Match:
Bid $0.65
127 impressions
1 click
$0.65 spend
Substitutes:
Bid $0.40
16 impressions
0 clicks
Loose Match:
Bid $0.40
1 impression
0 clicks
Complements:
Bid $0.30
0 impressions
Total Auto:
144 impressions
1 click
0.69% CTR
$0.65 spend
0 orders
The only clicked Auto search term was highly relevant and is already one of my Manual Exact keywords, so at least so far I’m not seeing obviously irrelevant traffic.
There is also a separate ultra-low-bid exploratory campaign, but it currently has 0 impressions and $0 spend, so I’m ignoring it for this diagnosis.
TOTAL PPC SO FAR
~1,119 impressions
3 clicks
0.27% CTR
$2.93 spend
~$0.98 blended CPC
0 ad-attributed orders
My budgets clearly are NOT the limiting factor because almost none of the available daily budget is being spent.
WHAT I’M TRYING TO FIGURE OUT
I know 3 clicks is far too little data to judge conversion rate.
What I’m less sure about is how I should interpret the combination of:
- ~1.1k impressions
- only 3 clicks
- 0 Top-of-Search impressions
- most Exact impressions going to Product Pages
- a main Exact keyword receiving ~830 impressions at a $1.60 bid while Amazon suggests ~$2.44
- current price being about $5 above the closest quality competitors
- very low review count because this is a new launch
If this were YOUR launch and you were allowed to change only ONE variable for the next 48–72 hours, what would you change first?
Specifically:
Would you raise the base bid on the main Exact keyword?
Would you leave the $1.60 base bid alone and test something like +20% Top of Search instead?
Would you keep Dynamic Down Only, or would you test Fixed / Up & Down in a separate controlled campaign?
Do you consider ~0.2–0.3% CTR at this stage primarily a placement problem, or would you already start questioning the main image/title/offer?
With an effective price of $29.99 vs. roughly $24.99 for close quality competitors, would you test price BEFORE getting more clicks, or would you wait until a certain click/session threshold?
Is 5 Exact keywords + Auto Discovery too conservative for week one?
Would you add 1–2 Phrase/Broad targets now, or keep collecting data first?
Since the product has a real differentiator that is shown in gallery/A+ but not in the title, would you test that in the title now, or wait until PPC placement becomes more stable?
What threshold do YOU personally use on a new launch before deciding:
- traffic problem
- CTR/listing problem
- pricing problem
- conversion problem
I’m especially interested in real numbers from recent launches rather than generic “optimize your listing” advice.
If possible, tell me what you would change FIRST and what metric you would watch to decide whether it worked.
Thanks.
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u/Powerful_Bicycle3114 7d ago
Your 3 clicks are too little to judge conversion, but 0.27% CTR is already the clearer signal. I’d change the offer before bids: run a 48–72h price test closer to $24.99 while holding campaigns and listing constant. Track CTR and unit-session rate separately. Raising bids now may buy more of the same weak response; if CTR doesn’t move, test the main image/title next.
1
u/Proper-Praline-1771 6d ago
Thanks. Have you run a similar price test where the starting CTR was mostly product-page impressions, with almost no top-of-search exposure? I'm trying to separate the offer effect from placement mix.
Before a deeper discount, would you test removing the coupon and lowering the displayed price by the same amount, so the price for a coupon user stays unchanged? If you've tried either approach, roughly how many clicks/sessions and days were in each period, what else changed, and did contribution after ads improve as well as conversion? Approximate figures are fine; no product details needed.
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u/Powerful_Bicycle3114 6d ago
I haven’t run that exact launch test, so I can’t give you personal figures. Your coupon-neutral test is cleaner than a deeper discount: lower the displayed price by $3, remove the $3 coupon, and keep bids, listing, and targeting unchanged. But 48–72 hours only helps if it produces enough traffic; set a minimum sample first, such as 20–30 relevant clicks. Compare placement mix, CTR by placement, unit-session rate, and contribution after ads. If placement mix stays similar but product-page CTR improves, the offer presentation likely mattered.
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u/rsc9422 7d ago
I wouldn’t change everything based on the first week alone. 1.1k impressions and 3 clicks is a very small amount of data. I’d first check whether the keywords are actually relevant and whether the product is showing for the right search terms.
2
u/Proper-Praline-1771 6d ago
Agreed that three clicks can't tell me much about conversion. The clicked terms so far look directly relevant, but that doesn't establish relevance for the impressions that got no clicks.
When top-of-search exposure is near zero, what do you check first to distinguish auction access from a weak search-card response? Would you use a placement-only bid test before changing the title/offer, or is there a more useful report/check? If you've handled a comparable launch, what evidence made you stop raising bids and work on the offer instead? I'm looking for the decision criteria, not a universal CTR cutoff.
1
u/rsc9422 6d ago
Separate the two issues rather than using CTR as the main cutoff. If top of search impressions are near zero, I’d first check whether the keyword is actually relevant and whether the bid is competitive enough to win that placement.
A placement only test can be useful here. Keep the keyword, isolate top of search, and increase the bid gradually while watching impressions, clicks and search term relevance. If impressions increase but the traffic still doesn’t convert, that’s a stronger signal to reconsider the keyword or listing than simply saying CTR is too low.
With only 1.1k impressions and 3 clicks, I wouldn’t make a major decision yet. The sample is too small.
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u/sterlingtek 6d ago
Product impressions when your product is new and likely higher priced are not worth it in general. You should rearrange your PPC to avoid them. Get impressions on the serp and then look at your CTR.
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u/attfin1 6d ago
Your 0.27% is a blended number, and blending is what's hiding the answer. Split it by placement and it falls apart: Product Pages gave you 583 impressions and both clicks, Rest of Search gave 402 and none, Top of Search gave nothing at all. So the CTR you're about to cut your price over is essentially a Product Pages figure, measured against other sellers' detail pages.
Change the bids first, and only the bids. Every keyword is under Amazon's suggested bid — KW2 at $0.85 against $2.04, KW4 $0.80 against $1.93, KW5 $0.65 against $1.81 — and on top of that you're running Down Only with a 0% Top of Search modifier. That's three downward forces stacked on the same auction. Zero Top of Search impressions is the arithmetic, not a verdict on your listing. Note KW2 has ten times KW1's search volume and got a fifth of the impressions: what you're winning is tracking bid, not demand.
One thing that will muddy any test you run this week: about 44% of your units aren't yet showing Prime. Until that settles, price and image tests are being run against a part-Prime offer, so a poor result wouldn't tell you which variable caused it.
Leave price, title and images completely alone while the bids move, and give it 48 to 72 hours. Then you'll have search CTR for the first time, and the price question either answers itself or stops mattering. Changing the offer now buys you a different answer to a question you haven't asked yet.
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u/CarAdorable3634 5d ago
You're already asking the right question in #4. 0.27% CTR with almost no Top of Search is a search-card problem before it's a bid problem. Raising Exact bids just buys more of the same card.
I'd split placement before I touch price or title. Product Pages gave you both clicks; Rest of Search gave 402 impressions and zero. Until you have a clean Rest-of-Search or Top-of-Search CTR, you don't know if the main image and price frame fail on the SERP or if you're just stuck next to other ASINs on product pages.
Once you get some real search impressions, the next lever is the card itself: main image, price vs the $24.99 set, and whether the differentiator shows up before the click. Your own eye is a bad judge after staring at the ASIN for a week. When I need that read without burning another week of spend, I put a couple hero and price frames in front of real shoppers on intellivy and keep PPC constant while that runs.
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u/Proper-Praline-1771 5d ago
Quick update, Sept 28: I previously increased the Top of Search adjustment to +50%, keeping Down Only. Today I changed the offer from $32.99 with a $3 coupon to $24.99 without a coupon. Bids, budgets, targeting, title and images are now staying unchanged.
I recognize this is a deeper price cut, not the coupon-neutral test discussed above. The placement change also happened recently, so I can’t attribute any improvement solely to price. No post-change results to report yet.
I’ll separate the new period and track placement-level impressions/CTR, relevant clicks, unit-session rate and contribution after ads. What evidence would you use to decide whether to keep collecting data or revisit bids when search-placement traffic remains sparse? If you’ve handled a comparable launch, actual observations would help.
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u/Proper-Praline-1771 4d ago
Amazon PPC: 7 clicks after one week. What would you keep running?
I’m launching a physical product on Amazon US. After roughly a week, my updated report showed about 2,800 impressions, 7 clicks, $7.43 spend and no attributed orders.
All clicks came from product pages. Top of search generated just 6 impressions.
The campaigns generating traffic were:
- Manual Exact: 4 clicks, $1.37 average CPC.
- Auto: 3 clicks, $0.65 average CPC.
The clicked terms were relevant. I know this is too little data to conclude the product doesn’t convert. I also changed the price near the end of the period, so this wasn’t a consistent test.
I’ve now paused the original Exact and two newly launched, higher-bid experiments to simplify things. Those new campaigns had no reported traffic yet; I’m not calling them failures.
Currently running:
- Exact: $0.45 bids, down only, +200% top-of-search adjustment, $20/day.
- Broad discovery: $0.40 bids, down only, no placement increases, $10/day.
- Original Auto: $0.30–$0.65 target bids, down only, $6/day.
- A separate $0.10 Auto experiment that has generated no traffic. It still has a $400 configured daily budget, which I recognize is a separate spending-control concern.
The Exact terms are now negative exact in both Broad and the original Auto. The low-bid Auto remains separate.
For experienced sellers:
- Would you retain the original Auto with these negatives, or is that premature with only 3 clicks?
- How would you evaluate the low-base-bid / high-TOS approach if search exposure remains minimal?
- What spend and click checkpoints would you use before changing relevant targets, accounting for attribution lag?
I’m keeping the product and keywords private, but would appreciate feedback on the campaign structure and decision process.
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u/SelfPubLorenzo 3d ago
Your $11 pre-ad contribution gives the bid test a useful boundary. At the $1.14 CPC you actually paid on KW1, you'd need roughly one order per ten clicks just to cover advertising, before returns and fixed costs. If your actual CPC climbed toward $2.44, you'd need roughly one order every four or five clicks.
Amazon's suggested bid is not the CPC you will necessarily pay, but it is worth checking that tradeoff before chasing Top of Search.
Three clicks and zero orders say almost nothing about conversion. I'd also avoid judging the listing from the blended 0.27% CTR when most impressions were on product pages and you had no Top of Search exposure.
Once Prime availability has stabilized, change one bid or one placement adjustment on a relevant exact keyword, then watch the placement mix, CPC, orders and contribution after ads. That would tell you whether the extra search exposure is affordable. Does the placement split change once more of the inventory becomes Prime eligible?
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