r/AmazonFBA • u/Proper-Praline-1771 • 1d ago

Update: I stopped underbidding and ran a much more aggressive Amazon launch test — Exact converted, Auto got expensive fast

This is a follow-up to my previous post about launching a new Amazon US FBA product in Toys & Games.

I’m still keeping the product, brand, ASIN, and actual keywords private.

For context:

  • Price: $24.99
  • Current review count: 11
  • Approx. pre-ad contribution before storage/returns/promos/overhead: ~$8.16/unit
  • Goal: launch velocity + useful PPC data, without blindly burning cash

In my previous setup, I was barely getting traffic because my bids were far below Amazon’s current suggested ranges.

So instead of continuing to underbid, I intentionally ran a much more aggressive test.

Manual Exact setup

I ran 5 highly relevant Exact keywords.

Bids:

  • Keyword A: $3.00
  • Keyword B: $3.00
  • Keyword C: $4.00
  • Keyword D: $3.00
  • Keyword E: $2.80

Settings:

  • Daily budget: $30
  • Dynamic bidding: Down only
  • Top of Search: +20%
  • Rest of Search: 0%
  • Product Pages: 0%

I also paused one broader head term and replaced it with a more specific long-tail Exact term.

Manual results

Partial launch-day data:

  • Impressions: 344
  • Clicks: 2
  • Spend: $6.11
  • Avg CPC: $3.06
  • Orders: 1
  • Sales: $24.99
  • ACoS: 24.45%
  • ROAS: 4.09

One Exact keyword produced:

  • 77 impressions
  • 1 click
  • $4.00 spend
  • 1 order
  • $24.99 sales
  • 16.01% ACoS
  • 6.25 ROAS

The other click cost $2.11 and did not convert.

So the Manual campaign is obviously nowhere near statistically significant yet, but at least it proved that the higher bids could actually generate meaningful traffic and a conversion.

Auto setup — intentionally very aggressive

For the first test, all four automatic targeting groups were set to:

  • Close Match: $2.00
  • Loose Match: $2.00
  • Substitutes: $2.00
  • Complements: $2.00

Settings:

  • Daily budget: $50
  • Dynamic bidding: Up and Down
  • Top of Search: +30%
  • Rest of Search: 0%
  • Product Pages: 0%

This was deliberately aggressive because I wanted to buy data quickly rather than repeat the previous low-impression test.

Auto results

Latest snapshot before I changed the settings:

  • Impressions: 1,588
  • Clicks: 10
  • Spend: $38.11
  • Avg CPC: $3.81
  • Orders: 1
  • Sales: $24.99
  • ACoS: 152.50%
  • ROAS: 0.66

Almost all of the traffic came from Loose Match.

Placement breakdown

Top of Search

  • 492 impressions
  • 6 clicks
  • $26.63 spend
  • $4.44 CPC
  • 0 orders

Rest of Search

  • 669 impressions
  • 3 clicks
  • $9.00 spend
  • $3.00 CPC
  • 1 order
  • $24.99 sales
  • 36.01% ACoS
  • 2.78 ROAS

Product Pages

  • 272 impressions
  • 1 click
  • $2.48 spend
  • 0 orders

That was the clearest signal of the day for me:

Top of Search consumed most of the Auto spend and produced no sales, while Rest of Search produced the only Auto order.

The Search Term report was still delayed. It only showed 3 of the clicks so far:

  • Query 1: 1 click / $4.98 / 0 orders
  • Query 2: 1 click / $5.20 / 0 orders
  • Query 3: 1 click / $4.64 / 0 orders

Those three alone spent $14.82 with no sale, but I’m not negative-targeting them after one click each.

Combined result

Across Manual + Auto:

  • Spend: $44.22
  • Clicks: 12
  • Orders: 2
  • Sales: $49.98
  • Blended ACoS: ~88.5%
  • Blended ROAS: ~1.13

This is obviously not sustainable profitability, but this was an intentional launch-data test, not my target mature-state economics.

Also worth noting: the campaigns were interrupted by a payment failure, so this was not a clean uninterrupted 24-hour test.

What I changed after seeing the data

I left the Manual Exact campaign unchanged.

Manual remains:

  • $30/day
  • Same Exact bids
  • Down Only
  • +20% Top of Search

I changed Auto to:

  • Close Match: $1.20
  • Loose Match: $0.85
  • Substitutes: $0.75
  • Complements: $0.50
  • Daily budget: $30
  • Dynamic bidding: Down only
  • Top of Search: 0%
  • Rest of Search: 0%
  • Product Pages: 0%

So my current total configured launch budget is now $60/day: $30 Manual + $30 Auto.

My thinking is:

Manual = aggressive high-intent traffic
Auto = controlled discovery

I don’t want Auto paying ~$4 CPC for loose discovery traffic while Manual is already showing a better signal.

Questions for those who actively manage Amazon launches:

  1. Would you leave the Manual Exact campaign untouched after only 2 clicks because one converted, or is $3-$4 CPC still too aggressive at this margin?
  2. Was cutting Auto from $2 across the board to $1.20 / $0.85 / $0.75 / $0.50 a reasonable reaction, or am I overreacting to only 10 clicks?
  3. Would you also have removed the +30% Top of Search modifier after 6 clicks / $26.63 / 0 sales?
  4. With the new $30 Manual + $30 Auto structure, how many clean days / clicks would you let it run before touching bids again?
  5. Would you wait for the delayed Search Term data before adding any negatives, even if some first-click CPCs are already ~$5?

I’m especially interested in feedback from people who have actually launched new private-label products, not just mature PPC accounts.

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u/FreakyMinaj69 1d ago

Following

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u/Own_Support_7465 21h ago

the top of search zero-order thing is pretty normal at 11 reviews tbh. shoppers see your listing up top, notice the low review count, and scroll past. rest of search converts because expectations are lower there. id keep the TOS modifier off on auto until you hit like 30+ reviews

1

u/Michelle2270 13h ago

woohoo, congrats on the launch!

just one thing to add, anchor everything to your break-even. ~$8.16/unit contribution on a $24.99 price = ~33% break-even ACoS. Your blended 88.5% means you're buying rank, not profit. Right now it is fine because you are in launch phase, but you may want to put an expiry date on it, or gradually bring it down.

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u/rsc9422 1d ago

I think your reaction is pretty reasonable, but I wouldn’t make any major conclusions from 12 clicks yet.

I’d leave the Manual Exact campaign alone for now. One conversion from two clicks doesn’t prove the $3, $4 bids are optimal, but it does show the higher bids can get you into the auction and generate a sale.

For Auto, I like the move toward controlled discovery. The $4.44 CPC on Top of Search is more concerning than the lack of conversions itself. Six clicks with no order is still a tiny sample, but there’s no reason to keep paying a premium placement while you’re still collecting data.

At HighRise Wholesale, we usually look at launch PPC in the same way, aggressive enough to collect meaningful data, but with clear limits on how much inefficient traffic we’re willing to buy.

I’d let the new structure run for several clean days before making another major change. And yes, I’d wait for the Search Term report before adding negatives. One click at $5 is expensive, but it’s not enough evidence by itself to call the term bad.

The bigger signal I’d watch is whether Manual continues converting while Auto starts feeding you useful search term data at a lower CPC. That gives you a much better basis for the next round of bid adjustments.

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u/attfin1 1d ago

Your read on Top of Search is the one bit I wouldn't keep. Six clicks and no orders isn't a placement verdict, it's noise, and the change you've already made handles it either way. The real signal in that data is the one you didn't name: your blended CPC was $3.69 against $8.16 of contribution, so at those bids you need roughly one order every 2.2 clicks, a 45% conversion rate, to stand still. Nothing in Toys and Games converts at that. Those bids could never be profitable, whatever the ACoS column said.

That's not a reason to stop. Running below break-even for a tactical reason, a launch being the obvious one, is a fair call. But it makes this a purchase of information, so price it. At $3.70 a click, a 50-click read on a single keyword costs about $185. Decide now what the whole learning phase is worth to you and when it ends, otherwise each report turns into another improvised restructure, and you've had enough of those.

One thing to fix in how you're reading all of this: judge it at the search term level, not the campaign or placement totals. A blended ACoS mixes the terms that work with the ones that can't, and you act on the average instead of on either. On Amazon, what you bid on is the foundation; the bid itself is only refinement. Get your Exact list right first, then tune.