Adjust bids by placement

Placements are places across Amazon where your ads may appear. You can differentiate your bids and view the performance of your sponsored products ads by three placement groups: top of search (first page), rest of search, and product pages.

•  Top of search (first page) refers to the Sponsored Products ads at the top row on the first page of search results.

•  Rest of search refers to Sponsored Products ads shown in the middle or at the bottom of search results, and all Sponsored Products ads in the second page of search results and beyond.

•  Product pages refers to Sponsored Products placements on the product details page, and all non-search placements such as the add-to-cart page.

In addition to selecting a bidding strategy, you can also set different bids by placement. You can enter a percent increase to your base bid for two placements: top of search (first page) and product pages. If you choose to set bids by placement, bids will be increased by the specified amounts when your ads compete for opportunities on those placements. You can see metrics by placement group in the Placements tab as well as the downloadable placements report. Your base bid will apply to the “rest of search” placement group. You can enter up to a 900% increase (10x) to your base bid. Adjust bids by placement works together with the selected bidding strategy to determine the final bid applied. 

For example, if you bid $1.00 for a keyword and set a 50% and 25% adjustment for ‘top of search (first page)’ and ‘product pages’ placements respectively, then this is how your bids will be applied, depending on the campaigns bidding strategy.

Suppose you are advertising a watch, and you have bid $1.00 for a keyword and set a 50% and 25% adjustment for ‘top of search (first page)’ and ‘product pages’ placements respectively, then this is how your bids will be applied, depending on the campaigns bidding strategy.

Different placement groups may have different performance (click through and conversion rates) due to their locations on Amazon. If your objective is sales, consider using the strategy dynamic bids - up and down – this strategy will try to maximize conversions from all placements at a similar ACOS across them. If your objective is not purely short-term sales, you can use the "adjust bids by placement" settings to shift your ad impressions to a particular placement.

Bidding strategies

When you create a Sponsored Products campaign, you can choose from three bidding strategies. Pick the strategy that works best for your campaign's objective. This setting applies to all bids within your campaign.

Dynamic bids - down only

When you choose the dynamic bids - down only strategy, Amazon will reduce your bids in real time for clicks that may be less likely to convert to a sale. If Amazon sees an opportunity where they predict your ad may be less likely to convert to a sale (for example, a less relevant search query, on a placement that doesn’t perform well, etc.), they might lower your bid for that auction.

Dynamic bids - up and down

When you choose the dynamic bids - up and down' strategy, Amazon will increase your bids in real time for clicks that may be more likely to convert to a sale, and reduce them for clicks that are less likely to convert to a sale.

Amazon will not increase your bids by more than 100% for placements at the top of the first page of search results, and by more than 50% for all other placements. Take this into account when selecting your bid while using this strategy. Since this strategy adjusts your bid up and down in proportion to likelihood of a conversion, it may deliver more conversions for your ad spend compared to the other two strategies. If we find an opportunity where your ad is more likely to convert to a sale (for example, your ad appearing for a highly relevant search query, on a placement that performs well, etc.), they might increase your bid for that auction. If Amazon finds another opportunity that looks less likely to convert to a sale, they might lower your bid for that auction. For example, Amazon can currently adjust your bid of $1.00 up to a maximum of $2.00 for opportunities on top of the first page of search results, and up to $1.50 for opportunities on all other placements.

Fixed bids

When you choose the fixed bids strategy, Amazon will use your exact bid for all opportunities and won’t adjust your bids based on likelihood of a conversion. Compared to dynamic bidding strategies, you may get more impressions, but fewer conversions for your ad spend with this strategy.

Rule-based bidding

Rule-based bidding is a dynamic bidding strategy available for Sponsored Products campaigns running for at least 30 days. This bidding option takes the guesswork out of adjusting bids to achieve your marketing strategy. With this bidding strategy, you apply a rule with a guardrail and provide an average bid for your campaign. Amazon will then adjust your base bids up and down with each impression trying to achieve your performance guardrail.

Amazon doesn’t guarantee that we will hit the guardrail that you set, but if your campaign is not meeting the guardrail and campaign’s return on ad spend (ROAS) drops over a 21-day period, they will disable the rule on your behalf and will enable your previous bidding strategy and targeting level bids. This 21-day period doesn’t include special days, such as Prime Day or Black Friday.

Campaign eligibility

•  Rule-based bidding is available for Sponsored Products.

•  Campaigns can use any type of targeting: automatic, keyword, or product targeting.

•  Your campaign must be running for at least 30 days prior to setting a rule and have a minimum of 30 conversions in the last 30 days.

•  Additionally, your campaign must meet the minimum daily budget requirement of 10 USD.