How To Advertise on Amazon Like a Pro

by Tara Comrie

Work-at-Home Mom's Club member Tara Comrie is an Amazon advertising expert. Whether you want to sell your self-published book on Amazon or a dropshipped product, learn how to make ads work for you.

Getting your product to stand out on Amazon is a lot like trying to shout into a crowd of a thousand voices: loud, chaotic, and nearly impossible to be heard. On a marketplace as massive as Amazon, visibility is everything. If people can’t find you, they can’t buy from you, and while ranking organically is the long-term goal, all products need a little help getting seen at first.

That’s where Amazon Ads come in.

When used strategically, the pay-per-click advertising strategy can give your product the boost it needs to gain traction, get in front of the right eyes, and start climbing the rankings. But like anything else in business, it’s easy to take a few wrong turns if you’re new to it. So in this post, I’m going to walk you through the mistakes I’ve learned from so you don’t have to make them too.

What is Amazon PPC?

Amazon PPC is a pay-per-click advertising tool that helps your product get seen by the right people. It works by targeting the search terms that shoppers are already using to find products like yours. You can create campaigns around those keywords so your product appears near the top of the search results, because that’s where most people click and buy.

There are other, more complex types of Amazon ads out there—some that let you target specific audiences or show up in different places on and off Amazon—but for most beginners, sponsored product ads that target keywords are the place to start.

Pitfalls to Avoid (And What I Learned the Hard Way)

Pitfall 1: Skipping Keyword Research

One of the most common mistakes new sellers make is jumping into PPC without taking time to understand what their ideal customer is actually searching for. You can’t just guess what people are typing into the search bar. You have to do the research. Tools like Amazon’s search term report or free keyword finders can help you discover the exact phrases people use when they’re looking for products like yours. If you skip this step, you risk wasting money on irrelevant clicks, or worse, not showing up in front of your ideal customers at all.

Pitfall 2: A Weak or Confusing Listing

When your ad gets clicks, your listing needs to be set up to convert those clicks into sales. This is where many sellers overspend and lose momentum. If your main image thumbnail isn’t clear enough to immediately tell people exactly what your product is, you’ll end up paying for “exploratory” clicks that don’t turn into purchases.

Furthermore, once someone clicks in, your listing needs to clearly communicate the value of your product. That means good images, a short video if you have one, infographics, and clean bullet points that highlight the benefits.

Pitfall 3: Either Set It and Forget It, or Mess With It Constantly

Some sellers make the mistake of launching their ads and then walking away, assuming the algorithm will do all the work. But PPC isn’t a “set it and forget it” system. If you never check in, you could be throwing money at keywords or campaigns that just aren’t performing. Bids should be reduced (or keywords paused entirely) when they aren’t converting, or you’ll end up cutting into your profits.

On the flip side, it’s also easy to go overboard and tinker with everything too often. If you’re constantly changing bids, pausing keywords, or launching new campaigns before giving existing ones enough time to run, you won’t collect reliable data about which campaigns are converting well into sales. Without data, your campaign optimization decisions are just guesses.

The best practices involve checking in regularly, but giving campaigns time to stabilize (usually at least 7–14 days), and making thoughtful adjustments based on measurable metrics over time.

Pitfall 4: Trying to Be Too Cheap

Nobody wants to overspend on ads, but being too conservative with your ad budget early on can actually backfire. The real goal of PPC isn’t just to make some sales while ads are running. The ultimate goal is to generate enough sales velocity that your product starts showing up on the first page organically, without having to pay for every click.

If you underfund your campaigns from the start, you might not hit that critical momentum. That means you’ll stay invisible in the organic rankings and continue relying on paid ads to make every sale.

Pitfall 5: Relying 100% on PPC for All Your Traffic

If every sale you make comes from a paid ad, it’s going to be tough to stay profitable. This is especially true once you factor in Amazon’s referral fees on top of your ad spend. Relying solely on PPC means you're paying Amazon twice to get every customer: once to find them, and again to close the sale.

A cheaper approach is to start bringing in your own traffic. That could mean working with influencers in your niche who can hype up your product, or creating your own TikTok or Instagram channel where you show off what you’re selling. Driving external traffic means lower costs, better control, and often, better conversion rates, especially when the traffic is already warm.

Final Thoughts

PPC might seem overwhelming at first, but like anything else, it gets easier with practice. The goal isn’t perfection; it’s progress. Learn what you can, pay attention to what’s working, and don’t be afraid to make adjustments as you go. You’ve got this.And you don’t have to go it alone! There are tons of YouTube videos that cover everything from the basics to advanced strategies.

If you’d like to see how I’ve applied some of these strategies myself, feel free to check out my Amazon Storefront. I’m still learning and growing too, and I hope you now feel more confident getting started.