Hi!
Right now I’m getting some orders from a Phrase campaign, but Exact is still weak.
A friend who started around the same time told me:
“Keep Phrase as a harvest/discovery campaign, and push Exact as the main campaign.”
For those with experience, is Exact-led + Phrase for harvesting the standard strategy even in the early launch stage?
Also, what rules do you use to move winning Phrase search terms into Exact (e.g., after how many clicks/orders, or based on ACOS)?
Yes, the common strategy is Phrase = discovery / harvesting, Exact = main campaign, even in the early launch stage.
A typical approach:
-Move high-performing Phrase terms into Exact once they hit:
• 3–5 orders or
• ACoS within your target range
This helps you focus budget on converting terms while still discovering new opportunities in Phrase.
If you want, I can outline a simple workflow for transferring winning terms from Phrase → Exact to maximize sales efficiently.
There are several factors to consider and a simple comment won’t explain everything in this kind of topic. I would recommend you to check the Amazon Seller University.
Many Amazon sellers think high ACOS means they need to cut their ad budget. But in most cases, the real problem is poor campaign structure.
Recently, I audited an Amazon account where the ACOS was sitting at 33%. The seller was spending money to get clicks, but profitability was almost impossible.
Instead of increasing the budget or launching more campaigns, we focused on three simple PPC optimizations:
• Search Term Mining
We analyzed the search term report and identified the keywords that were converting. Winning keywords were then moved into exact match campaigns for better control.
• Negative Keyword Optimization
Several irrelevant search terms were wasting ad spend. Adding negative keywords immediately reduced unnecessary clicks.
• Campaign Structure Fix
The account had mixed match types within one campaign. We separated the campaigns into Auto, Broad, Phrase, and Exact to improve bid control and performance.
Results after optimization:
• ACOS dropped from 33% to 8%
• Higher conversion rate
• Better control over keyword performance
The biggest lesson is that sometimes you do not need more ads. You simply need a better PPC strategy.
If your Amazon PPC ACOS is too high, it may be time for a quick account audit.