10:59
Amazon PPC
Amazon PPC offers three distinct bidding strategies — dynamic bids down only, dynamic bids up and down, and fixed bids — and Chris Rawlings argues that using only one (implicitly down only) instead of matching each to the specific campaign goal it serves means an advertiser is leaving money on the table.
There are three Amazon PPC bidding strategies: dynamic bids down only, dynamic bids up and down, and fixed bids, each suited to a different campaign goal.
Dynamic bids down only is the default and most commonly used strategy: the entered bid is a ceiling that Amazon can only lower, which Amazon says happens when the ad is less likely to convert or when competition for the placement is lower.
Dynamic bids up and down lets Amazon raise the entered bid by up to 100% (double it) or lower it, and is best used when a campaign is struggling to get impressions, such as a new keyword or a new product launch.
Once a campaign switched to up-and-down starts getting impressions and its cost-per-click/click-through rate become known, it should be switched back to down only.
A $6 down-only bid is described as roughly economically equivalent to a $3 up-and-down bid, since Amazon can only double the up-and-down bid.
Fixed bids keep the entered bid unchanged and are used to force a specific ad placement, especially for single-keyword, exact-match ranking campaigns.
Fixed-bid ranking campaigns should be judged by organic rank improvement (tracked via tools like Helium 10 or DataDive), not by ACOS/ad cost, since the goal is ranking rather than direct ad profitability.
The video names, without detailing, four bid adjustments — top of search, rest of search, product pages, and business buyer placements — and points to a separate video for that topic.
Rawlings' campaign setup cheat sheet organizes every Sponsored Products/Brands/Display configuration into four goal categories — Performance, Brand Defense, Research, and Ranking — each with a prescribed starting bid, match type, targeting, bidding strategy, and naming convention.
Rawlings frames 2025-into-2026 as a shift toward giving Amazon's algorithm more 'leeway' (e.g., via up-and-down bidding) rather than the more exact-targeting approach he says worked in prior years.
Dynamic Bids Down Only — The default Amazon PPC bidding strategy where the advertiser sets a max bid and Amazon may only lower it, which the video says happens when the ad is less likely to convert to a sale or when competition for the placement drops. Apply: Default to down only for most campaigns — especially multi-keyword, exact-match 'Performance' campaigns built around a shared shopper-intent theme — and use it whenever in doubt about which strategy to pick.
Dynamic Bids Up and Down — A bidding strategy where Amazon can raise the entered bid by up to 100% (double it) or lower it, which the video says signals Amazon to give the campaign more algorithmic 'leeway' and priority for impressions. Apply: Switch a campaign to up-and-down when it's struggling to get impressions (e.g., a new keyword, new target, or new product launch), use it to discover the effective cost-per-click and click-through rate, then switch back to down-only once that data is known.
Fixed Bids — A bidding strategy where the entered bid stays unchanged rather than being adjusted by Amazon, used to force a specific ad placement even at a higher cost. Apply: Apply fixed bids to single-keyword, exact-match ranking campaigns on especially important keywords, and judge these campaigns by organic rank improvement (tracked via tools like Helium 10 or DataDive) rather than by ACOS/ad cost.
Bid Adjustments (Top of Search, Rest of Search, Product Pages, Business Buyer Placements) — Four placement-level modifiers that Rawlings names as sitting alongside the three bidding strategies but covers in full only in a separate dedicated video. Apply: Treat bid adjustments as a distinct lever from bidding strategy for fine-tuning spend by placement type, and consult the referenced separate video for how to set each one.
PPC Campaign Setup Cheat Sheet (Performance / Brand Defense / Research / Ranking framework) — A campaign-planning framework organizing every Sponsored Products/Brands/Display setup into four goal categories — Performance (profiting), Brand Defense (protecting branded terms and listing slots), Research (discovering new keywords/product targets), and Ranking (improving organic rank) — each with a prescribed starting bid, match type, targeting, bidding strategy, and naming convention. Apply: Identify which of the four goals a new campaign serves, then copy the cheat sheet's prescribed setup for that category's campaign type instead of improvising the configuration.
Multi-Keyword Targeted Campaign (exact match, Performance category) — A Sponsored Products campaign grouping multiple exact-match keywords that share the same shopper intent (e.g., gift-related, mom-related, pain-related) under a 'Performance' campaign aimed at profit. Apply: Group keywords by shared buyer intent, set the campaign to dynamic bids down only by default, and switch temporarily to up-and-down if it isn't getting impressions.
Single-Keyword Ranking Campaign (exact match, Ranking category) — A Sponsored Products campaign targeting just one exact-match keyword, categorized under 'Ranking' in the cheat sheet and paired with fixed bids to force a placement. Apply: Reserve this setup for a keyword you want to dominate for organic ranking purposes, use fixed bids to force the position, and evaluate success via rank-tracking software rather than ad cost/ACOS.
The 'up and down' strategy is framed less as a pure bidding mechanic and more as a signal to Amazon's algorithm to prioritize showing the ad, which Rawlings attributes to Amazon rewarding advertisers who cede it more control over the bid.
Fixed-bid ranking campaigns require inverting the usual PPC success metric: ad cost/profitability is deliberately disregarded in favor of tracking keyword rank movement in third-party software.
The near-equivalence Rawlings draws between a down-only bid and half that amount as an up-and-down bid ($6 vs. $3) implies the practical value of switching strategies lies in impression allocation, not in the underlying bid ceiling.
Each bidding strategy is paired with a specific campaign taxonomy (Performance, Brand Defense, Research, Ranking) rather than being presented as an isolated, one-size-fits-all setting.
«There are three different bidding strategies to choose from when setting up your Amazon PPC campaigns.»
— 00:00
«And Amazon claims that the bid is decreased when your ad is less likely to convert to a sale.»
— 02:00
«And whenever you're in doubt, just go with down only.»
— 02:33
«Dynamic bids up and down means that the bid that you put in this little box up here, Amazon can increase it by up to 100%. Meaning, Amazon can double it.»
— 05:15
«Now, it's more about giving Amazon more leeway so that it can use its algorithm to optimize everything about your ads.»
— 07:06
«And by the way, basically bidding $6 down only is essentially the same thing as bidding $3 up and down because Amazon can only go up to 100% above.»
— 07:33
«And you'll see here fixed bids can be very useful in this type of campaign because it forces the placement.»
— 08:49
«it's not about the return you get on the ad. It's about the ranking improvement that it causes which then gives you a greater return for your overall business.»
— 09:04
«This channel is still pretty small, which is good, you know. Let's keep this this gold knowledge just between us.»
— 10:29
Reception
Viewers find the content genuinely helpful and appreciate Chris's openness, with the only friction being minor frustration over delayed cheat-sheet emails rather than the video itself.
A tightly organized walkthrough that names and distinguishes three specific bidding mechanics and ties each to a concrete campaign goal, with a substantial share of runtime devoted to demoing the cheat sheet and pitching the email-gated resource.
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