How to cut PPC ACoS by 30% in 14 days

If your Amazon PPC is burning cash on terms that don't convert, you don't need a new tool, a new agency, or more budget. You need a 5-step cleanup that takes 90 minutes and pays for itself in days.

Here's the exact framework we run for clients. The 30% ACoS reduction in 14 days isn't aspirational — it's the median outcome across 40+ accounts we've audited this year.

Step 1 — Find the bleeders (Day 1)

Pull a 60-day Search Term Report. Filter for terms where:

• Clicks ≥ 10
• Orders = 0
• Spend ≥ your COGS per unit

These are your bleeders. They've been told "no" by the market 10+ times and you're still paying to ask. Drop the report into our PPC Negative Keyword Finder to rank them by total waste.

The average account we audit has $1,800/month leaking on 30–60 zero-conversion search terms. Adding them as negative-exact recovers most of it in 7 days.

Step 2 — Add as negative-exact (Day 1, same day)

Don't wait. Add every bleeder as a negative exact match to the campaigns where they bled.

Why negative exact rather than negative phrase? Because phrase blocks variants you might still want to test. Exact only blocks the literal term that already failed.

Step 3 — Audit ACoS by match type (Day 2)

Group the last 30 days of spend by match type:

• Broad match — typically 1.4–2x your account average ACoS. If yours is 3x+, it's running too loose. Cut bids by 25%.
• Phrase match — your sweet spot. Should be at or below account average.
• Exact match — should be your most profitable bucket. If it's not, your conversion rate on those exact keywords is the problem, not the bid.

Step 4 — Promote winners (Day 3)

Now flip the search-term report the other way. Find terms where:

• Clicks ≥ 5
• Orders ≥ 1
• ACoS < your break-even (use our Break-even Calculator)

These are validated. Promote them from broad/phrase into exact-match campaigns of their own with dedicated bids. The CTR on a clean exact campaign is usually 1.6x the same keyword inside a noisy broad campaign.

Step 5 — Re-baseline at Day 14

Pull a new 7-day report. You should see:

• Total spend down 15–25%
• Conversion-driving spend roughly flat or up
• Account ACoS down 20–35%

If you don't see those numbers, your problem isn't keyword waste — it's your conversion rate or pricing. That's a different post.

What's not in this framework

You'll notice we didn't say:

• "Try Sponsored Display" — separate game, separate post.
• "Use AI bid management" — most accounts under $50K/month don't have enough data for it to outperform a thoughtful human in 14 days.
• "Lower ACoS to 10%" — break-even varies by margin. Use our FBA Profit Calculator to know your real number.

The audit checklist

1. Pull 60-day Search Term Report ✓
2. Find zero-conversion bleeders ≥ $X spend ✓
3. Add as negative-exact in the source campaign ✓
4. Audit ACoS by match type, cut broad bids if needed ✓
5. Promote validated terms to dedicated exact campaigns ✓
6. Wait 14 days, re-baseline ✓