The PPC Den: Amazon PPC Advertising Mastery

The PPC Den
  • 4.9 (98)
  • Marketing
  • Updated Weekly

The world's first Amazon advertising podcast-- hosted by Ad Badger. Here we discuss the ins and outs of Amazon PPC, including tips and tricks to help optimize your ad campaigns. Whether you're a die-hard PPC fanatic or an Amazon seller looking for an edge, this podcast is for you!

  1. 2d ago

    How to Forecast Amazon PPC Spend & Revenue Before You Spend a Dollar

    Today Michael welcomes back Priscilla Wagner of Relentless B2C, Marine Corps veteran, and quite possibly the most spreadsheet-brained guest in Badger Nation. She's been on the show for the visibility death spiral, for classifying keywords by how they actually behave instead of by raw console numbers, and for the custom Excel bidding system Michael still talks about. This time she's opening up her forecasting model. The idea: auditing an account that's already running is the easy version. The data is sitting right there. Forecasting is the hard version, because you're projecting spend and revenue off keywords that have zero performance history attached to them. As Michael puts it, the digital marketer in all of us wants to launch big and find out fast but sitting down to plot it out first is what real businesses do. Priscilla walks through the entire build. Tiering roughly 90 competitors by relevancy using Helium 10 and Claude. Bucketing keywords into core, expansion, branded, and broad discovery. Pulling current impression share straight out of the Search Query Performance report, then picking a lift target that's "big enough to read, small enough to test." She also shares the variable Michael had never seen anyone put in a forecast before: click-through rate and conversion rate decay, because your CTR cannot possibly hold steady as your impression bucket multiplies. And there's a real case study in here. One client's forecast surfaced a buy box problem before a single ad went live so the recommendation wasn't a campaign structure, it was "stop selling to resellers first." We'll see you in The PPC Den! 🦡 HIGHLIGHTS 00:00 – Welcome back, Priscilla Wagner 02:54 – Why forecasting is harder than auditing 06:19 – "Are ads just stealing our organic sales?" 08:45 – Step one: 90 competitors in Helium 10 11:06 – Tiering competitors 1 through 4 16:30 – Picking a realistic target: 1.5% to 8% 18:40 – The four keyword buckets 19:50 – Reading impression share in Search Query Performance 22:00 – Where CTR and CVR come from with no history 25:10 – CTR and CVR decay as impressions grow 30:30 – Turning keywords into a starting budget 31:20 – Case study: fix the buy box before you spend 35:00 – What 3% looks like when 8% is too aggressive 39:00 – Everyone has a plan until they get punched 42:00 – How often to rerun the forecast 🦡 RESOURCES & LINKS 🦡 GET AD BADGERFind Michael Erickson Facchin — Ad Badger's CEO and soul, PPC whisperer, and your go-to guide through the wild world of Amazon advertisingFind Priscilla Wagner at Relentless B2C — MBA, Marine Corps veteran, and full-service Amazon PPC + SEO strategist (LinkedIn)Advanced Amazon PPC Bid Optimization📚 Unlock our FREE comprehensive Amazon Marketing PlaybookSubscribe to our newsletterTransform your workflow with our comprehensive Amazon Advertising checklistReview all our show notes🦡 CREDITS Host and Executive Producer: Michael Erickson Facchin Guest Co-Host: Priscilla Wagner Senior Producer: Nancy Lili Gonzalez Podcast Coordinator & Graphic Designer: Sofiia Podash Video and Audio Editor: Pedro Moreno

  2. Aug 21

    Can Amazon PPC Success Be Predicted? (Classic)

    In this episode of our podcast, featuring Mansour Norouzi from Incrementum Digital, we focus on forecasting for Amazon PPC. We discuss moving from a flexible spending strategy to a planned one, and how past trends can guide future spending. Mansour will explain how to use tools like Amazon's Product Opportunity Explorer and Category Insights to predict future trends. Join us to learn about the challenges and ongoing learning in Amazon advertising. This episode is a rerelease of one of our most popular episodes. Please note the resources and link section for any relevant updates. We'll see you in The PPC Den! 🦡 Highlights 0:00 - Guest Introduction: Who is Mansour Norouzi? 0:37 - Forecasting Focus: What is forecasting in Amazon PPC? 2:30 - How complex is Amazon advertising? 3:27 - Why never stop learning? 5:44 - What does forecasting really involve? 8:55 - How to plan financially for advertising? 11:47 - How to determine market share? 17:46 - Which tools help understand the market? 29:25 - How to empower your Amazon strategy? 🦡 Resources & Links 🦡 GET AD BADGERFind Michael Erickson Facchin — Ad Badger's CEO and soul, PPC whisperer, and your go-to guide through the wild world of Amazon advertisingWhere to find Mansour: Mansour NorouziIncrementum DigitalHow Does Tracking Keywords Help PPC?How To Develop A Successful Client Relationship?How To Launch Amazon Products That Customers Actually Want?What Amazon PPC Updates Do You Need For 2024?How Can I Build Tasks To Help My Amazon PPC Campaign?How Can I Best Use The Product Opportunity Explorer For My Amazon PPC Campaign?📚 Unlock our FREE comprehensive Amazon Marketing PlaybookSubscribe to our newsletterReview all our show notesCredits Host and Executive Producer: Michael Erickson Facchin Guest Co-Host: Mansour Norouzi Senior Producer: Nancy Lili Gonzalez Podcast Coordinator & Graphic Designer: Sofiia Podash Video and Audio Editor: Pedro Moreno

  3. Aug 14

    How to Combine Organic, PPC & Ranking Data with AI to Optimize Every Amazon Keyword

    Today Michael is coming to you solo  recording from summer vacation in Switzerland to share a presentation he built for his friend Elizabeth Greene's seminar on AI-based optimization for Amazon PPC. The idea: AI is great at combining data. And the hardest part of Amazon PPC has always been that your ad console shows you revenue per click, cost per click, and target ACoS  but it never shows you organic rank, impression share, or search query behavior sitting right next to it. Everything on Amazon is "one big ball mashed together," so it's genuinely hard to know where to lean into momentum and where to pull back. Michael walks through the exact four reports to pull, how to feed them to your favorite AI chatbot (Gemini, ChatGPT, or Claude), and the prompt that turns all of it into a keyword-by-keyword action list  bid up here, cut back there  even if you've never opened a spreadsheet in your life. Get the exact prompt. The full AI prompt Michael references in this episode, the one that cross-references organic rank, search query data, impression share, and ACoS into one action list  is already sitting inside the free Badger Guide to Amazon PPC Checklist. Look for the section called "PPC with Organic Data and AI" on Row 209.  We’ll see you in The PPC Den! 🦡 Resources & Links 00:00 – Intro from summer vacation in Switzerland00:45 – The presentation Michael built for Elizabeth Greene's seminar on AI-based PPC optimization01:30 – Why AI is so good at combining data sources into one PPC "assistant"03:10 – The real problem: Amazon mashes organic, PPC, and ranking into one big ball04:40 – Why goal-setting is still the hardest part of Amazon PPC in 202606:00 – The mastermind presentation (shoutout to Gansa) that started this whole framework07:45 – From manual spreadsheets to AI: what's changed in how Badger builds these reports08:30 – Badger Sheets: what's coming next09:15 – The 4 reports to download: search query performance, brand analytics top-clicked terms, sponsored products search term impression share, and organic ranking data12:00 – Running the prompt and reading your output: strong organic + low ACoS = cut bids13:15 – Your 4 action items to go do this week 🦡 Highlights ​​ 🦡 GET AD BADGER ➡️ Find Michael Erickson Facchin — Ad Badger’s CEO and soul, PPC whisperer, and your go-to guide through the wild world of Amazon advertising Actually Useful Use Cases of AI in Amazon Marketing Free N-Gram Analysis Tool (Google Sheet) How Can I Be The Most Efficient With My N-Gram Analysis? The Exact "Revenue Impact Formula" to Prioritize Your Optimizations 📚 Unlock our FREE comprehensive Amazon Marketing Playbook Subscribe to our newsletter Transform your workflow with our comprehensive Amazon Advertising checklist Review all our show notes - Host and Executive Producer: Michael Erickson Facchin Senior Producer: Nancy Lili Gonzalez Podcast Coordinator and Graphic Designer: Sofiia Podash Video and Audio Editor: Pedro Moreno

  4. Aug 7

    Can Agencies Serve as Teachers in Amazon Selling? (Classic)

    Wondering why some Amazon sellers do really well and others don't? In this video, Michael and Destaney Wishon from BetterAMS share their own ups and downs with Amazon ads. They talk about how tricky Amazon advertising can get, why focusing too much on one thing can be a problem, and what basics you need to know. They also discuss whether it's better to handle your ads on your own, use software, or work with an agency. This episode is a rerelease of one of our most popular episodes. Please note the resources and link section for any relevant updates. We’ll see you in The PPC Den! 🦡 Highlights 0:00 - Introduction 2:19 - Marketing myopia 7:38 - Now harder for solo Amazon sellers? 11:40 - Focus on financial literacy 17:01 - Michael's view: Amazon ad forecast for brands 20:00 - Steps for better Amazon performance 23:44 - Should advance Amazon entrepreneurs improve skills? 28:17 - Back to basics 32:35 - SOP issues 37:48 - Destaney's book recommendation 🦡 Resources & Links 🦡 GET AD BADGER ➡️ Find Michael Erickson Facchin — Ad Badger’s CEO and soul, PPC whisperer, and your go-to guide through the wild world of Amazon advertising Our guest today is  Destaney Wishon of BTR Media How Can I Use ChatGPT To Advance My Amazon PPC Campaign? How Should I Analyze My Data for my Amazon PPC Campaign? How Can I Use Amazon’s New Dashboard To Boost My Amazon PPC Sales? Amazon PPC Horrors: 10 Terrifying Mistakes You Might Be Making How Can I Reach My Full Potential In The Amazon PPC Space? What Amazon PPC Updates Do You Need for 2024? Are We Still In The Golden Age of Amazon PPC? 📚 Unlock our FREE comprehensive Amazon Marketing Playbook Subscribe to our newsletter Transform your workflow with our comprehensive Amazon Advertising checklist Review all our show notes - Host and Executive Producer: Michael Erickson Facchin Guest Co-Host: Destaney Wishon Senior Producer: Nancy Lili Gonzalez Podcast Coordinator and Graphic Designer: Sofiia Podash Video and Audio Editor: Pedro Moreno

  5. Jul 31

    How to Use AI & Spreadsheets to Prevent Amazon Stock-Outs

    Today, we are joined by the amazing Maryna from the Ad Badger team. If you have ever wondered why your Amazon PPC performance suddenly dropped, even when your bids, keywords, and competitor pricing look perfect this episode is for you. Maryna shares her brilliant workflow for managing massive Amazon accounts that juggle thousands of SKUs. We discuss how to combine three essential Amazon reports into one master spreadsheet to accurately track your inventory levels. But the real magic happens next: we explore how to feed that data into AI chatbots, like Claude or Gemini, to instantly generate beautiful, actionable dashboards. We’ll see you in The PPC Den! 🦡 Highlights ​​ 00:00 – Intro 01:28 - The challenge of tracking inventory for large accounts 02:25 - How hidden low stock secretly ruins PPC performance 05:35 - The 3 essential Amazon reports you need to download 06:03 - Reading the master spreadsheet for stock and inbound data 08:28 - How Amazon penalizes your ranking when inventory drops 09:21 - Turning spreadsheets into a Claude dashboard 14:31 - Spotting restocked SKUs that are ready to be pushed 16:41 - Exactly when to pause, trim, or boost PPC budgets 🦡 Resources & Links 🦡 GET AD BADGER ➡️ - Find Michael Erickson Facchin — Ad Badger’s CEO and soul, PPC whisperer, and your go-to guide through the wild world of Amazon advertising - Today on the show, we’re thrilled to welcome Maryna Nelep, an Amazon PPC manager and proud member of our Ad Badger family! - How to Audit Your Amazon PPC Account Using Bulk Files and Business Reports - You’re Not Out of Stock, So Why Are Your Sales Down? - Why Amazon PPC Bulk Files Are More Powerful Than Ever (And How to Get Started) - 3 Bad Habits in Amazon PPC It’s Time to Break 📚 Unlock our FREE comprehensive Amazon Marketing Playbook - Subscribe to our newsletter - Transform your workflow with our comprehensive Amazon Advertising checklist - Review all our show notes - Host and Executive Producer: Michael Erickson Facchin Guest Co-Host: Maryna Nelep Senior Producer: Nancy Lili Gonzalez Podcast Coordinator & Graphic Designer: Sofiia Podash Video and Audio Editor: Pedro Moreno

  6. Jul 24

    How to Launch Meta Ads as an Amazon Seller

    Sean Stone of Spillover Commerce joins Mike to explain why most Amazon sellers fail when they try Meta ads and the fix: anchor your first campaign to a real event, not a generic sale.  They break down a live case study: a Father's Day push that turned $8K in ad spend into $38K in sales for a brand whose Shopify site normally got 10 visitors a day.  Topics include the offer ingredients you need, reverse-engineering winning ads from the Facebook Ad Library, avoiding creative fatigue, and building a year-round holiday calendar for your product.  We’ll see you in The PPC Den! 🦡 Highlights ​​  00:00 – Intro 02:43 – Why Amazon sellers want off-platform sales 04:12 – Amazon's Aug 1 credit card policy as the trigger event 08:30 – Why most sellers fail at Meta/Shopify 09:44 – Case study: $11M on Amazon vs. $60K on Shopify 11:04 – Rented land: Amazon vs. TikTok Shop vs. owning your site 12:37 – The strategy: anchor to an event 15:52 – Results: $8K spend → $29K generated 18:52 – $38K total sales, traffic surge, creative fatigue 20:16 – In-house creative vs. influencers 22:07 – Reverse-engineering ads via Facebook Ad Library 26:51 – Building a repeatable event calendar 31:16 – More examples: Yeti's Knicks & Stanley Cup ads 33:50 – Outro 🦡 Resources & Links 🦡 GET AD BADGER ➡️ Find Michael Erickson Facchin — Ad Badger’s CEO and soul, PPC whisperer, and your go-to guide through the wild world of Amazon advertising Today’s guest is Sean Stone of Spillover Commerce  3 Unfair Advantages of the Top 1% of E-commerce Brands Why Amazon Brands Are Starting to Use Meta Ads and Shopify https://www.adbadger.com/blog/amazon-ppc-education/why-amazon-brands-are-starting-to-use-meta-ads-and-shopify-the-ppc-den-podcast/  📚 Unlock our FREE comprehensive Amazon Marketing Playbook Subscribe to our newsletter Transform your workflow with our comprehensive Amazon Advertising checklist Review all our show notes - Host and Executive Producer: Michael Erickson Facchin Guest Co-Host:  Sean Stone Senior Producer: Nancy Lili Gonzalez Podcast Coordinator & Graphic Designer: Sofiia Podash Video and Audio Editor: Pedro Moreno

  7. Jul 17

    Actually Useful Use Cases of AI in Amazon Marketing

    In this episode, host Mike chats with Shane White from NoBul Partners about practical and highly effective ways to use AI in Amazon marketing.  Shane explains his transition from ChatGPT to Claude, highlighting its powerful capabilities in visualizing large datasets and generating client-ready presentations.  He also shares a clever hack for training the AI to scrape a client's website to automatically match brand colors and fonts in slide decks.  We’ll see you in The PPC Den! 🦡 Highlights ​​  00:00 -  Intro 02:30 - AI in Amazon marketing 03:45 - Claude vs. ChatGPT 05:20 - AI data visualization 08:15 - Presentation branding hack 12:00 - Time-saving benefits 15:30 - Merging data sources 19:10 - Training AI memory 22:45 - Final takeaways 🦡 Resources & Links 🦡 GET AD BADGER ➡️ Find Michael Erickson Facchin — Ad Badger’s CEO and soul, PPC whisperer, and your go-to guide through the wild world of Amazon advertising Our guest today is Shane White from NoBul Partners  3 Unfair Advantages of the Top 1% of E-commerce Brands We Tested AI Video Ads — Here’s What Improved Our ROAS Amazon Growth Lessons from an 8-Figure Agency: Audit-Proof Accounts & Client Goal-Setting 📚 Unlock our FREE comprehensive Amazon Marketing Playbook Subscribe to our newsletter Transform your workflow with our comprehensive Amazon Advertising checklist Review all our show notes - Host and Executive Producer: Michael Erickson Facchin Guest Co-Host:  Shane White Senior Producer: Nancy Lili Gonzalez Podcast Coordinator & Graphic Designer: Sofiia Podash Video and Audio Editor: Pedro Moreno

  8. Jul 10

    Amazon Growth Lessons from an 8-Figure Agency: Audit-Proof Accounts & Client Goal-Setting

    Welcome back to The PPC Den! This episode we're pulling back the curtain on how a real Amazon agency runs behind the scenes from AI to accountability. Michael sits down with Joshua Rawe of AmpliSell to talk about how they personally use AI (spoiler: Claude Opus is the daily driver), why "average" AI output is a trap if you don't already have great ideas, and how they built an ongoing, AI-powered account audit so nothing falls through the cracks between reviews. We also get into the messy reality of client goal-setting: how to pin clients down on revenue vs. margin vs. ACOS before you ever touch a bid and the #1 mistake killing Amazon brands in 2026: not killing dead products and not launching new ones fast enough. Plus, why winning on Amazon today means winning off Amazon first. We’ll see you in The PPC Den! 🦡 Highlights ​​ 00:00 -  Intro 02:30 – Personal vs. offline AI use, LM Studio for local LLMs 04:45 – Staying on top of Amazon changes with Claude Opus 4.8 07:00 – Amazon's title character limit change (75 characters) as a case study 08:15 – How information flows from AI digest → Slack → SOP → knowledge base 11:00 – Trust, delegation, and not micromanaging the last mile 13:30 – The "wasted spend check" problem: audits that never get repeated 15:45 – Building an ongoing, AI-run account audit ("audit-proof accounts") 18:00 – Client retention goals and the emotional cost of getting fired 19:30 – Weekly OKR feedback loops with leadership 21:15 – Nailing down client goals: revenue vs. margin vs. ACOS 24:00 – Biggest mistake in 2026: not killing bad products / not launching new ones fast enough 26:30 – Anker example category expansion vs. one hero product 28:00 – AI and copywriting/images: client pushback then client demand 29:30 – Highest-leverage activity: advertising + off-channel marketing 31:00 – Why Amazon is a demand-capture engine, not demand-creation  🦡 Resources & Links 🦡 GET AD BADGER ➡️ Find Michael Erickson Facchin — Ad Badger’s CEO and soul, PPC whisperer, and your go-to guide through the wild world of Amazon advertising Our guest today is  Joshua Rawe of AmpliSell  Why AI Will Be Your New Assistant on Amazon What’s the Best Way to Manage an Amazon Brand? Exploring Agency Strategies 📚 Unlock our FREE comprehensive Amazon Marketing Playbook Subscribe to our newsletter Transform your workflow with our comprehensive Amazon Advertising checklist Review all our show notes - Host and Executive Producer: Michael Erickson Facchin Guest Co-Host:  Joshua Rawe  Senior Producer: Nancy Lili Gonzalez Podcast Coordinator & Graphic Designer: Sofiia Podash Video and Audio Editor: Pedro Moreno

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The world's first Amazon advertising podcast-- hosted by Ad Badger. Here we discuss the ins and outs of Amazon PPC, including tips and tricks to help optimize your ad campaigns. Whether you're a die-hard PPC fanatic or an Amazon seller looking for an edge, this podcast is for you!

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