What This Module Covers
D3 gave you the execution foundations: how to set up your social accounts, build content that creates demand, and bring your marketplace listings to a minimum viable standard. This module takes the next step. It teaches you how to optimise listings for organic visibility, run paid campaigns that spend your budget on measurable outcomes, and apply the same discipline across whichever marketplace matters most in your market.
By the End of This Module, You Will Be Able To:
The Sequence to Follow
Work through this module in order. Each section builds on the one before it. Listing optimisation (4.1) must come before paid campaign setup (4.2), because your listing quality directly determines what your advertising spend returns. Do not start Section 4.2 until you have completed the listing readiness check at the end of Section 4.1.
Module Purpose
A marketplace listing is a commercial surface. Build it right and it earns visibility and converts buyers. Build it poorly and it sits invisible and unconverted. Most distributors treat listings as a one-time setup task. This module exists to change that.
There are four things this module covers. First, how Amazon's ranking algorithm works, and what that means for how you build your listings. Second, how to run Amazon PPC campaigns that spend your budget on measurable commercial outcomes. Third, how to use the regional marketplaces that matter in your specific market. Fourth, how to apply marketplace advertising best practices consistently and measure whether they are working.
Bardahl's three-layer commercial model connects social content, e-commerce infrastructure, and paid media as interdependent parts of one system. Marketplace advertising is where the second and third layers meet. When your listing is built correctly, it earns organic visibility without you paying for it. When your paid campaigns are structured correctly, they accelerate that visibility at the moments that matter commercially. When both work together, you are consistently appearing in the searches buyers are already running, at the point where they are closest to purchase.
What the Network Data Tells Us
The distributor assessment found that paid media is the weakest capability dimension across the Bardahl network, averaging 1.4 out of 4. That score does not reflect a lack of willingness. The gap is one of structured knowledge about how marketplace advertising works and when to apply it. This module is designed to close that gap.
Distributors at Tier 1-2 (Foundation / Developing) need to build their listing to a minimum standard and establish a functioning conversion path before any paid spend is justified. Distributors at Tier 3 and above can use this module to move from ad-hoc paid activity to structured, measurable campaigns. Distributors at Tier 4-5 (Conversion-Ready / Scale-Ready) can use it to optimise campaigns that are already running and improve their return.
What You Will Learn
- How Amazon's A10 algorithm ranks listings and why conversion performance drives visibility more than keyword density
- How to build a listing that earns organic ranking and converts buyers when they arrive
- How to structure an Amazon PPC campaign that spends its budget on real commercial outcomes
- What the most commercially relevant regional marketplaces are and what makes each one different
- How to apply marketplace PPC and display advertising best practices across platforms
- Which metrics tell you whether your marketplace investment is working
Understanding the Algorithm
The Amazon ranking algorithm determines which products appear when a buyer searches on the platform. Understanding how it works is not an academic exercise. It is a practical necessity, because every optimisation decision you make on your listing, and every pound or dollar you spend on advertising, either works with the algorithm or against it.
The algorithm Amazon uses is known as A10. It evaluates every listing in your category and ranks them in search results based on a set of measurable signals. Those signals divide into two groups: relevance signals and performance signals. Relevance signals determine whether your listing is eligible to appear for a given search. Performance signals determine where your listing appears within those eligible results.
The practical implication is significant. You cannot rank well purely by filling your listing with keywords. A listing loaded with keywords but generating a poor conversion rate will not outrank a listing with clean, buyer-led language and strong sales. The algorithm rewards commercial performance, not keyword density. Relevance gets you into the results. Performance determines your position within them.
The Seven Ranking Signals
Why the Title Matters Most
Your product title is the single most important field in your listing. It tells the buyer what the product is, it tells Amazon's algorithm which searches to include your listing in, and it determines whether a buyer clicks on your listing when they see it in search results.
Amazon enforces a maximum character limit per title that varies by category. For most product categories that figure is 200 characters, but Amazon's own advertising guidance recommends titles of approximately 60 characters for clarity and click performance. In practice, the right length balances two competing needs: enough keyword content to be indexed for the searches that matter, and enough clarity to earn a click from a buyer who sees only the first 70 to 80 characters on a mobile screen. For most Bardahl products, a title of 80 to 100 characters achieves both.
Your most important search term should appear in the first three positions of the title. Amazon's algorithm weights keywords that appear earlier in the title more heavily than those that appear later. In this category, the highest-volume search terms are typically symptom-led and application-specific: "engine oil additive", "diesel particulate filter cleaner", "fuel system cleaner", "engine stop smoke treatment", and "engine flush" generate consistently high search volume across Bardahl's priority markets. Your title should lead with the term most likely to match active buyer intent in your market.
The Title Structure That Works for Bardahl Products
The structure that performs best for Bardahl products follows this pattern: Brand name, then product type and primary function, then application context including engine type or fuel type, then volume or pack size.
A title such as "Bardahl Engine Oil Additive Stop Smoke Treatment for Petrol and Diesel Engines 300ml" communicates brand identity, product category, the symptom addressed, application compatibility, and pack size. The full title sits within the mobile-visible character range.
Amazon does not permit the same word to appear more than twice in a title, with the exception of prepositions, articles, and conjunctions. Repeating keywords beyond that limit does not improve ranking. It can lead to listing suppression and reduces the readability that drives click-through rate.
Using Bardahl's internal product reference code as the primary identifier. Buyers do not search for product codes. Lead with the symptom, application, or product function that matches their search intent.
Burying the brand name at the end of the title. Bardahl's brand recognition is a conversion asset. Buyers who recognise the brand are more likely to click. Put the brand name first.
Writing a title that reads as a technical specification rather than a buyer-led description. The majority of marketplace buyers in this category search with a symptom or a vehicle type in mind.
Filling all available characters with repetitive keyword combinations. A title that mentions "engine" seven times does not rank better for "engine" searches. It reduces readability and damages click-through rate, which harms ranking more than extra keywords could help it.
What Bullet Points Do
Your five bullet points are the second most important element of your listing from both a ranking and conversion perspective. They provide the content in which Amazon indexes secondary keywords, and they give the buyer the concise case for why this product is the right choice for their need.
Amazon allows sellers five bullet points per listing. The current character limit per bullet is 200 characters including spaces, giving you 1,000 characters across the full set. Amazon updated and enforced these limits from early 2025 alongside guidance restricting special characters, emojis, and promotional language such as money-back guarantee claims. Your bullets must stay within these limits and comply with these restrictions to avoid being flagged or suppressed.
On mobile, buyers typically see only the first two or three bullet points without expanding the listing. The first two bullets carry the highest conversion weight and the highest keyword indexing weight. Write your most important benefit and your most important keyword into the first bullet before anything else.
The Five-Bullet Structure for Bardahl Products
The format that converts best in this category follows a three-part structure for each bullet: a short, capitalised benefit claim at the start, followed by a supporting explanation, followed by a specific proof point or practical detail that makes the claim credible.
For Bardahl listings, the five-bullet structure should typically address the following subjects in order of conversion priority. The first bullet should state the primary problem the product solves and who it is for. The second should explain how it works and what the active technology or chemistry delivers. The third should cover vehicle and engine compatibility, including specific engine types, fuel types, and any vehicles or systems where the product should not be used. The fourth should give clear usage guidance: dosage, treatment frequency, any mixing or application steps. The fifth should carry proof and credibility, such as industry approvals, performance standards, certifications, or Bardahl's motorsport heritage where relevant.
Compatibility deserves particular attention. The most common reason for conversion failure at the listing stage is that the buyer is not confident the product is safe for or compatible with their vehicle. If that information is not in the bullets, hesitation increases and purchase rate drops.
A Bardahl distributor in the UK rewrote their Bardahl No Smoke listing to lead each bullet with the specific symptom it addressed. The first bullet opened with "STOPS ENGINE SMOKE AND OIL BURN-OFF: formulated to reduce oil consumption in high-mileage petrol and diesel engines..." rather than the generic "HIGH QUALITY ENGINE ADDITIVE TREATMENT:" from the original version. Click-through rate improved by 22 percent over four weeks because the benefit language matched what buyers had typed into the search bar. The algorithm responded by improving the listing's organic position for smoke-related search terms.
Why A+ Content Matters for Bardahl
Every Bardahl listing on Amazon should aim to use A+ Content rather than a standard product description. A+ Content is available to sellers enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry and replaces the standard text description with a structured layout that supports rich imagery, comparison tables, and formatted text sections. For complex or technical products where the buyer needs a degree of product education before they will purchase, A+ Content converts at higher rates than standard descriptions.
Standard descriptions are read by a smaller proportion of buyers and have limited keyword indexing value compared to title and bullet points. If you cannot yet access A+ Content, write your standard description as a secondary buyer education tool. Use it to expand on compatibility, provide detailed usage guidance, explain the product chemistry or technology in plain language, and include any safety or compliance information relevant to your market.
A+ Rules: What is not permitted
A+ Content has rules that must be followed. Amazon does not permit A+ content to include external contact information or links to any website outside of Amazon. It cannot mention competitor brand names, make pricing references, include time-sensitive promotional claims, or use language that implies Amazon endorses the product. Content that violates these rules will be rejected.
For Bardahl distributors, that means the product story, technology explanation, and compatibility guidance must be built entirely around product truth and application benefit. Comparative claims and promotional language are not available to you in this content space.
What Effective A+ Content Looks Like for Bardahl
The most effective A+ Content for Bardahl products typically includes: a headline section that restates the core problem and the product's role in solving it; an image module that shows the product in use or demonstrates the application; a feature section that expands on the key benefits established in the bullet points; a compatibility or application guide; and a brand section that anchors Bardahl's authority in the chemistry and performance heritage that supports the product claims.
Bardahl's Polar Plus and Fullerene C60 technology story, and the motorsport track record, are strong assets for the brand section when they are relevant to the product being listed.
Main Image Requirements
Your main image is the first visual signal a buyer receives. It determines whether they click on your listing when it appears in search results. A poor main image reduces click-through rate directly, which damages your ranking.
Amazon's image requirements for the main image specify a pure white background, the product fully visible and filling at least 85 percent of the image frame, no additional text, graphics, or props, and a minimum resolution of 1,000 by 1,000 pixels to enable the zoom function. Amazon's own guidance states that four or more high-quality, zoomable images are required for strong ad performance, and that the zoom function itself improves conversion rate for physical products. For Bardahl products, this means a clean, professional shot of the bottle or pack on a white background, at sufficient resolution for buyers to read the label detail.
Secondary Images: Where the Commercial Storytelling Happens
Secondary images have more flexibility on background and composition. They are where you demonstrate application, show the product in context, communicate volume and pack size clearly, highlight certifications or approval marks, explain compatibility visually, and build confidence through proof.
For Bardahl products, secondary images that are consistently effective in this category include: a product-in-use or application image showing the product being added to a vehicle; a label close-up that makes the key claims and approval marks clearly readable; a compatibility chart or vehicle type graphic; and a before-and-after or results-based image that makes the product's benefit tangible for a symptom-led buyer.
Aim for a minimum of five images per listing. Seven or more images, where each one communicates a different part of the product story, consistently outperform listings with fewer images in automotive and maintenance product categories. Each image should earn its place by answering a specific buyer question or objection.
What Backend Keywords Do
Backend search terms are keywords you enter in Amazon Seller Central that are not visible to buyers on the product page, but which Amazon indexes for search. They give you the opportunity to capture search traffic from terms that do not fit naturally into your title or bullet points: synonyms, alternate spellings, regional language variations, symptom-led phrases, and vehicle or engine references that your visible listing content does not have space for.
The safe character limit for backend keywords is 249 bytes. Amazon ignores everything after byte 250. Spaces do not count toward the byte limit, which means you can write your terms as space-separated phrases without penalising yourself for the spaces between words. Stay within 249 bytes to ensure all your terms are fully indexed.
Do not repeat keywords that already appear in your title, bullet points, or description. Amazon indexes those terms from the content fields where they already appear. Adding them to the backend wastes your available space without adding ranking benefit for those terms. Use the backend exclusively to capture relevant searches that your visible listing content does not already address.
What to Put in Your Backend Keywords
For Bardahl products, the most useful categories of backend keyword are: vehicle-specific terms your main listing text does not have space for; symptom descriptions phrased differently from your title; regional spelling variations of product or application terms; engine type and fuel type references; common misspellings of high-volume search terms in your local market; and any diagnostic or technical terminology that a professional mechanic or experienced DIY buyer might use to search for the same product that a general consumer would describe differently.
Why Reviews Are a Pre-Advertising Condition
Reviews are both a ranking signal and a conversion driver. Amazon's own guidance recommends advertising only products that have five or more customer reviews with a rating of 3.5 stars or higher. Below that threshold, conversion rates from paid clicks are typically lower because the social proof that buyers look for before purchasing in this category is not yet in place.
How to Request Reviews Correctly
You cannot offer incentives for reviews. Amazon prohibits this and enforces it actively. Any attempt to solicit reviews through discounts, refunds, gift cards, or direct requests outside of Amazon's approved mechanisms risks suspension of your selling account. The approved mechanism is the Request a Review button in Amazon Seller Central. It sends a standardised, Amazon-formatted review request to the buyer. You can use it for any order between 4 and 30 days after the confirmed delivery date. For new listings or listings with fewer than 25 reviews, use it for every eligible order.
The Amazon Vine programme is the approved route for generating initial reviews on new listings. It allows you to offer your product to a pool of trusted Amazon reviewers at no charge. Vine reviews are marked with a badge and are weighted normally in the algorithm. For new Bardahl product launches or newly activated market listings with no review history, Vine is the most effective mechanism for building the review base that makes subsequent advertising spend efficient.
Responding to Negative Reviews
Negative reviews require a response. Responding to a one-star review does not change the star rating, but a thoughtful, factual, solution-oriented response builds buyer confidence in the seller and reduces the conversion damage that negative reviews cause in this category. For Bardahl products, negative reviews most commonly relate to compatibility confusion, dosage or application errors, or expectation mismatch, particularly where the product requires a maintenance interval to show results rather than delivering an immediate visible change.
A distributor selling Bardahl Diesel Particulate Filter Cleaner received a cluster of negative reviews stating that the product had not worked. Examination of the reviews showed that buyers had applied too low a dose relative to their engine size and had not driven the vehicle at the sustained speed required for the product to regenerate the filter. The distributor updated the third bullet point with explicit dosage and speed guidance, added a secondary image showing the correct treatment sequence, and responded to each negative review with specific corrective instructions. Within two months the average rating improved from 3.4 to 4.1 and the listing's conversion rate recovered to above the category average.
The Pre-Advertising Standard
Before you run any paid campaign on Amazon, run this check against your listing. Amazon's own guidance on Sponsored Products makes clear that advertised products should display the featured offer, be in stock, have a strong title, hold at least five reviews with a rating above 3.5 stars, feature four or more high-quality zoomable images, include at least three informative bullet points, and have A+ Content in place where possible.
Running Sponsored Products on a listing that does not display the featured offer. If a third-party seller has a lower price and is winning the Buy Box, your ad spend will drive traffic to a page where the purchase does not go to you.
Treating the listing as complete after initial setup. The algorithm rewards active listings where content, reviews, and inventory are maintained over time. A listing set up once and left unchanged will decline in ranking as competitors update their own.
Building the advertising campaign before the listing is ready. Paid traffic directed at a weak listing accelerates the evidence of that weakness in the algorithm's performance data.
- A Bardahl listing has 450 reviews with an average rating of 4.3 stars, but a conversion rate of 7 percent against a category average of 14 percent. What does this tell you about where the commercial problem is, and what would you look at first to diagnose it?
- Why does external traffic from Bardahl's social content affect Amazon organic ranking, not just Amazon sales?
- A distributor creates a product title using every available character, including nine separate keyword phrases. The listing ranks for many search terms but has a low click-through rate. What is likely happening and why?
- Your listing has no A+ Content and no Brand Registry access. The standard description is 150 words of technical product specification. What is the most important thing to fix first: the description, the bullet points, or the images?
- If your listing has a strong title and keyword coverage but a low conversion rate, what is the most likely explanation and what would you change first?
- Why does Amazon's own guidance recommend advertising products with a minimum of five reviews and a 3.5-star rating before scaling spend, even when the listing is otherwise optimised?
- What is the commercial connection between Bardahl social content that routes buyers to an Amazon listing and that listing's organic search ranking on Amazon?
How the Format Works
Amazon Sponsored Products is a pay-per-click advertising format that places your product listing in prominent positions within Amazon search results and on competitor product pages. You only pay when a buyer clicks on your ad. The cost of each click is determined by a real-time auction: you set a maximum bid for a keyword or product target, and Amazon compares your bid against other sellers competing for the same placement. The highest relevant bid wins the placement, but you pay slightly more than the second-highest bid, not your full maximum.
Unlike display advertising where you pay for every impression, Sponsored Products only charges when a buyer clicks. Every pound or dollar spent results in a measurable click from a buyer already searching for something relevant to your product. The quality of your listing then determines whether that click converts into a sale.
The distributor assessment found that paid media is the weakest capability dimension across the Bardahl network, with an average score of 1.4 out of 4. That finding is not primarily about budget. Many distributors using paid media do so without structured campaign objectives or commercial measurement. Sponsored Products on Amazon is a different commercial discipline: structured, measurable, and directly connected to purchase intent.
What This Section Covers
This section is written specifically for distributors who are already selling on Amazon through a Seller Central account. If Amazon is not currently a live sales channel for you, or if your primary marketplace is a regional platform, the campaign principles here still apply. Section 4.3 shows how the same logic works on the platforms most relevant to your market.
Section 3.3.3 of the Distributor Execution Playbook covers how to set up and launch your first paid campaign step by step. This section explains the commercial logic behind making that campaign profitable: what you are optimising for, how to read the performance data, and how to improve results over time.
How Automatic Targeting Works
When you create a Sponsored Products campaign, Amazon gives you a choice between automatic targeting and manual targeting. For a first campaign, always start with automatic targeting.
Automatic targeting means Amazon uses the content of your listing, including your title, bullet points, description, and backend keywords, to determine which searches and product pages to show your ad on. You do not select keywords yourself. Amazon does that work using its own data about which searches and placements are most likely to produce a click on your type of product.
Note: this section assumes you are selling through Amazon Seller Central, where you manage your own campaigns directly through Amazon Ads. If you sell through Amazon Vendor Central, check with your Amazon account manager for the equivalent campaign setup steps.
The Four Automatic Targeting Groups
If you are selling Bardahl engine oil additive, Amazon will show your ad on searches for terms like "engine oil additive" or "engine treatment oil." These are the highest relevance placements in automatic targeting.
Your Bardahl engine oil additive might appear on searches for "engine maintenance products" or "car care kit." These placements are less precise but can surface useful keyword data.
Your Bardahl DPF cleaner might appear on a competitor DPF cleaner listing page. This is a higher-risk placement because you are targeting buyers who are already looking at a competitor, but it can be effective if your product offers a compelling reason to switch.
If buyers who purchase a certain engine oil also frequently purchase an additive treatment, Amazon may show your ad on that oil listing.
Start with all four targeting groups enabled and with a modest bid across all of them. The goal at this stage is not to win every placement. The goal is to generate data. After two to three weeks of running, your automatic campaign will have shown your ad across many different search terms and produced results you can learn from.
The recommended starting daily budget for a first campaign is ten dollars or its local currency equivalent. This is consistent with Amazon's own guidance for new advertisers. For markets with higher cost-per-click such as the UK, Germany, France, and the United States, a starting budget of $15 to $20 per day is more realistic for generating sufficient impressions to produce usable data within two weeks.
The Three Keyword Match Types
Manual keyword targeting in Amazon Sponsored Products uses three match types: broad, phrase, and exact. Understanding the difference is essential because each match type produces a different trade-off between reach and precision.
Shows your ad on any search that contains the words in your keyword in any order, plus related searches and variations. If your keyword is "engine additive", your ad might appear on searches for "best car engine treatment additive" or "petrol engine oil additive review." Broad match maximises your reach but generates the most irrelevant traffic if not managed carefully with negative keywords.
Shows your ad on searches that contain your keyword as a phrase in the stated order, but allow additional words before or after. If your phrase match keyword is "engine oil additive", your ad will appear on "best engine oil additive for diesel" or "Bardahl engine oil additive", but not on "oil additive engine" where the word order differs.
Shows your ad only when the search term matches your keyword exactly, with no additional words allowed except for close variations in spelling or plurals. Use exact match for keywords you have confirmed are converting profitably. Exact match generates the most controlled traffic and typically the highest conversion rate.
Product Targeting
Product targeting is the manual equivalent of substitutes and complements targeting in automatic campaigns. In manual product targeting, you choose specific ASINs or product categories to target. This means you can place your Bardahl DPF Cleaner ad directly on the product page of a specific competitor product, or on all products within the DPF cleaner category. Product targeting works best when your listing clearly differentiates Bardahl from the product the buyer is currently viewing (better technology, higher trust signals, stronger compatibility).
For a well-structured manual campaign, create separate ad groups for each match type: a broad match ad group for discovery, a phrase match ad group for your highest-volume terms, and an exact match ad group for your proven converters. This structure lets you see the performance of each match type clearly and manage bids independently.
The Three-Layer Structure
The campaign structure that works best for Bardahl distributors starting with Sponsored Products follows a three-layer logic.
Create separate campaigns for separate product categories. Do not mix engine oil additives with fuel system cleaners in the same campaign. These are different buyer intents, different search behaviours, and different conversion dynamics. Each product category needs its own campaign so you can control budget and observe performance independently.
Within each product campaign, run automatic targeting and manual targeting as separate campaigns. The automatic campaign is your discovery layer: it surfaces new search terms and tests placements. The manual campaign is your performance layer: proven keywords with controlled bids. Running them separately prevents the automatic campaign from spending budget that should be going to your best-converting manual keywords.
Within your manual campaign, use separate ad groups for broad, phrase, and exact match as described in Section 4.2.2. Each ad group should contain only the keywords relevant to that product category and match type.
Begin with five automatic campaigns, one per hero product. Add the manual layer once each automatic campaign has produced 2 to 3 weeks of conversion data. Seed each manual campaign with 5 to 10 converting terms from the automatic campaign as exact or phrase match keywords. That approach is manageable, produces clean performance data, and creates a structure that scales as you add products.
The Three Amazon Bid Strategies
Amazon will lower your bid in real time when it calculates that a click is less likely to convert. It will not raise your bid above the amount you set. This is the most conservative strategy and the one recommended for new campaigns where you are still learning which placements perform. It protects you from paying full price for low-quality clicks while you build your performance data.
Amazon will adjust your bid in both directions based on its conversion probability prediction. It can raise your bid by up to 100 percent above your set bid for placements it believes are more likely to convert. This strategy can improve performance once you have a proven campaign with a good conversion history, but it risks overspending in a new campaign where Amazon does not yet have enough data to predict conversion accurately.
Amazon uses exactly the bid you set, with no adjustment. This is useful for specific exact-match keywords where you have established a profitable bid level and want precise cost control.
Placement Adjustments and Starting Budget
Placement bid adjustments are a separate control from bid strategy. Amazon shows Sponsored Products in two placement types beyond the default: the top of search results (first row on page one, generally the highest converting position) and product pages. You can adjust your bid for these placements by a percentage above your base bid. If your data shows that top-of-search placements convert better for your product, increasing your placement bid adjustment for top-of-search allows you to compete more aggressively for those positions without raising your bid across all placements.
For starting budget, Amazon recommends ten dollars per day per campaign. For Bardahl distributors in markets with higher CPCs such as the UK, Germany, France, and the United States, a starting budget of fifteen to twenty dollars or the local equivalent per campaign is more realistic for generating sufficient daily impressions to produce usable data within two weeks. Set the budget at a level you can sustain for thirty days. Do not start at a budget you would need to reduce after a week, because reducing a campaign budget mid-test interrupts the data collection period.
What Thirty Days Produces
After thirty days, you have enough data to make a clear assessment: which keywords convert profitably, which do not, which targeting groups in your automatic campaign are worth keeping, and whether your ACoS is trending toward a sustainable level.
A Bardahl distributor in Spain launched a first Sponsored Products campaign for Bardahl Engine Flush with a budget of fifteen euros per day and dynamic bids: down only. Days 1 to 7: 143 clicks, 3 sales. Days 8 to 14: the Search Term Report showed that two search terms, "limpiador motor diesel" and "limpieza motor previo cambio de aceite", had generated the majority of the converting clicks. Eight other terms had generated between 3 to 8 clicks each with no sales. The distributor added the eight non-converting terms as negative keywords and built a manual phrase match campaign using the two proven terms.
By day thirty the automatic campaign was generating a 38 percent ACoS while the manual campaign was running at 22 percent ACoS. The distributor increased the manual campaign budget by thirty percent and reduced the automatic campaign budget by the same amount. Within sixty days total monthly ad sales had grown by 74 percent on the same total spend.
What the Search Term Report Is and Why It Matters
The Search Term Report shows you exactly which search terms buyers typed into Amazon before clicking on your ad. This is different from your keyword list. Your keyword list is what you told Amazon to bid on. The Search Term Report shows you what buyers actually searched for that triggered your ad.
The gap between the two can be significant. If you are running broad match keywords, your ad will appear on many searches you did not specifically target. Some of those searches will be highly relevant and converting well. Others will be irrelevant and wasting your budget. The Search Term Report is where you identify both.
To access the Search Term Report in Amazon Seller Central, navigate to Advertising, then Campaign Manager, then Reports. Select the Search Term Report, choose a date range of the past 7 to 14 days, and download it. The key columns to focus on are: the search term itself, the number of impressions, the number of clicks, the number of orders, and the ACoS for that term.
Three Categories of Search Term: What to Do With Each
These are your proven converters. Add them as exact or phrase match keywords in your manual campaign with a bid that allows you to compete for top-of-search placement. These terms are your commercial priority.
These terms are consuming budget without producing revenue. Sort by click count descending and identify the highest-click zero-sale terms. Add the most irrelevant ones as negative keywords immediately. For terms that are relevant but not yet converting, check whether your listing adequately addresses that specific search intent. The problem may be the listing rather than the term.
These terms are appearing in search results but not generating clicks. This is usually a listing quality signal rather than a targeting signal. If buyers are seeing your listing in results for a highly relevant term but not clicking, this is usually a main image, title, or price problem, not a targeting problem. Return to Section 4.1 and reassess the elements that determine click-through rate.
What Negative Targeting Does
Negative targeting is the practice of telling Amazon which searches and products you do not want your ad to appear on. Without it, broad and automatic campaigns spend a portion of every budget on irrelevant placements. Negative targeting is not an optional refinement. It is a standard part of maintaining a profitable campaign.
Negative Keywords
Negative keywords prevent your ad from appearing on specific search terms. Add them as negative exact match when you want to exclude a specific phrase precisely, or as negative phrase match when you want to exclude any search containing that phrase. Common categories of negative keyword for Bardahl campaigns include: brand-specific competitor searches where you are paying for clicks from buyers specifically looking for a named competitor product; category-adjacent searches that generate clicks but are not relevant to what your product does; and searches that indicate a buyer is looking for information rather than a product, such as terms containing "how to" or "what is."
Negative Product Targets
Negative product targets prevent your ad from appearing on specific product detail pages. If your automatic campaign is placing your ad on a product page where clicks never convert, add that ASIN as a negative product target to stop that spend.
The most efficient way to build your negative keyword list is directly from the Search Term Report. Any term generating three or more clicks with zero sales over a fourteen-day period is a strong candidate for negating, unless there is a clear reason to believe the listing needs to be improved for that term rather than the term excluded.
Understanding ROAS and ACoS
Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) is calculated as total ad sales divided by total ad spend. A ROAS of four means that for every pound or dollar spent on advertising, you generated four pounds or dollars in revenue. The inverse of ROAS is ACoS, which expresses the same relationship as a percentage: an ACoS of 25 percent corresponds to a ROAS of four.
What constitutes a good ROAS for Bardahl products depends on your product margins. The general principle is that your ACoS should stay below your product margin for advertising spend to be profitable. If your gross margin on a product is 40 percent, an ACoS of 25 percent leaves 15 percent after advertising costs to cover other expenses and contribute to profit. An ACoS of 45 percent on the same product means advertising costs are exceeding your margin, and every sale made through advertising is costing you money.
Four Levers for Improving ROAS
If a keyword is generating sales at an ACoS well below your target, raise the bid to win more impressions at top-of-search, generating more sales from what you know is already a profitable term.
If a keyword has generated ten or more clicks with zero or one sale, its conversion rate is too low to justify its current bid. Lower the bid to reduce cost exposure on that term, or pause it and add it to your negative keyword list.
ROAS is determined by both spend and sales. If you improve your conversion rate by making the listing more compelling, more compatible, and more persuasive, the same ad spend generates more sales, improving ROAS without touching the campaign at all. The listing optimisation work in Section 4.1 is directly connected to your advertising financial performance.
Every click that does not convert is budget that produces zero sales in your ROAS calculation. Systematic negative targeting removes the lowest-converting placements and concentrates your budget on the terms and products most likely to produce a sale.
Running a single campaign for all Bardahl products with a shared budget. When one product outperforms another, the shared budget will over-invest in the weaker performer and under-invest in the one generating the best return. Separate campaigns per product give you control over where the money goes.
Starting with manual targeting before running automatic targeting first. Manual targeting requires you to know which keywords your buyers use and which ones convert. If you start manual without that data, you are guessing. Automatic targeting gives you that data in two to four weeks at low cost.
Ignoring the Search Term Report for the first month. Without reviewing it, you are paying for irrelevant clicks that could be negated within days of appearing. Those wasted clicks compound across the campaign lifetime.
Pausing campaigns every time they do not return an immediate profit. Amazon's algorithm needs consistent data to optimise. A campaign paused and restarted loses its learning history, resets its performance signals, and takes longer to reach efficient performance than one run consistently through the initial optimisation period.
Where the Full Measurement Framework Lives
The full measurement templates for tracking ROAS, ACoS, conversion rate, and CPC across your marketplace campaigns are in Deliverable 5: KPI and Measurement Templates. Use this section to understand what these metrics mean and what drives them. Use Deliverable 5 to build the reporting system that tracks them consistently over time.
Sponsored Brands
Sponsored Brands places a banner ad at the top of Amazon search results featuring your brand logo, a headline, and up to three products. It requires Amazon Brand Registry. Its primary commercial purpose is brand visibility and shopper consideration at the top of the funnel, before a buyer has selected a specific product to view. For Bardahl, Sponsored Brands becomes relevant when you have three or more listed products performing well through Sponsored Products and want to build brand recognition across a product category. It is not a replacement for Sponsored Products. It is a complement that builds category presence above the product-level conversion work that Sponsored Products does.
Sponsored Display
Sponsored Display shows ads on and off Amazon, including on third-party websites and apps. It supports audience targeting based on shopping behaviour rather than search intent. Sponsored Display can be used to retarget buyers who viewed your product listing but did not purchase, and to reach audiences defined by their category browsing history. It is the most complex of the three formats and requires the most data and budget to run efficiently. For Bardahl distributors, Sponsored Display is appropriate at higher maturity levels once Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands are both optimised and generating consistent returns.
- You have been running an automatic Sponsored Products campaign for three weeks. The Search Term Report shows that one search term has generated 15 clicks and four sales, and another has generated 12 clicks and zero sales. What do you do with each term, and why?
- A distributor is running Sponsored Products for Bardahl DPF Cleaner with an ACoS of 52 percent. Their product margin is 38 percent. What does this tell you, and what are the two most important things they could change to bring the campaign back into profitability?
- Why does Amazon recommend starting with automatic targeting before manual targeting, even for distributors who believe they already know their best keywords?
- What is the difference between a campaign bid strategy of "dynamic bids: down only" and "dynamic bids: up and down", and which is appropriate for a campaign in its first thirty days?
- What is the correct sequence for using automatic targeting and manual targeting, and what data does the automatic campaign produce that makes the manual campaign more effective?
- If a search term in your Search Term Report has generated 14 clicks and zero sales over two weeks, what are the two most likely explanations, and what would you check to determine which one applies?
- How is ROAS connected to listing quality, and why does improving your conversion rate through listing optimisation have a direct effect on your advertising return?
Foundation and Developing tier distributors: focus on building listing quality and establishing a functioning conversion path before allocating any paid budget. The listing readiness check in Section 4.1.7 is your gate. Pass it first.
Active Builder and above: you can begin testing structured paid campaigns using the campaign setup approach in Section 4.2. Start with automatic targeting, follow the thirty-day rhythm, and add manual targeting once you have conversion data.
Conversion-Ready and Scale-Ready distributors: use this module to optimise campaigns that are already running. Apply the ROAS levers in Section 4.2.8 and build the measurement rhythm from Deliverable 5 to make consistent improvement decisions.
This module has given you the commercial logic behind winning on marketplaces. A marketplace listing is not a set-and-forget task. It is an active commercial asset that earns organic visibility through consistent performance, converts buyers through clarity and trust, and amplifies both when advertising is added at the right time with the right structure.
The sequence matters. Build the listing to the standard described in Section 4.1 before you run any paid campaign. Run automatic targeting before you build a manual campaign. Build the manual campaign from evidence, not assumptions. Optimise through the Search Term Report, not through instinct. Use negative targeting as standard practice, not as a remedial fix. Add Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display only when Sponsored Products is already profitable.
The distributors in the Bardahl network generating measurable e-commerce uplift from marketplace activity are not the ones spending the most. They are the ones who built the listing correctly before they ran the campaign, and who ran the campaign with a clear commercial objective and a consistent optimisation rhythm. That is the approach this module is designed to produce.
The next step is Deliverable 5: KPI and Measurement Templates. D5 gives you the reporting structure to track whether your marketplace investment is working, identify where to improve, and communicate performance clearly to Bardahl HQ.