7 Fast Fixes to Cut Wasted Spend This Week

Fix 1: Pull the Search Term Report and Add Negatives

This is the highest-ROI action in all of Amazon PPC. Go to Sponsored Products → Reports → Search Term Report. Filter for spend above ₹100 with 0 conversions in the last 30 days. Every term on that list is wasted money. Add them as negative exact match to the relevant campaigns today.

In most unmanaged accounts, this single action identifies 15–25% of spend going to irrelevant traffic.

Fix 2: Pause or Reduce Zombie Keywords

A zombie keyword has received significant spend (say, 10+ clicks) across 90+ days with zero conversions, no rank movement, and ACOS far above target. It is not "about to convert." It has had hundreds of chances and hasn't. Pause it or reduce the bid by 60–70%.

Filter your keyword report for 0 conversions, 60+ days active, spend above ₹500. Sort by spend. Pause the worst offenders.

Fix 3: Fix Cannibalizing Campaigns

If your broad or phrase campaigns are bidding on terms that also appear in your exact campaigns, you're running internal auctions. Find your exact match keywords and add them as negatives in your broad and phrase campaigns. Traffic for those terms will then only flow through your exact campaigns where bids are properly set.

Fix 4: Check Your Auto Campaign Bid

Auto campaigns are discovery tools. They should have your lowest bids — typically 40–60% of what you bid in manual exact. Many sellers set auto bids equal to or higher than manual bids. If your auto ACOS is above 2× your target, reduce the auto bid by 30% immediately.

Fix 5: Turn Off Budget-Limited Campaigns After Hours

If your campaigns regularly hit budget cap by 3pm, you're burning budget during high-traffic, lower-conversion hours (morning browsing) and running out by evening peak. Use campaign scheduling or budget rules to reduce spend rate in the first half of the day so budget lasts through your peak conversion hours. Pull your hourly data first — don't assume; verify when your CVR actually peaks.

Fix 6: Remove Duplicate Keywords Across Campaigns

If the same keyword appears in three different campaigns (auto, broad, and exact), they're all bidding for the same impression and driving up your own costs. Run a keyword audit: export all active keywords, sort alphabetically, and identify duplicates. Keep the keyword in the most appropriate tier only; add it as a negative to the others.

Fix 7: Check Placement Modifiers Are Not All at 0%

Default placement modifiers are 0% everywhere — meaning you're paying the same for bottom-of-page impressions as top-of-search. Pull your placement performance report and check if top-of-search has significantly higher CVR than other placements. If it does, increase the top-of-search modifier to concentrate budget there. If product pages have terrible CVR, add a negative modifier (−50% to −80%) to reduce spend there.

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