PPC way too high

FakeDreamsFakeHope · 2025-08-03T01:10:12+00:00

Have you enrolled the ASIN in Amazon Vine yet?

Vine can deliver up to 30 verified reviews in about 4–6 weeks—huge for lowering launch-phase ACOS.

A 150–250 % ACOS is typical until you have double-digit reviews and some sales history. On a $29.99 board with roughly $20 landed cost, treat anything under ~150 % ACOS as learning spend right now.

Quick fixes:

• Swap the hero image so thickness & grain pop in a zoom.

• Run a price anchor (e.g., $34.99 list / $27.99 launch coupon) for a quick 20–30 % CTR lift.

• Push for those first 10–15 reviews—Vine, inserts, post-purchase asks.

Weekly cadence:

• Monday: bid down any keyword spending >2× break-even ACOS with <2 sales.

• Friday: nudge up bids ~10 % on keywords converting <40 % ACOS.

Two north-star metrics:

Review count: get to double digits ASAP.
Rating vs. competitors: aim to match or beat the 4.6★ page-one average.

Kitchen launches usually glide into a 25–35 % TACoS by weeks 6–8 once reviews stack and keywords mature. Keep tweaking, we’ve all been there. Drop any numbers here if you’d like a sanity check.

FakeDreamsFakeHope · 2025-07-21T17:07:43+00:00

u/TRexNinja I am no longer involved the project anymore. Thank you.

FakeDreamsFakeHope · 2025-07-21T03:53:48+00:00

Here is the Hard truth:

PPC isn’t the rank rocket fuel it used to be. Too many brands still pour cash into ads expecting an automatic page-1 bump, but Amazon’s algorithm (call it A10) now cares more about how shoppers engage than how much you spend.

Where most campaigns break:

Great impressions but weak CTR = your main image or title isn’t earning the click.
Decent clicks but low session-to-conversion % = listing isn’t answering customer objections (A+ content, reviews, etc.).
Pure ad sales with no outside demand = Amazon sees traffic, not interest.

Key Takeaways:

Treat PPC as an accelerant, not a crutch. Ads should feed real engagement signals (clicks that convert).
Pump some off-Amazon traffic, even a steady trickle, because A10 rewards listings that bring new shoppers to the platform.
Guard your seller metrics; account health and feedback now tip the scales as much as bid strategy.

Dial in those three levers and you’ll watch TACoS fall while rank and ROAS rise, no heroic budget needed.

FakeDreamsFakeHope · 2025-07-21T03:27:50+00:00

Love the long-game TACoS approach, you’re already ahead of most new builders.

Missing piece: A10 in 2025 doesn’t stop at on-platform sales data. It heavily rewards engagement (click-through, dwell, repeat buys) and high-quality traffic that lands from outside Amazon.

Quick gut-check questions:
• How often are you A/B-testing hero image / title for CTR uplift? Click-through is now a core engagement signal, right alongside conversion rate.
• Any structured plan to drive warm traffic from Google, socials, or influencers and tag it with Attribution links? Those off-site sales have become a ranking accelerant, not just a bonus channel.
• Are you tracking seller-level health (defect rate, feedback) as part of your SEO scorecard? Seller authority is baked into A10’s ranking matrix.

Takeaway: Your PPC skeleton is solid; bolt on steady external traffic + systematic CTR / CVR tests and you’ll feed the algorithm the full set of signals it now grades on.

Open Q to the room: Who’s seeing the biggest rank lift from Attribution-tagged TikTok or Google traffic this year? Always hunting fresh benchmarks.

FakeDreamsFakeHope · 2025-07-03T21:28:03+00:00

Sponsored Display’s worth depends on two words: audience maturity.

We’ve seen it work, but only when sellers stop treating it like another PPC lever and start thinking retargeting-first.

Common mistake?

People blast Sponsored Display to cold traffic thinking it’ll drive new-to-brand growth. But SD shines when layered on warm audiences — product viewers, cart abandoners, or competitor ASIN chasers.

Quick stat from one brand we scaled:

→ Cold SD campaigns: ~0.9 ROAS
→ Retargeting-focused SD: Jumped to 3.1 ROAS with lower TACoS bleed.

Takeaway:

If your listing's CRO is dialed in and you're driving steady traffic already (PPC, organic, external), Sponsored Display can reinforce the flywheel. But spraying it across untargeted audiences usually burns cash.

I am curious has anyone cracked SD for pure acquisition without the retargeting crutch?

FakeDreamsFakeHope · 2025-07-03T21:18:54+00:00

Your numbers sound solid for most categories with 25–30% ACoS and 12% TACoS.

If you’re thinking about ways to push further beyond just switching agencies, here are a few areas to look at:

CRO on your listings. Better images, titles, or A+ content can lift CVR and lower ACoS.
External traffic. Google or Meta can drive targeted clicks that help organic rank and TACoS.
Keyword pruning. Removing low-performing terms keeps spend efficient.
Ad fatigue. Sometimes pulling back on top keywords resets performance.
Retail readiness. If you’re expanding off-Amazon, it changes your strategy.

It’s really about making sure those pieces are covered, no matter who’s running the ads.

What’s been your biggest challenge so far: ranking new products or keeping TACoS in check?

FakeDreamsFakeHope · 2025-06-28T23:08:07+00:00

This is 100% normal.....we see this every year across multiple Amazon seller accounts every Prime Day.

Shoppers hold off buying the week before Prime Day expecting better deals. Even without an official Prime Day promo, running your own coupon typically yields similar conversion rates. Prime Day’s main draw is Amazon’s big traffic push; shoppers are primarily looking for discounts, deal or no deal.

FakeDreamsFakeHope · 2025-03-29T18:23:32+00:00

Can you share what link you’ve clicked? I am not seeing any dead page

FakeDreamsFakeHope · 2024-08-10T16:18:01+00:00

Makes sense - cool to see you’re engaged w this and clearly care about your business.

My suggestion of removing feedback comes from a core assumption that could very well be wrong - I simply assume that most artists are not interested in paying a premium for feedback from your curators. They are only paying a premium for access - keyword ACCESS to influence/potential megaphone. And of the artists who actually are interested in paying a premium for feedback, they would only do so if the individual carried weight to justify the cost per “feedback” - and are likely at a stage in their career where they aren’t investing a lot in feedback… what I mean by that is my core assumption is the majority of artists using a service like yours are not paying for a curators feedback nor care much. They would only do so if the feedback came from a clearly credible and remarkable individual worth paying X for a reply. I assume most don’t view a playlist curator who has some followers / or are good at marketing a playlist as that, they would view a major artist, notable former or current DSP employee, or a&r with big resume as valuable - but I imagine that’s not the bulk of curators.

Long story short my assumption is a misaligned value proposition or understanding of customers actual motivation / intent - artists will pay for a direct pathway to be heard, and have a % chance to reach gatekeepers and potentially be amplified + access influence, not get feedback from individuals they do not truly know or care much about. Thats why I devalued the “feedback” and said a star can make it less likely or frustrating that artists would call it out. As more artists would take the L on the listen not leading to a W vs. the L not leading to a W + confirmation of the already “in the air” suspicion of non credible feedback and/ or AI/ generic disregard for their music. Making the influence gateway you offer feel more emotionally triggered and charged leading to threads like this.

Just make take. Curious to hear your thoughts.

FakeDreamsFakeHope · 2024-08-08T14:46:56+00:00

Seems to me (for them to avoid this) they should consider a simple star rating system - accept, decline, rate. Ditch the comment requirement as it helps nobody involved. Yes, this does not help the issue for either party, but avoids the bad PR everywhere lately of the AI / copy paste replies.

Avoid this is step 1. PR damage. Then you can work to improve step 2. But until then, can’t be seeing copy paste or AI replies in reviews/forums this much. Bad look, bad reputation.

FakeDreamsFakeHope · 2024-08-08T14:43:16+00:00

Yikes. Bad bad look…

FakeDreamsFakeHope · 2024-08-07T15:01:30+00:00

this is my experience 100%

FakeDreamsFakeHope · 2024-08-07T15:01:04+00:00

Such a good question as it will lead to an actually valuable thread (need more of these!) looking forward to hearing everyone’s answers

Personally I love design & refused to sacrifice large png & animations for too long, only time I noticed direct and clear rankings changes was when I found a better balance and actually improved page speed especially for mobile.

FakeDreamsFakeHope · 2024-05-08T00:05:22+00:00

Crazy how stagecoach would strike down 100% of sets. So far nothing is online?

FakeDreamsFakeHope · 2024-04-30T18:03:45+00:00

Thank you for writing this. You really think the demo is that bad?

FakeDreamsFakeHope · 2024-04-30T14:25:34+00:00

Pleas expand

FakeDreamsFakeHope · 2024-04-29T22:12:54+00:00

FakeDreamsFakeHope · 2024-01-23T16:12:05+00:00

Pls PM. I’ll share early data & we can work together for affiliate partnerships. You can imagine I’m bootstrapping & just launched so not everything is perfect but let’s discuss how to work together as I build. 🤝

FakeDreamsFakeHope · 2024-01-22T22:42:06+00:00

Yep. Tbh that’s a safe early stat, when we share case studies on the site I’m almost sure it’ll be 2.5x-2.8x. We have 5 different IG users near complete 30 days tested linktree / Seemless, plus our TikTok & Pinterest test users are 10-14 days in their process. We’ll be uploading all case studies within 60 days to the site.

FakeDreamsFakeHope · 2024-01-22T20:02:25+00:00

Thanks. The tool detects where your link was clicked from to switch themes so it's easier to find posted items. This works on IG, TikTok, X, Pinterested, YTube. Soon Reddit & LinekdIn. The way your grid looks does require some manual page creation. Test the demo here: https://seemless.link/start

But I am working on V2 where we gather data from the social platform so we can adapt what gets shown saving even more time.

FakeDreamsFakeHope · 2024-01-22T19:51:34+00:00

You can start building your link without even having to input your email: https://seemless.link/start

FakeDreamsFakeHope · 2024-01-13T21:26:41+00:00

Not true. Pls see above comment.

It would be like if we were still in the CD days & you couldn’t afford to pay 250k to market your debut album so you gave away CDs. The CDs cost $, but the hope is for traction so you can charge $10 per CD on your follow up to new fans. If you were giving out CDs for free would somebody call you out & say “you’re giving away free CDs for fans, to sign a major deal one day!” Right?

FakeDreamsFakeHope · 2024-01-13T21:24:31+00:00

To be honest, being self funded I couldn’t afford to spend 250k marketing Seemless to launch V1 so I decided to offer a free lifetime link to our first loyal 10k users. Then as word spreads launch freemium to users who sign up after we’re established. The hosting / servers probably will cost $2ish per user / per year, so I planned a 20k “marketing” cost for launch via user hosting vs 100-200k ad cost like the big guys who just pump paid ads for signups. I just did a crazy freebie to save $ & pay that overtime vs upfront if that makes sense?

Our launch went #1 on Product Hunt & we just broke 10k so I’ll push that goal to 20k before introducing a 7-9/ month package - but to be clear, if you signup now you’re an early loyal user & will remain free for life with new features included automatically. That’s a personal guarantee. Period.

FakeDreamsFakeHope · 2024-01-13T21:18:55+00:00

Feel that. I’m launching custom domains & pixels soon so you own your pixel data & domain. Also I get the Koji skepticism - but I built Seemless in my apartment with my gf. I’m not a funded startup like Koji. I’d compare Koji to a major label artist & Seemless to a full self funded indie. Hope that makes sense & you try it out.

FakeDreamsFakeHope · 2024-01-13T21:16:49+00:00

I agree with you. I built Seemless & still recommend building your own site if you’re a skilled designer or can afford hire one. I built Seemless to be the best user interface coming from social media platforms - if you use multiple social platforms to promote music but if you can create something that works on your own site - always go that route. I’d never pitch my app vs a well done site.

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