Amazon Advertising Interview Questions & Answers (Freshers)

Amazon PPC (pay-per-click) is Amazon’s advertising system where you bid on keywords or products and pay only when a shopper clicks your ad. Ads appear in search results and on product pages. See what Amazon PPC is for the full basics.

There are five: Sponsored Products (search and product-page ads), Sponsored Brands (branded banner and video ads), Sponsored Display (retargeting on and off Amazon), Sponsored TV (streaming ads), and Amazon DSP (programmatic audience buying).

Sponsored Products promote individual listings in search and on product pages and are the core, lowest-cost format. Sponsored Brands show a branded banner or video with multiple products to build awareness. Sponsored Display retargets shoppers on and off Amazon. Products captures demand; Brands and Display help create and re-engage it.

ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sales) is ad spend divided by ad sales, shown as a percentage — it measures how efficient your advertising is. A lower ACoS means more efficient spend. It’s covered in depth in ACoS vs TACoS.

Amazon runs a second-price auction: the winner pays just above the next-highest bid, not their full bid. Placement is decided by bid and relevance, so a well-targeted, relevant ad can win without the highest bid.

Sellers use Seller Central and sell directly to shoppers (third-party); Vendors use Vendor Central and sell wholesale to Amazon (first-party). Both can advertise, but some ad features require Brand Registry. See seller, vendor and Brand Registry.

It goes campaign → ad group → targets (keywords or products). Budget is set at the campaign level, bids at the target level, and thematic grouping at the ad group level. See campaign structure.

Automatic campaigns let Amazon choose targets based on your listing — great for discovery. Manual campaigns let you choose the exact keywords or products and set individual bids for control. Most sellers run both and harvest winning terms from auto into manual.

The three match types are broad (widest reach, includes variations), phrase (the phrase in order, with words around it), and exact (only that exact term and close variants). Broad discovers, exact controls.

Enough to gather meaningful data — often $10–50/day per campaign to start, then adjust based on performance. What matters is spending profitably against your target ACoS, not a fixed number. See PPC budget.

A common blueprint is a three-campaign funnel: an auto campaign for discovery, a manual broad/phrase campaign for expansion, and a manual exact campaign for proven converters — with winning terms harvested down and negated upstream. See SP campaign structure.

Placements are where your ad appears: Top of Search (premium, highest conversion and cost), Rest of Search, and Product Pages. You can raise bids for specific placements with placement modifiers.

It’s finding the search terms shoppers use to find products like yours, then targeting them. You use auto campaigns, the search term report, competitor terms, and tools to build the list. See keyword research.

Negative keywords stop your ad from showing for terms you don’t want — irrelevant searches or terms that get clicks but no sales. They prevent wasted spend and keep traffic relevant.

Product targeting places your ad on specific product detail pages or categories rather than on keywords — useful for appearing on competitor listings or complementary products.

The search term report shows the actual shopper searches that triggered your ads (versus the keywords you targeted). It’s the main source for finding new converting keywords and negative keywords.

Bid up on keywords that convert well at or below your target ACoS, and reduce or negate keywords that spend without converting. Let performance data, not guesses, drive bid changes.

ACoS is ad spend ÷ ad sales (ad efficiency); TACoS is ad spend ÷ total sales (business health, including organic). A healthy account shows steady ACoS with a falling TACoS. See ACoS vs TACoS.

CTR (click-through rate) is clicks ÷ impressions — how well your ad earns the click. CVR (conversion rate) is orders ÷ clicks (or sessions) — how well the listing turns clicks into sales. Low CTR points to the ad; low CVR points to the listing.

RoAS (Return on Ad Spend) is ad sales ÷ ad spend — the inverse of ACoS. A 25% ACoS equals a 4x RoAS. They express the same efficiency two ways.

Add negative keywords, lower bids on inefficient terms, improve the listing’s conversion rate, tighten targeting, and shift budget to proven keywords. Often a high ACoS is a listing or relevance problem, not just a bidding one. See conversion-ready listings.

It depends on your margin and goal. Break-even ACoS equals your profit margin; a profitable target is below that. Product launches deliberately run a high ACoS to build rank, while established products aim for efficiency.

Usually the listing, not the ads: check the main image, price, reviews, and A+ content, and whether the traffic is relevant. Clicks with no conversions is typically a conversion problem, so fix the listing before raising bids.

Check the search term report for new irrelevant terms, look for increased competition or CPC rises, verify the listing is in stock and priced competitively, and confirm conversion rate hasn’t dropped. Then negate waste and adjust bids.

Mine the search term report from your auto and broad campaigns for converting terms, then promote them into phrase or exact match. Competitor listings and keyword tools also surface new opportunities.