A new product has nothing working in its favor on Amazon. No reviews, no sales history, no organic rank. Ads are often the only way to get it in front of shoppers in the first weeks, and the costs reflect that. The mistake most sellers make is judging a launch by the same ACoS target they use for established products, then cutting spend just as the data starts to arrive.
This playbook covers how to set up Sponsored Products for a launch, how to size the budget, what to measure, and how to know when the launch phase is over.
Get the listing ready first
Ads amplify whatever the listing does. A launch with a weak main image or a confusing title will spend more for every order and learn less. Before turning anything on, check the main image on a phone, make sure the title states what the product is in the first few words, and fill in every relevant attribute. Confirm stock levels can support the traffic.
Reviews will be thin at first. That is normal. Use Amazon's approved programs where they apply, and plan for lower conversion rates in the early weeks. Sponsored Products for new listings covers what to expect while social proof builds.
A simple launch structure
Keep the structure small enough to manage and clear enough to read. A common starting point is three campaigns per product.
An automatic campaign. Amazon matches the ad to searches and products based on the listing. It finds terms you would not have guessed and shows which competitor pages your product appears on. Auto versus manual campaigns explains how the two work together.
A manual exact campaign with the handful of keywords you are most confident in: the clearest descriptions of the product that a shopper would type.
A manual broad or phrase campaign with a wider set of relevant keywords, for discovery with more control than auto. Keyword research for PPC covers how to build that first list.
Add product targeting campaigns once you know which competitor listings your product converts against. That usually comes from the auto campaign's data within a few weeks.
Setting the launch budget
Decide the launch budget as a total for the launch period, not as a daily guess. Ask what you can afford to spend at a loss to get the product to a point where it sells on its own. Then divide by the number of days in the launch phase to get a daily figure.
Bids at launch are often set at or somewhat above Amazon's suggested range for the core exact keywords, because the product needs impressions to gather any data at all. Discovery campaigns can start lower. Watch whether budgets run out early in the day. A launch campaign that is out of budget by noon is missing its evening shoppers, which are often the most valuable hours.
What to measure in the first weeks
ACoS will be high. Track it, but do not steer by it yet. In the first weeks, the useful numbers are:
Impressions and click-through rate. If impressions are low, bids are too low or targeting is too narrow. If click-through rate is low on relevant terms, the main image, title or price is not competitive.
Conversion rate by search term. This is the most valuable launch data. It tells you which terms the product actually wins on.
Total sales and organic movement. A launch is working if total orders are growing and the product starts to appear organically for its core terms. TACoS targets by stage covers how to judge ad spend against total sales instead of ad sales alone.
Weekly launch routine
Once a week, pull the search term report. Move search terms that converted in auto or broad campaigns into the exact campaign, and add them as negatives in the source campaign so they do not compete with themselves. Add clearly irrelevant terms as negatives. Lower bids on terms that spend steadily without converting, rather than cutting them on very small samples.
Check budgets daily for the first two weeks. A launch can run out of budget faster than expected once a few terms start converting.
Keep a short launch log as you go: the date of each bid change, each new negative, each budget change and each review milestone. When results shift, the log tells you what changed. It also makes the next launch faster, because you can see what worked the last time.
Moving from launch to efficiency
The launch phase ends when three things are true: you know which terms convert, the product has enough reviews to compete on the page, and organic sales are contributing. At that point, the goal shifts from discovery to profitability. Tighten bids toward a target ACoS, cut terms that never converted, and start shaping spend by hour and day.
There is no fixed length for a launch. Some products settle in a few weeks; competitive categories can take a few months. How long Amazon ads take to work sets realistic expectations, and the first 90 days of PPC lays out what usually happens month by month.
Frequently asked questions
What ACoS should I expect when launching a new product?
Usually higher than your target for an established product, sometimes well above break-even. The product has no reviews, no sales history and no organic rank yet. Set a launch budget you can afford to spend at a loss, and judge the launch on data gathered and rank gained, not ACoS alone.
Should I use automatic or manual campaigns for a launch?
Both. An automatic campaign finds search terms and products you would not have thought of. Manual campaigns on your best-guess keywords give you control over the terms you already know matter. Search terms that convert in the auto campaign move into manual campaigns as you go.
How long should the launch phase last?
Most launches need several weeks to a few months, depending on category competition and sales velocity. The launch phase ends when you have enough data to know which terms convert, and enough reviews and organic movement that efficiency becomes the priority.
Off Hours budget rules and spend alerts keep a launch budget on pace through the day, checking every 15 minutes and logging each change. Start a free 14-day trial.