When Amazon PPC performance drops—or spend suddenly spikes—sellers often react by making random changes. This usually makes things worse.

The 30-Minute PPC Account Triage is a structured, repeatable process designed to help you identify the biggest problems and opportunities quickly, without over-optimizing or getting lost in data.

This guide walks you through exactly what to check, in what order, and why, so you can stabilize performance first—then optimize with confidence.
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This triage framework is ideal for:

🆘 Sellers experiencing sudden ACoS spikes or spend increases
⏱️ Busy operators who can’t do deep optimizations daily
📈 Growing brands managing multiple campaigns or SKUs
🧠 Advanced sellers who want a fast, repeatable diagnostic process
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Before running a PPC triage, understand these fundamentals:
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📊 ACoS vs TACoS
ACoS shows ad efficiency. TACoS shows overall business impact. Triage focuses on both, not just one.
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🚦 Limited by Budget
A campaign hitting its budget cap may appear inefficient when it’s actually underfunded.
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📄 Search Term vs Keyword
Keywords are targets. Search terms are real shopper queries. Triage decisions should prioritize search term data.
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🧱 Campaign Intent
Brand, Non-Brand, Defense, and Product Targeting campaigns behave differently and must be evaluated separately.
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Start high-level. Don’t optimize yet.

Review:

🚨 Red Flags:

👉 Goal: Identify whether this is a structural issue or a localized one.
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Go where the money is going.

Actions:

🚫 Common Mistake:
Spending time optimizing campaigns that barely spend.

👉 Goal: Focus only on what can materially move performance.
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This is where most waste is found.

For high-spend campaigns:

Actions:
🧹 Add negative keywords
✂️ Reduce bids on inefficient terms
🎯 Isolate converting terms into Exact Match

👉 Pro Tip: One strong negative can save more money than 10 bid tweaks.
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Now check controls.

Review:

Quick fixes:
⬆️ Reallocate budget to Brand/Defense if capped
⬇️ Reduce bids on clearly inefficient targets
🔒 Add bid caps or rules where needed

👉 Goal: Prevent obvious overspending or throttling.
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Resist over-optimization.

Do NOT:
❌ Pause campaigns based on short-term dips
❌ Change bids daily
❌ Optimize low-data keywords

Instead:
🗓️ Log findings
📝 Schedule deeper optimizations later
🎯 Let data stabilize
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❌ Treating triage like full optimization
❌ Making emotional, same-day decisions
❌ Ignoring campaign intent
❌ Optimizing keywords instead of search terms
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When used consistently, sellers typically see:

📉 Reduced wasted ad spend
📊 Faster issue diagnosis
🧠 More confident optimization decisions
⏱️ Significant time savings
📈 More stable PPC performance
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How often should I run a PPC triage?
Weekly for active accounts, or anytime performance suddenly changes.
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Is this a replacement for full PPC optimization?
No. Triage stabilizes performance. Optimization improves it long-term.
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Should I pause keywords during triage?
Rarely. Negatives and bid reductions are safer first steps.
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What time range should I use?
7–14 days for most accounts. Use longer windows for low-volume campaigns.
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Want to run this triage without guessing or skipping steps?
Download the free 30-minute PPC triage worksheet and use it live inside your account.
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Amazon_PPC_30_Minute_Triage_Worksheet - Download Here!
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