Top 15 Questions to Ask Your Amazon PPC Consultant

While hiring an Amazon PPC consultant, you need to be cautious. One wrong hire can turn down the revenue of your company. Similarly, a right hire can add on your revenue graph. However, the line between right and wrong Amazon PPC consultant hire is very thin.

So, in this guide, we will walk you through 15 essential questions that you should ask to Amazon PPC consultants before hiring them. These are not just “regular interview questions” but they can be used as a hiring criteria to evaluate the capabilities and potential of the Amazon PPC consultants. 

1. What’s Your Experience with Amazon PPC? 

Your very first question to an Amazon PPC consultant should be about the experience with Amazon PPC. Niche-down your question further with the experience in your niche-related products. Amazon ads are not like Google ads or Facebook ads that can be handled by a full-stack marketer. 

Amazon has its own set of rules, updates, data models, and winning strategies. So, anybody who’s going to join you as an Amazon PPC expert must be aware of all the Amazon updates, Amazon PPC campaign structuring methods, and the right practices to grow your Amazon business.

An Amazon PPC expert must be able to tell you about the years of experience they have been into Amazon PPC management. In addition to this, inquire them about the types of accounts they have handled before (wholesale, private label, agency) and the niches they have experience with. Also ask about the monthly spend they have managed before. 

If this seems to be like they have just switched to Amazon ads with no portfolio showing successful case studies, consider it as a red flag and avoid onboarding such Amazon PPC experts.   

How an Expert Amazon PPC Consultant Should Answer? 

I’ve been managing Amazon PPC campaigns for over 5 years, focusing solely on Amazon Advertising. My portfolio includes brands across multiple niches, including home & kitchen, beauty, and supplements, where I’ve helped businesses scale from $10K to $1.2M+ in monthly revenue.

I specialize in building structured, data-driven campaigns for Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display. 

An Amazon PPC consultant must not just talk about the KPIs like yes I do know about ROAS, ACOS and TACOS but they must be able to tell you about how they have helped brands achieve the benchmarks for these performance indicators. 

Amazon PPC experts sounds like, 

“Over the past year, I’ve managed more than $5 million in ad spend across both private label and wholesale accounts, achieving measurable results such as a 28% reduction in ACOS, a 15% improvement in TACOS, and a 42% increase in total sales.” 

2. How Do You Lower ACOS Without Affecting Profitability? 

Your next question to an Amazon PPC consultant should be about their strategy for lowering ACOS without hurting the profitability. Many inexperienced consultants focus only on cutting bids, which can reduce spend but also kill ranking momentum and sales. A true Amazon PPC expert understands how to balance ACOS, TACOS, and ROI to make your ad spend more efficient.

Here’s what an experienced Amazon PPC consultant should do:

1. Start With Breakeven ACOS

They begin by reviewing your breakeven ACOS to identify campaigns that are overspending. High-ACOS campaigns are optimized or paused, while strong performers stay active to maintain ranking and traffic stability.

2. Rebuild and Organize campaigns

If your account structure or naming convention is messy, they fix it first. A clean campaign setup makes Amazon PPC optimization smoother and data easier to interpret.

3. Use Negative Targeting Smartly

Amazon PPC experts add negative keywords in Auto, Broad, and Phrase campaigns to stop wasting money on irrelevant clicks that don’t convert into sales.

4. Adjust Bids Based on Real CPC Data

Instead of randomly reducing bids, an Amazon PPC expert checks your average CPC. For instance, if your bid is $1 but your CPC is $0.85, they might lower it to around $0.60 to bring performance closer to the target without losing visibility.

5. Push More Budget to What’s Working

As Amazon PPC experts know the nuances, they shift the budget to the best performing keywords and ASINs. This keeps your sales steady and helps scale the campaigns that are already profitable.

6. Monitor TACOS and ROI Continuously

They don’t just look at ACOS. They make sure your TACOS improves and your ROI increases over time, meaning you’re generating more sales from both ads and organic traffic.

Red Flag Answer:

“We just lower bids or pause high-ACOS campaigns until the numbers look better.” This kind of approach might reduce ad spend temporarily, but it often kills ranking momentum, drops sales, and hurts overall profitability.

3. What’s Your Approach for Keyword Research? 

Keyword research defines the direction of your entire PPC strategy. Without a structured process, you’ll end up targeting irrelevant traffic and wasting ad spend. A professional Amazon PPC consultant always follows a disciplined, data-backed approach instead of chasing random high-volume terms.

A skilled consultant uses:

• Amazon Search Term Reports and Search Query Performance Reports to identify the high-converting keywords and customer search intent.
• Tools like Helium 10 Cerebro or DataDive for reverse ASIN research as they give you the list of the keywords on which competitors are generating sales.
• Filters based on search volume, competition level, and conversion potential to shortlist only the most relevant and profitable terms.
• Segmentation by intent such as ranking, discovery, branded, and defensive to structure campaigns that target every stage of the funnel strategically.

An Amazon PPC consultant should also explain how they promote converting keywords into exact match campaigns while pausing or excluding low-performing terms to keep spend efficient and data clean.

Red Flag Answer:

“We target high-volume keywords because they bring more traffic.” This mindset shows a lack of strategy and understanding of intent. High traffic without conversions only drains your budget and hurts profitability.

What to Look For:

A consultant who focuses on relevance, intent, and profitability so that every keyword serves a clear purpose in driving ranked, converting, and sustainable sales growth.

4. How Do You Define Success Beyond ACOS? 

Though ACOS tells a lot about the Amazon PPC performance, it’s not the only KPI that should be optimized, monitored, and reported. When you hire Amazon PPC expert, you should move forward with someone who knows the importance of other key performance metrics as well. 

These metrics include: 

• TACOS (Total ACOS): Shows how ad spend impacts total sales. A falling TACOS with steady or higher sales means your ads are fueling organic growth.
• ROI (Return on Investment): Measures overall profitability from ad spend, not just cost control.
• NTB (New-to-Brand Sales): Indicates how many first-time customers your ads are bringing in.
• CVR (Conversion Rate): Reflects how well your listings convert ad traffic into purchases.
• CTR (Click-Through Rate): Measures ad engagement and keyword relevance.
• Organic Rank: Reveals how paid campaigns improve organic visibility over time.

 Red Flag Answer:

“We only focus on ACOS.” This narrow mindset shows poor strategy. A professional should always connect ACOS with TACOS, ROI, and organic rank to measure real success.

Your Amazon brand needs an Amazon PPC consultant who knows how PPC impacts organic growth as well. A well-versed Amazon PPC consultant not only brings you sales through PPC but they help you build a long-term, sustainable Amazon PPC strategy. 

5. Can You Share Any Successful Case Study or Client Results? 

Don’t only rely on wordy talks when you hire Amazon PPC expert. Instead, ask the Amazon PPC consultant to share the case studies, reports, and success stories. An Amazon PPC expert confidently showcases the portfolio to prove their credibility and performance in the market. 

If somebody tries to manipulate with “I can’t showcase the results or case studies due to privacy or confidentiality reasons”, consider it as a red flag. 

6. How Do You Balance Sponsored Products, Brands, and Display Campaigns?

Your next question to an Amazon PPC consultant should be about how they balance Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display campaigns. A professional knows that each ad type serves a specific purpose and contributes differently to visibility, conversions, and overall brand growth.

The three main ad types on Amazon are:

• Sponsored Products: These are the most important of any PPC strategy. They help you capture high-intent shoppers and drive direct sales through keyword-level targeting.
• Sponsored Brands: These campaigns build awareness, strengthen brand recall, and promote your product range. A good consultant uses them to increase branded searches and cross-sell opportunities.
• Sponsored Display: These ads are used for retargeting, product defense, and audience expansion. They help you stay visible even after the shopper leaves the search page.

An expert consultant knows exactly how to allocate budget among these ad types so that your strategy covers both acquisition and retention. If someone relies only on Sponsored Products and ignores the other two, it’s a sign they don’t understand the full-funnel potential of Amazon advertising.

7. How Do You Structure Amazon PPC Campaigns? 

The next thing you need to ask an Amazon PPC consultant should be about how they structure campaigns. Proper structuring is one of the most critical parts of Amazon PPC management. Without a clear setup, optimization becomes messy, tracking gets confusing, and results are inconsistent. An Amazon PPC expert always emphasizes campaign organization and naming conventions to never confuse when tracking performance and optimizing the campaign. 

Here’s what an Amazon PPC expert should do:

• Create or refine brand defense campaigns to protect branded keywords and ASINs from competitor targeting.
• Prioritize single-keyword campaigns for top-performing search terms to improve ranking and control budget distribution more precisely.
• Use clear and consistent campaign names to distinguish between auto, manual, and research campaigns for easier reporting.
• Build dedicated competitor targeting campaigns to monitor spend, analyze performance, and capture market share from competitor listings.
• Keep research campaigns active to test new keywords and continuously discover profitable opportunities.

A well-structured campaign setup allows the consultant to optimize quickly, allocate budgets strategically, and scale performance with confidence.

Red Flag Answer:
“We just put all keywords in one campaign.” This approach shows a lack of strategy and makes it impossible to track performance accurately or optimize efficiently.

8. How Often Do You Do Campaign Optimization?  

Amazon PPC isn’t a set and forget thing. For optimal performance, continuous optimization is required. Ideally, campaigns optimization should be done once or twice a week and the performance of those changes should be tracked daily. 

Here’s how the campaign optimization routine of an Amazon PPC consultant should sound like: 

• Daily: Monitor and adjust high-spending campaigns on a daily basis to identify any under-lying issues. Especially, look into how per-day budget is spent and then make the adjustments accordingly. 
• Weekly:  Review campaign performance and identify scaling opportunities. Adjust bids, placements, and negatives based on data trends, and shift budget toward keywords and campaigns delivering stronger ROI.
• Monthly: Run a full account audit to assess profitability and growth. Launch new campaigns for top-performing or seasonal keywords, refine targeting, and update strategies for the upcoming month.

Red Flag: “We optimize monthly.”
What to Look For: An Amazon PPC consultant who keeps a strict eye on the campaign performance and makes proactive decisions for optimal performance.    

9. What’s Your Framework for Launching New Products or Handling Seasonality?

Your next question to an Amazon PPC consultant should be about how they handle product launches and seasonality. A successful launch needs a mix of smart aggression and control. A professional consultant always plans ahead, not after the data arrives.

Here’s what an effective framework should include:

• Exact match campaigns to drive early sales velocity and keyword ranking.
• Listing optimization before launch to ensure strong conversion potential.
• Review-building tactics aligned with PPC exposure for faster trust and clicks.
• Budget pacing to manage CPC spikes during high-demand periods.
• Seasonal planning done one quarter ahead with budgets and creatives pre-tested.

An Amazon PPC consultant who plans proactively can build momentum early, maintain profitability, and outperform competitors during seasonal peaks.

Red Flag Answer:
“We’ll react once the data comes in.” This reflects poor planning and missed opportunities during the most critical phases.

What to Look For:
A consultant who emphasizes predictive planning, early testing, and structured seasonal workflows for sustained performance.

10. How Do You Use Negative Keywords to Reduce Wasted Spend?

Your next question to an Amazon PPC consultant should be about how they use negative keywords. This step is key to stopping wasted spend and improving efficiency. A professional consultant has a clear process to remove irrelevant clicks and protect profitable search terms.

Here’s what a solid approach looks like:

• Run weekly search term checks to find poor or irrelevant queries.
• Add negative keywords based on CTR and conversion data.
• Use shared negative lists to avoid duplicate targeting across campaigns.
• Monitor keyword overlap so multiple campaigns don’t bid on the same term.

A good consultant keeps your spend clean and focused on what converts.

Red Flag Answer:
“We don’t use negatives much.” This shows poor optimization and lack of control.

What to Look For:
A consultant who has a clear system for exclusions and regularly removes wasted traffic to improve results.

11. How Do You Scale Campaigns Responsibly?

Your next question to an Amazon PPC consultant should be about how they scale campaigns. Scaling isn’t just about increasing budgets, it’s about growing reach while keeping performance stable. A professional consultant expands only when the data supports it.

Here’s what responsible scaling looks like:

• Watch key signals such as improving CTR, stable CVR, and enough margin room before increasing spend.
• Check inventory levels to ensure stock can handle higher demand without losing rank.
• Increase budgets gradually instead of doubling spend overnight.
• Expand reach smartly using lookalike ASIN targeting, product bundling, or category-based DSP retargeting.

A professional Amazon PPC consultant makes decisions to scale based on data to keep profits, ranking, and visibility growing together.

Red Flag Answer: 

“We double the budget on what’s working.” This shows a lack of data-driven planning and can quickly hurt profitability.

What to Look For:

An Amazon PPC expert who scales through measured steps, clear data signals, and margin-focused decisions, ensuring consistent and sustainable growth.

12. How Do You Integrate PPC with Organic SEO Efforts?

Your next question to an Amazon PPC consultant should be how they align PPC and SEO. Both work hand in hand on Amazon. When a customer clicks on your Amazon ad, it’s your listing that helps them decide whether to complete the purchase or not. 

A good consultant uses PPC to create momentum and SEO to keep that growth steady. They run ads on keywords that actually convert. Then they use the ad data to improve titles, bullets, and backend keywords.

They find weak keywords and replace them with stronger ones that attract high-intent shoppers. Every click should help your listing rank better and sell more.

Work with Amazon PPC consultants who connect PPC and SEO to build real, long-term growth, quick wins. 

13. How Do You Report Performance to Clients? 

If your performance is top-notch but you are unable to report to the clients clearly, all your performance-related efforts go into the vain. So when you hire an Amazon PPC expert, ask them what’s their reporting cadence, how they’ll keep you in the loop and update you about the challenges, wins, and failures. 

Look for an Amazon PPC expert who: 

• Provides detailed reports with a breakdown of organic and PPC sales each month. 
• Explain clearly about the actions taken and what’s next based on the outcomes. 
• Instead of long paragraphs, use graphs, charts, and professional dashboards for reporting.  

14. How Do You Use Advanced Tools or Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC)?

Your next question to an Amazon PPC consultant should be about how they use advanced tools like Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC). AMC gives a complete picture of customer behavior, far beyond what you see in standard ad reports.

A skilled consultant uses AMC to:

• Track the full customer journey, not just last-click conversions.
• Run custom queries to understand how shoppers move from awareness to purchase.
• Build precise audience segments for retargeting and upper-funnel campaigns.
• Measure incrementality to see which campaigns actually drive new sales, not just repeat ones.

This level of data insight separates advanced agencies from average ones. AMC helps to find out which touchpoints influence buying decisions so every ad dollar works smarter.

15. What’s Your Long-Term Vision for My Brand’s Advertising Growth?

Your next question to an Amazon PPC consultant should be about their long-term growth plan for your brand. A real expert doesn’t just report ACOS, they show you where your brand is headed and how they’ll get it there.

A strong consultant should:

• Set a 6–12 month roadmap with clear growth goals and forecasted results.
• Plan cash flow and budget pacing to support scaling without hurting profitability.
• Outline expansion steps that includes when to move into DSP, video ads, or international marketplaces.
  Define milestone phases 

Each step should build on the last, turning short-term wins into long-term brand dominance.

Red Flag Answer:
“We’ll just keep doing what works.” This shows no plan for scale or sustainability.

What to Look For:
A consultant who builds a data-backed growth roadmap, tracks progress, and takes proactive steps to scale your brand month after month.

Final Thoughts

Choosing an Amazon PPC consultant is one of the most important growth decisions your brand will make. You’re not just hiring someone to run ads, you’re trusting them to shape your visibility, profitability, and long-term position on Amazon. The right partner will know how to turn data into direction, and strategy into sales momentum.

At AMZDUDES, we don’t believe in one-size-fits-all campaigns. Every strategy we create is built around your brand’s stage, goals, and market potential. Our team combines advanced analytics, creative testing, and Amazon-specific expertise to deliver results that compound over time.If your goal is sustainable growth, predictable returns, and complete clarity in your ad performance, book a free strategy call and see how AMZDUDES turns advertising into a competitive advantage.