Bastion Amazon PPC: plan to reach 3.0 ROAS
Sources. Amazon Ads API v3 reports (campaigns, placements, search terms, targets, advertised products) cross-checked against BidHarmony. The two match within 0.5%. Sales are Amazon's 7-day attributed sales. The last ~7 days are under-counted until attribution settles.
1. Where we are
| Ad type | Spend | Ad sales | ROAS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sponsored Products | $20,350 | $53,021 | 2.61 |
| Sponsored Brands | $2,482 | $7,195 | 2.90 |
| Sponsored Display | $399 | $269 | 0.67 |
| Total | $23,231 | $60,485 | 2.60 |
SP ROAS by week: Oct 10: 2.82 · Oct 17: 2.57 · Oct 24: 2.68 · Oct 31: 2.45. Target is 3.0 or better.
Aluminum went from $34.99 to $39.99 on Nov 5 on all channels, so Aluminum results after that date are not in this read yet.
2. What is working (keep)
- Top of Search, account-wide: $4,421 at 3.99. In SP - Defense - Brand Keywords, Top of Search is $681 at 12.93.
- Product pages in SP - Defense - All Pen & Pencils: $1,245 at 6.06 (defending our own listings).
- Titanium ads 3.91 (full) and 3.87 (slim); refills 3.88; SS Silver 2.83.
- SB Evergreen: $1,823 at 3.0. "bastion bolt action pen" earns 5.22 in SB but 2.35 in SP.
- SP - Type - All Products (Automatic): $337 at 3.56, $0.35 CPC.
- SP-PHRASE-Material 3.72 and SP - Type - Pen Refill (Automatic) 3.15.
3. Where the money leaks
- Brand Keywords spends on product pages. SP - Defense - Brand Keywords: $5,185 total, of which $4,116 (79%) went to product pages at 1.42. Settings now: default bid $1.43, TOS +301%, ROS +111%, PP +2%. The phrase keyword "bastion" won only 0.57% Top of Search impression share.
- Search terms that never convert. In generic (non-brand, non-ASIN) terms, $7,050 of $10,593 went to terms with zero sales, mostly a long tail under $5 each. Average generic CPC is $0.91; at our conversion rate and AOV, 3.0 needs about $0.61. 193 terms spent $5+ with zero sales ($2,105).
- Campaigns under 1.5 ROAS (table in fix F2): $2,170 spend, $2,369 sales.
- Refill searches at pen CPCs. "bastion pen refills" runs in Brand Keywords: $578 at 1.29, $1.32 CPC. Refills convert well in their own campaigns at lower CPC.
- Weak products in generic campaigns. Aluminum full-size: $4,200 at 1.64 (Pink 0.53, Jet Black 1.16, Purple 1.48, Red 1.96, Royal Blue 1.99). Carbon Fiber Black: $2,632 at 1.74. Slim Pink 1.09.
- Evenings. 4pm to midnight Pacific runs about 1.9 vs about 2.6 the rest of the day (BidHarmony hourly view, used for relative comparison only). The current dayparting schedule only covers the 7 DEFY | KW campaigns, which spend about $0.
- Sponsored Display overall at 0.67.
- Pending BidHarmony suggestions, unapproved: 23 Pause Target (expire ~Nov 16), 43 placement adjustments, 5 SB +10%. The Auto Keyword Harvest and Pause Targets rules have never run.
4. Phase 1: proposed now
F1. Rebalance Brand Keywords placements SP - Defense - Brand Keywords
| Setting | Now | Proposed | Effective bid now → after |
|---|---|---|---|
| Default bid | $1.43 | $0.85 | |
| Top of Search | +301% | +575% | $5.73 → $5.74 |
| Rest of Search | +111% | +255% | $3.02 → $3.02 |
| Product pages | +2% | 0% | $1.46 → $0.85 |
Search bids stay the same; product-page bid drops 42%. If keyword-level bids are set, scale each by 0.594 the same way. Estimate: about $2,040 less spend, up to $2,880 less ad sales (some of which is brand demand that would convert organically).
F2. Pause campaigns under 1.5 ROAS
| Campaign | Spend | Sales | ROAS | Budget |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SP-AUTO-Quality | $321 | $201 | 0.62 | $10 |
| SP-PHRASE-Quality | $309 | $459 | 1.49 | $25 |
| DEFY | SD - Views Remarketing - Catch All | $300 | $154 | 0.51 | $5 |
| DEFY - SP | Consideration | All Pens And Pencils (Manual) | $292 | $404 | 1.38 | $200 |
| SP-AUTO-Slim | $252 | $350 | 1.39 | $10 |
| SP-BROAD-Womens | $250 | $350 | 1.40 | $15 |
| SP-EXACT-Mens-Gift | $189 | $217 | 1.14 | $40 |
| SP-AUTO-Womens | $101 | $119 | 1.18 | $10 |
| DEFY - SP | Core Competitors (Manual) | $83 | $115 | 1.38 | $50 |
| SP-PHRASE-Womens | $45 | $0 | 0.00 | $25 |
| SD - Pens | $28 | $0 | 0.00 | $5 |
| Total | $2,170 | $2,369 | 1.09 |
If any of these feed something we can't see in the numbers (remarketing audiences, rank support), we'd rather cut bids than pause. Your call.
F3. Negate zero-sale search terms
164 terms spent $5+ with zero sales in campaigns we are keeping ($1,749). Full list with campaign, ad group and suggested action: zero-sale-terms.csv.
- 124 terms ($1,333): negative exact in the campaign/ad group where they spent.
- 31 ASINs ($325): negative product targets.
- 9 terms containing "bastion" ($90): review by hand. Some are our own brand (keep), others are other brands that share the word (Gamegenic, Snore, deck box; those are already marked negative exact).
Estimate: about $1,500 less spend, about $0 sales lost.
F4. Route refill searches to the refill campaign
- SP - Defense - Brand Keywords: add negative phrase
refill. - SP - Type - Pen Refill (Broad): add exact
bastion pen refillsat $0.55. - Add negative exact
smootherpro bastion bolt action pen($59 at 1.24; on the May plan, never done).
Estimate: about $350 less spend, about $0 sales lost (refill sales move to the cheaper campaign).
F5. Clear the BidHarmony queue
Approve the 23 Pause Target suggestions before they expire (~Nov 16), and the 5 SB +10% suggestions (SB is running near 3.0). The 43 placement suggestions: we'd like your read first, since they come from the Last 30 Manual rule and some may conflict with F1.
Phase 1 estimate (a projection, not a result): spend about $17,200/month, ad sales about $55,000, ROAS about 3.2. If more sales drop than we expect, still about 3.1.
5. Phase 2: after about 2 weeks of Phase 1 data
- F6. SP - Defense - All Pen & Pencils: default bid $1.84 → $1.30; PP +133% → +230% (product-page bid stays at $4.29). Top of Search ($1,941 at 2.26) and Rest of Search ($1,324 at 2.11) come down about 30%.
- F7. Bids down 20% on campaigns at 1.5 to 2.0: SP-BROAD-Gift (1.64), SP-AUTO-Gift (1.60), SP-EXACT-Core (1.88), SP-BROAD-Slim (1.77), SP-EXACT-Quality-B (1.89), SD Catch All (1.79). Gift terms may improve into December, so check before cutting.
- F8. Dayparting: -25% from 4pm to midnight Pacific on the 10 highest-spend campaigns.
- F9. Aluminum full-size and Carbon Fiber Black ads in generic campaigns: reduce or pause once we have two weeks at the new $39.99 Aluminum price.
- F10. Run Auto Keyword Harvest (suggestions only) and move converting auto terms into exact.
- Generic broad/auto CPCs toward $0.61 or below.
Phase 1 + 2 estimate: ROAS about 3.3.
6. Questions for you
- Your DEFY | All Campaigns (Automatic) rule moves bids ±10% every Sunday, and the placement rule moves ±3 points. Will they undo F1 and F6? Can those two campaigns be excluded for two weeks, or would you rather make these changes inside your rules?
- Are you OK pausing the three DEFY campaigns in F2, or do you see value there we are missing?
- Who should approve the pending BidHarmony suggestions, you or us?
- Anything here you disagree with, or would do in a different order?