Tom:
Welcome to the Clear Ads Podcast, Highway to Sell. I’m Tom Korn, and today I’m joined by one of our star account managers, Tara Anderson. She’s been on the show before, and she’s back to help us tackle an important topic: how to fix an Amazon campaign that has too many keywords.
It’s a common issue we see when onboarding accounts. Campaigns often get stuffed with hundreds—sometimes even the maximum of 1,000—keywords. Years ago, you could get away with that when CPCs were only a few cents. But today, with bids closer to $1 or £1 per click, it’s a very different story.
We’ll cover the consequences of keyword stuffing, how to run an effective keyword audit, how to streamline bloated campaigns, and how to create better structures and groupings going forward.
So Tara, let’s start with the drawbacks of having too many keywords.
Tara Anderson:
The rise in CPCs is a big one. When you have hundreds of keywords in a campaign, it becomes impossible to manage properly. You don’t know which ones are actually driving results, and budgets get spread too thin.
Another issue is that not every keyword will perform. The algorithm often latches onto a handful—say, the top 10 or 15—while ignoring the rest. That leaves most of your keywords doing nothing but draining budget.
Tom:
Exactly. Campaign focus gets diluted. Your goal is to reach potential shoppers effectively, but if you’re targeting too many keywords in one place, you’re essentially competing against yourself.
A few years ago, you could put 100 keywords into a campaign and see decent distribution. Now, Amazon’s algorithm is stricter. These days, we find that around 20 keywords per campaign is the maximum you can realistically get results from. Often, we recommend no more than 10–15.
Tara:
And structure is everything. Some sellers keep dumping new keywords into existing campaigns, wondering why they’re not ranking. But the algorithm doesn’t give all of them equal visibility. That’s why we advocate breaking campaigns into smaller “buckets” where you can properly control budgets.
It might seem messy to create more campaigns, but if you plan the structure and naming convention in advance, it’s much easier to manage.
Tom:
Let’s walk through an example. Say you’re launching a remote-control toy and you’ve got 100 keywords. Instead of throwing them all into one campaign, you could segment by search volume—giving your top five high-demand keywords their own campaigns—or by theme, like “battery-powered,” “materials,” or “remote-control car.”
That way, you can assign budgets strategically rather than lumping everything together.
Tara:
Right. And depending on your objective—whether it’s ranking, scaling, or relaunching—you can decide how to group them. For competitive markets, sometimes starting with long-tail keywords is a cheaper and smarter way to get traction before working back toward the highly competitive short-tail terms.
Tom:
Great point. Let’s talk auditing. If someone already has a campaign stuffed with hundreds of keywords, how do we fix it?
Tara:
Start with the search term reports. Look at spend, click-through rate, and conversions. High CTR tells you the keyword is relevant, even if conversions are low. Those should be prioritized.
Then review the search query performance report. That shows what customers are actually searching for, where you’re strong, and where you’re falling behind competitors.
And of course, use common sense. If a keyword isn’t relevant to your product, cut it—even if it generated a handful of sales. That budget is better spent on higher-potential keywords.
Tom:
Exactly. Another tool I like is keyword trackers in Helium 10. They show which ASIN Amazon associates with specific keywords, which helps you segment by child ASINs if needed.
And sellers should also remember to keep listings up to date. It’s surprising how often backend keywords haven’t been updated in years. If your PPC keywords don’t align with your listings, you’ll struggle to convert.
Tara:
Yes, it’s the full ecosystem: PPC keywords, backend keywords, and listings all need to match. Customers need to see what they searched for reflected in your bullets or description, or they’ll bounce.
Tom:
So let’s say someone has 100 keywords in a campaign. How should they break them out?
Tara:
First, cut the irrelevant or persistently low-performing ones. For the rest, segment by theme or search volume. High-performing keywords can eventually go into single-keyword campaigns, giving you total control over bidding and placements.
But don’t disrupt what’s already working. If a keyword is performing well in its current campaign, leave it there. Instead, break out the underperforming ones and give them a new campaign to see if they can gain traction.
Tom:
Exactly. Worst-case scenario, those “rescued” keywords still don’t perform, but you haven’t harmed your proven winners.
As for long-tail keywords, they’re valuable because they often convert cheaper and can support ranking for shorter terms. But you have to be selective.
Tara:
And don’t let poor-performing keywords drag you down for too long. A few weeks of testing is usually enough. If you’ve optimized bids and placements and they’re still not converting, pause them and move on.
Tom:
Perfect. To recap:
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Run keyword audits regularly using search term and search query reports.
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Prioritize high-converting and high-CTR keywords.
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Cut irrelevant or persistently low performers.
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Streamline campaigns into small, manageable keyword groups.
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Use structure and naming conventions to keep accounts organized.
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Keep listings aligned with keywords for a smooth customer journey.
Do this, and you’ll avoid spreading campaigns too thin while giving your best keywords the space to shine.
Tara, thank you so much for joining me today.
Tara:
Thank you, Tom. Always a pleasure.
Tom:
And thanks to our listeners. Be sure to like and subscribe so you don’t miss an episode. If you or someone you know would benefit from our expertise, reach out to Clear Ads—we’d be happy to review your account and share our insights.
Until next time, take care.
