Bidding Strategy
Bidding strategy is the per-campaign setting that controls how Amazon adjusts your bid in the auction — Fixed Bids, Dynamic Bids (Down Only or Up and Down), or Rule-Based Bidding. It determines the price range, not just the headline number.
Bidding strategy in Amazon Advertising is the per-campaign setting that tells Amazon how to translate your submitted bid into an actual auction bid. It looks like a one-click toggle in the campaign builder; in practice it determines the range of prices Amazon will pay on your behalf in any given auction.
Three families of strategy exist: Fixed Bids, Dynamic Bids (the Dynamic Bidding modes), and Rule-Based Bidding. They are mutually exclusive per campaign.
Fixed Bids
Amazon uses your submitted bid as-is, with no real-time shading. A €0.60 bid is always submitted as €0.60 (before placement modifiers).
- Use case. Brand-defence campaigns on your own brand name where conversion probability is uniformly high; campaigns where you want a clean, predictable spend curve for reporting.
- Trade-off. You miss the implicit lift from auctions where Amazon's model knows conversion likelihood is high — and overspend in auctions where likelihood is low.
Dynamic Bids
Amazon shades your bid up or down in real time based on its predicted conversion probability. Two sub-modes: Down Only and Up and Down. See Dynamic Bidding for the full breakdown.
Rule-Based Bidding
Amazon's algorithm autonomously adjusts bids to chase a user-defined ROAS or ACOS target, ignoring most manual bids. See Rule-Based Bidding.
Choosing strategy by campaign role
| Campaign role | Recommended strategy | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Branded defence | Up and Down (or Fixed) | CVR uniformly high; you want every click |
| Launch / hockey stick | Down Only | Need impressions for organic ranking; control spend |
| Auto / broad harvest | Down Only | Unknown CVR by search term; protect downside |
| Manual exact, high data | Up and Down | Proven CVR; capture high-intent tail |
| Competitor conquest | Down Only | Lower CVR than category; control overpayment |
| Sponsored Display remarketing | Down Only | Cross-sell, not new acquisition |
Pairing strategy with base bid
The bidding strategy decision and the base bid decision must be made together, not in sequence. A €0.50 base bid under Down Only and a €1.00 base bid under Up and Down can land at the same effective average CPC. The two levers are coupled — never optimise one in isolation.
Common mistakes
- Defaulting to Up and Down on every campaign. Looks attractive ("Amazon optimises my bids") but on low-data campaigns the +100% shading lands on clicks that don't convert. Start every campaign on Down Only; promote to Up and Down only after ≥30 conversions on the keyword.
- Leaving Rule-Based Bidding active without realising it. The toggle is buried; many accounts have it on by accident. Audit every campaign's bidding strategy once per quarter.
- Switching strategy mid-test. Changing from Down Only to Up and Down during a 14-day test invalidates the test. Pick a strategy, hold it for the full test window, then iterate.
- Treating strategy as separate from base bid. A correct bid under the wrong strategy still produces wrong outcomes. The two decisions are one decision.