First bid — how high?

You created a campaign and you're staring at an empty bid field — $0.30? $1? $5? This guide gives you a safe default to start with and a rhythm to adjust it.

Safe start: lower end of the Suggested Bid Range

When you add a keyword in Amazon Seller Central, Amazon shows a Suggested Bid Range — e.g. $0.40-$1.20. Set your initial bid to the lower end of that range ($0.40 in this case).

Why lower, not middle: you don't yet know if your product converts. The lower bid lets you collect data without burning budget. After 7 days, if the keyword turns out profitable, you can always raise it.

If no Suggested Bid Range is shown

For rare keywords or new accounts, Amazon sometimes shows no range. Rule of thumb:

• Generic keywords (1-2 words, e.g. water bottle): $0.30-$0.50 starting bid.
• Specific keywords (3-5 words, e.g. stainless steel water bottle 1 liter): $0.50-$0.80 starting bid. You can go a bit higher — buyers are more purchase-ready.
• Brand-name keywords (your own brand): $0.15-$0.30 is usually enough. Competition is low.

Daily budget separately: $20-50 in the first weeks

Bid and daily budget are two different things. Your bid says: "at most this much per click". Your daily budget says: "at most this much per day total". With an opening budget of $1 or $5, the campaign drops out of the auction within hours, and you don't collect representative data.

Set $20-50 daily budget per campaign in the first weeks. If you only spent 30% by end of day, budget isn't the bottleneck — bid or relevance is. If you hit 100% by noon and see good sales, raise the budget.

Adjustment rhythm: once a week

Amazon takes 3-7 days to place a campaign in the auction and collect enough data. Don't change your bid every few hours — you lose the learning phase and confuse the auction. Instead: every Sunday, look at the last 7 days, adjust bid in one step.

When to raise

• ACoS below your target (e.g., below 25%) AND more volume available — raise the bid by 10-20%.
• Position in search results: your keyword shows only on page 2 or later — your bid is too low to win top slots. Raise by 20-30%.

When to lower

• ACoS above your target (e.g., above 40%) for 14+ days — lower by 10-15%.
• CTR (Click-Through-Rate) very low (under 0.2%) — your keyword isn't relevant. Lower the bid sharply or pause the keyword entirely.

When to pause

• Spend over $20 with zero sales for 14+ days — pause it. Use the data to find a better keyword.

What Sellerwerk handles for you

You don't have to walk through every campaign manually each Sunday. Sellerwerk suggests bid adjustments based on the thresholds above. Under Intelligence → Bid Recommendations you see:

• Keywords whose bid is too low for the current auction
• Keywords bleeding spend for 14+ days
• Keywords running profitably and ready for more budget

You decide per suggestion: accept, reject, or enter your own value. Or you create an automation rule that does this overnight — see Automation basics.

Three beginner mistakes when bidding

1. Starting too high hoping for fast sales. You burn budget before knowing whether the keyword converts at all.
2. Adjusting bids hourly.Amazon's auction algorithm needs time to learn. Daily mini-tweaks lead to unstable performance.
3. Same bid for every keyword. Brand-name keywords (low competition) and generic keywords (high competition) need very different bids.

More on auction mechanics: What is Amazon PPC?. For questions: support@sellerwerk.de.