1. Check the product before buying clicks

Start with one product group and check availability, price, images, and product information. Higher bids cannot fix a listing that shoppers cannot buy. Subtract product costs, selling fees, and fulfilment costs to decide how much contribution margin can fund advertising.

2. Separate discovery from known demand

Give search-term discovery and already relevant targets separate, clearly named campaigns or groups. Set a budget you can review against your margin. Treat an initial bid as a working assumption based on expected conversion and allowable acquisition cost; a suggested bid is not proof that it will be profitable.

3. Read search terms against product facts

Check material, size, quantity, and use case against the actual listing. In an illustrative example, £20 spent on 40 clicks means a £0.50 CPC. If orders have not appeared, inspect reporting delay and sample size before deciding to stop. Clearly irrelevant terms can be considered for exclusion without pretending that every zero-order term is waste.

4. Test one change and keep a record

Record the target, previous bid, new bid, reason, and review date. Compare spend, attributed sales, orders, and inventory over equivalent periods. Changing bids, price, and images together makes the cause harder to isolate. Missing sales data is unknown, not zero; wait for usable reporting before evaluating the change.

Pages to check after this guide

Turn this guide into the next decision

Move from learning into audit, comparison, calculation, proof, or pricing review.