Manage Budgets and Negative Targeting in Amazon Ads

Learn how to optimize Amazon Ads campaigns by adjusting daily budgets using the Budgets tab and adding underperforming search terms to negative targeting.

August 27, 2026 By Hafiz Hamza

Learn how to manage daily campaign budgets and optimize ad spend by applying negative targeting to poor-performing search terms in Amazon Advertising.

This guide applies to Amazon PPC managers, digital marketers, and brand owners optimizing Sponsored Products campaigns during routine account audits.

Reviewing and Adjusting Campaign Budgets

Monitor campaign budget utilization using the Average time in budget metric to identify high-performing campaigns running out of budget prematurely.

Step #1: Click the expand sidebar arrow in the Amazon Ads navigation menu. — Click the expand sidebar arrow in the Amazon Ads navigation menu.

Step #2: Click Budgets in the left sidebar menu. — Click **Budgets** in the left sidebar menu.

Step #3: Click the date range selector dropdown above the table. — Click the date range selector dropdown above the table.

Step #4: Click Last 7 days to evaluate recent budget performance. — Click **Last 7 days** to evaluate recent budget performance.

Step #5: Right-click the campaign name link in the table to open its options. — Right-click the campaign name link in the table to open its options.

Step #6: Click Open link in new tab to view the campaign without losing your place in the Budgets view. — Click **Open link in new tab** to view the campaign without losing your place in the Budgets view.

Step #7: Click the new tab to open the selected campaign. — Click the new tab to open the selected campaign.

Step #8: Click Campaign settings in the left sidebar. — Click **Campaign settings** in the left sidebar.

If a campaign regularly spends its full daily budget while maintaining strong ROAS and sales volume, consider increasing the budget by approximately 25% to capture additional demand.

Step #9: Double-click the daily Budget input field. — Double-click the daily **Budget** input field.

Step #10: Change the budget amount as per your analysis. — Change the budget amount as per your analysis.

Step #11: Click Save to apply the updated daily budget. — Click **Save** to apply the updated daily budget.

Identifying and Adding Negative Keywords

Review search term reports to identify irrelevant or unprofitable queries with high spend and poor conversion rates, then negate them to prevent wasted ad spend.

Step #12: Click the previous browser tab to return to the campaign list. — Click the previous browser tab to return to the campaign list.

Step #13: Click Campaigns in the left sidebar navigation. — Click **Campaigns** in the left sidebar navigation.

Step #14: Right-click the target campaign link in the table. — Right-click the target campaign link in the table.

Step #15: Click Open link in new tab in the context menu. — Click **Open link in new tab** in the context menu.

Step #16: Click the opened campaign tab in your browser. — Click the opened campaign tab in your browser.

Step #17: Right-click the ad group name link in the table. — Right-click the ad group name link in the table.

Step #18: Click Open link in new tab to open the ad group view. — Click **Open link in new tab** to open the ad group view.

Step #19: Click the ad group browser tab. — Click the ad group browser tab.

Step #20: Click Search terms in the left sidebar menu. — Click **Search terms** in the left sidebar menu.

Step #21: Click Clicks to sort search terms by click volume. — Click **Clicks** to sort search terms by click volume.

Look for queries generating high clicks and high ACOS with low conversion rates (such as only 1 purchase across dozens of clicks) or terms with low product relevance.

Step #22: Click the checkbox next to the underperforming search term to select it. — Click the checkbox next to the underperforming search term to select it.

Step #23: Click the checkbox for any additional low-relevance search terms you want to negate. — Click the checkbox for any additional low-relevance search terms you want to negate.

Step #24: Click Bulk action above the search terms table. — Click **Bulk action** above the search terms table.

Step #25: Click Add negative keywords from the dropdown menu. — Click **Add negative keywords** from the dropdown menu.

Step #26: Click the Match type dropdown selector. — Click the **Match type** dropdown selector.

Step #27: Click Negative exact. — Click **Negative exact**.

Step #28: Click Add negative keywords to submit the changes. — Click **Add negative keywords** to submit the changes.

Step #29: Click Negative targeting in the left sidebar to verify active negative targets for the campaign. — Click **Negative targeting** in the left sidebar to verify active negative targets for the campaign.

Q: Why did the system show that one target was not updated after adding negative keywords?

A: If a search term was already added as a negative keyword previously, the system will not duplicate or update that existing entry.

Term	Definition
Average time in budget	A metric in Amazon Ads showing the estimated percentage of time a campaign remained active before exhausting its daily budget.
Negative targeting	A setting that prevents ads from appearing when customer search queries match specified keywords or products.
ROAS	Return on Ad Spend, calculated as total ad sales divided by total advertising spend.
ACOS	Advertising Cost of Sales, representing the percentage of direct sales spent on advertising.

Manage Budgets and Negative Targeting in Amazon Ads

Learn how to optimize Amazon Ads campaigns by adjusting daily budgets using the Budgets tab and adding underperforming search terms to negative targeting.

August 27, 2026 By Hafiz Hamza

Learn how to manage daily campaign budgets and optimize ad spend by applying negative targeting to poor-performing search terms in Amazon Advertising.

This guide applies to Amazon PPC managers, digital marketers, and brand owners optimizing Sponsored Products campaigns during routine account audits.

Reviewing and Adjusting Campaign Budgets

Monitor campaign budget utilization using the Average time in budget metric to identify high-performing campaigns running out of budget prematurely.

If a campaign regularly spends its full daily budget while maintaining strong ROAS and sales volume, consider increasing the budget by approximately 25% to capture additional demand.

Identifying and Adding Negative Keywords

Review search term reports to identify irrelevant or unprofitable queries with high spend and poor conversion rates, then negate them to prevent wasted ad spend.

Look for queries generating high clicks and high ACOS with low conversion rates (such as only 1 purchase across dozens of clicks) or terms with low product relevance.

Q: Why did the system show that one target was not updated after adding negative keywords?

A: If a search term was already added as a negative keyword previously, the system will not duplicate or update that existing entry.

Term	Definition
Average time in budget	A metric in Amazon Ads showing the estimated percentage of time a campaign remained active before exhausting its daily budget.
Negative targeting	A setting that prevents ads from appearing when customer search queries match specified keywords or products.
ROAS	Return on Ad Spend, calculated as total ad sales divided by total advertising spend.
ACOS	Advertising Cost of Sales, representing the percentage of direct sales spent on advertising.