Running Amazon PPC is one of the most effective ways to increase sales—especially during a product launch or when you’re trying to build up reviews.
However, managing multiple campaigns at the same time is not easy.
You might start with just a few small campaigns, but things can quickly get complicated:
- Multiple products, multiple keywords
- Different goals (ranking, profitability, scaling)
- And the need to clearly understand what’s working—and what needs improvement
That’s when you should consider using Helium 10 Ads—a tool that helps you create, track, and optimize your campaigns in a much more structured and controlled way.
In this guide, I’ll walk you step by step through how to set up Amazon PPC campaigns using Helium 10 Ads. Whether you’re a beginner or already have some experience, you’ll be able to follow along and apply it effectively.
When Should You Use Helium 10 Ads?
Before we dive into the tutorial, there’s one important thing you need to understand:
Helium 10 Ads is not free.
This feature is only available in the Diamond plan, which costs around $279 per month.
That’s not a small expense—especially if you’re just getting started.
If you don’t have consistent sales yet, and you’re still learning how Amazon PPC works, then you don’t need this tool right away.
At this stage, the Starter plan ($29/month) is more than enough to get you into the game and start learning the fundamentals.
Let me be direct:
If you’re not selling at least 10 orders per day, focus on optimizing your ads using Amazon’s built-in tools. There’s no need to rush into paid software.
But once you have stable sales, then it’s worth considering Helium 10 Ads to scale faster and automate your workflow.
No matter what tool you use, successful advertising always comes down to two things:
- Real data to make informed decisions
- Sufficient cash flow to keep your campaigns running consistently
Strong capital + accurate data = real leverage for scaling.
If you’re missing either one, even the best tools won’t deliver their full potential.
How Helium 10 Ads Helps You Streamline Your Workflow
If you’ve ever set up a campaign manually in the Amazon Ad Console, you probably noticed one thing: there are too many steps, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed.
That’s exactly why many sellers choose to use Helium 10 Ads—it makes the entire process faster, simpler, and much easier to manage.
Instead of jumping through multiple tabs and settings, you can handle everything in a more structured and efficient way.
Here’s how Helium 10 Ads simplifies the campaign setup process.
Start by clicking “+ Campaign.”
3 Campaign Creation Modes for Different Experience Levels
Helium 10 Ads offers three ways to set up campaigns, depending on your level of experience:
- Quick Campaign
With just a few clicks, you can instantly launch four standard campaigns (auto, exact, broad, and product targeting). This is perfect for beginners—you don’t need to overthink anything. - Guided Campaign
This mode gives you more control. You can add keywords, choose placements, and set budgets more precisely. It’s ideal if you already understand how Amazon Ads works and want to optimize further. - Single Campaign
This is similar to creating a campaign directly in the Amazon Ad Console—but cleaner and easier to navigate. Best suited for experienced sellers who want full control over every detail of their campaigns.
How to Create a Campaign with Quick Campaign
When you create a Quick Campaign in Helium 10 Ads, the system will ask you to choose a main objective (Bid Strategy) for your entire campaign group.
There are four options—and each one directly affects how the system adjusts your bids and optimizes your campaigns:
Maximize Impressions – Get Maximum Visibility
This strategy is ideal if your goal is to get your product in front of as many people as possible—especially during a product launch or when you want to build brand awareness.
The system will automatically bid higher to win top placements, particularly at the top of search results.
Think of it like renting a billboard in the middle of a busy city square—your product gets seen by more people.
Keep in mind: this strategy does not guarantee immediate sales or profit. Its main purpose is to increase visibility and exposure.
Target ACoS – Optimize for Your Desired Profit Level
This is the most commonly used strategy among experienced sellers. You simply set your target ACoS (for example, 30%), and the system will automatically adjust bids to balance ad spend and revenue.
If your goal is profitability, this is a safe and reliable choice.
One thing to keep in mind:
If your target ACoS is set too low, your ads may struggle to win good placements—resulting in fewer impressions and fewer sales.
On the other hand, during a product launch phase, it’s often better to set a higher ACoS so your campaigns can run more aggressively and gain traction early on.
Maximize Orders – Focus on Driving Conversions
This strategy is designed to maximize the number of orders. The system prioritizes keywords and placements that are more likely to convert, based on real conversion data.
Unlike Maximize Impressions, which focuses mainly on visibility, Maximize Orders is all about turning impressions into actual sales.
It’s a strong choice if you want to boost sales quickly, generate more reviews, and build a solid foundation before pushing for higher rankings.
Custom Strategy – Build Your Own Rules
If you have specific goals such as:
- Focusing only on CTR (click-through rate)
- Targeting long-tail keywords
- Combining multiple optimization factors
…then you can create a fully custom strategy.
Helium 10 Ads allows you to set your own rules—from adjusting bids, moving keywords between campaigns, to blocking underperforming search terms.
That said, this feature is best suited for experienced users.
If you’re just starting out, it’s better to stick with one of the three standard strategies to avoid unnecessary complexity.
Once everything is set up, you’ll simply need to select your product, name your campaign, and click Create Campaign.
When you launch a Quick Campaign, the system will automatically generate:
- 1 Auto campaign
- 1 Manual campaign (Exact match)
- 1 Manual campaign (Broad or Phrase match)
- 1 Product Targeting campaign
In just a few minutes, you’ll have a complete campaign structure ready to collect data and optimize.
If you were doing this manually in the Amazon Ad Console, you’d have to repeat the process four separate times.
Using Helium 10’s Automation Features
Helium 10 Ads also comes with built-in automation tools that make optimization much easier:
- Search Term Isolation: Move high-performing search terms from Auto campaigns into Manual campaigns
- Keyword Promotion: Automatically push winning keywords into higher-performing campaigns
- Negative Keyword Automation: Filter out underperforming or irrelevant search terms
- Bid Adjustment: Adjust bids dynamically based on performance data
All of this is displayed clearly in a single, unified dashboard. You don’t need to jump between multiple tabs like you would in the Amazon Ad Console.
If you’re just getting started—or managing multiple products and want to save time—using a tool like Helium 10 Ads is definitely worth considering.
It won’t make decisions for you.
But it will help you see your data more clearly, work faster, and avoid many common mistakes.
Creating a Campaign with Guided Mode
If you already understand the basics and want more control over how your campaigns are set up, then Guided Campaign in Helium 10 Ads is the right choice.
Select Your Product and Bidding Strategy
Right from the first step, you’ll need to name your product group and choose a bidding strategy, such as:
- Maximize Impressions – if your goal is to get as much visibility as possible
- Target ACoS – if you want to keep your ad spend aligned with your profit target
- Maximize Orders – if your priority is driving more sales
This part is similar to Quick Campaign, but as you move forward, you’ll get access to more advanced customization options.
Choose Your Campaign Type
In the next step, you’ll select the type of campaign you want to create.
In this guide, we’ll continue focusing on Sponsored Products, so choose that option to proceed.
With Guided mode, you get much more flexibility:
- You can decide which of the four main campaign types to run (Auto, Exact, Broad, or Product Targeting)
- You can customize keywords, match types, target products or categories, and set individual budgets for each campaign
This gives you a more refined setup, allowing you to tailor each campaign based on its specific role and objective.
Customize Keywords and Targeting
At this stage, you can fine-tune how your ads are targeted.
You can:
- Add keywords manually (from your research using tools like Cerebro, Magnet, etc.)
- Set individual bids for different keyword groups
In addition, you can expand your targeting by:
- Targeting competitor products using specific ASINs
- Targeting broader product categories to reach a wider audience
This level of control allows you to align your targeting closely with your strategy—whether you’re going after specific competitors or exploring new traffic opportunities.
Review and Launch Your Campaign
In the final step, Helium 10 Ads will show you a clear overview of your entire setup in one interface.
You can review everything carefully before clicking Launch Campaign.
The biggest advantage of Guided mode is that it saves you a significant amount of time compared to setting things up manually in the Amazon Ads Console—while still giving you enough flexibility to stay in control.
If you already have some experience, this is the ideal mode to level up your campaigns without getting overwhelmed like you might with a fully manual setup.
Creating a Single Campaign with Helium 10 Ads
If you’re already familiar with Amazon PPC—or you want full control over every detail of your campaigns—then Single Campaign is the right option for you.
This is the most advanced mode in Helium 10 Ads, allowing you to build every part of your campaign exactly the way you want.
Steps to create a campaign:
1. Choose Ad Type
At the beginning, you’ll choose between Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, or Sponsored Display.
In this guide, we’ll go with Sponsored Products – Manual Targeting.
2. Name Your Campaign and Ad Group
Follow a clear naming structure:
- Keep it simple and easy to recognize
- Include the product name, goal (Launch / Rank / Profit), and keyword type (Exact / Broad, etc.)
Example: living-lamp-rank-exact
3. Select the Product
In most cases, it’s best to include only one product per campaign.
This makes it much easier to track performance and optimize effectively.
4. Choose Your Bid Strategy
You’ll have three options:
- Fixed bid: Keep your bids constant
- Dynamic bid – down only: Amazon lowers your bid when conversion is less likely
- Dynamic bid – up & down: Amazon adjusts bids both ways depending on performance
If you’re using a tool like Helium 10, it’s usually better to go with Fixed bid to avoid conflicts in optimization.
When Should You Use Single Campaign Mode?
Use this mode when:
- You already understand how Amazon PPC works
- You want full control over each keyword and bid
- You have a clear strategy (ranking, profitability, scaling) and want to execute it precisely
If you’re just starting out, you don’t need to use this mode right away.
But if your goal is to build a scalable, flexible, and long-term advertising system, then Single Campaign is an essential foundation.
Be Fully Prepared Before You Start Running Ads
One of the most common mistakes beginners make is this:
They spend a lot of time learning how to run ads—but don’t prepare enough inventory and capital before launching.
If you’re running a Private Label business, ask yourself:
- Do you have at least 300–1000 units in stock?
- Do you have enough budget to sustain ads for at least 1–2 months, even without immediate profit?
If the answer is no, you may run into a painful situation:
Your product starts gaining rank… and suddenly goes out of stock.
When that happens, you lose your rankings, your data, and your momentum—and you’ll have to start over, often at a higher cost.
This is exactly what happened in a case study from the Jungle Scout team during a product launch.
Beyond that, here are a few practical tips:
- Let your campaigns run for a few days to collect data before making major optimizations.
- Run both Auto and Manual campaigns in parallel. Auto campaigns help you discover unexpected keywords. Manual campaigns give you better control over budget and targeting.
- Always track ACoS based on your specific goal. A high ACoS isn’t necessarily bad—especially if the campaign is used for ranking.
- Name your campaigns clearly from the beginning. Once you manage dozens of products, you’ll be glad you did.
In the end, remember this:
Ads are just a tool.
What really determines your success is your overall strategy, preparation, and your ability to make decisions based on real data.