The PPC Den: Amazon PPC Advertising Mastery

Sean Stone of Spillover Commerce is back on The PPC Den, and this time he refused to tell Mike the topic in advance. No pre-show. No planning. Just one question: which billion-dollar e-commerce market has nine of its eleven biggest players missing from Amazon?Mike guessed mattresses. It's telehealth.🦡 GET AD BADGER ➡️ https://www.adbadger.com/pricing/🦡 Sean's agency, Spillover Commerce ➡️ https://www.spillovercommerce.com/🦡 Show notes ➡️ https://www.adbadger.com/blog/amazon-ppc-education/the-billion-dollar-brands-leaving-amazon-search-wide-open-the-ppc-den-podcast/From there Mike and Sean get into what this means for everyone else: why the best Amazon brands cut their bottom 5% of products every quarter, why 15% of Google searches have never been searched before, why "demand generation" is a scary phrase if all you do is demand capture, and how to turn Amazon into an acquisition channel with a product insert, a QR code and a Meta pixel.Also in here: what telehealth brands could be selling on Amazon tomorrow, why continuous monitoring might be the next GLP-1, and Sean's new tagline, "Amazon demand starts elsewhere."We'll see you in The PPC Den!🦡 Highlights00:00 - Intro01:28 - The billion-dollar market that isn't on Amazon02:49 - It's telehealth: D2C brands with a prescriber04:18 - The haves: Hims and Ro05:39 - The have-nots: GLP-1 brands with nothing on Amazon06:23 - Who ranks when you search "Weight Watchers"07:17 - "They paid for a billboard and left it empty"07:45 - A market growing 24.6% a year through 203409:05 - Bigger than GLP-1: peptides, wearables, longevity10:40 - "GLP-1 supplement support": 30,000 searches from nothing11:53 - Protein snacks: 4x the search volume in three years12:40 - Fiber gummies and the hockey stick13:38 - Brand name plus modifier searches14:00 - The spillover effect, featuring Gronk16:03 - Trend spotting as a business model17:56 - Nature Made's GLP-1 Companion: 10K units a month19:23 - Why clinging to your catalog hurts your PPC21:13 - 15% of Google searches are brand new22:20 - Cut your bottom 5% every quarter24:22 - "Amazon demand starts elsewhere"25:32 - Demand generation vs demand capture28:34 - What telehealth brands could sell on Amazon tomorrow29:57 - Continuous monitoring is the next GLP-130:24 - Amazon as an acquisition channel31:13 - The product insert, QR code and Meta pixel play31:40 - The one DSP use case Sean likes34:36 - You can't be full funnel if you're only on Amazon35:59 - Go talk to your customers37:09 - A "generational bag fumble"38:44 - Will Spillover become a health-focused agency?39:42 - Niche till it hurts41:59 - Where to find Sean🦡 Resources & Links- Find Michael Erickson Facchin - Ad Badger's CEO and soul, PPC whisperer, and your go-to guide through the wild world of Amazon advertisinghttps://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-erickson-facchin/- How to Launch Meta Ads as an Amazon Seller [The PPC Den Podcast]https://www.adbadger.com/blog/amazon-ppc-education/how-to-launch-meta-ads-as-an-amazon-seller-the-ppc-den-podcast/- 3 Unfair Advantages of the Top 1% of E-commerce Brands [The PPC Den Podcast]https://www.adbadger.com/blog/amazon-ppc-education/3-unfair-advantages-of-the-top-1-of-e-commerce-brands-the-ppc-den-podcast/- Why Amazon Brands Are Starting to Use Meta Ads and Shopify [The PPC Den Podcast]https://www.adbadger.com/blog/amazon-ppc-education/why-amazon-brands-are-starting-to-use-meta-ads-and-shopify-the-ppc-den-podcast/- Unlock our FREE comprehensive Amazon Marketing Playbook: https://www.adbadger.com/amazon-ppc-checklist/- Subscribe to our newsletter: https://www.adbadger.com/newsletter/- Review all our show notes: https://www.adbadger.com/podcast-Host and Executive Producer: Michael Erickson FacchinGuest Co-Host: Sean StoneSenior Producer: Nancy Lili GonzalezVideo and Audio Editor: Pedro Moreno

Gonza Martinez is back on the PPC Den, and a lot has changed since his last visit seven months ago.He used to be the guy in the ad console every single day. He even built his own bid calculator by binge-watching Ad Badger videos and reverse-engineering the math. (Yes, we're still a little emotional about this.)Today? He doesn't touch it. The only reason he logs in is to pay invoices.Gonza walks Mike through the whole ladder: hiring two guys with zero PPC experience, training them for a year, handing over campaigns one crumb at a time, then a year of watching without touching, until he admitted he was the slow part.Plus: why he stopped launching for a full year, why 12 launches flopped and he's fine with it, why his best products were never going to work on Amazon (hint: the price tag), and how he learns a new channel by offering the best person alive money for an hour.Also: why "hire an agency and go to the beach" is a lie, the question every brand should ask their agency, and what Yeti teaches us about knowing when to stop.We'll see you in The PPC Den!🦡 Highlights00:53 — The bid calculator he built from old episodes06:41 — "Why weren't results 10% better?"09:05 — Elon, Twitter, and going past the mark12:05 — The delegation formula says don't give up PPC16:05 — Training Diego and Franco from total zero17:21 — The slow handoff ladder (junk SKUs first)18:47 — A full year of looking but not touching19:46 — The day he stopped logging in20:18 — Why agency-jumpers never learn anything23:44 — The one question to ask your agency26:01 — Big brands launch a lot and kill a lot27:17 — The 80/20 flop rate is an Amazon thing30:17 — The real reason the products failed: price34:16 — "You're not Yeti in the car"35:29 — Plan your launches around your MOQ36:40 — Building your email list backwards from 1,500 units38:39 — Learning Meta, Google, and email from scratch39:13 — Pick a "true North"40:30 — Offer the best person alive $2,500 for one hour43:48 — "The more you read about parenting, the more you realize business was easy"🦡 Resources & Links🦡 GET AD BADGERFind Michael Erickson Facchin, Ad Badger's CEOOur guest: Gonza Martinez of ZiresquareTraining PPC Managers Who Can Train OthersHow Can I Reach My Full Potential In The Amazon PPC Space?What's the Best Way to Manage an Amazon Brand?📚 FREE Amazon Marketing PlaybookSubscribe to our newsletterReview all our show notes-Host and Executive Producer: Michael Erickson FacchinGuest Co-Host: Gonza MartinezSenior Producer: Nancy Lili GonzalezPodcast Coordinator & Graphic Designer: Sofiia PodashVideo and Audio Editor: Pedro Moreno

Five years ago you could hire a PPC manager for bids, budgets, keywords, campaign types and structure, and that was the whole job. Today Mike argues that a good Amazon PPC marketer is just a good Amazon marketer, and the job now reaches into what used to be somebody else's problem entirely: fees, refunds, logistics, and the one he thinks is most underrated, stock.This is the case for letting your marketing team into your inventory data, and it starts with a client who flatly did not believe it mattered. Conversion rate is a product page problem and a PPC problem, they said. So Olena on the Ad Badger team built the chart that settled it - unit session percentage plotted against warehouse balance - and the split was uncomfortable. Above one threshold the numbers held. Below it they didn't. Sales, conversion rate, Buy Box. Not out of stock. Just low.That sent Mike into inventory distortion - the combined financial drain of overstocking and stocking out, estimated to cost global retail 10 to 30% of total sales volume, and almost never mentioned alongside ACoS. He breaks the damage into four buckets: lost revenue that doesn't happen evenly (half a million Buy Box checks found roughly one in three products has at least one location with a suppressed Buy Box), rank decay, the PPC tax you pay while competitors take cheaper clicks, and capital locked up in overstock.Then the SOP. Three reports - advertised products, FBA inventory health, and detailed page sales and traffic by ASIN - dropped into Claude with a prompt, and you have a dashboard. Mike walks an anonymized $400K a month account where roughly 30% of the catalog was fully out of stock and a couple of SKUs sat on over 1,000 days of supply. Plus the one nobody automates: nothing tells you when a product comes back in stock, which is exactly when you want the ads switched back on.We'll see you in The PPC Den!🦡 Highlights00:00 - Intro00:22 - What PPC management looked like five years ago01:13 - Fees, refunds, logistics and stock: the new scope01:44 - Lost revenue, rank decay, PPC tax and capital lockup02:29 - The client who didn't believe it03:07 - Unit session percentage vs warehouse balance04:22 - Inventory distortion, and the 10 to 30%05:36 - Problem 1: lost revenue, zip code by zip code05:57 - What half a million Buy Box checks revealed06:51 - Problems 2 and 3: rank decay and the PPC tax07:28 - The SOP: three reports across two timeframes09:03 - The case study: a $400K per month account10:50 - Reading the dashboard: days of stock left11:47 - The restocks nobody notifies you about12:42 - A free zip code level Buy Box tool🦡 Resources & Links🦡 GET AD BADGER ➡️Michael Erickson Facchin - Ad Badger's CEOYou're Not Out of Stock, So Why Are Your Sales Down?Buy Box Checker - free zip code level Buy Box and stock tracking📚 Unlock our FREE Amazon Marketing PlaybookSubscribe to our newsletterReview all our show notesHost and Executive Producer: Michael Erickson FacchinSenior Producer: Nancy Lili GonzalezPodcast Coordinator & Graphic Designer: Sofiia PodashVideo and Audio Editor: Pedro Moreno

Today Mike is flying solo, and for once the case file is his own: 400 episodes of The PPC Den, and what a decade of these conversations actually taught him about who wins on Amazon and who just stays busy.There's a shirt involved. There's a DSLR. There's also the small matter of being #1 on both of FeedSpot's Amazon podcast lists - the 9 Best Amazon PPC Podcasts and the 14 Best Amazon Advertising Podcasts - which raises the question of how those are two different lists. Mike rewinds eight years to the first two videos ever published, back when the bidding advice was revenue-per-click and the first episode of this show asked whether we were living in the golden age of Amazon PPC.Then the part worth writing down. Across 400 episodes and ten years of running Ad Badger, four things keep showing up in the people who succeed: they're never distracted by nonsense, they know how to prioritize, they never stop chasing product-market fit, and they treat the job as one that keeps evolving. On the way through you'll hear why there are no silver bullets, only lead bullets, why the most successful accounts Mike has worked on were the ones he barely had to touch, and the line most sellers have backwards - great PPC cannot save bad product-market fit, and PPC is the thing that tells you whether you have it.We'll see you in The PPC Den!🦡 Highlights00:00 - Intro: 400 episodes of The PPC Den00:32 - The DSLR, the shirt, and the milestone01:32 - Two FeedSpot lists, two #1 rankings01:54 - The first two YouTube videos, eight years ago02:31 - The very first episode: the golden age of Amazon PPC03:44 - Lesson 1: never distracted by nonsense04:15 - No silver bullets, only lead bullets05:48 - Lesson 2: the skill of prioritization05:58 - Why the job got more complicated, not less07:04 - Lesson 3: the product-market fit nobody finishes07:20 - The easiest campaigns, and why they were easy08:16 - What PPC tells you about product-market fit08:40 - Lesson 4: the evolving role of the PPC manager09:06 - The stock level and PPC performance mashup09:51 - The commitments for the next 100 episodes10:58 - The weekly digest plan11:19 - Every company is a software company12:52 - What 400 episodes changed🦡 Resources & Links🦡 GET AD BADGER ➡️Find Michael Erickson Facchin - Ad Badger's CEO and soul, PPC whisperer, and your go-to guide through the wild world of Amazon advertisingHow to Find Your Amazon Cross-Sales and True Organic Sales📚 Unlock our FREE comprehensive Amazon Marketing PlaybookSubscribe to our newsletterTransform your workflow with our comprehensive Amazon Advertising checklistReview all our show notesHost and Executive Producer: Michael Erickson FacchinSenior Producer: Nancy Lili GonzalezPodcast Coordinator & Graphic Designer: Sofiia PodashVideo and Audio Editor: Pedro Moreno

There is no shortage of AI hype for Amazon sellers. "AI bidding." "AI agents." Videos about tools that shipped this morning.This is the opposite of that. Michael walks the full 10-level progression from clicking around in Seller Central to running autonomous, self-improving agents on your account and is honest about what each level actually costs you in time. Claws out.We'll see you in The PPC Den!🦡 Highlights0:00 What's on Claws Out today1:51 The problem with "AI bidding" content2:11 AI is amazing and still a boatload of work3:43 Bloom's Taxonomy: the framework to climb5:06 ACT 1 Level 1: just the Amazon interface6:04 What the interface is good and bad at7:52 Don't automate anything until you have a mental model8:45 Level 2: spreadsheets still a prerequisite?9:38 Bulk files are the one file worth mastering11:08 N-gram analysis on bulk files11:50 ACT 2 Level 3: asking a raw LLM (the worst option)12:16 The canoe problem: AI knows a lot, but it isn't wise13:59 "My ACoS is high, what do I do?" where the nuance dies14:58 Level 4: project-based LLMs and your knowledge base16:14 Level 5: drop a spreadsheet into an LLM17:56 Level 6: two data sources at once the magic starts18:21 Maryna's stock-level dashboard20:25 Level 7: coding agents (and why the line is blurring)22:54 What a skill actually is23:49 Level 8: read-only APIs and MCPs24:52 Buy Box Checker MCP tools in action26:59 No spreadsheets, no interface have AI build your own28:19 Level 9: agentic workflows and the ad waste firewall29:34 The catch: AI is not deterministic30:32 Level 10: memory and the self-improvement cycle31:38 Ad Badger now has its own MCP32:20 Open-source skills and the Badger audit process33:30 Your homework + see you in the Badger Den🦡 Your Homework1. Find your level on the ladder honestly. If you can't explain your budgeting protocol, keyword structure, and auto campaign strategy without opening a tool, you're at Level 1 stay there this week.2. Get good at one bulk file. The legacy sponsored ads reports are being retired; bulk files are here to stay.3. Connect the Ad Badger MCP wherever you already use AI and run a wasted spend audit.4. Get on the Ad Badger email list weekly skill drops and walkthroughs are coming.🦡 Resources & Links🦡 Get Ad BadgerThe N-Gram Analysis ToolAmazon Ads Bulk OperationsUse AI & Spreadsheets to Prevent Stock-Outs📚 FREE Amazon Marketing PlaybookAll show notes-· Host: Michael Erickson Facchin · Senior Producer: Nancy Lili Gonzalez · Podcast Coordinator & Graphic Designer: Sofiia Podash · Editor: Pedro Moreno