How to Know If Your PPC Manager Is Underperforming

Check three things: when they last added negative keywords (should be weekly), whether your Search Term Report has 30+ days of unharvested terms, and whether your branded vs non-branded performance is being reported separately. If any of these fail, your manager is coasting.

Article summary

The longer answer

Short answer: Check three things: when they last added negative keywords (should be weekly), whether your Search Term Report has 30+ days of unharvested terms, and whether your branded vs non-branded performance is being reported separately. If any of these fail, your manager is coasting.

What most people get wrong about this

Most brands can't tell whether their PPC manager is doing great work or the bare minimum. The results look similar for the first 6 months because Amazon PPC takes time to visibly deteriorate. Here's what to check.

What I would actually recommend

Check 1 — Negative keyword recency. Ask your manager when they last added negative keywords. If the answer is "a few weeks ago" or they can't remember, pull your campaign negative keyword lists yourself and look at the dates. On a $10k+/month account, negatives should be added weekly. If there's a 30-day gap, nobody is reviewing search terms.

About the author

Check 2 — Search Term Report action. Download your Search Term Report for the last 30 days. Sort by spend. Count how many of your top 20 search terms by spend have zero conversions. If more than 4 do, and they haven't been negated, your manager isn't doing the most impactful work available.