Objective ’ Recommended Campaign Stack (Operator Guide)

This is the shortest path from ’what the business needs’ to ’what we build’.

Use it when someone asks: - ’Which products do we run?’ - ’How should we split budgets?’ - ’What do we measure first?’

Before you pick a stack: classify the situation

Answer these quickly:

1) Is this new (little/no history) or mature (known winners)? 2) Is the goal efficiency now or learning now? 3) Is retail readiness strong? - in-stock + buy box stable - PDP quality is competitive

If retail readiness is weak, expect CPC to be higher and CVR to be lower until fixed.

Stack patterns by objective

1) New Product Launch (learning ’ conversion signals)

Primary job: earn enough conversion history to improve relevance and efficiency.

Recommended stack: - Sponsored Video: broad category keywords for education - Display: prospecting (persona/contextual) early, then retargeting later - Sponsored Products: - Auto (always-on) for discovery/search-term mining - Manual (phrase/exact) starting week 2–4 from mined terms - Sponsored Brands: drive to a focused Shelf/Brand Shop for the launch assortment

Budget posture: - Front-load in weeks 1–2 to overcome low organic relevancy.

What ’good’ looks like: - Week 1: delivery + CTR directionally improving - Weeks 2–4: CVR trend stabilizes; you can start pruning terms

Primary job: own branded demand and prevent conquesting leakage.

Recommended stack: - Sponsored Products (branded exact): non-negotiable defense - Sponsored Brands (branded exact + category headline): protect top-of-search - Sponsored Products (PDP targets): selective competitor defense and cross-sell - Display (brand audiences): retention/winback

Budget posture: - Branded defense budgets should not cap. - Separate budgets by intent so conquest doesn’t steal from defense.

What ’good’ looks like: - High branded impression share on core terms - High ROAS relative to non-brand

3) Seasonal Events (pacing + peak monetization)

Primary job: build demand early, then do not miss peak traffic.

Recommended stack by phase: - Pre-season (2–4 weeks out): Sponsored Brands + Display prospecting + optional SP Auto mining - Peak: scale Sponsored Products (search in-grid) on proven seasonal terms; keep prospecting running - Post: capture learnings; pause seasonal-only targets

Budget posture: - Plan for peak-day budgets that can spend 2x–5x baseline. - Avoid daily budgets capping before evening traffic.

What ’good’ looks like: - Pre-season: CTR + shelf traffic builds a baseline - Peak: conversions + pacing stability

4) Challenger Brand / Conquesting (prove differentiation)

Primary job: only pay to fight where you can win.

Recommended stack: - Sponsored Products Auto: cheap learning and term mining - Sponsored Products Manual: - selective competitor terms (only where you have an obvious edge) - PDP conquest (Buy Box/Carousel) split by competitor - Display: - prospecting for scale (persona) - retargeting to close (behavioral)

Budget posture: - Start small; earn the right to scale. - Separate competitor budgets so you can kill losers fast.

What ’good’ looks like: - CVR is the proof. If CVR is weak, stop paying for conquest.

KPI hierarchy (what to optimize ’first’)

Objective	Optimize first	Then optimize	Separate reporting for
Launch	delivery + CTR + term learning	CVR, then ROAS	awareness vs conversion efforts
Defend	branded impression share + ROAS	CVR and basket growth	brand defense vs conquesting
Seasonal	pacing + sales in peak window	ROAS post-peak	pre-season vs peak
Challenger	CVR on conquest targets	CPC and reach scaling	conquest tests vs prospecting

Common failure modes (and what to do)

Stakeholders judge awareness campaigns on ROAS ’ split reporting by intent.
Campaigns mix search + PDP + retargeting ’ split so you can control bids and goals.
Conquesting without a clear switching reason ’ stop and fix PDP/offer first.