Bringing the queen out early is how beginners lose at chess Overbidding on a bra
By Steven Pope · October 12, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
Bringing the queen out early is how beginners lose at chess
Overbidding on a brand new Amazon launch
is how sellers burn money
Before the ASIN has enough data
to tell them anything useful
A new ASIN has limited conversion history
Goal early on is simple
Control spend
Collect data
Learn what converts
Start on fixed bids
Spend stays exactly where you set it
Once orders start coming in
Switch to Dynamic Bids Down Only
Amazon can lower your bid
When a conversion looks less likely
But it won't raise the bid above what you set
That matters while the listing is still proving itself
Start bids conservatively
Instead of blindly following
Amazon's suggested bid
Suggested bids are suggestions
Amazon is very good at spending your money
Your job is to make sure the CPC still makes sense
For your price
Conversion rate
Target ACoS
Keep campaign structure simple too
Don't dump every keyword you can find
Into one campaign and call it testing
Use tightly related keywords
Separate match types so you can actually see
What is getting clicks
What is converting
What is wasting spend
For Auto campaigns
Keep bids controlled
Use the different targeting groups
To discover search terms and product targets
Worth graduating into manual campaigns
Then let the data earn the next move
Look at CPC
CTR
Conversion rate
Orders
Spend
ACoS
Once you have enough meaningful data
Raise bids on proven targets
Reduce bids on weak ones
Negate wasted traffic
Move converting search terms
into more controlled campaigns
Don't rush the opening
Control the bids
Collect the data
Promote the winners
Algorithm doesn't need your tuition money