Best AI Tools for Amazon PPC Management in 2026

Why Amazon PPC Needs AI in 2026

Amazon's advertising revenue crossed $60 billion in 2025. More sellers advertising means more competition for the same placements, which means higher CPCs and thinner margins. Manual campaign management doesn't scale against that pressure.

Here's what's changed:

• Bid volatility is higher. Amazon's auction dynamics shift throughout the day. A keyword that converts at $0.85 CPC in the morning might cost $1.40 by afternoon with lower conversion rates. AI adjusts bids in near real-time based on hourly performance data.
• Keyword discovery never stops. Customer search behavior changes constantly. New long-tail terms emerge, seasonal patterns shift, and competitors target new queries. AI tools continuously harvest converting search terms from auto campaigns and migrate them to manual campaigns with appropriate match types.
• Negative keyword management is critical. Without aggressive negative targeting, you bleed spend on irrelevant clicks. AI identifies non-converting search terms faster and adds negatives systematically across campaign types.
• Budget allocation across campaigns is a multi-variable problem. With Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display all competing for budget, AI optimizes allocation based on marginal return per dollar across the full campaign portfolio.
• Dayparting matters more on Amazon. Conversion rates vary significantly by hour and day. Shoppers browsing at 11 PM convert differently than those buying at 10 AM. AI adjusts bids to match these patterns without requiring you to build manual schedules for every campaign.

The bottom line: a seller with 200 ASINs across three campaign types has thousands of bid decisions to make daily. That's not a management problem. That's an optimization problem, and optimization at scale is exactly what machine learning does well.

Quick Comparison Table

Here's the full landscape at a glance. Pricing reflects publicly available plans as of February 2026.

Amazon Ad Types Explained

Before evaluating tools, you need to understand what they're optimizing. Each Amazon ad type has different mechanics, and not every tool supports all of them equally.

Sponsored Products

The workhorse of Amazon PPC. These keyword-targeted and product-targeted ads appear in search results and on product detail pages. They drive the majority of Amazon ad revenue for most sellers. AI tools focus on bid optimization, keyword harvesting from auto campaigns, match type management, and placement adjustments (top of search vs. rest of search vs. product pages).

Sponsored Brands

Banner-style ads featuring your brand logo, custom headline, and up to three products. They appear at the top of search results and drive traffic to your Brand Store or a custom landing page. Sponsored Brands Video is a sub-format that auto-plays in search results and consistently delivers strong click-through rates. AI tools optimize headline testing, product selection, and video placement bidding.

Sponsored Display

Amazon's retargeting and audience-based ad type. Sponsored Display reaches shoppers on Amazon, on third-party sites via Amazon's display network, and on Twitch. Targeting options include product targeting (your competitors' listings), audience targeting (views remarketing, purchases remarketing), and contextual targeting. AI tools optimize audience bid modifiers and manage the balance between on-Amazon and off-Amazon placements.

Amazon DSP

Amazon's demand-side platform for programmatic display and video across Amazon properties and the open web. DSP requires either a managed service relationship with Amazon (minimum $50K spend) or access through a tool like Pacvue or Perpetua. AI tools for DSP focus on audience creation, frequency capping, and cross-channel attribution through Amazon Marketing Cloud.

Tool-by-Tool Reviews

AiHello

AiHello is the closest thing to true autopilot for Amazon PPC. Their AI engine manages bids, harvests keywords, adds negatives, and adjusts dayparting without requiring you to set up manual rules. You define your ACOS target, and the algorithm works backward from there.

The platform's strength is its hands-off approach. It analyzes search term reports, identifies converting queries, and moves them to manual campaigns with appropriate match types automatically. Negative keyword management is aggressive by default, which keeps wasted spend low but sometimes needs tuning for broader brand awareness campaigns.

Best for: Sellers who want to set ACOS targets and let the system run. Particularly strong for catalogs with 50+ ASINs where manual management breaks down. Limitation: Less granular control than rule-based platforms. If you want to micromanage individual keyword bids, this isn't the tool.

Perpetua (by Ascential)

Perpetua takes a goal-based approach. You set targets at the product or category level, and their AI engine builds and optimizes campaigns to hit those targets. They support Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display within a unified interface, plus Amazon DSP access for larger advertisers.

Their integration with Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) is a standout feature. You can build custom audiences, run path-to-purchase analyses, and measure incrementality across ad types. This matters for brands spending $50K+ per month who need to understand how Sponsored Products and DSP work together.

Best for: Mid-market to large brands that want goal-based optimization with AMC analytics. Limitation: The percentage-of-spend pricing model means costs scale with your budget, which pinches margins for high-spend accounts.

Adspert

Adspert differentiates on profit-based optimization rather than ACOS-based. Their algorithm factors in product costs, FBA fees, and margins to optimize for actual profit per click rather than advertising efficiency alone. This is a meaningful distinction because a 25% ACOS on a product with 40% margins is very different from 25% ACOS on a product with 28% margins.

The platform is particularly popular with European sellers managing campaigns across multiple Amazon marketplaces (DE, UK, FR, IT, ES). Cross-marketplace bid optimization with currency and market-level adjustments is their sweet spot.

Best for: Multi-marketplace sellers, particularly in Europe, who want profit-driven optimization. Limitation: The interface is functional but not polished. Reporting capabilities lag behind Pacvue and Perpetua.

Pacvue

Pacvue is the enterprise heavyweight. It combines a powerful rules engine with AI-assisted optimization, share-of-voice tracking, DSP management, and deep AMC integration. If you manage campaigns across Amazon, Walmart, Instacart, and other retail media networks, Pacvue provides a unified dashboard.

Their share-of-voice reporting shows exactly how much organic vs. paid visibility you hold for target keywords compared to competitors. The rules engine allows complex conditional logic—if ACOS exceeds target AND impressions are below threshold AND it's a weekend, then adjust bid by X%. This level of control matters for agencies managing dozens of accounts.

Best for: Large brands, agencies, and multi-retailer advertisers who need enterprise-grade control and reporting. Limitation: Pricing is custom and generally starts high. The learning curve is steep. This is not a tool for sellers doing $10K/month in ad spend.

Teikametrics

Teikametrics built its reputation on its Flywheel AI engine, which optimizes bids across Amazon and Walmart simultaneously. Their free tier (up to $5K monthly ad spend) makes them the most accessible entry point for smaller sellers who want to test AI optimization before committing to paid tools.

The Flywheel engine considers inventory levels, product lifecycle stage, and market competitiveness when making bid decisions. A product that's overstocked might justify more aggressive bidding to move units. A product nearing stockout might reduce spend to preserve inventory. This inventory-aware optimization is something most competitors don't offer.

Best for: Sellers on both Amazon and Walmart who want inventory-aware bid optimization. The free tier is excellent for testing. Limitation: The platform's AI is strongest on Sponsored Products. Sponsored Brands and Display support exists but isn't as mature.

SellerApp

SellerApp bundles PPC automation with product research, keyword tracking, listing optimization, and business analytics. Their PPC module includes rule-based automation and AI-driven bid suggestions, plus a campaign structure builder that creates Sponsored Products campaigns from keyword research in a few clicks.

The all-in-one approach is both the strength and weakness. Sellers who need product intelligence alongside PPC management get good value. But the PPC automation specifically isn't as deep as dedicated tools like AiHello or Perpetua.

Best for: Growing sellers who want product research and PPC management in one platform. Limitation: PPC automation depth doesn't match the specialists. Dayparting and advanced negative management are basic.

Helium 10 (Adtomic)

Adtomic is Helium 10's PPC management module, available in their Diamond plan and above. It combines rule-based automation (bid rules, budget rules, keyword rules) with an AI-assisted "Suggestions" engine that recommends bid changes, keyword additions, and negative keywords based on performance data.

The integration with Helium 10's broader suite is the real value proposition. Cerebro keyword research feeds directly into Adtomic campaign creation. Profits dashboard connects PPC spend to actual product-level profitability. If you already use Helium 10 for product research and keyword tracking, Adtomic is the natural PPC extension.

Best for: Existing Helium 10 users who want PPC management without adding another tool. Limitation: The AI suggestions are helpful but still require manual approval. It's not truly autonomous like AiHello. Campaign structure management is clunky for large catalogs.

Jungle Scout (Cobalt)

Cobalt is Jungle Scout's enterprise platform, combining market intelligence with PPC automation. It excels at competitive analysis—you can see estimated ad spend, keyword strategies, and market share for any competitor in your category. The PPC automation layer uses this competitive data to inform bidding and targeting decisions.

The platform's data depth is unmatched for understanding market dynamics. Category-level trends, new entrant tracking, share-of-voice shifts, and pricing intelligence all feed into advertising strategy. This matters for brands where PPC decisions are inseparable from product strategy.

Best for: Enterprise brands that need market intelligence integrated with PPC management. Limitation: Enterprise pricing puts it out of reach for most sellers. PPC automation features specifically are less developed than dedicated tools.

Amazon's Built-in AI vs Third-Party Tools

Amazon has invested heavily in native AI capabilities. Before paying for third-party tools, understand what Amazon provides for free.

What Amazon Offers Natively

Auto campaigns remain Amazon's simplest AI feature. They automatically match your products to relevant search terms and product pages based on your listing content. Every seller should run auto campaigns as a keyword discovery mechanism, even if you primarily use manual campaigns.

Bid suggestions and dynamic bidding use Amazon's data on conversion probability to adjust your bids. "Dynamic bids - up and down" will increase bids when a conversion is more likely and decrease when it's less likely. This is genuine machine learning, though you have no visibility into the model.

Creative Agent, launched in February 2026, is Amazon's newest AI tool for generating ad creative. It produces lifestyle images, video snippets, and Sponsored Brands headlines from your product catalog. It sits within Amazon's Creative Studio and acts as a conversational creative partner—describe what you want, and it generates options. Early results show it reduces creative production time significantly, though the quality varies and brand-specific customization still requires human oversight.

Performance+ for Amazon DSP automates audience targeting and bid optimization for demand-side campaigns. Amazon reports up to 34% ROAS improvement with Performance+ compared to manual DSP campaigns.

Where Third-Party Tools Win

Amazon's native tools optimize within each campaign individually. They don't optimize across your entire campaign portfolio. Third-party tools provide portfolio-level optimization (balancing budgets across Sponsored Products, Brands, and Display), cross-campaign keyword management (ensuring you're not bidding against yourself), historical performance analysis beyond Amazon's 90-day window, dayparting with granular hourly controls, profit-based bidding using your actual margin data, and competitive intelligence that Amazon won't provide about other sellers.

The verdict: Use Amazon's native AI as your baseline. Add third-party tools when you need portfolio-level optimization, advanced analytics, or management across multiple marketplaces. For sellers spending under $5K/month, Amazon's built-in tools plus Teikametrics' free tier may be sufficient.

Key Metrics: ACOS, TACOS, and ROAS

Every Amazon PPC tool optimizes toward these metrics. Understanding them determines whether you're configuring your AI tools correctly.

ACOS (Advertising Cost of Sale)

ACOS = Ad Spend / Ad Revenue x 100. If you spend $25 and generate $100 in attributed sales, your ACOS is 25%. Most AI tools let you set a target ACOS at the campaign or product level. The algorithm then adjusts bids to approach that target. A "good" ACOS depends entirely on your margins—a 30% ACOS is fine on a product with 50% margins but devastating on a product with 32% margins.

TACOS (Total Advertising Cost of Sale)

TACOS = Ad Spend / Total Revenue (organic + paid) x 100. This is the metric sophisticated sellers watch. TACOS captures the "flywheel effect"—paid advertising drives sales velocity, which improves organic ranking, which drives organic sales. A healthy Amazon business has a declining TACOS over time as organic sales grow relative to ad spend. AI tools like Teikametrics specifically optimize for TACOS rather than ACOS alone.

ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)

ROAS = Ad Revenue / Ad Spend. It's the inverse of ACOS. A 25% ACOS equals a 4x ROAS. Some tools (especially Perpetua and Pacvue) prefer ROAS targets over ACOS targets. Functionally they're the same thing, but ROAS is more intuitive for some advertisers—higher is better, whereas with ACOS, lower is better.

How to Choose the Right Tool

The right tool depends on three factors: your monthly ad spend, how many ASINs you manage, and whether you advertise on platforms beyond Amazon.

By Ad Spend

• Under $5K/month: Start with Amazon's built-in AI (auto campaigns + dynamic bidding) and Teikametrics' free tier. The data volume at this level may not be sufficient for advanced AI tools to outperform simple rule-based management.
• $5K-$25K/month: AiHello or Adspert provide strong automation at reasonable price points. This is the sweet spot where AI optimization starts delivering measurable ROI over manual management.
• $25K-$100K/month: Perpetua or Teikametrics' paid tiers offer the goal-based optimization and analytics depth that mid-market brands need. AMC integration becomes valuable at this spend level.
• $100K+/month: Pacvue or Jungle Scout Cobalt for enterprise-grade control, custom reporting, and multi-retailer management.

By Catalog Size

• Under 20 ASINs: Manual management with Amazon's native tools is feasible. Add Adtomic if you already use Helium 10.
• 20-200 ASINs: Autonomous tools like AiHello or goal-based tools like Perpetua save significant time.
• 200+ ASINs: Enterprise platforms like Pacvue with bulk operations and custom rules are necessary.

If You Also Run Google Ads and Meta Ads

Many Amazon sellers also advertise on Google and Meta to drive external traffic. If you're running campaigns across Amazon, Google Ads, and Meta Ads simultaneously, you face a multi-platform management challenge. Amazon PPC tools handle the Amazon side, but they don't touch Google or Meta.

A note about Ryze AI: Ryze focuses on AI-powered management for Google Ads and Meta Ads—not Amazon. We're honest about this. If your primary need is Amazon PPC, choose one of the dedicated tools above. But if you're running Google Shopping campaigns, Meta retargeting, or Performance Max alongside your Amazon PPC, Ryze complements your Amazon tool by handling the Google and Meta side with the same AI-first approach. Running separate specialized tools for each platform beats trying to force one tool to cover everything poorly.

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the best free Amazon PPC tool?

Teikametrics offers a genuinely useful free tier for sellers with up to $5K in monthly ad spend. It includes their Flywheel AI engine for bid optimization on Sponsored Products. Beyond that, Amazon's own built-in tools—auto campaigns, dynamic bidding, and bid suggestions—are free and should be your starting baseline regardless of what paid tools you use. Helium 10 also offers a limited free plan that includes basic Adtomic access, though the PPC features are restricted.

What's a good ACOS for Amazon?

There is no universal "good" ACOS. It depends entirely on your product margins. The formula: your break-even ACOS equals your pre-advertising profit margin. If your margin before ad spend is 35%, a 35% ACOS means you break even on ad-attributed sales. Most established sellers target 15-25% ACOS on mature products, which leaves profit after advertising costs. New product launches often run at 40-60% ACOS intentionally to build sales velocity and organic ranking. The metric that matters more long-term is TACOS, which factors in organic sales driven by your advertising momentum.

Can AI lower my Amazon ACOS?

Yes, consistently. AI tools lower ACOS through three primary mechanisms: faster negative keyword identification (eliminating wasted spend on non-converting terms), more granular bid adjustments (optimizing at the keyword-hour-placement level rather than broad daily adjustments), and better budget allocation across campaigns. Most sellers report 15-30% ACOS improvement within the first 60-90 days of implementing AI-driven bid management. The improvement is largest for sellers transitioning from purely manual management with infrequent bid changes.

Should I use Amazon's own AI or a third-party tool?

Use both. Amazon's native AI (auto campaigns, dynamic bidding, Creative Agent) should be your foundation. Third-party tools add value on top by providing portfolio-level optimization, cross-campaign management, advanced analytics, and features Amazon doesn't offer natively like dayparting controls and profit-based bidding. The decision isn't either/or. Amazon's AI optimizes within individual campaigns; third-party tools optimize across your entire advertising portfolio.

How much should I spend on Amazon PPC?

The common guideline is 10-15% of your total Amazon revenue on PPC for established products. New product launches may require 25-40% of revenue allocated to advertising during the velocity-building phase. More important than the absolute number is your TACOS trend. If TACOS is declining over time while total revenue grows, your advertising is building a sustainable flywheel. If TACOS is flat or rising, you're becoming more dependent on paid traffic, which is a warning sign. Start with a budget you can sustain for 90 days minimum—AI tools need data to optimize, and pulling budget prematurely prevents the algorithms from learning.

Is Helium 10 good for Amazon PPC?

Helium 10's Adtomic module is a solid mid-tier PPC tool, especially if you already use the broader Helium 10 suite for product research, keyword tracking, and profitability analysis. The integration between Cerebro (keyword research) and Adtomic (PPC management) is genuinely useful—you can go from keyword discovery to campaign creation without leaving the platform. However, Adtomic's automation is primarily rule-based with AI suggestions layered on top. It's not as autonomous as AiHello or as analytically deep as Perpetua. For sellers whose primary need is PPC optimization, a dedicated Amazon PPC tool will outperform Adtomic. For sellers who value the all-in-one Helium 10 ecosystem, Adtomic is a convenient and capable addition.

Final Verdict

The Amazon PPC tool landscape in 2026 is mature enough that there's no single "best" tool—there's a best tool for your specific situation.

• Want autopilot? AiHello. Set your ACOS target and let it run.
• Want goal-based optimization with analytics depth? Perpetua. Strong AMC integration for brands that need measurement.
• Sell across multiple EU marketplaces? Adspert. Profit-based optimization across regions.
• Enterprise with $100K+ monthly spend? Pacvue. The control and reporting depth justifies the cost.
• Sell on Amazon and Walmart? Teikametrics. Flywheel AI works across both platforms.
• Already deep in Helium 10? Adtomic. It's the path of least resistance.
• Just starting out? Amazon's built-in AI + Teikametrics' free tier. Learn the fundamentals before paying for advanced tools.

And if you're running Google Ads or Meta Ads alongside your Amazon campaigns, consider pairing your Amazon PPC tool with Ryze AI for the Google and Meta side. Different platforms, specialized tools for each, unified AI approach across your entire paid media portfolio.