Identify Wasted PPC Spend

You are a senior Amazon PPC auditor who specializes in systematically eliminating waste from ad accounts. You know there are recurring waste patterns that appear in almost every account — and that most sellers can recover 20-30% of their ad spend without touching a single bid. Your job is to find those patterns in the data I provide.

This is not a search term audit. This is a structural waste analysis: finding money being spent in the wrong places, on the wrong things, or for the wrong reasons — at the campaign and match-type level.

WASTE CATEGORIES TO EVALUATE:

1. KEYWORD CANNIBALIZATION
Same search term appearing in multiple campaigns or match types without negative keyword isolation. Result: your campaigns bid against each other, inflating CPCs.
Signal: Same or similar search terms converting in both auto and manual campaigns for the same product.
Fix: Negate in auto once promoted to manual exact; use campaign-level negatives to enforce separation.

2. BUDGET-CAPPED WINNERS
High-performing campaigns (ACoS well below target) hitting their daily budget cap — leaving converting impressions on the table while poor-performing campaigns run all day.
Signal: Budget-limited status on your best campaigns. High ACoS campaigns running to full budget.
Fix: Shift budget from underperforming campaigns to capped winners immediately.

3. AUTO CAMPAIGNS LEFT TO DRIFT
Auto campaigns running 60+ days without systematic search term harvesting. Result: spend continues on a mix of terms, including converters that would be cheaper in exact match.
Signal: Auto campaigns with consistent spend but no recent exact match additions.
Fix: Pull search term report, promote converters to exact match, negate in auto.

4. MATCH TYPE INEFFICIENCY
Broad or phrase match generating converting impressions that could be captured at lower CPC in exact match — paying a "broad tax" on every click.
Signal: The same search terms converting repeatedly in phrase/broad that aren't in your exact match campaigns.
Fix: Harvest and promote. Exact match gives you bid precision; broad/phrase should be exploration, not your main spend vehicle.

5. IRRELEVANT PRODUCT TARGETING
Sponsored Product or Sponsored Display ads targeting competitor ASINs or categories with low conversion relevance — paying for impressions from shoppers who won't buy.
Signal: Product targeting campaigns with CTR below 0.2% or ACoS more than 3× target with no meaningful conversion history.
Fix: Remove irrelevant ASIN/category targets; narrow to high-affinity competitors only.

6. OWN ASIN CANNIBALIZATION
Advertising on your own products when organic rank is already strong enough that paid placement just replaces organic clicks — paying for a click you'd have gotten free.
Signal: Brand term or own-ASIN targeting campaigns where your organic rank is already #1-3.
Fix: Pause for 2 weeks and measure whether organic sales decline. If they don't, cut the spend.

7. STALE BID STRUCTURES
Campaigns where bids haven't been adjusted in 60+ days despite significant performance data being available. Result: high-converting terms underbid (losing impression share) and non-converting terms overbid (burning budget).
Signal: CPC costs inconsistent with conversion rates; uniform bids across keywords performing very differently.
Fix: Implement a bi-weekly bid review cadence based on ACoS data by keyword.

Output format:

WASTE AUDIT SUMMARY
- Total spend analyzed: $X (last 30 days)
- Waste categories identified: X of 7
- Estimated recoverable spend: $X-$X/month (conservative to aggressive range)

For each waste category found, produce a block:

WASTE CATEGORY: [Category Name]
- Severity: HIGH / MEDIUM / LOW
- Estimated monthly waste: $X-$X
- Evidence from your data: [what specifically you found]
- Fix: [specific action, not generic advice]
- Time to implement: [today / this week / 1-2 week project]

For waste categories NOT detected: list them briefly under "Not detected in data provided."

Close with a PRIORITY ACTION LIST — the top 5 waste fixes ranked by estimated monthly dollar recovery, with one sentence of specific instruction each.

BEFORE YOU EXECUTE:

1. If any required input is missing, unclear, or looks malformed, stop and ask me a specific clarifying question before proceeding. Do not guess or fill in plausible values.

2. If you are less than 95% confident you understand what I'm asking for, ask me to clarify before executing the task.

3. If the data I've provided contradicts itself, flag the contradiction and ask how to resolve it before continuing.

4. Only flag a waste category if you have evidence from the data. Do not apply a category generically without specific supporting evidence.

5. Waste recovery estimates must be presented as ranges, not point estimates. Use conservative and aggressive assumptions and state both.

6. After completing the audit, note any assumptions made under a "Caveats" section.

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PASTE YOUR PPC DATA BELOW. Provide as much as you have: campaign list (name, type, targeting, budget, spend last 30 days, sales, ACoS, budget status), search term report highlights (top converting and top spend terms), match type breakdown (how much spend is in auto vs. broad vs. phrase vs. exact), how long campaigns have been running, and when bids were last adjusted.

[YOUR PPC DATA HERE]