Budget planner

Budget allocation follows the campaign purpose hierarchy. Every dollar has a job: ranking, performance, research, shielding, or retargeting. The split across ad types (SP, SB, SD) depends on your product type, creative availability, and lifecycle phase.

Budget allocation framework

Before assigning numbers, map your daily budget against each ad type and purpose. The tree below serves as the planning template:

DAILY BUDGET: $___

Sponsored Products:    $___  (typically 50-85% of total)
  ├── Ranking:         $___
  ├── Performance:     $___
  ├── Research:        $___
  └── Shielding:       $___

Sponsored Brands:      $___  (typically 10-30% of total)
  ├── Ranking (SBV):   $___
  ├── Performance:     $___
  └── Shielding:       $___

Sponsored Display:     $___  (typically 0-30% of total)
  ├── Product Target:  $___
  ├── Category Target: $___
  └── Retargeting:     $___

Fill in from top to bottom. SP gets funded first because it drives the most purchase signal. SB and SD are layered on top once SP campaigns are healthy and converting.

SP, SB, and SD split benchmarks

These ranges reflect typical allocations — adjust based on your product type and what's converting:

• Sponsored Products (SP): 50-85% of total daily budget. SP is always the foundation. Even at low budgets, every dollar in SP has a declared purpose.
• Sponsored Brands and Video (SB/SBV): 10-30%. SBV (video) typically outperforms standard SB headlines for conversion. Fund video first if creative is available.
• Sponsored Display (SD): 0-30%. SD allocation depends heavily on product type (see below). Many accounts run zero SD and are profitable — it is not a required layer.

Budget tiers

$50-100 per day (6-10 campaigns)

At this tier, focus entirely on SP. Keep the campaign count low and the data clean.

• 1-2 SP Manual performance campaigns — broad match across 2-3 keyword root groups
• 1-2 SP Auto campaigns — start with Close Match only, add Substitutes after 3-4 weeks of data
• 1 SP brand shielding campaign — exact match on your brand name to protect branded search
• 1 SBV ranking or performance campaign if video creative is available

No SD at this budget. The data volume is too thin to optimize retargeting audiences, and SD spend would come at the cost of SP coverage.

$100-250 per day (12-18 campaigns)

Expand keyword coverage and add ranking campaigns on your highest-priority terms.

• Add SP Manual ranking campaigns on 3-5 priority keywords (single keyword or tight semantic clusters, exact match, Top-of-Search placement modifiers)
• Expand SP Manual performance to more keyword root groups in both exact and broad match
• Add SP product targeting campaigns — lower rated competitors, higher priced competitors
• Complete SP Auto suite — all four sub-types as separate campaigns with cross-negation
• SBV for ranking and/or performance
• SD is optional at this tier — add if product type warrants it (see below)

$250-500 per day (18-25+ campaigns)

Full campaign architecture. Every purpose is covered across all three ad products.

• Multiple SP Manual ranking campaigns — single keyword and multi-keyword exact match with placement modifiers
• All keyword root groups in both exact and broad match across SP performance campaigns
• Full SP product targeting suite — lower rated, higher priced, missing feature, and Same-Type Product Placements (STPP)
• All four SP Auto sub-types as separate campaigns with negation maintained
• SBV for both ranking and performance purposes
• SD product targeting, category targeting, and views/purchase remarketing
• Full brand shielding — keyword exact match on brand terms and ASIN targeting on your own product pages

Product type affects SD allocation

SD budget is not a fixed percentage — it depends on the purchase behavior of your category.

Consumable products: Include views remarketing. The repurchase cycle makes retargeting highly profitable. Shoppers who viewed but did not buy are frequently in a consideration loop before reordering.

High-priced products: Include both views and purchase remarketing with extended lookback windows (30-day and 60-day). Consideration periods are longer and buyers frequently return before converting.

Standard products: SD is optional. If SP and SB are not yet fully optimized, reallocate those dollars there first.

Design-based or impulse products: Typically skip SD. Purchase decisions are fast and emotionally driven — by the time a retargeting ad appears, the moment has passed. ROI on SD retargeting in these categories is structurally lower.

Related guides

• PPC campaign architecture — understand each campaign type and purpose before allocating budget to it
• Campaign naming conventions — structure the campaigns you fund here
• Launch playbook by product type — complete examples showing how these budget splits apply at each lifecycle phase