What is Placement Modifier?

Placement modifiers, shown in Amazon's campaign settings as adjust bids by placement, are percentage uplifts applied per campaign to a placement group. They are the only way to price placements differently, because there is no such thing as a placement bid. The modifier multiplies whatever bid the keyword or target already carries.

A Sponsored Products campaign exposes three groups: top of search, rest of search and product pages. Sponsored Brands has its own separate set of placement lanes, so do not assume a setting carries across ad types.

Uplift only, never a discount

A modifier can only increase a bid. Amazon accepts an uplift and offers no way to set a placement below the base bid. That single constraint decides the whole method: your base bid has to be set for the placement you value least, because everything better is then lifted above it. Setting the base bid for your best placement and hoping the modifier sorts out the rest is the common failure. You overpay everywhere the modifier does not reach, and you have no lever left to pull the weak placement down.

Modifier % = (Placement CVR ÷ Worst placement CVR − 1) × 100

Worked example

Suppose, hypothetically, a campaign converts at 5 per cent on product pages, 10 per cent on rest of search and 15 per cent at top of search. Product pages is the worst, so it sets the base bid. Rest of search earns (10 ÷ 5 − 1) × 100 = 100 per cent, and top of search earns (15 ÷ 5 − 1) × 100 = 200 per cent.

Never set modifiers from placement ACOS

This is the house view and it is not a preference. Placement ACOS conflates the keyword's bid with the placement's quality, so a placement showing a high ACOS purely because it was bid up can look bad while converting best. Relative conversion rate, or revenue per click, is what should pick the modifier. ACOS control belongs in the base bid. Placement shape belongs in the modifiers.

A useful diagnostic follows from that split: if cutting bids on revenue per click ever raises your ACOS, you have fallen out of the placements that convert, and the fix is the modifiers rather than another cut.

Compounding

Modifiers are entered as whole percentages and Amazon's accepted range runs far above what most campaigns should ever use. A placement modifier, an hourly dayparting change and dynamic bidding all multiply together, and a stack of individually reasonable adjustments can land at several times the bid you believe you are making.

How Shurq treats them

Shurq's optimiser can solve placements per campaign. It concentrates spend on the placement with evidence behind it, sets the remaining placements to no uplift so the rebased base bid becomes their cap, and requires a clear statistical winner before it does so. Every proposal is advisory until you approve it.