Ch. 1: The Basics of Amazon Advertising

When Amazon’s online selling site first came out in 1995, it described itself as “Earth’s Biggest Bookstore.” It came at a time when bookstores, like Barnes & Noble and Crown Books, were all the rage.

Without the physical constraints of a brick-and-mortar shop, Amazon quickly dominated the online landscape with sales totaling $148 million in 1997.

Today, Amazon has evolved from a bookstore to the largest online retailer.

The e-commerce marketplace has become one of the primary destinations for online shoppers researching potential purchases. A report shows that 55 percent of consumers skip Google altogether and shop directly on Amazon.

As Amazon steadily expands its lead in e-commerce, more and more sellers are offering their products on the online marketplace to take advantage of its massive sales potential.

If you run a B2C company, advertising on Amazon is something you need to integrate into your online advertising strategy. Amazon provides a lucrative opportunity for advertisers to score better ad positions at an affordable cost than more established platforms, like Google AdWords or Facebook.

With the right enterprise management and automation software, you can manage your campaigns successfully and achieve your business goals. Learn about the basics of Amazon advertising through our guide below.

What are Amazon Ads?

When a shopper logs into Amazon and types a keyword into the search bar, Amazon loads a page full of results relevant to that query. These are called Amazon ads and are found within the brand’s search engine result pages (SERPs). They are set apart from regular products that appear on the brand’s page through subtle “sponsored” or “ad” texts. Advertisers who want to gain more product visibility on Amazon can pay for these positions by bidding for specific keywords.

On January 2019, Amazon released a new targeting feature for Sponsored Products (Product Attribute Targeting), giving you more options to optimize your advertising campaigns. It includes a feature that lets you target by product category or Amazon Product Detail Page. You can then filter for price, brand, and star rating, ensuring your ads reach relevant audiences. In turn, this gives you higher visibility on your competitor’s product pages.

Crafting a Successful Amazon Advertising Strategy

In the world of e-commerce, advertising on Amazon is an effective way for you to maximize revenue. And launching your campaign starts with the following steps:

1. Set goals – The success of your campaign depends on aligning your targets with your goals. Whether you want to drive more sales or boost brand awareness, your goals keep your campaign on track and make it easier for you to measure success.
2. Advertise the right products – Create ads for your most popular products and take advantage of the opportunity to convert clicks into purchases. Make it a point to keep these products in stock and with competitive prices.
3. Entice customers with compelling product pages – Amazon ads can entice shoppers to view the product detail page, but what’s written there should fly off the page. Craft compelling content by including descriptive titles, high-quality images, and useful product info.

And if you are successful with your campaign, you’ll enjoy the following benefits:

• Increased sales – A majority of Amazon shoppers are ready to buy. By advertising on the e-commerce site, you can reach customers who are already looking for products like yours.
• Better brand visibility – Give your brand and products instant visibility. Amazon ads appear on highly visible placements, like on the first page of search results or on a product page.
• Lower advertising costs – Pay only for ads that your audience clicks. Through campaign reports, you can track ad performance then tweak your campaign based on what works.

Amazon ads also have no monthly fees or minimum spend. These search-term targeted ads work on a cost-per-click pricing model, which means businesses only pay a fee when a user clicks their ad. As a result, you have greater control over your budget, and you can choose how much to bid per click.

Giving Business Greater Brand Visibility

With over 100 million subscribers for Amazon Prime worldwide, advertising on the e-commerce site is essential to get your products in front of more people.

Since online shoppers who search for products on Amazon already have customer purchase intent, the most effective way to rank higher on its SERPs is by increasing sales velocity.

Start attracting and engaging with millions of customers with Amazon’s dynamic ad solutions today. These include:

• Sponsored Product Ads – Sponsored product (SP) ads appear on the first page of Amazon SERPs and individual product listing pages, driving sales and product visibility.The new SP update offers extensive keyword targeting and targeting capabilities. These include enhanced auto-targeting for auto SP campaigns and product attribute targeting for manual SP campaigns. Auto campaigns give you four targeting options, including loose match or close match (for ad products similar to SERPs) and substitutes and complements (for ad products that substitute or complement SERPs). Product attribute targeting, on the other hand, allows you to select which product pages you want your ad to appear on.
• Product Display Ads – Product display ads market your merchandise on a competitor’s product detail page, appearing below the Buy Box. For certain markets, like the book industry, this can be helpful if you have a product inventory of similar items and are trying to cross-sell to Amazon customers. And as a result, this tool prevents customers from leaving the product page and entices them to add your products to their cart before checking out.
• Sponsored Brand Campaigns – A high-impact form of advertising, sponsored brand campaigns promote keyword-targeted ads of different products above, below, and alongside the Amazon SERPs. Formerly called headline search ads, these ads are ideal for generating awareness for new products, promoting seasonal items, or creating more demand for a best seller.

Experiment with all ad types to see which leads to the highest returns. Although sponsored product ads may yield the fastest ROI, sponsored brand campaigns can also attract loyal, repeat customers. Incorporate a mix of all formats then adjust your strategy and budget accordingly based on the results.

Ready to Start Your Amazon Ad Campaign?

You can set up your Amazon ad campaign in four easy steps:

1. Log in to Amazon Seller Central
2. Determine which products you want to advertise
3. Set an amount for how much you want to bid for clicks and which keywords you plan to target
4. In a few minutes, your campaign will be ready to launch

Now that you’ve got the basics down for Amazon advertising, you can start optimizing your listings and identifying the most profitable keywords for your campaigns. Evaluating the most important keywords can help you maximize your revenue potential and position your products for the most valuable search queries.

Read Chapter 2 to learn more about Amazon PPC terminology keyword research.

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Also published on Medium.