Many brands and retailers are exploring innovative ways to add to their bottom line with the upcoming holiday season. As companies are investing increasing amounts on their online marketing strategies, marketplaces like Amazon have begun to focus more on advertising. Marketplace advertising has become a low-entry, high-impact solution, which many advertisers are taking advantage of. Today we are going to go over what Amazon ads are, the costs to advertise on Amazon and crucial tips to utilize their 197 million monthly visitors to increase your business’ ROI (Return On Investment).
Amazon has 3 main formats of advertisements you can showcase on their marketplace. Sponsored Ads. Display Ads. Sponsored Stores.
SPONSORED ADS
Sponsored ads, such as sponsored products or brands provide the ability to reach Amazon shoppers while they are browsing to discover products. These types of ads appear on search page results and other relevant product pages and shoppers directly to your product pages or your Amazon store. With sponsored ads you only pay when a customer clicks your ad.
Optimizing your sponsored ads can weeks if not months. Set different bid amounts to begin, after a couple of weeks time evaluate your results. Look for keywords that performed especially well and adjust your bids according to what has been working for your business. Typically, the higher the bid amount the likelier the chances of getting shown at the top of a search page and exposed to more relevant shoppers. To get started advertising, visit advertising.amazon.com
This option is best for someone with Amazon ads management skills who has the time to manually adjust their campaigns for optimal performance. Alternatively, you can equally find an Amazon Ads agency like us to accomplish this for you if you cannot complete this yourself.
DISPLAY ADS
Display Ads allow you to use your own creative to engage targeted audiences based on interests and behavior with a unique message to draw attention to your company and encourage consumers to take action. You can reach customers on or off Amazon, whether it’s on desktop or mobile or an Amazon device regardless if you sell on Amazon.
SPONSORED STORES
Sponsored Stores enable you to launch your own website on Amazon which you can use to provide customers a background on your company’s history. This Amazon Ad format additionally allows you to showcase your company’s product portfolio in a distinguished manner from the rest of Amazon’s marketplace. This provides a destination on Amazon to your targeted ads and capture potential conversions while exposing users to related products with the chance of creating additional sales for your company.
With over 5000+ sponsored stores connecting with 310 million active accounts across the globe. Amazon sponsored stores are becoming an ever-increasing tool to attract & gain repeat customers on their marketplace. If you have a large product portfolio, a sponsored store on Amazon represents an excellent option to showcase all your products in a high-traffic marketplace. If you are selling a single or limited quantity of products, it’s best to explore other ad formats dedicated to showcasing a specific product’s features such as a display or sponsored ad.
Advertisers are projected to spend $4.61 billion on Amazon ads this year. Accounting for 4.1% of all digital ad spending in the country, ranking Amazon 3rd in digital advertising revenues this year only falling behind Facebook and Google. Advertising on a massive marketplace like Amazon might not be as expensive as you think, typically advertisers typically spend on average $0.41 to $25 per bid, resulting in a low-cost method of advertisement.
Advertisers recognize Amazon audience is huge and prepped to purchase. Amazon’s marketplace enables them to target genuine shopping and buying data-not only the typical demographics and interests. One significant trend that rose in 2018 is paid traffic. Brands are becoming more sophisticated about their ad budgets, causing an increase in competition among established industries.
When advertising on Amazon, the primary thing you’re paying for is PPC (Pay-Per-Click). For every keyword or combination of keywords you target, Amazon applies a variable cost to it. For example, someone who is selling sports gear will have different prices for keywords like “basketball shoes” and “shoes” paying more or less for either. The PPC could be a price a low as $0.33 or more than $4.00+ per click. There is no one answer and the cost of each term can be dependent on the popularity and use of the term (sometimes referred to as “search volume”) by customers searching through Amazon. The price Amazon advertisers are willing to bid for their item to appear on the first page using that term can also affect the cost to advertise for that specific keyword.
Further on we will examine in more detail key aspects you should be aware of when optimizing your advertisements on Amazon or making the decision that an Amazon Ad company would be the best route for you and your business.
Maintaining all your campaigns organized is key to conducting a cost-efficient and successful campaign. A poorly set up and unorganized campaign presents you the unnecessary risk of losing money to inadequate clicks from ads that are targeting the wrong keywords or keyword phrases. Essentially, this means you would be spending more than you should have to target the wrong people.
Make sure you group products with related and relevant keywords. Organizing your campaign by product category, brand, or by top-selling status. Keep in mind that products within the same group could have different margins, which means they can not have the same bid. Designate the price you’re willing to pay on a bid strategically, this can be done according to the performance and product margin of the product.
Ad platforms want to optimize their user experience by showcasing relevant results for user inquiry and implement significant measures to make sure they avoid showing ads that aren’t related. In the case of Amazon, their algorithm looks out for keywords that are in the product listing itself. They don’t want products that merely have the keyword in the listing. Make sure you plan your product copy accordingly and try to be as specific as possible so your product will actually rank and be shown to a relevant audience. Arranging this improperly will only end up with your product not getting the impressions it should organically, but also money wasted if you were sponsoring that specific product to appear in search results.
Don’t limit yourself to only one type of ad format when utilizing Amazon Ads. Sponsored product ads might yield the best ROI or display ads might result in more repeat customers. It is best to plan an ad campaign with all 3 different types of ad formats to analyze which format produces the highest return for you. Once you start getting results from your ad campaign, you can then start adjusting your advertising budget to accommodate what is currently working for you and avoid wasting any more money or time on an ad format that is conveying poor results.
Amazon provides access to a search term report that you can download to look for keywords that are currently not generating any sales. Go to the Reports tab (top of Seller Central), choose Advertising Reports, click Search Term Report, and request a report. Make sure to update your negative keywords to include these irrelevant terms so consumers you search those terms will not be shown your advertisement, saving you time and money.
If you are not tracking and monitoring the results of your ad campaigns, you might as well let an Amazon Ad company do the advertising for you so you might generate some of your money back rather than wasting it. You need to possess a proper understanding of what you are paying for and knowing when it is successfully working for you. Below we will break down what metrics you should be monitoring to know if your ads are working for you.
Amount Spent: The amount of money the campaign has cost you in total. Make sure your profits are enough to cover your advertising costs.
Sales: The total number of sales your ad campaign has generated for you. Remember, the number you will see is gross sales, not including what it costs to get those sales in the first place.
ACOS: The Average Cost of Sales (ACOS) showcases the average cost of each campaign, keyword, and group has cost you in order to generate a sale. Accurately monitor this number to determine whether you are spending too much or too little of an advertising budget causing you not to get good results. Make sure you adjust your advertising budget, keywords, and ad group accordingly.
▪ Keep your campaigns organized and optimize your listings.
▪ Experiment with different ad formats to find what works for you.
▪ Make sure you perform good product & keyword research before advertising.
▪ Monitor & adjust your campaign budget to avoid paying for disappointing results.
▪ Be patient! Results take time, don’t get too in front of yourself.
▪ Strategically put your keywords in your product listing.