Amazon is undoubtedly one of the biggest online platforms in the world, and its growth has only accelerated due to 2020’s drastic increase in online selling (caused by the COVID-19 pandemic). However, since most digital marketing agencies view Google as the main marketing platform for their clients, the Amazon ads platform, which launched back in 2012, unfortunately often gets overlooked.
Amazon has 9.7 million sellers worldwide, of which 1.9 million are actively selling on the marketplace. As there are so many sellers and products being sold, it can be difficult to stand out from the competition. But, Amazon Ads is easily one the best ways to get to the top of the listings on Amazon without your products being blatant ads.
On Amazon, purchases can be made within a couple of clicks, a process which is much more time-consuming on Google. In addition, you can see your revenue directly in the backend on Amazon, so your ROI is available at any time; once again, this is not a feature that Google offers. So, using Amazon Ads really is a no-brainer, as it is the perfect way to get your products from your warehouse or storefront to one of the biggest online stores in the world.
Today I will give you a full breakdown on what Amazon Ads is, the advertising options you have, and how to get your best ROI possible.
Amazon Ads - A Breakdown
Amazon Ads currently offers 3 options to market your products: 2 of the 3 options, sponsored products and sponsored brands ads, allow you to show at the top for your desired search terms on Amazon. The other option, sponsored display ads, is for remarketing to customers that have viewed your products or have added an item to their cart but not checked out.
Here is a breakdown of each of the options:
Sponsored Products - These are cost per click ads that promote individual products above regular listings on Amazon. This option is very similar to Google Ads where you can bid on keywords or search words that you want to show up for on Amazon.
Here is an example of what sponsored product placement looks like:
You can see that the products are listed above organic listings and they are marked as sponsored above the product name. These listings look natural, so customers will make a purchase without even realizing that they are clicking on an ad
Sponsored Brands - These are cost per click ads that are brand-focused, as they feature your brand logo and custom headline featuring multiple products. This option is great for a well-known brand that wants to get a featured spot above sponsored products. In order to get registered as a sponsored brand you have to go through a registration process, but it is totally worth it!
Here is an example of a sponsored brand in a general search for diapers:
Sponsored Display - This type of ad allows you to market or remarket to customers based on their search behavior on and off Amazon. Your ads and products will be shown on display networks (aka the picture ads you see on other websites). This is similar to Google display ads, but this option shows the products that the customer searches as a reminder instead. Sponsored Display ads are also pretty great for decreasing your abandoned cart rate on Amazon.
This is an example of a remarketing ad directly from Google:
Amazon Business Backend & Keywords
One of the best parts of the Amazon Ads’ backend is the ability to manage your product stock, keywords, and the revenue driven from the ads. It is easy to see tangible results from the ads and a return on investment instantly. Amazon shows your revenue and cost directly on the Amazon ads dashboard.
There are two types of bidding strategies on Amazon for your ads:
Manual Bidding - This option is for Amazon ads experts. You select the keywords that you want to show up for, and you need to be able to create your own keywords including all of their variations of broad, exact, and phase type keywords
Automated Bidding - This strategy uses Amazon AI to pick the keywords for you based on the product listing, and can be looked at as a “set it and forget it” strategy. However, users should beware: if your products are not set up properly, you can waste clicks.
To Wrap It Up
Although it is easy to set up and run ads on your own, it is important to get an expert in the field that has their Amazon Ads certificate to manage and optimize your ads on the platform; although setting up an account and potentially getting products might be easy, optimizing your campaigns and ads can be difficult. So, having an expert involved can make sure everything is done properly.
Here at TechWyse we focus on getting clients on Amazon and selling their products to a new audience. We provide expertise and advice on how to maximize your ad spend and increase your revenue. Please contact us today if you’d like to learn more about getting set up on Amazon Ads - we’d love to hear from you!
