Generating new sales is key to a company’s survival, and for many businesses, Amazon’s online marketplace is the best place to find new customers. The e-commerce giant eclipses all other online retailers combined in terms of sales volume, taking about half of the pie for itself. Other top retailers lag way behind, accounting for a few percentage points more or less than 5 percent each. To help businesses get in front of more customers, the retailer recently announced new targeting options for sponsored brands on Amazon, which we explore below.
Expansion of Product Targeting
Sponsored Brands can be used to target products or categories of products. You choose the products, which appear with your logo and message at the top of a search results page. This positioning helps drive the discovery of your brand by placing it before shoppers who are already looking for related products. Sponsored brand advertising is pay-per-click, so you pay only when shoppers select your products or logo.
By clicking on a product, shoppers are taken directly to the product page. When they click on your logo, they can be taken to your designated landing page or store. This update to Sponsored Brand Ads on Amazon expands the use of product targeting from sellers-only to vendors, including book vendors and agencies.
Getting Started
Amazon walks you through the setup of a sponsored brand campaign in its Campaign Manager, where you can also find the Sponsored Products and Sponsored Display campaigns. Amazon recommends starting with a daily budget of $10, but you may find this limiting if you are paying $1 or more to win a bid for clicks. You can increase your daily budget and limit the length of the campaign, or maintain a low budget for a longer campaign to give yourself time to gather and analyze sales data before making any adjustments. You can also leave the campaign open by not selecting an end date.
Choosing a Targeting Method
You can choose to target by features of a product, by specific product names, brands or categories. This helps shoppers find you when they are searching in a general category or by browsing detail pages, as well as when they search for specific products. You can also use negative keywords to eliminate unwanted impressions for particular brands or products. When targeting categories, Amazon provides additional refinements to help you target by brand, star ratings and price range.
Analyzing the Results
Sponsored Brands advertising can be used to promote seasonal items, increase the demand for best-selling products and drive awareness of new items. Amazon has included some new metrics along with the new targeting options to help you measure the success of your campaign. New data points include the number of first-time buyers and the ad cost of sales, which shows the amount you spend on a campaign as a percentage of its sales, so you can quickly tell whether spending $100 is worth the $1,000 you earn.
Other Changes to Sponsored Brands
In addition to the new targeting options, here’s a look at what has changed on Amazon advertising solutions for Sponsored Brands campaigns. New features include:
- Mobile Carousel: Instead of one static image, cellphone users see your sponsored brands ad as a carousel that rotates through all three products, your message and logo.
- Suggested Bids: Amazon suggests what to bid based on historical winning bids. This is meant to be a more objective offering than the win rate previously offered.
- Search Term Reports: Vendors can now access a report on search terms used that resulted in one or more clicks. This can help you determine which keywords to use and which ones to include in negative lists as well.
- Daily Budgets: Daily budgets are now calculated as an average that accounts for the entire month. This new method still keeps you within your monthly budget but allows you a little flexibility in daily spending.
Amazon does a decent job helping you set up and automate campaigns. The retailer offers a suggested list for Sponsored Brand Ads, which you can explore in the Campaign Manager to get started.
Developing Your Marketing Strategy
Amazon provides a range of tools to help vendors succeed, but it can be difficult to understand and manage all of them. The experts at OperationROI can help you develop an Amazon marketing strategy customized for your business needs. To learn more, contact us online or call 1-888-277-5429 today.
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