Amazon Advertising is one of the top ways that sellers drive traffic to their products. This is becoming necessary to get more visibility as potential buyers comb through hundreds of other options on what is fast becoming a saturated market. To keep things simple, Amazon structured its ads similar to other major pay-per-click networks.
Using Amazon Ads helps improve your product’s relevancy by sticking to specific keywords that match the buyer’s search intent. Do you have questions about how this works? Here’s what you need to know before you advertise on Amazon.
Understanding the Available Options for Advertising on Amazon
Before building an Amazon advertising strategy, it’s important to understand your advertising options. Here are the main offerings on Amazon:
- Sponsored Products: These ads boost discoverability by pairing sponsored products with matching items that consumers are already considering for purchase. Sponsored Product Ads are the most common type of advertising on Amazon and are seen on most of the search results pages both on desktop and mobile devices. These ads can help the exposure of product listings that may not yet have a lot of reviews or are new to Amazon.
- Product Targeting Ads: This new version of Product Display Ads, available for Seller Central accounts, allows you to target entire categories or individual products.
- Sponsored Brands: Previously called Headline Search Ads, Sponsored Brand Ads appear right under the search bar as headline banner ads. These ads can feature both products and your specific brand, however, your brand must be part of the Amazon Brand Registry to have access to these ads.
- Product Display Ads: These Display Ads are PPC ads that show up on specific pages, such as customer reviews, product details, and beneath search results. These ads are only for Vendor Central accounts.
- Amazon Demand-Site Platform (DSP): The Amazon DSP option as of now is only available to bigger brands that want to boost brand awareness, as this is a managed-service option that typically requires a minimum spend of $35,000.
- Amazon Video Ads: Store owners can use Video Ads to tell their brand story, demonstrate how products work or share testimonials. Video Ads are managed by using the Amazon DSP.
- Amazon Native Ads: Unlike the other types of ads, these ads are not on Amazon, but on your own website and help create a more compelling visitor experience.
Advertising for Amazon Marketplace Accounts
Sponsored Products
This ad targets specific keywords to match your advertised products with similar alternatives organically provided to customers. These sponsored results show up beside, beneath, and above organic results.
There are three types of keywords you can use for this type of ad. These include:
- Complimentary product keywords
- Branded product keywords
- Automatic targeting keywords
There are three strategies for targeting as well, including:
- Manual for targeting specific keywords
- Automatic will let Amazon decide the relevant search terms and products for when to display the ads.
- Product/Category targeting will allow you to select a relevant product to display on or entire product categories.
The Sponsored Products Ad program is not available to all seller accounts. Current users include Amazon Seller Central accounts on the Professional plan (paying $39 / month) or Vendor Central accounts.
NOTE: Amazon will not run the ads full-time. The ad only shows up when a user types in a relevant keyword search in the Amazon search bar and your product is in the Buy Box. Reputable marketing agencies can assist with keyword indexing to improve ad performance.
Sponsored Brands
Previously known as Headline Search Ads, the Sponsored Brands ad program is a powerful tool now available for sellers on Seller Central. Sellers must register their brands with the Vendor Central Platform or the Brand Registry to have access to this feature.
Instead of just one or two products in an ad, Sponsored Brand ads provide a whole banner below or above organic search results. Some also appear on side columns. Like Sponsored Products, this works on a PPC model and targets users via keywords.
Because this is an opportunity to showcase your brand, Amazon allows more creative freedom. You may add a tagline and pick up to three products to display in your ad. You also get to decide where shoppers are routed to when they click on your ad. This may be to a product page, your brand store, or a landing page with different products you have for sale.
Product Display Ads
While not as popular as Sponsored Ads, Product Display Ads are especially useful for brands. These types of ads encourage healthy competition by posting your products on the product detail page of your competitors. It’s important to understand that the conversion rates tend to be lower with Product Display Ads, but it also depends on the industry, product, and how compelling the ad is to the target audience.
While it may not always successfully deter buyers from their original purchase choice, it does help to raise awareness about the alternatives your store provides in that sector. You never know, they may come back to you the next time around.
NOTE: Authors will find some benefits in using Product Display ads, as it is one of only two advertising options specifically available for the Amazon Kindle Direct platform.
Amazon Demand-Side Platform (DSP)
Another advertising option reserved for big brands is the Amazon Demand-Side Platform (DSP). For brands that can only invest in marketing opportunities that spur direct sales, they won’t miss much. While this is a powerful tool, it is best used for creating brand awareness, rather than boosting sales.
Video ads are one of the inclusions under the Amazon DSP offering. Other ad formats include mobile banners, mobile web displays, mobile interstitial, and desktop. Along with cost and ROI factors, these ads better serve companies that are not focused on only generating sales for Amazon’s marketplace.
For instance, Best Buy may have an online store on Amazon. Through DSP ads, it may announce upcoming special sales for holidays, such as Independence Day or Black Friday. While consumers are welcome to make their purchases on Amazon, Best Buy’s real aim may be to encourage more people to visit their website and retail stores.
Advertising for Affiliates or Non-Marketplace Users
Amazon Video Ads
Forbes notes that video marketing is one of the most powerful tools brands and their agencies can use to take sales to the next level. Did you know that 90% of consumers say product videos play an important role in purchase decisions? In fact, after watching a video, 64% of users are more likely to follow through with a purchase.
Amazon decided to capitalize on this by allowing companies to purchase Video Ads. These ads show up on Amazon-owned websites, such as IMDb and Amazon.com. Video ads may also show on certain devices, such as Fire TV.
Amazon opens this advertising method up even to non-Amazon sellers and brands. However, you could be looking at advertising costs running into the tens of thousands of dollars on video ads.
For such a large investment, companies should use video marketing wisely. Forbes recommends using video marketing as an opportunity to show off specs, benefits, or features of a product or service. Using videos to showcase a brand’s backstory rather than merely push sales may also help to form stronger connections with demographics that can relate.
Amazon Native Ads
Members of Amazon’s Affiliate Program have access to Native Ads. Sometimes a website may find it easier to manage their branding on an independent, branded website, but then choose to manage its store entirely through Amazon. For these sellers, Amazon Native ads provide the perfect opportunity to better integrate their website with their Amazon store by placing ads on their website. Available options include search ads, recommendation ads, and custom ads.
For example, these ads can go on a blog or product review page on a website to redirect readers to Amazon to complete the sale. Sellers may also use them as a call to action in blog posts, special sale announcements, email marketing, or when blogging about topics directly related to their products.
Give Your Sales A Boost With Amazon Advertising
Amazon Ads are helpful, but without marketing experience, sellers may spend a lot of time and money on advertising without seeing higher conversion rates. In addition to this, keeping track of ads can distract you from running your business. At OperationROI, we offer Amazon PPC Management and other Amazon Management Services so you can focus on what you do best. Contact us or call us at 888-277-5429 for more information today.
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