What is the Amazon Advertising Platform?
Amazon Advertising Platform is all about Amazon PPC and running pay-per-click ads on their Ad Platform. This way of advertising enables sellers to buy space for their products at the top position of the Amazon SERPs. The ads will show up above the organic results for certain keywords that advertisers have bid on, allowing them to be charged only when a shopper clicks on their ad. It’s a great way for sellers to quickly build brand awareness, drive traffic, conversions, and even Amazon store visits!
How does advertising on Amazon work?
The placement and ranking of the ads competing with each other for the same relevant keywords work on the auction model and operates on a second price auction. The highest bidder wins the highest ad rank and will be charged the highest CPC corresponding to the bid of the second-highest bidder and not his winning bid as we may think! The higher an advertiser is willing to pay for their ad, the greater are the chances for their ad to show up while competing with other brands for the same product. Apart from Amazon CPC bid, the Quality Factor plays a critical role in the ad placement. The quality of an Amazon ad is measured by the ad’s clicks history. In other words, the better the quality of your Amazon ad, the less you’ll need to bid for that ad to appear in the top rankings.
How to structure your Amazon PPC Campaign?
For each product, you’ll need to set up two campaigns: the first campaign should be automatic, and the second one should be manual. If you let the automatic campaign run for at least 1 or 2 weeks, you’ll be able to collect enough data from the Search Term Report and build a list of high converting and long-tail keywords to use in the manual campaign. The manual campaign is structured with 3 ad groups, each ad group for a keyword match type – Broad Match, Phrase Match and Exact Match. Going through your Search Term Report is an ongoing process to find new keywords that are searched by users with specific intent which will allow you to better target them.
Which kind of ads are you able to create?
Amazon PPC ads can be classified into three formats:
Sponsored Product ads are the most common type of Amazon PPC ads. They appear in the search results and product listing pages on Amazon allowing advertisers to promote a single product. These ads are keyword-targeted which means that advertisers use keywords relevant to their products to target users with these ads. The daily budget and bid usually depend on several factors such as the product, the competitors, and the keywords.
Sponsored Brands ads, also called “headline search ads” enable advertisers to promote up to 3 products in the same ad with a custom headline, a logo and with the ability to send shoppers to their Store’s page. They appear at the top of the search results page on Amazon. Like Sponsored Products, advertisers use specific keywords that are relevant to the target shoppers.
Product Display Ads promote a single product. They use product or interest targeting to deliver relevant ads to shoppers with certain interests, or based on their shopping activities such as purchases made, products viewed. PDAs automatically target those customers on Amazon affiliate sites such as Google or Facebook. PDAs allow advertisers to target shoppers. They don’t use keywords, but instead rely on customers’ interest and buying behavior. PDAs usually appear in the search results and product listing pages on Amazon. Besides they can show up on third-party websites related to the product.
Like any ad on advertising platforms it’s recommended to start with a small budget and to increase it over time based on how the ads are performing. Starting with a small budget will let you monitor the performance of your ads and decide on how much you should increase your budgets for your ads and campaigns.
Who can use Amazon PPC ads?
The Amazon PPC Platform is used by third-party sellers such as Amazon vendors who will have access to Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Product Display Ads in their Amazon Advertising Console. Amazon sellers need to have a professional selling plan to use Sponsored Products whereas only sellers with Brand Registry are allowed to use Sponsored Brands.
What are the benefits of advertising on Amazon?
The good news is that Amazon PPC sales also influence the product’s organic ranking on Amazon. The more the sales are generated through Amazon PPC ads, the more positive the effect will be on the product’s organic ranking! This effect is particularly beneficial for new products which don’t have enough performance data or sales history. At their launch they usually encounter some difficulty in ranking at the top positions for relevant keywords, resulting in fewer sales. Amazon PPC ads are an easy and quick way to rank the product high, to drive traffic and thereby to increase sales creating sales history and performance data.
Conclusion
Advertising on Amazon is more powerful than any other advertising platform such as Google or Facebook because it has a stronger buyer’s intent. As the vast majority of shoppers start their product searches on Amazon, it’s absolutely worth getting exposure on Amazon and investing in Amazon Advertising.
And on the other side, it’s needless to say that with competition constantly getting harder, it makes it more difficult for brands to be noticed by their shoppers. That’s where Amazon PPC definitely plays an important role! It will help you to quickly get a good amount of traffic to your online stores by buying the top position on Amazon SERPs.
Generally, the Amazon platform is a great paid advertising approach which helps you reach buyers and not viewers. Besides, it improves the overall visibility of your product not only on Amazon but also on search engines such as Google or Bing.
Polaris is an award-winning SEO agency in London specialising B2B, PPC, e-commerce and the healthcare industry.