Amazon Ads – A comprehensive Guide from Basic to Advance
Amazon is a trusted and biggest name in the e-commerce industry. According to 2019 stats, Amazon has 2.5 million active sellers and its contribution is 49% in the US e-commerce industry. During the Covid-19 lockdown, it is the most used as well as the highest revenue-generating site.
Amazon sellers sell digital as well as physical products around the globe. There are several products launched by Amazon itself such as Amazon eco, fire TV stick, etc.
I think, this overview of the company is enough and help readers to understand the below information easily. As the title tells, our main topic of discussion is Amazon Ads. We will see its pros and cons, types and finally some tips for creating the best ads.
What are Amazon Ads?
With the increase in competition on any platform, it becomes harder to achieve the target sales organically. Amazon understands it clearly and offers an advertisement option to sellers.
In very simple words, you will run ads across the marketplace and partner sites and will be charged for clicks and impressions.
Are Amazon Ads Effective?
Amazon ads are a powerful method to break the barriers and generate more sales. It is the perfect option for new sellers that are trying to build the authority of their store.
Amazon advertising is highly effective because:
- Highly reputed marketplace
- 300 million buyers around the globe and 80 million in the USA
- Compared to other advertising platforms, Amazon visitors come to purchase so, there is a better chance of sales with less cost
- Multiple advertising options
- Choose your audience manually using filters or run an automatic campaign
What is Amazon Ads Cost?
In the case of Amazon CPC ads, the average cost that the advertising reported is $0.35 which is comparatively low from Google Ads, Bing Ads and Facebook Ads.
Like the other advertising platforms, Amazon advertising platform also allows you to set the desired daily budget, you can target the desired marketplace, etc.
Amazon Ads Types
Amazon offers multiple advertising options ranging from display ads to paid post in Amazon blog. Let see each of them with details.
1. Display Ads
With display ads, you can deliver your message using images of different sizes. These ads will be shown of Amazon stores, their devices and partner network sites. Display ads appear to the right audience based on interest so that, you can get maximum CTR at minimum cost.
Amazon Display Ads have the following features:
- Audience Reach – Your ad will be visible of every type of devices, amazon stores as well as a partner site.
- Flexibility
- Behaviour Target
2. Sponsored Product (Formally Headline Search Ads)
These are the keyword-based ads that will be displayed in the form of text when someone will search a product using Amazon search box.
Amazon allows advertisers to target users based on keywords. Finally, you have to select the product and then the category for better target and reach.
Sponsored or headline ads have the following features:
- Only Pay for Clicks – You will be charged based on the performance of ads. It is a good feature to save every single penny that other platforms may charge
- Less Guess more Stability – As you are going to use keywords so, your ad will be displayed to the right audience. Amazon suggests keywords that can be used. Alternatively, you can target similar products.
- Insights & Testing – You can see the performance of your ad and can alter the settings, bid and keywords to test how the ad performs best.
3. Video Ads
Text and image ads not always fulfill the target. In that case, you have to look for video ads option especially, when you need promotion as well as want to educate the user about the worth of product.
Researches have proved that video ads give better engagement and results compared to text & image ads. Luckily, Amazon also has this option.
Following are the features that will urge you to use Amazon video Ads
- Better Brand Awareness – Video ads are a powerful tool to highlight your brand or a newly launched product in front of a new audience. Amazon will display your ads across the site as well as devices such as Fire TV Stick.
- Target Relevant Audience – Unlike the traditional TV ads, this type of digital ad is powerful because it shows only to the interested users and insight can help to learn the performance deeply.
4. Brand Campaigns
Sponsored brand campaigns show ads on multiple locations and ads are targeted based on keywords. Like the other Amazon ads, brand campaigns are also charged based on cost-per-click. You can send the customers on your storefront page or a specific product.
5. Custom Advertising
This is an amazing bit different advertising solution for brands. Amazon offers you to display your ads on online as well as physical platforms. With the custom advertising option, you can highlight your brand on Amazon store, Amazon products, blog, social media channels, and Amazon packages.
This is simply a complete advertising suit and best for medium & large brands.
6. Posts (Beta)
Amazon now allows you to create brand awareness campaigns using their blog. You can simply publish guides, how-to and comparison articles on Amazon blog.
Currently, this advertising option is in beta version and not fully launched. Anyway, this is a good option and hopefully, be a permanent part of Amazon advertising solution.
Tips to Set up Optimized Amazon Ads
Running a successful ad campaign is not as easy as someone may think. It needs lots of pre-efforts to make sure that you will gain the desired results. Following are some actionable tips that will help you to create a successful ad or a campaign.
1. Attractive Visual Content
Attractive and clear images can engage more shoppers with your ads. If you want to be in the list of advertising who gain 15% conversation rate than you should use attractive images.
Amazon also has some rules regarding ad images:
- Your main image should show product only with white background
- No-tag on the image such as “Made in the USA”
- Do not include accessories along with the main product
- Amazon allows 5 – 9 images depending on the category. Try to cover all the aspects using this opportunity
2. Use keywords to Target the Right Audience
Brainstorming in selecting the keywords is the most important part. Like Google & Bing Ads, Amazon advertising is also the same. Amazon provides you with a suggestion about the keywords that shoppers use to find the products on their stores.
Using exact match & phrase match are the two types but you should also use negative keywords option to blacklist the keywords with no gain. In this way, you can reduce the ad cost.
3. Make Interesting Ad Copies
Do not just fill the ad copies with text, show some creativity to engage shoppers and redirect them to the product page. Your ad copy should have a small title explaining the whole product and description that simply supports the title.
After the ad, let’s come to the title of the ad. Your ad’s title should be between 150 – 250 characters as required by Amazon.
A good title has the following points:
- Brand name
- Product name
- Product features such as colour & size
4. Structure your Campaign
Have you ever used Google Ads? Then you are already familiar with this part. It will be best to group all similar products under the same category and creating a different category for another type of ads.
5. Use Promotion Strategy
You may have noticed that many of the Amazon ads offer a discount. This is a strategy to increase the interest of shoppers. You can also simply drop the product price in the campaign or offer a coupon code that will give better results compared to a non-promotional ad technique.
6. Bid on Competitors’ Products
If you are new in the market then surely you will find some competitors offering the same products. In your advertising campaigns, you can simply target highly engaging products of your competitors then use a “promotional strategy” discussed above.
In this way, you are simply giving awareness that you are the new alternative brand. This method will simply increase the suspense and they will go to the landing page to see your product’s features and price. Finally, you will get a sale if your product is better and economical compared to the competitor.
7. Test Different Ads, Sizes & Placements
Using multiple ad sizes and even ad copies can be helpful to understand how shoppers give most engagement. This is a very common marketing methodology where were rotate the ad placements, change the sizes and even change the ad copies if progress is not according to calculations.
Conclusion
Amazon is the biggest brand in the eCommerce industry. Running a cost-effective advertisement for Amazon is not quite easy because there is lots of competition. But, I am sure that the above information will help in your next campaign.