Amazon Marketing Services
The Basics you need to get started
Amazon Marketing Services
55% of all product searches now start on Amazon compared to 17% on Google. In addition to that $4 out of every $10 spent online is spent on Amazon. Amazon is now the 3rd largest advertising platform. Clearly, it is fast disrupting that long-term duopoly of Facebook and Google.
These facts alone should help you appreciate the power of Amazon Marketing Services (AMS). Brands can no longer disregard the dominance Amazon has when it comes to marketing directly to consumers.
At this point, it is important to note that as of Q3 2018, Amazon recently rebranded their entire Amazon marketing company offerings.
Here is what Amazon said in their announcement
This is now what shows up on the AMS sign page
The good thing is that Amazon is directing advertisers to the same login as they slowly move towards unifying all of Amazon Advertising under one roof.
The new terms are being phased in gradually, so we are still seeing the old terms being used.
Also, while some of the names have changed, how Amazon prime members work with Amazon Advertising hasn’t. What can you expect from them? Increased efficiency. The AMS platform has improved. Amazon has added performance graphs, date range reporting, and bulk operation features.
The goal is as their SVP Paul Kotas said
SVP, Worldwide Advertising at Amazon
We've unified our product offerings under the name 'Amazon Advertising.' This is another step towards our goal of providing advertising solutions that are simple and intuitive for the hundreds of thousands of advertisers who use our products to help grow their business
What is AMS
(now Advertising Console)?
It is a self-service Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ad platform that allows brands to market directly to shoppers who are ready to buy. It offers brands 3 advertising formats;
Headline search Ads (now Sponsored Brands Ads), Sponsored Products Ads, and Product Display Ads.
It was launched in 2012 and since then has been expanding both geographically and product wise.
In 2017 it was finally made available to 3P sellers. However to enjoy its benefits fully you need a Vendor Central account.
How does Amazon
Marketing Service work?
It uses an auction model to determine the PPC price for each ad unit. Amazon chooses an Ad to display on a particular page. Ads bid against each other. To select the winner, Amazon makes a decision based on the budget and a ranking system that selects the most profitable ads.
If your ad is picked, it will be displayed on the Amazon search page. Every time someone clicks on your ad, you pay. This means that you can display your ads as often as you wish. It also means that you need to target your audience well; otherwise Amazon will lower your ranking and display other ads instead.
How to target your audience
Amazon is rewarded for effective advertising when someone clicks on your ad and when you make a sale.
You can see the importance of targeting your audience as precisely as you can. It is in both yours and Amazon’s interest. So how do you target your audience?
Select several keywords
Choose a number of categories or interests. This means you get to target potential shoppers based on their shopping habits.
Select products that are related.
Amazon Marketing Services Ad Types
Headline search ads
(now Sponsored Brands ads)
These are the banner ads that appear above search results. They are usually referred to as the top of the funnel ads. With the recent changes, they now also appear on the left side of the page, within search results, and at the bottom of the search pages.
You can display at least 3 ads.
Sometimes, your product has to outbid Amazons.
3P Sellers have to be on the Brand Registry program to qualify for Sponsored Brand ads.
Most times, customers click on Sponsored brand ads at the start of their shopping phase. So sending them to the brand page is golden since they can view various products there.
Amazon sponsored brands are perfect for promoting a range of optimized products since you can display a minimum of 3. Their placement means that it’s hard for your ad to get ignored as it is within the shoppers’ line of sight.
Their targeting is optional as it only appears on the screen of those actively searching for the products you are selling on Amazon.
To succeed with this type of ads, one has to match keyword intent with the precise bid, the ad copy, and the landing page.
The minimum daily budget is $100
Sponsored Product Ads
Sponsored Product ads are the most used ads as well as the most effective. They are available to both Vendors and 3P sellers. These are PPC ads based on product targeting and keywords that push traffic to a desired product detail page. Prime members sponsor particular products to appear in the SERP (search engine results page) with organic search results.
They appear above, below and within the search results pages on a computer. For the mobile, they appear above or below the search result pages. For that reason, they are considered the middle of the funnel.
They are either content driven (automatic), or keyword driven (manual).
They are easy to create and their approval is quite fast.
Only new products qualify.
Product listings are eligible for the buy box.
The minimum daily budget is $1. You only pay when a shopper clicks on your ad.
They are great for cross-selling, up-selling and going head to head with competitors because they appear on product detail pages.
If you have exclusive selections, seasonal promotions, and clearance items or new offers, sponsored product ads increase their visibility.
To succeed, avoid product selection bias by running automatic ad campaigns. This allows you to test the waters and get data that you can use in your sponsored ad campaign strategy (manual campaigns). You can also include both single search term keywords and multiple term phrases.
Product Display Ads
With Product Display ads, users are targeted solely on the basis of their product interest as opposed to product keywords.
Product display ads are available to Vendors only.
A vendor can choose whether they want it on their detail page, or on their competitor’s. For example, if you are selling iPhone cases you can place your ad next to apple related products. Or if you are selling coffee filters, next to a coffee machine.
Vendors have a unique opportunity to exploit shoppers high purchase intent and specific interest in particular product categories.
They are considered to be at the bottom of the funnel because they show one product at the bottom corner of either yours or your competitor’s product detail page. Too, this is the last ad that a buyer will see right before they click “add to cart”.
Despite their location, you can see their importance.
A brilliant way to use them is to cross-promote your own products. On each of your detail pages, display one of your own ads.
The minimum daily budget is $1
Who has access to which tool at a glance
How do I get top results on AMS?
Budget
Have a clear budget and then decide how to divide it among the 3 ad types. This would give you a rounded out coverage and also allow you to explore and optimize as you gather the data.
Listing optimization
Be very clear which products are a priority for you and your customers. Focus on a specific product based on demand or season.
Research
Research the high and low search terms for your products. This will help you to raise awareness of your product and drive demand.
Branding
Amazon gives you the option to open an Amazon storefront for free! Storefront allows you to add social media links to your social media profiles. This increases your social proof. This coupled with enhanced brand content will increase consumer confidence in your products, and set you apart from your competition.
Synchronize
if you have multiple campaigns and products being featured concurrently, synchronize all on AMS.
Optimize
Ask yourself pertinent questions such as; which products are performing well? Which copy has the highest CTR? Or which keywords are driving the highest traffic?
ACoS
Amazon has a helpful metric that lets you know how much each sale is costing you. It is known as the Average Cost of Sales (ACoS). The lower you spend on an ad, the better the campaign performance. E.g. if you spend $1 on a $10 product, you have a nice profit margin. So follow the ACoS carefully, ID the golden eggs, and increase your investment on them.
Why Use our Services
For starters, you need an Amazon marketing expert because you cannot just build your campaign and relax. Your campaigns, bids, and keywords have to be constantly adjusted to increase efficiency. Who better to keep up with that than us?
Our Amazon consulting services will help you keep up with your campaign reports and monitor how much you spend on an ad vis-à-vis how it performs.
Our Amazon marketing consultant will use data from your campaign report to fine tune your campaigns. E.g. adding new keywords and performing split tests.
Of course, we appreciate that many sellers prefer to manage their campaign, but with the constant changes at Amazon, it makes sense to rely on an Amazon seller expert. Our Amazon seller consulting services are keeping up to date with Amazon business just for you! We ensure that you save your time by focusing on what you do best, while we reach millions of shoppers for you!
Finally, our Amazon listing optimization service will guarantee that we pinpoint the best audience for your product.
We understand how to leverage AMS to its fullest potential because we know not every click is a purchase.
Contact us right now and grow your business!
