A seller’s guide to AMS- Amazon Marketing Services -& how to utilize it for better sales and higher ROI.

63% of consumers start their Amazon search online (Jungle Scout, 2022.) Such user traffic presents a lot of opportunities for Amazon sellers. However, hundreds of sellers with similar products and target audiences like yours are trying to get a higher share of that traffic. Amidst such competition, the Amazon advertising console can help in increasing product visibility for your eStore. 

However, despite being an effective PPC marketing tool, the challenge with Amazon advertising lies in choosing the right ad campaign type to maximize sales and minimize Advertising Cost of Sale (ACoS). 

This article will address the basics of Amazon advertising and its types, targeting options, best practices, and strategies to help you drive higher traffic to your listings. We’ll also understand how sellers can outsource Amazon advertising services and secure higher impact at lower costs.

What is Amazon Advertising?

It was formerly known as Amazon Marketing Services (AMS) until Amazon issued an official update in September 2018 under which AMG (Amazon Media Group), AAP (Amazon Advertising Platform), and AMS were rebranded as “Amazon Advertising” or “Advertising Console.”

The primary motive of any Amazon PPC campaign is to help sellers drive high-quality traffic to their listings.  Amazon Advertising works on the same principle as Google PPC (pay-per-click) – where the seller only pays when the buyer clicks on the ad, irrespective of whether or not that click leads to a conversion.

The Amazon advertising console also allows merchants and sellers to monitor their ad campaign effectiveness. They can track target user activity across their ad types and apply the resultant analytical insights to drive traffic to their listings and improve product page visibility.

To register on the Amazon advertising console, a seller must have any of the following:

• Seller Central Account
• Vendor Central Account
• Kindle Direct Publishing Account
• Prime Video Direct Account
• Video Central Account
• Developers Account
• Author Central Account

Types Of Amazon Ads

Amazon Advertising enables sellers to target multiple customer categories simultaneously  by offering different ad formats. Sellers can choose the advertising model based on their budget, product type, demand, target customer base, ROI goals, competition, and other parameters. 

Let’s understand the ad formats and how they can help you reach your customers and engage with prospects.

1. Sponsored Products

Sponsored Products Advertising is a cost-per-click (CPC) module that allows merchants to promote their items using keywords. 

These ads appear on the top, to the right, or at the bottom of the search results and the product detail page. Due to their high visibility, these ads can hardly be missed by customers and prospects – making them one of the critical revenue-generating ad models. 

According to Amazon, brands that promoted their products via Sponsored Product Ads experienced a noticeable upsurge in their performance. 

At the same time, Sponsored Product Ads offer complete control over keyword bids and daily spending to sellers. Depending on your marketing budget, you can set a particular amount for each click and mitigate the risk of overspending. 

2. Sponsored Brand

Previously known as Amazon Headline Search Ads, these ads display your logo, tag line, and multiple products at the top of Amazon search results.

These ads drive traffic to your brand store by taking customers to your storefront or custom landing page as soon as they click on your ad. 

Similar to Sponsored Products, these ads are also keyword-based. When a buyer enters a particular keyword in the search bar, your ad can appear in the shopping results. However, make sure you have targeted relevant keywords, optimized your listings, and uploaded high-quality product images on the landing pages to ensure a higher click-to-conversion rate for the Sponsored Brand ads. 

3. Sponsored Display

Formerly known as Product Display ads, Sponsored Display ads allow sellers to promote their products on Amazon (product detail pages, home page, shopping results pages, Twitch) and other external websites as well as apps. Brands can utilize these ads to target shoppers who have previously viewed or purchased their products (or similar products) and used search terms matching their products. 

In addition to this, these ads can help redirect a share of your competitors’ traffic to your product listings, since they appear right below product descriptions in certain instances.  

According to Amazon, sellers who leveraged Sponsored Display ads saw 2x higher impressions and 82% of sales were driven by new-to-brand customers.

4. Amazon DSP

The Amazon DSP or demand-side platform is a unique self-service advertising model that allows brands to programmatically target customers. 

Sellers can utilize native videos, audios, sponsored product links, and mobile app promotion units to reach audiences both on and off Amazon. By leveraging the Amazon DSP ad format, sellers can gain multiple benefits, including the following. 

• Unique targeting options
• Increased discoverability 
• Accelerated growth
• Better customer and viewer insights 
• Campaign performance analytics
• Widened reach
• Enhanced brand awareness

5. Video Ads

Amazon offers sellers a creative way to interact and connect with their audience via video advertising. Advertisers can promote their products across premium streaming content, including Twitch, live sports on Prime Video, Freevee, top TV networks, broadcast apps, and the News app on Fire TV.

Video ads can showcase your product details, including their usage and other specifications, to educate shoppers, convince them of its utility, and push them towards a purchase. 

Source: Amazon 

6. Audio Ads

Audio ads are short clips (10-30 seconds) played periodically during breaks on Amazon Music. So whether your audiences are traveling, sipping coffee, or sitting on their couch on a Sunday evening, you can inform them of your products screen-free.

Under audio ad service, merchants can share their brand story with their audience and create lasting customer relationships. 

7. Custom Advertising 

Custom ads are best suited for sellers who want to drive traffic via personalized and user-directed ad campaigns. Amazon advertising console provides an option to create customized ad campaigns according to your business requirements by identifying user preferences and behavior.

These ads help you promote your products and reach your customers at every stage of their buying journey by solely focusing on user experience. 

Choose the Right Amazon Advertising Targeting Strategy

After opting for the Ad type, choose an appropriate strategy to add effectiveness to your ad campaigns.

1. Manual Targeting

Under manual targeting, sellers can pick keywords, categories, and bids for the product they want to promote. When a search query matches any chosen keyword, Amazon will show the ad to the shopper. 

Based on their preferences, sellers who utilize manual targeting can create customized campaigns and target a specific set of potential customers. For instance, you can include a particular age group or location.

• Keyword Research Targeting

Keyword targeting aids marketers in comprehending how shoppers search for items on Amazon. It helps determine the keywords and phrases customers are likely to use while looking for particular products.

When you choose a product and relevant keywords, the program will locate the websites that include those keywords and distribute your product ad accordingly. 

• ASIN-based Targeting

Amazon provides a mechanism to help sellers display their Sponsored Product ads on other ASIN pages and in category search results. For instance, if a customer is searching for a TV remote control in the Electronics category, they could also be interested in TVs or home theater systems of the same brand. Therefore, customers can be targeted with appropriate adverts depending on their surfing habits.

It also evaluates the competitor’s strategies and boosts your store’s sales volume by analyzing their popularity and demand. The primary aim is to help sellers elevate their marketing efforts with better sales potential. 

• Targeting by Category

This particular type of Amazon ad targeting allows merchants to target their product adverts for specific categories depending on the content. This helps brands in:

• Taking advantage of Amazon’s dynamic library, 
• Reaching out to the right customers
• Targeting customers seeking particular product categories, resulting in more relevant results,
• Simplifying campaign administration by targeting up to 20 categories for each campaign.

Note: This is specifically beneficial for brands who sell numerous lines of related items as it will help them boost sales and exposure across product categories.

2. Automatic Targeting

Under automatic targeting, sellers only need to choose the product they want to advertise and the money they are willing to spend on the campaign day-wise. Amazon automatically decides an ideal ad display location based on the keywords in your descriptions, title, and other parts of your Amazon product listing. 

As a seller, you can gain several benefits with automatic targeting.

• Makes it easy for shoppers to locate you on Amazon
• Save time and effort as Amazon automatically generates keywords and their long-tail variations for the ads. 

Amazon Advertising: Best Practices

If you want your  Amazon online advertising campaigns to perform well, you must focus on a few critical aspects. 

1. Research & Analysis

When planning an ad campaign, you must focus on factors that contribute to creating an ad that can resonate with your target demographic. Therefore, before you launch a campaign, research the following.

• Relevant and effective keywords and phrases
• Consumer preferences and requirements
• Cross-selling possibilities.
• Best-selling products

2. Set a Budget

Start by estimating your typical cost of sale when deciding how much you want to spend on Amazon advertising services. 

Determine your ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sales) by adding up overhead, supplies, manufacturing expenses, taxes, and account fees. Make sure you maintain a decent profit margin. Another factor to consider while planning your budget is the campaign’s duration. You have to distribute the decided budget accordingly for as long as the ad will be live.  

3. Examine Your Targeted Keyword List

Along with other factors, the effectiveness of your ad campaigns depends on the keywords you use. Before optimizing your Amazon product listings with keyword insertion, make sure each keyword is relevant and has high search volume and conversion value. Use both short and long-tail keywords to reach your target audience.

4. Optimize Your Strategy with Relevant Insights

The Amazon advertising console provides merchants with ad data to measure campaign effectiveness and optimize ads. These insights can help to determine:

• Products with a higher conversion rate 
• Most popular colors or models for successfully selling products 
• High-performing product advertisements 
• Most effective search terms for any category or listing 

10 Strategies to Optimize Your Amazon Ads for Better Sales

Create Engaging Ad Campaigns with SunTec Data

Vendors use Amazon Advertising Console to promote their products, boost sales, and enhance brand awareness. However, targeting customers and prospects with well-optimized, effective ad campaigns requires deep research, expert skills, and plenty of time. Thus, it’s better to outsource this responsibility to Amazon advertising experts.

With a multi-dimensional Amazon PPC management and advertising team, we help sellers create an engaging customer journey, enhance reach, and amplify sales with effective ad campaigns.
To know more about our Amazon advertising services, reach out at info@suntecdata.com.