This guide for Amazon PPC is designed to make it easier for new sellers to advertise their products on Amazon. If you're not sure how to get started, this guide is for you. (If after reading, you decide that you still want professional help then reach out to us.) Amazon advertising generally has less competition and generates higher conversion rates than similar ads on Google, so it's a great place to start.
Selling on Amazon is one of the best ways to generate traffic and increase your sales, and PPC advertising is a big part of that. Amazon sees over 2.64 billion visitors each month, and these are users who are looking to buy something. They're here to shop, and this means that advertising offers much better conversion rates than ads on Google and Facebook.
What exactly is PPC?
PPC stands for pay-per-click. This format of advertising is a bidding system in which the advertiser bids on the search terms that are relevant to them, and when they win those bids, their ads appear when users perform those searches. The advertiser than pays what they bid when those users click on the ads.
How Amazon Advertising Works
Amazon splits its selling platforms into two versions, one for bigger sellers, called Vendor Central, and another for smaller sellers, which is called Seller Central. They're a little different, but they have an overlap in the types of ads they offer.
Amazon PPC follows the system as described above. Sellers bid on the search terms they want, and when they win on a particular term, their ad will appear on Amazon's search engine results page (SERP) when a user searches for that term.
These ads can appear in different locations and styles across Amazon. Here's an overview of the types of ads you can run.
Sponsored Product Ads appear at every point along the buying journey, from search results to product pages. They're the most popular style of ad on Amazon, and they have the best conversion rate, at about 10%.
Sponsored Products are ads that feature a specific, individual product. They'll send people who click on them to the product page.
Headline Search Ads show up at the top of the SERP when a customer enters the search term that was successfully bid on. These ads require some degree of copywriting since there is text that appears with them.
Sponsored Brands are ads that include a headline, logo, and up to three products. These send people who click on them to a storefront page or a custom landing page within Amazon.
Product Display Ads will send people who click on them to the specific product detail page. These are only available to vendors, and they will be targeted to shoppers based on their previous history or the products they're currently viewing. If you're an Amazon vendor or would like to learn more about the benefits of these ads, visit this link.
How to Create an Amazon PPC Strategy
Identify Your Goals
Before you begin an advertiser campaign, it's important to clarify your intentions and set specific goals. Take some time to figure out what you want to do. Maybe your primary goal is to increase your volume of sales, or perhaps it's to build your customer base. Likely you want to do all of these, but it's helpful to have a primary focus.
Know Your Bidding Strategy
Once you know what you're trying to achieve, you'll want to determine how you plan to bid. How you plan to bid (bidding strategy) definitely includes how much you plan to bid.
Bidding High increases your visibility, but also of course raises the Advertising Cost of Sale (AcoS). If you're in a crowded niche, you'll likely have to bid higher on the major keywords in order to get your ads to show up.
Many new sellers choose to bid high to get their ads seen as much as possible. This is not always the best strategy.
Bidding Low will maximize your profits by lowering the AcoS, but the tradeoff is that your ads may not appear as frequently or won't rank as well. Lower bids can still be effective on less common keywords.
Amazon advertising offers automatic campaigns that will suggest search terms that are related to your product. The Broad Match option for keywords gives you the best chance of showing up in searches that are relevant and keeps you out of irrelevant categories.
Keyword Types
Amazon PPC offers three kinds of keywords that you can bid on:
Broad Match
Phrase Match
Exact Match
Broad Match keywords are terms that are more generic and broadly related to your product. These terms are generally cheaper and less competitive.
Phrase Match keywords are more specific, and your ads will be shown when customers' searches include those keywords. They're generally more competitive, and thus more expensive than broad match keywords.
Exact Match keywords are for customer searches that exactly match what you're bidding on. These are very competitive and accordingly more expensive.
Broad Match keywords are terms that are more generic and broadly related to your product. These terms are generally cheaper and less competitive.
Phrase Match keywords are more specific, and your ads will be shown when customers' searches include those keywords. They're generally more competitive, and thus more expensive than broad match keywords.
Exact Match keywords are for customer searches that exactly match what you're bidding on. These are very competitive and accordingly more expensive.
Preparing to Run a PPC Campaign
Before you begin your PPC campaign, make sure of 2 things. 1. That you understand your keywords and 2. that your product pages are the best they can be. A bad product page will lose you sales even after someone clicks your ad.
Focus On Your Keywords
If you want to show up in potential customers' search results, you must use the same language they are using. Predicting what ‘words’ they'll use if they're looking for the product you're selling, is imperative.
There are many keyword research tools available that will help you ‘hone in on’ the terms that are best for your specific product. Relevance is the most important factor here. A keyword that gets a lot of searches but isn't relevant to your product won't help you.
As you run your campaign, you should track the effectiveness of each keyword or keyword combination you try, so that you can figure out which phrases perform well. You can lower your ACoS by getting rid of keyword phrase ads that aren't converting into sales.
Another important factor is negative keywords: terms that you want to exclude from your ad campaign. If there are keywords that are suggested for your ad campaign that searchers often use to find other products that are not yours, you can exclude those words from your campaign. This will also help lower your ACoS.
Polish Your Product Pages
Here are some tips for creating great product pages:
1. Use keywords in your product page URL
Make sure that your pages have descriptive URLs that contain relevant keywords. This will help improve your organic search rankings and provide information for people viewing the page or the link.
2. Write accurate and engaging product descriptions
A good product description includes an accurate description of the features of your product, but it also tells potential customers how your product will help them. Creating a narrative about your product will help people see how it would fit into their lives.
Use your long tail keywords in your product descriptions. This is a good way to optimize your listings for Amazon's search algorithm.
3. Include useful images
Large images that show the details of your product clearly will improve your customer's understanding of your product and their trust in you as a seller. When they can see images that match the product description they will be more willing to try your product.
4. Set a competitive price point
Keep up on your competition and make sure that your product is priced well. Your potential customers will be suspicious of large discrepancies.
5. Deliver on your promises
An important part of improving your visibility on Amazon is getting good reviews. Make sure that you're delivering what you say you are, so that people will leave good reviews.
Work on Your Organic Sales and SEO
Advertising on Amazon works best when you also pay attention to improving your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and building your organic (sales where you paid no advertising cost) sales. These elements all work together to create a successful business on the Amazon Marketplace, so don't neglect these other elements as you build your PPC advertising campaigns.
Strong SEO improves your ranking in search results, which leads to organic sales. As you get more sales and more reviews, you'll rank higher (means potential buyers will see you quicker) in search results, improving your sales further. This cycle is supplemented by paid Amazon advertising, boosting your sales and helping you target your keywords farther as you review your ads' effectiveness.
If you want to get the most value for your money when advertising on Amazon, make sure you're also working on improving your overall SEO and organic sales.
At Marknology, we have the expertise required to design an Amazon advertising campaign for your brand and products. If you want to ensure that you're getting the best possible results from selling your products on the Amazon platform, we can help. Get in touch with us to learn what we can do for you. Initial analysis is free.