With a brand value of £586.57 billion and a 2021 sales revenue of £390.52 billion, Amazon is the world’s largest online marketplace. However, as retailers, manufacturers, and those who have attempted to establish themselves on the platform can attest, it’s also one of the most competitive. With over 2.5 million sellers vying for attention, getting your product to stand out from the crowd can feel like an impossible task.
For your business to build and maintain a presence on Amazon, you must be strategic in your approach to product listing optimisation, link building, and of course, Amazon PPC. This is where an Amazon advertising agency like The Bank can help!
Our full-service agency specialises in helping brands like yours take their Amazon business to the next level. Through our suite of Amazon advertising services, we can assist with everything; from managing your Amazon Ads campaigns to providing actionable insights and recommendations – our experts are on-hand to help you maximise product visibility, build brand awareness, and drive sales.
So, if you’re looking for an agency that can take your Amazon business to new heights, contact us today – and in the meantime, read on for our expert guide to paid advertising on Amazon.
What Is Amazon PPC
Amazon PPC (pay-per-click) is an ad delivery method which allows advertisers to bid on keywords with the goal of seeing their sponsored product listings place higher in search results.
In practice, an advertiser will select a series of relevant keywords, and enter the amount they are willing to pay for preferable placement in the event a shopper is searching for one of those phrases. If theirs is the highest bid when a customer does make that search, their product display ads will appear above the site’s organic rankings.
Unlike impression-based paid advertising, with PPC a deduction from your advertising spend is only made when shoppers click on your sponsored product ads – hence: “pay-per-click”.
Amazon Ad Formats
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to establishing a strong position on Amazon, which is why they offer a variety of ad types to suit all advertising strategies and budgets.
Sponsored Products
Amazon’s Sponsored Product ads are the most common form of PPC advertising across the platform. These cost-per-click ads are product-specific (i.e. promote a single listing), and appear in search results, on product detail pages, and in customers’ shopping carts.
Benefits:
- Increases search visibility independent of organic rankings.
- Focuses on a single product; can be modified to suit seasonal popularity or product inventory shortages.
- Can alert users to a temporary sale or special offer.
Sponsored Brands
Formerly known as ‘Headline Search Ads’, Sponsored Brands campaigns consist of display ads which feature your brand name, logo, and up to three products. These ads appear on search results pages, in addition to product detail pages.
Benefits:
- Helps increase brand awareness, and create brand loyalty.
- Features multiple products, each with a product detail page link.
- Suitable for highlighting similar products across a product range.
Sponsored Display
Sponsored Display ads can be found throughout the Amazon platform, but can also be used for display campaigns across the web. Employing the familiar Amazon branding, these banner ads can help sell products and generate traffic from any number of online sources.
Benefits:
- Can promote products away from the Amazon platform.
- Audiences can trust display ads for your sponsored products as they carry Amazon branding.
- Familiarity with Amazon means leads are more likely to result in sales.
Video Ads and Audio Ads
Amazon Video Ads are short video ads which appear on the Amazon marketplace, Fire TV, and other connected TV devices. The full-screen ads are skippable and can be targeted to specific audiences based on interests and demographics.
Amazon’s Audio Ads are short audio ads that are played on Amazon Music. The ads can be targeted to customers based on their music preferences, and appear between songs as listeners stream music on their devices
Benefits:
- Generates product interest away from the Amazon marketplace.
- Reach engaged Prime Video and Amazon Music audiences.
- Supreme options for targeted advertising.
Routes into Amazon Advertising
Now that you have an idea of how your Amazon ads will look, let’s take a look at how you might get your Amazon advertising campaign off the ground and in front of shoppers.
Amazon Seller Central (SC)
Unless you are a major retailer who has been invited to join Amazon Vendor Central programme, you will manage most of your Amazon selling activities through Seller Central. Through the SC portal, you can access the Advertising Campaign Manager, and create a cost-per-click ad campaign.
The Advertising Campaign Manager is Amazon’s self-service PPC tool and offers several features to help you.
Benefits:
- Create keyword-targeted ads that speak directly to your target audience.
- Monitor your campaign results in real-time.
- Optimise your campaigns using Amazon’s machine learning algorithms.
- Get insights from Amazon on how to improve your ad performance
Amazon Demand-Side Platform (DSP)
The Amazon DSP is a self-service platform that helps brands reach their target audiences across the web with video, display, and native ads. The DSP can be used to supplement your existing Amazon PPC campaigns, or as a standalone tool to increase brand awareness and sales outside of the marketplace.
Benefits:
- Access to Amazon’s exclusive first-party data.
- Gain insights into customer behaviour across Amazon and the web.
- Advertise on Amazon properties, as well as millions of websites and apps across the internet.
- Build programmatic campaigns that use Amazon’s machine learning algorithms.
Off-Site vs. On-Site: Amazon Ads vs. Google Display Network
While the above methods keep all your Amazon advertising efforts in one place, there are several off-site paid advertising options for bringing in traffic to your Amazon listings and landing pages.
You can also use Google Ads to supplement your Amazon PPC campaigns. Google Ads allows you to place ads on millions of websites across the internet, as well as on YouTube and other Google-owned platforms.
Similarities:
- Both Google and Amazon utilise a cost-per-click basis for ad spend.
- Both launch advertisements based on relevant user-entered keywords.
- Both allow advertisers to outrank organic listings in high-competition categories.
Differences:
- Amazon ranks ads based on sales history, and the profit the ad is likely to generate; Google ranks ads based on click-through rate (CTR).
- Leads generated by Google are generally higher in the sales funnel; as a result, Amazon PPC ads convert at around 10%, while Google search ads usually convert at 1–2%.
- Running a campaign solely through an Amazon advertising account means you lose out on Google’s behavioural, demographic, and psychographic audience data when it comes to retargeting.
The Bank: Your Amazon PPC and Paid Advertising Agency
When it comes to getting bringing consumers to your Amazon shop, you want to make sure your products are being seen by the right people at the right time. The Bank’s team of PPC and paid advertising experts can help you create a campaign that reaches your target consumers both on and off Amazon.
Budgeting
We’ll work with you to develop a budget that is designed to reach the goals of your business’ ad campaigns, without going over your daily budget. To reduce wasted spend from irrelevant clicks, we’ll look at factors such as:
- Your product’s category
- The level of competition in your category
- Your product’s price point
- Your target margins
PPC + SEO
If you choose us to manage your Amazon Ads campaign, we’ll also audit every listing and product landing page associated with your brand. By improving the quality of your SEO scores, you will generate more organic sales, resulting in greater organic search positioning, and greater value generated from future PPC and Amazon advertising efforts.
Reporting and Analytics
At The Bank, we believe that knowledge is power. Our team will provide you with regular reporting and analysis of your ad campaigns, as well as insights on how to improve your overall performance on Amazon. We’ll also keep an eye on your competition, and let you know of any changes or new opportunities in the market.
What Are You Waiting For?
For all your Amazon advertising needs, give one of the team a call today. We can’t wait to get started!
