Amazon Advertising: Guide to Advertising on the Marketplace

Amazon, the marketplace giant founded by Jeff Bezos, has its own advertising platform: Amazon Advertising, where you can increase the number of times your products are seen both in the marketplace and on other websites (and thanks to this increase your sales). In this guide I am going to tell you what Amazon Advertising is, the types of advertising you can find on Amazon and how to create (step by step) your own advertising campaign in Amazon Advertising to make your sales soar.

What is Amazon Advertising?

Amazon Advertising is Amazon’s advertising platform (but I’ve already told you this). Thanks to the platform, you can advertise your products and your brand by bidding on the click your ads receive (CPC).

With Amazon advertising, you only pay when a user clicks on your ad.

There are two types of advertising on Amazon (and I’m going to compare it to advertising on Google, to help you understand it):

• Advertising within Amazon itself: it is what appears within the marketplace when browsing it or conducting a specific product search. It is Amazon’s variant of Google’s search network ads.

• Amazon DSP: these are the advertisements that appear on other websites. They can appear on social media, on web pages, or even in videos. Amazon DSP is the marketplace equivalent of Google Ads Display ads.

In addition, within Amazon Advertising we find different types of ads: ads for products and sponsored brands, Display ads, video ads and Stores. It may sound like Chinese, but I’m going to explain them to you one by one.

Types of Ads in Amazon Advertising: Sponsored Products, DSP, and Stores

At Amazon we find two types of ‘sponsorships’: sponsored products and sponsored brands.

Sponsored products or sponsored products: they have a great impact on consumers whose intention is to make a purchase. If we divide it into stages within the conversion panel, it is intended for those who want to make the purchase or are considering making it (purchase and consideration).

I help you understand it with an example: a user is looking for a new headset since hers have just broken. Look for the same brand you used before, but when you search for it, you will see headphones from another brand with better reviews at the top. You decide to try the new brand and buy these headphones that have been featured as a sponsored product.

And what do Purchase and Consideration mean? These are phases of the customer life cycle that Amazon takes into account. The others are:

• Awareness: the user has a need. His goal is to satisfy her. But how? • Consideration: the user has found different ways to satisfy this need and analyzes them. • Purchase: the user has decided on a product / service that will satisfy their need and closes the purchase. • Advocacy: you get the user to interact with your product once the purchase is complete (to rate them or leave a comment). The user acts here as an ambassador for your brand (if their opinion is good). • Loyalty: loyalty. The user repeats the purchase. You have fallen in love with him! In addition to sponsored products, in Amazon Advertising there are also sponsored brands that appear at the top of the results and include all or more of a brand’s products. When to use sponsored ads in Amazon Advertising? Amazon recommends: • Use the sponsored products for the top sales of each seller, in the launch of new products to ensure that they appear in the search results or to ensure that you reach the audience you are attacking in display campaigns. • Use sponsored brands to attract traffic and show you all the products of a brand, to increase the branding of the brand when it has launched new products.

How does Amazon Advertising determine which sponsored product to display?

When a user performs a search, the Amazon algorithm determines which of the ads will be the most relevant. The Amazon algorithm takes into account different aspects to decide which ad to display based on ensuring the best shopping experience for the user.

But the algorithm also takes into account the CPC bid, as in Google Ads, that is, every time a user performs a search, the Amazon algorithm selects ads that could be relevant and, of these, it will show the one with the highest CPC high. It’s like an auction; whoever puts the most money (if relevant) will be the first to appear.

The higher the CPC you’re willing to pay, the more likely you are to appear if your ad is relevant to the Amazon algorithm.

But you will not pay the maximum amount you are willing to pay: you will pay a slightly higher amount than the second-highest bid. Let’s see if numbers help you understand it!

If you are willing to pay € 0.90 of CPC and the second person who wants to pay the most is willing to pay € 0.76, you will not pay € 0.90; you will pay approximately € 0.77.

Another advantage of Amazon Advertising is that you do not pay per impression, that is, you will not pay for a user to see your ad: you will only pay if they click on it.

DSP Ads on Amazon Advertising

Display ads are advertisements that are placed on other websites outside of Amazon (but appear on their behalf). That is, it appears as Amazon advertising on web pages that have nothing to do with the marketplace such as social networks, newspapers, etc. They can appear in the form of videos or banners.

What are Amazon Advertising Stores?

I would define Stores as eCommerces within Amazon. You can have your eCommerce in PrestaShop, WooCommerce or even in code, and with this Amazon gives you the opportunity to have your own eCommerce within the marketplace.

It is a multipage site with URLs for your own brand where you can group your products and categories. You can add the value proposition that makes your products different, different calls to action and as many products as you want.

Audience with Amazon Advertising

Targeted Audiences from Amazon Advertising will help you reach your most like-minded customers at the right time and achieve the objectives you seek to achieve with your campaign. There are two types of Targeted Audiences:

• Automatic: matches ads with keywords and related products to the advertised object information. It is the fastest way to campaign on Amazon Advertising.

Based on automatic audience targeting, Amazon displays ads based on close keyword match (when the search term is related to products), by ‘loose’ keyword match (Amazon will show ads to buyers who use terms somewhat related to your product), for being substitutes (it will show your ad in products similar to yours) and in products that are complements of the product that you are advertising.

• Manual: This will give you more control over where and when your ads appear on Amazon. You will have to choose the keywords in which you want your ad to appear (although you can also choose categories in which to show it). It is the perfect option if you already know the keywords that your users use to reach your products. In addition, Amazon will take into account the agreement of the keywords that you will have defined to show or not your products. What is this?

Keywords are the search terms through which users reach your products. In addition to being important for SEO on Amazon, they are also important for Amazon Advertising: you must determine the keywords that will activate your ad and distinguish the type of match with which you want to appear (the match is the modifications that a word may or may not have key to activate your ad).

Here are the different types of keyword match in Amazon Advertising: 1. Broad match: Your ad will appear when the user searches for the keyword or slight variations of it. For example: by selecting the keyword ‘lipstick’, your ad will also appear when the user searches for ‘buy chanel red lipstick’.

1. Phrase match: Your ad will appear when searched with the keyword you selected or small variations that add text before or after the keyword you selected.
2. Exact match: with the exact match your ad will be shown if the user searches for your exact keyword or small variations (such as spelling errors or changes from plural to singular). For example: by selecting the keyword ‘red lipstick’ the ad will also show when the user searches for ‘red lipstick’ but not when the user searches for ‘red lipstick Chanel’.
3. Negative phrase: it is a keyword that you select so that your ad does not appear when a user uses that keyword in the search. For example : if you sell 80-inch screens, you may not want your ads to appear when the user searches for 120-inch screens (since if they click on your ad, you will pay for that click and the user is not interested in your product, if not one of a larger size).

Although I do not get too long on this topic (to get to the point and teach you how to create your own Amazon Advertising campaign) I am going to leave you this link where you can continue learning about match in Amazon Advertising .

How to create your own Amazon Advertising campaign

I’m going to give you a simple step-by-step guide so you can learn how to create a campaign in Amazon Advertising:

• You must have a vendor or vendor account. You can create it here .

• You must upload products to your account and put them into categories (it is important that, within the categories in which you place your products, you can include ads).

• Optimize your product pages. You can do it by following this SEO guide on Amazon .

• Access the Campaign Manager of your account and select the type of ad you want to publish (sponsored product or brands, Display ads …

• Give your campaign a name, a duration (you must add the start and end date of your campaign – or determine that you do not want an end date) and a daily budget.

• The next step is to decide if you are going to reach your audience automatically or manually (based on what I explained above). If you are starting, I recommend that you put it on automatic.

• Next, you must name your ad groups: name them. And after that, add the products that you have decided to advertise.

• We have reached the moment of bidding! Decide how much maximum money you want to spend per click. The more money you are willing to spend, the more likely your ad will show if the Amazon algorithm sees it as relevant to the user’s search. Amazon will give you suggestions at this point, to give you an idea of how much you should (or shouldn’t) bid.

• Publish your campaign and measure the results! Remember that in Amazon Advertising (and in any type of online advertising) it is not only important to launch the campaign well, but to measure and optimize it, since you can almost always improve some other aspect of your campaign that will lead you to improve your results. Furthermore, if you want Amazon ungating services then you also consult with professionals.