Amazon PPC: Your Guide to Sponsored Advertising

Caroline Powell Author
10 min read

Amazon PPC is everywhere, and Amazon does an excellent job of integrating it into organic search results. In fact, many shoppers click on sponsored listings without necessarily knowing that they are advertisements.

Given that Amazon Advertising is now considered one of the big three digital ad platforms (Google and Facebook being the other two), dabbling with PPC simply isn’t enough. If you’re merely average, you’re going to get beaten by competitors who:

Not to worry. Stick with us, and will answer the following questions, so you can become advertising experts too.

Chapter 1: What Are Amazon Sponsored Ads?
Chapter 2: The Basics of Amazon PPC
Chapter 3: How to Run Amazon Sponsored Advertising?
Chapter 4: Conclusion and Next Steps

CHAPTER I What Are Amazon Sponsored Ads?

Amazon PPC advertising helps sellers get more sales on Amazon by:

  1. Increasing Marketplace Visibility: An Amazon ad campaign introduces your product to more shoppers.
  2. Intensifying Organic Impact: As you sell items with Amazon Sponsored Products, your sales will improve, which will help your organic search position as a result.
  3. Driving Customer Acquisition: Amazon pay per click is one of the best ways to acquire new customers.

TL;DR

If you’re getting started with Amazon marketing campaigns, Sponsored Products Ads is the place to start . . . but by no means the place to end if you’re a member of the Amazon Brand Registry.

PPC (pay-per-click advertising) is by far the most popular form of sponsored advertising. There are also video ads, custom ads, and Amazon DSP, but the three main types of ads on Amazon are Sponsored Product Ads, Sponsored Brand Ads, and Sponsored Display Ads.

1. Sponsored Products Ads

Sponsored Products Ads are available on both Seller Central and Vendor Central. Because all Amazon sellers can use SPAs, these ads are the go-to. They appear directly in the product results for a keyword. 

Sponsored Product Ads are easy to set up and they’re effective. They allow targeting by keyword or ASIN or category, which affords you many options for ad space.

But there’s a flip side too; because sponsored product campaigns are so prevalent, the competition is fierce. CPCs can be very high, but these product ads should still be a big part of your Amazon advertising strategy.

Sponsored Products Ads Appear:

– Above shopping results
– Alongside shopping results
– On product detail pages

2. Amazon Sponsored Brands Ads (Formerly Headline Search Ads) 

Unlike most Amazon advertising campaigns, Sponsored Brands campaigns are only available to members of Amazon Brand Registry. Therefore, there is significantly less competition when compared to other Amazon marketing services.

SBAs appear in different places than Sponsored Products Ads, such as on top of search results, like so:

Brand Ads are linked to your store, not your Amazon product. An Amazon Storefront can be a powerful showcase for brands selling on Amazon because buyers interested in a particular brand can view multiple products.

3. Sponsored Display Ads

SDAs are the newest type of Amazon PPC campaign, and they were previously only available as Product Display Ads for merchants using Amazon DSP (Demand Side Platform). Now the barrier to entry is significantly lower, so any seller who is Amazon brand-registered may partake.

Sponsored Display Ads can appear above and within search results, as well as next to the product detail page. Because Sponsored Display Ads can also appear on sites outside of Amazon, they are a great way to direct external traffic to your listing.

CHAPTER II The Basics of Amazon PPC

To create the content of your first campaign, you must understand how PPC campaigns work. Here are the basics.

Pro Tip:

Use one product per campaign just to keep things clean. It’s easy to link a product to a campaign via ASIN/SKU.

An ad campaign is the highest-level grouping within the Amazon PPC organization. Think of an ad campaign as a container holding one or more ad groups. The ad group will contain your keywords and/or ASIN targets.

The Parts of an Amazon PPC Campaign

Each ad campaign on Amazon should contain the following: 

1. Campaign Name

Make it easy on yourself and pick a campaign name that is simple, descriptive, and easy to distinguish.

2. Target ACoS

Advertising Cost of Sale (ACoS) indicates the cost-effectiveness of your advertising campaign. It is the amount spent on advertising divided by the revenue from advertising.

3. Targeting Type

Automatic Targeting

An Amazon PPC automatic campaign will pick keywords for you using an algorithm.

Manual Targeting

You control the keywords or ASINs or categories you want to target. Use an Amazon PPC software to find intelligent search term suggestions. 

4. Daily Budget & Campaign Duration

What you’re willing to spend on an advertising campaign during a 24-hour period and how long you want the campaign to run.

5. Ad Groups

Think of these as smaller containers within the larger campaign container. 

The Parts of an Ad Group

Pro Tip:

Since keywords and bids apply to all SKUs within an ad group, we recommend that you group SKUs that are closely related.

Within any single ad group, you’ll set or select the keywords, ASIN targets, and match types.

Keywords

The biggest component of ad groups on Amazon is keywords. Once you choose your keywords for Amazon, you can stick with your default bid for the ad group or you can get more granular and bid different amounts on specific long-tail keywords.

ASIN Targeting

Pick which of your competitors’ ASINs you’d like to target and advertise on their product pages. Like keywords, these ASINs can be manually selected or automatically chosen by Amazon’s algorithm.

Match Type

In manual campaigns, you can pick from 3 match types. Note that misspellings and plurals are considered the same word in Amazon for any match type.

Broad Match Phrase Match Exact Match
Keywords can be in any order and include other words. Specified words must be in order, but can include other words Only the exact phrase in order, without other words

Additionally, you can pick negative keywords, which are the exact words or phrases you do not want to bid on. Below are some examples of Exact, Phrase, and Broad Match Keywords.

CHAPTER III How to Run Amazon Sponsored Advertising

You’ve learned the basics, now how do you execute a strategy? When it comes to Amazon Advertising, it’s a running joke that most questions are answered with, “It depends.” Not to worry, you can still set some basic goals with our guide.

DODO NOT

Determine which products you want to advertise. 

Not all products are created equal when it comes to advertising. Some suggestions for good products for paid advertising:

– High-margin products;

– Products that are likely to perform well when advertised;

– Products where your number-one competitor is not Amazon.

Assume that your primary goal for each campaign is the same.

When you set your goals, you know where to allot your ad spend going forward. Here are some objectives that your campaigns can achieve:

– Better ranking;

– More reviews; 

– Brand recognition;

– The coveted Amazon Best Seller Badge.

Now, what’s the difference between a goal and a strategy, especially as it comes to Amazon Advertising?


Goal(n): the result or achievement toward which effort is directed
Strategy (n): a plan, method, or series of maneuvers or stratagems for obtaining a specific goal or result

Amazon Advertising Strategies & Goals

A goal is what you want, and your strategy is how you get there. When it comes to Amazon Advertising, your goals should all be attached to measurable metrics, known as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

There are a plethora of metrics to choose from – Cost Per Click, Cost Per Sale, Conversion Rate, Ad Revenue, Impressions – it’s overwhelming. Catch up on what advertising metrics you should be monitoring in our TACoS Tuesday webinar replay.

eCommerce ICYMI: Amazon Seller News, Updates, Events, Resources, and More to Help You Sell Better

Do you get confused with all the data available, especially when it comes to Amazon PPC Silence the noise & listen to the right Amazon advertising metrics.

Maria Navolykina

As an Amazon Seller, you’ve got lots of – often conflicting goals. You want to bid lower and still gain that traffic, maintain your top keywords and branded terms, and increase impressions and clicks.

Chances are, while you try to do it all, competitors are stealing your sales. To keep you focused, we’ve outlined your top 5 goals, and given you some strategies to get there.

Strategy Goal How to Get There:
Long-Game:
Brand Awareness		 Increase impressions The long-term returns of brand awareness are astronomical. Think of it like those sign spinners on the side of the road. They’re less likely to drive sales than a direct marketing campaign, but those spinners are getting your name out there.

Sponsored Brands Ads are great examples of “brand awareness” advertising campaigns. SBAs also offer New to Brand Metrics, which will illustrate how many purchases have come from shoppers who have not purchased from you within the last year.
Offense:
Competitive Attack		 Decrease average CPC of high-volume keywords This strategy gets expensive because it requires bidding against brands to own their keywords. Really, you’re trying to steal market share from your competitors by targeting here competitors’ brand names. 

You could also target top unbranded keywords your competitors are ranking for. With a little bit of research in Seller Labs PRO, see what keywords are top performers for your competition
Defense:
Brand Loyalty		 Maintain conversions on branded terms Brand Loyalty campaigns target customers who know and love your brand. Basically, you’re protecting branded keywords from your competitors. Would you let someone steal your product blueprints just because you made the actual product first?

This is also a great opportunity to utilize a feature like “Repeat Buyers” within your Buyer-Seller Messages in Seller Labs PRO. Take note of a customer’s loyalty over time and celebrate it.
Dominate: Conquer a Keyword Increase top of search impressions & clicks When our Managed Services team starts working with a client, they identify what top keywords can and will perform for a brand. Focus on 3-5 keywords and really OWN them.

Which keywords you select will depend on a competitive analysis. There are keywords that may be financially impossible to own at certain points, but there are always other ways.
Spy:
Optimal Shopping Time		 Decrease ACoS If you’ve been utilizing our Ad Scheduling feature, you know when your ads convert the most shoppers. Once you’ve done the research, dedicate a campaign or group of campaigns specifically to when your buyers are most likely to convert. Since they’re shopping and likely to buy, put more money into these budgets.

Designing PPC campaigns with separate Advertising Strategies, as you can do with Seller Labs PRO, helps define your goals. Some campaigns may build brand awareness while others function solely to steal traffic from your competitors.

CHAPTER IV Conclusion & Next Steps

While we didn’t list all of your potential marketing goals here, it’s a good place to start. As Amazon Advertising rivals PPC on Google and Facebook, every Amazon brand must take advertising seriously. Remember the following:

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