PPC advertising usually starts with a simple idea. But then with time it develops into a larger overall concept that links many components and helps you increase visibility of your products.
With a good advertising strategy for Amazon, you have a much better chance of attracting new customers.
So, how can you improve your Amazon PPC strategy?
Keep reading and discover 3 beginner-friendly tips.
Tip 1: Organized Amazon PPC campaign structure is key
A disorganized Amazon Ads strategy can do you more harm than you could expect. Do not forget: online advertising is a big entity that depends on numerous success factors!
Your entire advertising strategy can fail if you skip the basics. That is why well-thought-through organization and careful planning is key. Only then you can look into how to optimize Amazon PPC campaigns.
So, let’s start at the beginning. With good organization you will lay a great foundation for future advertising success on Amazon along with suitable keywords, ASINs and categories.
Before going into the nitty-gritties, start with choosing a suitable Amazon Ads campaign type:
1. Sponsored Brands
Sponsored Brands are sometimes also referred to as Headline Search Ads. They can appear above, below, or next to Amazon search results.
In this campaign type keywords, product categories or ASINs are used for targeting. You can advertise at least three products at the same time.
If you have your own Amazon store, you can link your Sponsored Brands ads directly to the store (and not individual products).
The main reason to use Sponsored Brands is to increase the visibility of your products on Amazon. The best part? Higher visibility usually results in increases product sales!
A disadvantage of Sponsored Brands campaign type is a lower conversion rate. Plus this type of Amazon advertising can be more expensive, especially compared to Sponsored Products ads.
To sum up, use the Sponsored Brands campaign type to promote your top sellers.
2. Sponsored Products
This campaign type is the most popular out of the three with Amazon sellers and vendors.
Sponsored Products Ads are pay-per-click ads you can use to promote individual products.
You can find them in Amazon search results and also on product detail pages. For targeting, this campaign type uses keywords, product categories or ASINs.
Pick Sponsored Products campaign type if your goal is to drive more traffic to your product detail pages, increase their visibility and accelerate your Amazon sales.
The downside is that Sponsored Products ads take a bit longer to set up and are sometimes less effective.
3. Sponsored Display
You can find Sponsored Display ads on the side of the page. For targeting, you can use products and audiences.
Amazon sellers or vendors who use Sponsored Display campaign type usually go for one of the two goals:
- Promoting specific products to a wider audience (e.g. users who have already purchased a similar product)
- Retargeting users who already clicked on one of your products but didn’t buy them
A disadvantage of this Amazon advertising campaign type can be slower sales process. In other words, they are less suitable for mass sales.
To sum up, choose Amazon Ads campaign types that are aligned with your business goals.
Next, create a well-organized campaign structure. Good organization is key for a successful Amazon PPC strategy in the short, mid and long run!
In this way, you will be able to reach a wider audience that is more relevant to your eCommerce business.
Tip 2: Focus On Keywords to boost your PPC success
The core of any Amazon PPC strategy consists of keywords. What separates ok PPC strategies from real money makers are relevant keywords. If your keywords are irrelevant or unsuitable, it is likely your ads won’t reach your target audience.
Keywords do not only define what your product is about, but more importantly, they are used by potential customers when they search for specific products.
The Power of Keywords
Let’s have a look at an example.
You need new tennis shoes, so you type ‘tennis shoes’ in Amazon search box. You expect to see a selection of tennis shoes in your search results. But a tennis ball pops up instead!
You didn’t find what you were looking for. You are probably confused and maybe even a bit upset because the result does not match your search. So you rather leave the site and try to find tennis shoes on another website or selling platform.
This example is of course extreme and would not really happen in real life. But it does paint a picture of why is it important to use relevant keywords: so your users can find your products. Moreover, your Amazon PPC strategy will be much more effective and you won’t waste your advertising budget on keywords that don’t perform.
To find and use relevant keywords, you first need to develop a good keyword strategy. Here are a few tips that will help you get started.
How to brainstorm keyword ideas
Think early on about all the possible keywords for different situations where buyers might be looking for your product.
Users may want to buy something for a specific occasion (wedding, birth, Christmas gift, etc.). Or they may be looking for a specific brand or an alternative product for a brand.
Your keywords should contain all this information!
Develop Winning Keyword Strategy
Coming up with relevant keywords can be a thorny task. But don’t worry, here are three tips that will make you keyword strategy flourish.
1. Use Keyword Research Tool
Save time and use a dedicated keyword research tool to search for relevant keywords. On top of that you can see keyword search volume, relevant keyword suggestions and use many other useful features (that differ based on which tool you’ll go with).
2. Double check each keyword
Check each keyword to make sure that it is a good match for your products and as relevant as possible. Your keywords must be related to the products you want to promote (and sell!) on Amazon.
3. Group your keywords by topics
Organize your keywords in different topics or topic clusters. This will save you time and effort later on if you will want to run individual campaigns for specific topics.
Once you find relevant keywords, do not forget to use them in your Amazon Ads!
Crack the code to keyword match type
Using the right keywords is important. To cover the basics, you should be aware of different keyword types and match types:
- Short tail keywords
- Long tail keywords
- Exact match keywords
- Phrase match keywords
- Broad match keywords
- Negative keywords
Let’s talk a bit more about negative keywords. If you use them properly, your advertising budget will be used more on the keywords that really matter. For example, if you sell tennis shoes specifically for women, you can add “men” as a negative keyword to exclude irrelevant search queries.
This way you can avoid irrelevant traffic and unnecessary advertising costs. Learn more about why keywords matter and crack the code to your Amazon PPC strategy.
Besides keywords, you can also display your ads on Amazon based on product categories. You can find this option in the targeting settings.
This way you can also reach target groups that are really interested in your product. In terms of time management, this can be a welcome improvement because don’t have to constantly check your keywords.
Tip 3: Keep Optimizing Your Amazon PPC Ads
Amazon PPC optimization is another important aspect of a successful Amazon PPC strategy. Ad optimization involves more than just proper use and keyword management.
The market is constantly changing, so it’s important to always keep an eye on all campaign performance data. It depends how big and complex is your advertising account, but the amount of information can quickly overwhelm you.
There is so much data that a completely manual Amazon ad optimization is almost impossible. Campaign optimization is time-consuming. You have to check your ad performance every day (sometimes even several times a day!) and make adjustments to bids, ad or targeting settings.
Not to mention that manual optimization is more prone to errors. After all, we’re all human.
The good news? You don’t need to optimize your ads all by yourself. There are numerous tools that will d it for you!
How to Save Time and Money With Amazon Optimization AI
This is where automating your Amazon PPC advertising comes into play. You don’t need to optimize your Amazon Ads yourself. And you don’t need to hire someone to do just that. Instead, you can use an Amazon optimization AI that will handle the entire optimization.
Benefits of using Amazon optimization AI are:
- Optimizes 24/7 – saves you time
- Minimizes human error
- Analyzes data in seconds – again, you save time
- Automatically adjusts your advertising campaigns
- Harvests and suggests new keywords
Such PPC optimization tool can save you a lot of trouble and at the same time make your ads more profitable. There’s a lot of different tools our there and you should choose the one that suits you the most.
You can give Adspert a try – it is free for 30 days and you don’t need your credit card details to get started.
Important note: no ad optimization tool will work, if you don’t have a good Amazon PPC strategy! Before using any tool you should have a good base: well-organized campaign structure and using relevant keywords.
Final Thoughts
Setting up a successful and competitive Amazon PPC strategy is challenging. Even with a good strategy and top campaign settings at the beginning, you need to keep optimizing your ad campaigns (and especially bids).
I shared tips and tricks how to set up an Amazon PPC strategy that builds a strong foundation in your PPC game. Stay organized, focus on relevant keywords and optimize your ads.
If you feel like you’re spending too much time (and money), you can use an Amazon PPC optimization tool to optimize the ads for you.
