Here’s how to use Amazon’s closely guarded first-party data to bring attention to your product (and brand).
Recently, I covered Amazon’s Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands advertising in two PPC Quick Start Guides. More than 2,000 new vendors have joined Amazon’s twenty worldwide marketplaces every day since 2016. I mentioned this phenomenon in two separate blog posts.
This emphasizes the need to differentiate oneself in today’s competitive environment. One major strategy for doing so in 2022 is to employ audience targeting to take advantage of Amazon’s carefully guarded first-party data and to keep your product (and brand) in the thoughts of potential customers.
Experienced Amazon sellers know how effective it is to use sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands to ensure that your Amazon product shows up prominently in search results. Another benefit is that they help spread awareness of your brand. However, they are subject to potential constraints. Especially when customers go away from the Amazon product page.
What Amazon Sponsored Display Advertising Does Differently
Being “tracked” between platforms can feel amusing at times. Still, from my experience, I can attest that it is just this kind of persistence (on the part of advertisers) that convinces me to buy a product when I might have otherwise passed.
Sponsored Display ads stand out from Amazon’s other advertising methods because they go beyond simple keyword targeting. Shoppers’ interests and actions are the primary targets of Sponsored Display advertisements.
While a client shops on Amazon, data robots are busy observing and recording their every move. Later, the same client would see the same or similar results (ads) across many Amazon pages, rival listings, and third-party websites and apps thanks to Amazon Sponsored Display.
Advertisements on Amazon: A Beginner’s Guide
With Sponsored Display Ads, you can choose between two basic types of targeting: product targeting and audience campaigns. Remarketing for purchases is a tool that Amazon merchants can use to reach customers who have shown interest in their advertised products, other popular products, or products from certain retail categories.
With ASIN-level controls, advertisers can cross-sell to shoppers who are looking at similar or complementary products or categories.
Audience campaigns can help advertisers get back in touch with people who have looked at the detail page of a product, the detail page of a similar product, or a category related to the advertised product.
In contrast to product targeting with Sponsored Product and Sponsored Brands advertisements (where your ads appear at the bottom of rivals’ listings), Sponsored Display ads appear in ultra-premium locations: above the fold, below the bold points, and underneath the Buy Box.
Because Sponsored Display is “retail aware,” Amazon sellers do not need to worry about pausing their ads if advertised products are no longer in stock or the Featured Offer. When this occurs, advertisements immediately pause.
How are Product Targeting and Sponsored Display Audiences different?
You don’t have to choose between one or the other. Both can help you reach the right people. Product targeting lets you drive sales by focusing on certain products and/or categories of detail pages on Amazon. With Sponsored Display Audiences, you can use Amazon’s first-party data, which can be very useful. And you can use both of them at the same time. You could use product targeting to get people to visit your detail pages and then use Sponsored Display audiences to re-engage people with your brand and help you make up for lost sales or build brand loyalty.
Targeting Products on Amazon’s Sponsored Display
With Amazon Sponsored Display, your campaign will be shaped by the products you choose to market. Your ad creative and any ads that link to your detail pages will feature your Amazon product listing. It is important to make sure that every part of your listing is optimized. That means high-quality pictures and videos, clear titles, and well-written descriptions of the products.
You can optimize for page visits or sales with Sponsored Display Product Targeting. So, you can drive traffic to your page to build momentum or change your strategy to focus on conversions.
During their shopping trips, many people find out about new products through ads and suggestions on product pages. Because of this, it’s important to choose the competing products (ASINS) you want to target with your Sponsored Display Product campaigns very carefully.
Don’t forget to promote your own goods! You can also cross-sell on your own detail pages when shoppers are already interested in your brand thanks to Sponsored Display product targeting.
Campaigns for Amazon’s Sponsored Display Audience
Sponsored Display audiences use Amazon shopping signals to help advertisers reach shoppers at all stages of the buying process, both on and off Amazon. Amazon audiences let you reach out to new customers and learn more about your brand on Amazon. You can use Views Remarketing, Searches, and previous Purchases to build custom audiences.
Amazon audiences includes:
In-market: These are shoppers who are still “in the aisle” even though they may have just left their cart. You can reach people in the same category as your advertised products to get them to think about buying them, or you can try out completely new segments to get people to know about your products.
Lifestyle: These audiences are made up of shoppers and viewers who do things like shop on Amazon, look through IMDb, stream on Prime Video or Twitch, and so on.
Interests: Interest-based audiences get potential customers’ attention based on what they often look at and buy.
Life events: People who are interested in “travel” or “marriage,” for example, can help you get the word out about relevant products.
Will Sponsored Display Ads Actually Help You Sell More on Amazon?
This could be the most exciting thing about Sponsored Display Ads: there’s a good chance they’ll help you sell more on Amazon. That’s because they let you stand on Amazon’s (very broad) shoulders to get a better idea of who your customers are. Changing the game is the fact that you can use Amazon’s first-party data to help you make decisions.
Campaign metrics like sales, click-through rate (CTR), and new-to-brand (NTB) give you X-ray vision for eCommerce and let you see what’s going on under the hood of Amazon. When you know your audience well and have a clear idea of how your advertising campaigns work, selling on Amazon gets easier.
Last Thoughts
In the early days of Amazon, pay-per-click ads were just one way to get a new product out there. Now, you almost can’t be successful without it. Some do, but they are the exception rather than the rule. Here are 10 quick ways to start advertising on Amazon in 2022. And as always, the experts at KTG Solutions are here to help if you have questions about advertising on Amazon.
Keep This Growing Company is a “full-service” marketing company for Amazon sellers. Our team is made up of former Amazon employees, sellers who have made millions of dollars, and experts who have won awards. When you think about how KTG Solutions can help your Amazon business grow, you’ll understand why.
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