Amazon is one of the most prominent platforms, with more than 300 million active users looking to buy products daily. Amazon can be your pavement to give your brand visibility. Did you know that Amazon is the third-largest search engine in the world?
Amazon marketing is a new way of doing business. It has turned every company into a marketer and marketers into sellers. One of the fastest-growing channels in India today, Amazon Marketing proves to be an opportunity for brands to reach out to millions of customers out there.
As per the reports for Statista, India’s eCommerce market is estimated to reach $200 billion by 2026, reflecting the increasing consumer affinity towards online shopping.
Amazon achieved 38 percent year-over-year net sales revenue growth in 2020.
Amazon is growing in terms of revenue, and it will soon be the largest online store in the world. Amazon consists plethora of brands with products for every budget, and half of the online buying decision and purchase starts with a ‘search’ on Amazon. The company is gaining momentum over the last decade. Brands that are not present on amazon are losing potential customers, sales, and revenues.
Let’s take a look at what Amazon marketing services are and how a brand can take full advantage;
Table of Contents
1. Amazon Advertising
AMS offers brands cost-effective solutions and access to millions of customers. So, what are Amazon marketing services? Also known as an advertising console is a self-advertising pay-per-click platform. It is a fantastic medium for sellers to present their products based on keywords and generate consumers’ interest.
Amazon marketing services offer a unique ad solution that gives sellers access to ad data to analyze campaign performance and then use it to optimize their own campaign with the help of analytical insights. AMS offers brands a way to maximize their visibility on the platform.
Amazon advertising enables brands to create paid ad campaigns for shoppers to click on the items and produce. Specific categories are eligible for ad types, and the product must be used in at least one Amazon ad platform.
- Sponsored Ads
Amazon sponsored ads is a program that lets you promote your products at different prices. These products are displayed on relevant product searches. These ads can be found on the top of search results, product pages, and category pages.
Sponsored ads are further sub-categorized into three categories: Headline Search Ads, Sponsored Product Ads, and Sponsored Display Ads.
Let’s deep dive into advertising platforms and how it can benefit your business;
i. Sponsored Brand / Headline Search Ads
Amazon Sponsored Brand Ads, earlier known as Headline Search Ads, are the text ads that appear when you type specific keywords into the search. They are a great way to drive traffic to your product detail page since they are contextually relevant and help with product discoverability during customer search.
How does it work? Advertisers can target their audience based on keywords they use in their search queries or based on the category they select. They are easily recognizable by their black title bar, white font, and product image (depends on the product).
Sponsored brand Ads are interactive when a user clicks on them. They expand to show more information about the product on an Ad Detail page.
Unique Advantage: The new Headline search Ad format allows you to use your brand name in the headline of your ads instead of an actual product search query- so that it stands out more and will be able to catch customer’s attention which ultimately increases conversions.
How does it work? In the form of banner ads, listing ads, and search results on Amazon. Sponsored brand ads use product images and descriptions from the brand’s product detail page to help them tell their story.
ii. Sponsored Product Ads
Amazon sponsored product ads are a cost-per-click (CPC) advertising model that allows sellers to advertise their products based on keywords. It’s a highly targeted advertising strategy, and therefore has the potential to be much more profitable than keyword-based search adverts.
These paid listings appear on the right-hand side of the search results. They are a great way to have your products seen by millions of people. The advantage of this is that you don’t have to pay upfront and only pay when customers click through to buy your products.
How does it work? The seller can choose from pre-defined templates or get creative with their own customized ad design. You can target your ads to reach customers based on specific criteria like keywords, categories of products, and more.
Note: Sponsored Product Ads can be either text-based or image-based and can be placed next to the search results or on top of them.
iii. Sponsored Display Ads
Sponsored Display ads charge sellers on a per-click basis and target similar products when searched rather than the specific Keyword. It is a cost-effective way of advertising on Amazon. It helps you to promote products and drive sales.
How? By creating campaigns that target popular product searches or specific keywords, ad copy, and landing pages.
This ad allows brands to create a custom display ad for their product and place it on the following Amazon pages:
- Search result page
- Product detail page
- Shopping cart page
- Amazon DSP demand-side platform
The Amazon demand-side platform is a self-service programmatic advertising platform that helps you easily reach highly relevant customers while managing your budget and inventory. The display side platform serves unique ad units, such as native videos, image ads, sponsored product links, and mobile app promotion units.
This programmatic advertising platform also enables you to choose the best combination of placements based on ad performance and reach. You can manage ad campaigns using simple workflows from the Amazon Advertising Platform UI or its APIs and services.
Note: Amazon DSP services are available within and outside Amazon
- Amazon Display Ads
Display ads are a form of online advertising where product images and titles are featured on relevant content, usually the search results. These ads are paid on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis, and one can choose to pay for impressions or clicks.
How does it work? You choose the ad size that best fits your app, uploads some images to help people understand what it does, write a few short lines of text describing the product offerings, and let brands advertise their products to a broad audience of users and buyers.
2. Targeting options available in AMS advertising
Amazon advertising has gone through extreme changes in the past few years. In 2015, Amazon introduced Sponsored products, a PPC model that is based on competition bidding. Since then, Sponsors have been presented with two options to choose from Manual and Automatic targeting campaigns.
Let’s look at which targeting strategies can help brands perform better on the platform;
I. Manual Targeting
It is an advertising service for sellers who want to select keywords, categories, ASINs, and bids without using a sponsored product campaign.
Brands can manually select desired keywords and search categories, the product you want to showcase on Amazon.
How does it work? It finds potential customers with similar interests and then sends them the ads based on these characteristics. It’s easier to target the right market by manually selecting individuals than doing so algorithmically.
Example for clear understanding;
Before promoting your product on Amazon, you think about your target audience and try to find the best Keyword that matches your target audience. Once you’ve found the right Keyword, all you need to do is use it while creating a campaign.
For instance, if you are selling a Widget (a product that can be used for all ages) and want to target people between 20-30 years of age, one may use the keyword “Age:20-30” in the ad.
Advantages:
- Brands can select any category and subcategory to focus on their product.
- You can use specific keywords as filters to attract buyers
- Increases sales in particular geographical location
a) Keyword Targeting
Amazon keyword targeting is a way to ensure that shoppers find your product listing pages in search results. Using the right keywords for your products, you can ensure that your products appear for relevant searches.
It helps brands understand how users search for products on Amazon.
How does it help? By reaching out to customers who have shown interest in buying products related to yours. It offers an added advantage over your competitors as it shows up on the search results when people are looking for similar products.
How does Keyword targeting works? By automatically figuring out which keywords and phrases shoppers might use when searching for specific items on Amazon. You choose a product you want to sell and then select keywords related to that product. – The software will then find all the websites where those keywords are used and then send your product to those websites.
b) ASIN Targeting
Amazon ASIN Targeting is a service offered by Amazon to help sellers of all sizes to focus their marketing efforts on products with higher sales potential. It is also an excellent tool for assessing your competitors’ product strategy and increasing the sales volume of your own items by considering their popularity and demand.
Amazon ASIN Targeting helps e-commerce brands to target their products’ potential customers effectively. No matter where your customers are, no matter what they are searching for on Google, YouTube, Bing, or Amazon, your product is promoted in front of them. It will boost the sales of your product with little effort and less cost.
With ASIN Targeting, you can reach shoppers who are browsing specific product listings or viewing similar items in other categories. For instance, if someone scans the Electronics category and looks at a TV remote control, they might also be interested in TVs or home theater systems. Brands can show those customers relevant ads based on their browsing behavior.
c) Category Targeting
Amazon category targeting is a mechanism to leverage the dynamic nature of Amazon’s catalog, which enables merchants to target their product ads for specific categories based on the content in that category. It helps brands reach relevant consumers and increase sales.
This simplifies how brands create campaigns, saves time by making it easier to manage accounts, and helps improve relevance by helping you get closer to the customer’s intent.
Advantages:
- It provides more relevant results by showing your ads to customers looking for products within specific categories.
- It facilitates better campaign management by allowing you to select up to 20 categories to target per campaign.
Note: This is especially beneficial for businesses who sell multiple lines of related products, as it will help them increase sales and boost visibility across key product categories.
II. Automatic targeting
It is a new feature that enables brands to automate ad campaigns by setting up rules and criteria for running campaigns. It is all based on Amazon data, so you can target customers who are more likely to buy products based on their purchase history, browsing activity, and wish list.
How does it help? It assists you in discovering the main keywords to use for your Amazon listing, including their search volume and difficulty. It also enables you to create a listing using these keywords so that customers will find it easier when searching on Amazon.
It allows sellers/brands to automatically generate keywords and their best possible long-tail variants for their listing.
Example for clear understanding:
Amazon automatic targeting uses your browsing history, shopping patterns, and other data points to suggest products to purchase. When you’re on a product page, it offers relevant products based not only on the product itself but also on what you typically buy. For instance, if you’re viewing a pair of shoes, it may recommend another pair of shoes or even some accessories, or if you are selling a camera lens, and you know the potential customers will visit websites about photography, you can set up automated targeting to show your ads on those sites.
Advantages:
- It saves time for the sellers as they do not have to manually go onto each of the product pages and check whether their product is relevant or not.
- Tailors your campaign with relevancy to your products
3. Amazon SEO
Optimize your product listing by using relevant keywords. Well-written content will always draw attention to your product. In addition to product descriptions and titles, Images also play a massive role in improving visibility.
Poor SEO can permanently disrupt your game even if the product is of high quality. Optimized content is a must and the first step to putting your foot forward in the marketing pool of e-commerce.
The format of Optimized Product detail page;
- Keywords: Amazon allows usage of 250 characters to improve the discoverability of the product
- Titles: Creating short titles with relevant keywords to boost click-through rate
- Descriptions and bullet points: It lets you stand out from the competition.
- Images: Amazon has strict guidelines regarding images. They should be in HD and rich in content.
- A+content: It is a new type of enhanced content that provides more than just information. But lets brands tell their story with a combination of visual and text.
To learn more about optimizing content to attract potential customers, check out our content optimization blog.
Here is an example of how an optimized product page looks on Amazon;
4. Affiliate Marketing
Amazon’s affiliate program is different and valuable, and with the help of external blogs and forums, it offers brands a new set of customers and improves their credibility. This program was created to help small businesses and individuals to make money through their stores.
Amazon affiliate marketing is a simple model to earn passive income for beginners. You can earn commissions by placing a referral link, and when a customer buys the product, you will get a percentage from the sales as a commission, and the money can be used by reinvesting in your brand.
Note: Blogs are forums are the best way. You can place a banner of amazon on your website, and an effective way to attracts readers to buy your product.
How does Amazon use Marketing Strategies?
● Amazon uses the high-runner strategy, and it helps to figure out the brands that are the most sought-after product by the customers, high-clicked and viewed products. The combination of traffic and sales data offered with this tool lets brands analyze their pricing structure for driving customer loyalty.
● The Amazon marketplace lets third-party sellers and brands sell as many products as they want.
● They have a pricing algorithm that matches the best price in the market.
● Exclusive deals and promotions: They target special days like Prime Day deals, Great Indian festivals and run massive campaigns to drive traffic and have a new set of users.
Some key steps to follow for Amazon Marketing Services;
● Extensive Research: A thorough research is necessary for brands to understand the customer’s mindset and meet their demands. So, a full-fledged study on the most popular products and competitive keyword analysis can serve the goal of a brand.
● Customize the products as per the requirements: Choose the most sought-after products and prioritize them according to the location-wise demand.
● Examine analytical reports: These reports are integral when interpreting the data and help brands form decisions on what keywords to bid.
● Use Amazon’s additional services on A+ content: This service provides brands to build great graphical content. Learn more about an understanding of A+ content here.
● Competitive analysis: Keep a watch on your competitor’s performance. Learn from them. Integrate those points in ad campaigns and content to strengthen your brand.
Paxcom’s best practices for increasing sales through Amazon Marketing Services
At Paxcom, we have a dedicated marketing team who are AMS certified and can handle all the aspects of marketing products on Amazon. Creating optimized content, product listing, to Ad campaigns, we have a team of experts who support brands with Amazon Advertising, Vendor Central, Seller Central, and Catalogue Management.
Our team of business and data analysts updates the client at regular intervals with a customized report covering the expenditure on ads, return on Ads (ROAS), Conversions, Click Through Rate (CTR), and Pay-per-click data.
Learn more on how we help brands grow, create a presence, and boost sales on the Amazon platform. Please reach out to info@paxcom.net.
Also, Read – A Guide to Amazon U.S.A. Marketing in 2022
