The key to maximizing your product's visibility on Amazon is through a smart marketing strategy. Knowing how to promote Amazon products to your target audience is essential for boosting your eCommerce sales.
Amazon is saturated with products, many of which are competing with yours - make it easy for buyers to find your products by creating scrolling stopping content. To help you drive higher sales, we'll highlight 5 ways that you can maximize your ROI from Amazon ads.
So let's get started.
How to promote Amazon products with Amazon ads
When online, users type keywords in the Amazon search box, some of the first results that appear will be sponsored posts, also known as Amazon ads. To promote Amazon products you need to know how to effectively capture your audience and that’s where high-quality ad creatives come into play.
Of course, there are other types of ways to promote Amazon products.
Amazon ads are growing as advertisers withdraw their advertising budget from platforms like Facebook. Amazon’s ‘Other’ unit, primarily composed of advertising, grew to more than $7.9 billion in the second quarter alone. Plus, ad buyers have ranked Amazon third because of its impressive ROI and conversion rates.
They are definitely one of the most effective ways for how to promote Amazon products—if you haven’t explored this yet, this is your sign.
In general, there are two types of ads on Amazon: self-serve ads and premium ads.
- Self-serve ads are like Google search ads. This is the most recommended type of ad for Amazon sellers who are planning to start out with ads. Essentially, when online users type in a specific keyword, some of the top results will be ads. These ads also appear on individual product pages. Check out this sample screenshot of sponsored ads that appear when you search for “lipstick” in general.
- Premium ads, on the other hand, are like display ads. These ads will be displayed on Amazon as visual banners or sidebars. They can also appear on other websites, just like how Google’s display network works.
Here are the other more specific types of Amazon ads that you can utilize for your brand depending on your objective. You will be pleasantly surprised at the versatility and opportunities for your brand.
For Amazon Sellers Only:
- Sponsored Products are cost-per-click ads that can promote your individual product listings on Amazon to help you increase your sales.
- Sponsored Brands are perfect if you are a professional seller enrolled in the Amazon Brand Registry. These are also cost-per-click ads that appear in search results. However, the ads feature your logo, a custom headline, and multiple products. It’s a useful type of ad for brands that want to remain top of mind to consumers.
- Sponsored Display helps brands display your products on and even off Amazon, marking your presence along the entire customer journey. Brands can leverage sponsored display ads by product targeting or audience targeting. You will be able to promote and cross-sell to users who are browsing your product or similar products. You can also use custom-built audiences or Amazon audiences to reach shoppers with high intent or reach audiences depending on interests and lifestyle.
- Stores allow brands to craft a custom Amazon destination for their brand and products. Think of it as a landing page, but on Amazon. Brands will be able to customize their page to attract potential customers and continuously engage existing ones.
Open for both Amazon sellers and non-sellers:
- Audio ads can help extend your reach on Amazon Music across Alexa-enabled devices. You will be able to place audio ads during breaks in playback, so your potential customers will be able to (literally) hear about your business while listening to music they love.
- Amazon demand-side platform (DSP) is recommended for brands who want to programmatically go for display, audio, and video ads at scale. Reach audiences that have already visited your product page. Remarket to them on Amazon to drive home that purchase, or expand your audience by creating interest off the Amazon platform.
- TV and online video ads will further enhance your customers’ journey as you continue showing up at different stages. Engage audiences across Amazon-affiliated sites like IMDB or Twitch, and devices like FireTV. Utilizing this type of ad will continue to keep your brand or business top of mind for online users. In fact, Amazon ad campaigns that used a combination of display and video saw an average 320% increase in detail page views and a 150% increase in purchase rate compared to pure display ads.
Why should your business invest in Amazon ads to promote your Amazon products?
There are so many benefits of advertising on Amazon, but these are the three major ones.
There is higher purchase intent on Amazon because people are there to buy.
Shareen Pathak, author at Digiday, said “Google has search data, and Facebook knows interest levels, but Amazon has real power because it knows what people are buying and how they’re doing it.” She couldn’t have explained it any better.
When online users are typing in keywords on Google, intent can range from simply wanting to know more about a product to actually wanting to buy it.
Facebook ads can be served according to interests. So if an online user is interested in makeup and beauty, it is likely that she will see more ads for beauty products.
However, since online users can actually complete a purchase on Amazon, this gives Amazon powerful data directly connected to the actions taken.
When you invest in these ads, you get to utilize the behavioral data of more than 300 million users. Not just any data, but data based on shopping experiences and behavior from research, browsing, consideration, and finally purchase.
In short, Amazon provides brands with a complete and detailed picture of customer data better than any platform.
Amazon ads have greater ROI compared to Facebook or Google and drive at least 7x return on advertising spend (ROAS)
The average cost per click on Amazon rarely goes above $0.35. At this number, they are more cost-effective than AdWords or Bing Ads in terms of CPC. This is also comparable to Facebook’s and Google display’s low CPCs.
But remember, people go to Amazon to buy (see #1), making the average CPC even more valuable because you know you are getting clicks from those with higher intent.
The majority of brands selling on Amazon (59%) shared that Amazon is responsible for their highest return on media spend. And nearly half (47%) see a minimum of 7x return on their ad spend.
No wonder brands are starting to spend more on Amazon ads, enabling their ad business to grow by 87% revenue year over year in the 2nd quarter of 2021 alone.
Of course, Facebook and Google combined still make up the majority of total digital ad share. But Amazon’s share grew from 7.8% in 2019 to 10.3% in 2020. This is a sign that brands are turning to the platform to increase their reach and revenue. It may as well be the perfect time to get in while it’s hot and not yet saturated.
The variety of Amazon ad types makes advertising on Amazon a full-funnel journey across all customer journey stages
Your brand can implement a marketing strategy that can target shoppers at ALL stages of their customer journey. Whether it’s awareness, consideration, purchase, or even re-purchase—these ads enable you to reach your target consumers.
In fact, Feedvisor shares the following data on how brands use Amazon across the customer journey:
- 62% use the platform to drive sales
- 60% use it to acquire new customers
- 58% use it to build brand awareness
As Amazon continues to improve its ad platform, brands and businesses should start taking advantage of what the platform has to offer now. It is already a robust platform that enables brands to reach highly engaged customers at every stage of their journey.
Here are 5 ways you can maximize your ROI from Amazon ads
1. Use regional sponsored product campaigns
This is a fairly new addition to Amazon Advertising’s portfolio of tools. With the ability to create regional sponsored product campaigns, brands can easily tap into growing audiences worldwide.
This feature makes it easy for advertisers to set up sponsored ads across all countries in one region with no additional bureaucracy or approvals needed. So basically, if you are advertising in France, you can easily set up advertising accounts in other markets in the EU like Italy or Spain. You’ll be able to launch campaigns in different marketplaces in a few minutes—without needing any language skills, translation skills, or additional knowledge.
This is perfect for up-and-coming brands who are eager to introduce themselves to specific regions.
2. Ultra-target with specific and long-tail keywords
Put together three or more keywords to allow your ads to show up in more relevant searches—which results in higher chances of conversions.
For example, if you’re selling makeup try “makeup kits for teenagers.” If you’re selling sports bags, you can try “sports bags for equipment.”
Ultimately, you want to get in front of online users who are most likely to buy. Focusing on more specific long-tail keywords will help you get there if your product seems to be the best fit for what they are looking for.
3. Use more video ads—video is the future!
According to Hubspot, 68% of consumers prefer learning about new products through videos, and Amazon knows this. Plus, marketers who integrate video in their overall creative strategy have experienced 34% higher conversion rates.
Here’s why you should use more video ads:
- Sponsored product ads and brand ads help your target consumers find your brand, video ads pull them in deeper through stories.
- Amazon sellers can leverage video ads on the Sponsored Brand ad format, but even non-sellers can use video ads to target potential customers.
- Amazon video ads don’t just appear on the shopping platform, they also get featured in Amazon Echo, IMDb, FireTV, and other affiliated sites. This means that you can use video ads to retarget your audiences in other places where they consume content.
Videos can range between 6 to 45 seconds, so that’s a wide range to experiment on effective video content. Amazon does recommend adding on-screen text for a better user experience.
4. Leverage sponsored display ads to move your audience further down the funnel
Similar to Amazon video ads, Amazon Sponsored Display ads can help brands engage with potential shoppers on and off the shopping platform. They can appear on the Amazon homepage, product detail pages, search results pages, and even on third-party websites—effectively increasing a brand’s online presence.
Sponsored Display ads can be used to continuously build up mid-funnel awareness based on various interest segments and actual shopping behavior of high-intent online users who viewed specific products.
Sponsored display ad creatives can be automatically generated and will include the product image, price, deals, badges, star rating, and a “Shop Now” button. But since display ads are highly graphic, brands can also choose the option to add a custom creative. You can then maximize this space by crafting attention-grabbing and scroll-stopping creatives to continuously keep prospects interested.
5. Utilize User-Generated Content (UGC) on your video and programmatic ads
Ads with UGC can generate 5x more in terms of click-through rates which also increases the chances of converting. There’s a reason why UGC is proven to outperform other ad types, and it’s because of the trust indicators. 70% of online users trust reviews from actual users compared to professional and branded ads.
In general, brands must understand that UGC can be leveraged in paid advertising. When implementing Sponsored Products or Sponsored Brands campaigns on Amazon, review counts and ratings can be displayed—improving click-throughs and conversions.
Meanwhile, brands that are interested in video ads and display ads can experiment with different types of UGC videos such as:
- Actual customer testimonials (individual or compiled)
- Product demonstrations
- Unboxing videos which get people excited
- Real-life applications and product tutorials
Focusing on UGC can make a huge impact on brands. Although algorithms may change and update, UGC will always have a positive influence on brands’ reputations. Given that Amazon provides a platform for UGC ad placements, the challenge lies in working with influencers and content creators to make sure your UGC ads are of the best quality.
Get started with the best ways to promote Amazon products today
Again, if you haven’t tried out Amazon ads yet, this is your sign! Advertising on Amazon is no longer confined to sellers on the platform. This is a big deal for businesses and brands that want to take their marketing strategies to a different level.
The Amazon advertising platform continues to grow and expand. Think about it. You’ll be able to craft ideal user journeys and reach a targeted list based on actual customer shopping data. Combine this with high-quality creatives and UGC, and you’ll be on your way to steep growth.
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