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Listing on Amazon gives you the opportunity to reach more customers, But it gets hard to capture shoppers’ attention in the crowded marketplace.

Many merchants feel using Amazon Marketing Service (AMS) remains important. And promoting products with Amazon marketing ads helps drive high-quality traffic. It also increases conversion.

Here are some advantages of using pay-per-click Amazon ads:

• These ads are highly visible on product search results pages.
• They can use granular targeting and segmentation to reach the right audience.
• You only pay for clicks, not impressions.
• The access to real-time campaign data allows you to adjust the budget any time and optimize your campaigns in response to market demand and consumer behaviors.
• You can run a campaign starting at $1.

Amazon ads work just like any PPC ads. You need to dial in your strategy. And you must set up your campaigns properly in order to maximize results.

Here are 8 tips to help increase the ROI of your Amazon marketing ads:

1. Select the Right AMS Ad Format

Experiment with the various Amazon ad formats and use one that meets your marketing objectives:

Amazon Sponsored Product Ads

These PPC ads are displayed at the top, bottom or middle of a search results page, as well as individual product pages, and send shoppers directly to a specific product page.

You can set up these keyword-targeted ads for exact, phrase or broad match types and adjust daily budget or campaign duration to optimize ROI.

They’re best used for promoting a specific item in search results pages and drive traffic to the product page to increase sales and get fast results.

Sponsored Brands

Previously known as Headline Search Ads, these PPC ads appear as headline banner ads at the top of a search results page and direct shoppers to any page of your choice on Amazon (e.g., a landing page with a selection of products).

These ads are keyword-targeted and can be used to promote up to three products. Campaigns can be scheduled to run up to four months in advance and have a minimum campaign budget of $100.

Since these ads are most effective in driving traffic from search results pages to an Amazon brand page, they’re great for increasing visibility and customer loyalty.

Amazon Product Display Ads

These PPC display ads are either interest- or product-targeted instead of keyword-targeted. They’re shown at the right or bottom of search results pages, on reviews pages, at the top of offer listings pages and in Amazon marketing emails.

When setting up a display ad, you can choose from a list of products or interests to target your ad.

These ads are most effective for increasing your product’s visibility at the final stage of a purchasing journey when customers are deciding between similar items from different merchants.

Amazon Video Ads

You can place these video ads on a variety of Amazon-owned sites and devices, including amazon.com, IMDb or Fire TV and set the landing page as an Amazon product page, your own website or any other web page.

This ad format is great for reaching a large audience, increasing visibility and building brand awareness. You can work with an Amazon video ad consultant in their managed-service option but there’s a minimum spend of $35,000.

2. Set Up Well-Structured Campaigns by Product Category

Similar to Google Ads, you can structure Amazon ads into campaigns and ad groups to optimize targeting and bidding.

Setting up the right campaign structure can ensure that your ads are shown to the most relevant audience so you can minimize wasted spend and increase ROI.

To deliver your ads to the most relevant audience, create a separate campaign for each main product category. Then, set up ad groups consisting of specific products for which you can implement granular keyword targeting.

3. Fine-Tune Your Ad Creative

Use high-quality images and include the product’s top benefits in the ad’s headline because mobile users only see the main image and headline. If you’re running a special promotion, add urgency to the ad copy to drive conversion.

Your ad copy should also provide specific information about the product — e.g., key dimensions or information on important features — that is most compelling to the target audience.

If you’re running sponsored brand campaigns, you have the option to direct shoppers to a dedicated landing page. Make sure the ad copy is coherent with the content on the landing page and consider how its design and copy affect conversion rate.

4. Develop a Keyword Strategy

Targeting the right keywords helps ensure that your ads are shown to shoppers with high purchase intent. There are many ways to refine keyword targeting to the effectiveness of your campaigns:

• Use different match types — i.e., broad, phrase, exact and negative match types — or a combination of these options to refine targeting.
• Include target keywords in your product listings to signal relevance to Amazon’s algorithm while delivering optimal user experience.
• Target long-tail keywords and keyword phrases so your ad will show up in relevant searches. You’re more likely to attract shoppers who are ready to buy and increase sales.
• Use negative keywords to prevent ads from showing up in searches that generate clicks but not sales. This helps ensure that your ads are delivered to the most qualified shoppers, saving you money on clicks that don’t convert.

5. Test with Automatic Targeting

While manual targeting is often the best way to gain more control over the campaigns and ad spend, you can leverage Amazon’s automatic targeting features to test variables, such as keywords and segmentation.

Create a “test” campaign identical to a manual campaign but set the targeting to automatic. Then, you can check the results to see what keywords or phrases trigger your ad and apply them to the manual campaign to optimize results.

6. Refine Your Bidding Strategy

The bid for each of your ads should be proportional to the profit margin of the product. For example, if a product has a high profit margin, then you can afford to set a higher bid without losing money on advertising.

Amazon’s algorithm gives priority to ads that have a longer history and are proven to convert. When a campaign is new, you’ll have to set higher bids to accumulate search history and get sales. Once an ad has gained traction, you can bring the bids back down to normal.

7. Leverage Competitors’ Brand and Keywords

This strategy is particularly effective if you’re a relatively new brand, and there are well-established competitors selling similar items.

Do a generic search on the products or categories in your vertical and see which brands are listed in the top results to determine the most-searched competitors. You can then bid on keywords associated with these popular brands to improve ranking.

You can also “spy” on your competitors to find out the keywords they’re using to drive traffic. First leverage online tools, such as Keyword Inspector, that use reverse ASIN lookups to identify the most popular keywords.

8. Test and Optimize Your Ads

Harness the large amount of Amazon user data to help analyze results and refine your ads.

Download your search term report to see which keywords are the most effective in driving traffic that converts. Also, identify terms that aren’t performing well and incorporate them in your negative keyword list.

A/B test your Amazon ads to see what works best. To increase the accuracy of the results, change only one variable at a time, run each test for at least two weeks and map the results to the business objectives of the campaign.

Use the insights to refine your bids, adjust matching types, add long-tail keywords and include negative keywords in your campaigns.

Conclusion

Amazon marketing ads help you get in front of your ideal customers to drive more sales and increase profits.

However, Amazon Marketplace is increasingly competitive. You need a well-designed Amazon Marketing Services strategy to reach shoppers with high purchase intent cost-effectively and then drive them to your product pages with compelling ad creative.

Our data-driven approach to Amazon PPC Management is designed to help you increase visibility and generate more sales on Amazon. Learn more about our comprehensive service including campaign auditing, campaign build, keyword research, strategic bid management and campaign tracking here.

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This article, “Apply These 8 Tips to Improve Your Amazon Marketing Ads” was first published on Small Business Trends