By 2021, the Amazon Pay-per Click advertising (PPC) and the way it operates is an essential skill for any aspiring entrepreneur in the field of e-Commerce.
Based on Statista, Amazon already holds an approximate 50% share of Amazon’s share of the US internet-based retail industry. Even if you’re not an Amazon Seller, having a basic knowledge about Amazon PPC campaign structure goes far in understanding how your competitors compete and the way it operates.
Amazon Ad Types
Amazon PPC advertising has exploded throughout the time. From a single advertising type and one targeted choice in 2012 it comes with 3 primary ads types and two kinds of targeting. A brief introduction to these three ad types can aid you in structuring your campaigns more effectively!
Promoted Product
Beginning with the most widely used advertising kind, Sponsored Products are the advertisements you see in the Amazon search result page, which is also known as SERP. For instance, if you look up “gym bottle” on Amazon you will receive some of the results below:
As you can see, the four gym bottles are marked with an “Sponsored” tag meaning they’re an ad for a Sponsored Product. The ads are delivered by the retailer that is by using Amazon PPC ad campaigns.
Advertising Placements
The format has four ads that can be placed for sponsored product ads:
- Top of the search
- Middle of the search
- Searching for the bottom
- Product detail pages
The placements are basically easy to understand. Ad placements on the product detail pages are displayed in a carousel at the bottom of the page after you click on a specific product. (We’ll discuss these more in the future!)
The top in Search is the page to focus on since the most revenues come directly from Sponsored Products at the top of the page. It’s an established fact that shows that more than 60% of users do not go beyond on the initial page. It’s the same for Amazon.
Typs of Targeting
Sponsored Product ads permit two types of targeting: keyword as well as product-specific targeting. This means that you can choose to target an “keyword” like “gym bottles for males” and put your ads sponsored by the search engine result page, or you could also target an ASIN of a product that is the product of a competitor.
ASIN-targeted sponsored ads will appear in the Product Detail Page in the carousel of ads at the bottom. In the image below, the portion at the bottom, titled “Products associated with this product” are in fact ASIN-targeted sponsored advertisements.
Campaign Types
When it comes to Sponsored Products, you’ll have two different targeting options that are manual and automatic. To differentiate them from the “Targeting kinds” we mentioned in the previous section, we’ll call the two “Campaign varieties”. In essence, there are two kinds of sponsored Products campaigns: automatic campaigns, and manual.
Automated campaigns are basically exactly what they sound like. Amazon’s algorithm will identify relevant keywords or products to focus your efforts on. You’re basically handing over the reins to Amazon. Automated campaigns can consume your budget when left unsupervised, however they’re great for obtaining essential keyword information.
In contrast, manual targeting occurs the process of deciding on each part of your Sponsored Product ad campaign. You’re the one that puts into the set of target words or product goals and selecting the price for each. Make sure you’re targeting an identical quantity of products and within the same ad group. Keywords that have a different match types (phrase match broad match, phrase match, or precise match keywords) Create distinct groups of ads. Manual targeting is the preferred method of many sellers due to the fact that it gives the greatest control over the amount of money you spend on your Amazon PPC budget.
Advertisement Brands Sponsored by
sponsored Brands ads, sometimes referred to as Headline Search ads, are ads that are displayed in a banner on the high of the results. For a return to the “gym bottles” search query, the gray bottle on the right is a sponsored brand ad to advertise Embrava Gym bottles.
They are typically an advertisement for a store they can also pop in vertical fashion along the sides of a page. However, an “headline” advertising banner appears more frequent.
Stores can include up to 3 images of their products in the Sponsored Brand ad which means that brands typically showcase three versions of a popular product, rather than three different items they offer. If you click on the Sponsored advertisement for a brand you will be redirection to the product’s details pages, websites, and even a storefront for the brand.
Advertising Placements
There are three parts of the results page that Sponsored brands could be displayed. The first one we discussed is the header that appears at the top of a SERP. Another type of ad is vertical located on the sidebar, where users can apply filters to their searches. If you take a closer look you’ll spot the tiny “Sponsored” tag running along the sidebar’s bottom.
Advertisements for Sponsored Brands will appear in the lower part of the SERP, in the section called “Brands that are related to the search.” In this section, we look at the sponsored brand ads of three different shops. There’s a third Sponsored brand advertisement right below for a different storefront, too.
Advertisements from Sponsored Brands will also appear on product detail pages, often in a rectangle that is placed right below the bullet points of the product. Be careful not to think of this rectangle as the box to the right! The box to the right is a different kind of advertisement we’ll discuss later in this part…
Ad Formats
Sponsored Brands is an original concept. You are able to select from three different formats for your ads.
We’ve already discussed our previous post about the Product Collection – showcasing three items at once. This is a simple illustration of the Sponsored Brands Product Collection ad for the search term “baby monitor.” There are three different types of baby monitors Owlet showcases in their advertisement.
For Store Spotlight These are like Product Collection ads but they don’t actually feature items, rather they highlight an actual store. They are always displayed alongside the For Store Spotlight, these are actually identical to Product Collection ads but they do not actually feature items, rather they highlight stores themselves. You’ll always see them at the lower part of the SERP, as shown in the image below however sometimes they are displayed at the topof the SERP, too.
Sponsored Brand Videos (SBV) is the truly unique aspect of this advertising kind. You can pick the video format and then run your own SBV campaign. Through SBV campaigns, you are able to advertise with a video. We cannot recommend this advertising format enough. It’s extremely effective in increasing sales.
The videos appear on the top on the webpage, meaning it’s impossible to miss them! For a Sponsored Brand video it is only possible to promote only one item and the link will lead to its product’s page of information, however within the video, you can showcase a variety of possible variations.
On Amazon the product videos are very effective and could double click-through rates. Customers find products that have videos to be more reliable, even for videos that are simple.
Types of Targeting
Sponsored Brands include two target types , namely Sponsored Products Keyword and targeted products. They work exactly the same way as the ones mentioned in the earlier section. It is possible to target a set of relevant keywords (or keyword phrases) or target products of competitors.
The products you target will have the Sponsored Brands advertisements appear on the product’s page details instead of the page results for search.
Campaign Types
For Sponsored Brands You don’t have two types of campaigns. There is suggestions for bids and targets from Amazon however, you must add each one by hand. There isn’t any “automatic targeted” campaign, however there is an option to use “Automated bids.”
Automated bidding is a way to bid. Amazon will almost automatically optimize your bids however, only for positions which are not Top of Search. This feature isn’t as effective as an SP automated campaign, however it is useful if aren’t sure of how to optimize your bids. We strongly recommend looking for assistance from sources and Amazon PPC software to help in this.
Advertised Display
Last but not least, the most recent advertising type available that is available on Amazon is the Sponsored Display. It’s likely to be the oldest advertising type, but it has also received a number of excellent new updates lately. Sponsored Display isn’t as customizable however this doesn’t mean that it’s not highly durable.
Sponsored Display ads appear both on and off Amazon, and the options for targeting are different from Sponsored Products as well as Sponsored Brands.
Advertisements
Sponsored Display advertisements appear within the Product Detail pages. Do you remember that small square box to the right? It’s an Sponsored Display advertisement.
The cool feature of Sponsored Display advertisements is that they appear on websites that are not Amazon. This is right! You can take advantage of that amazing off-Amazon traffic to increase your sales. For instance, in the image below, you can observe an Amazon sponsored display advert appearing on the page of an article.
Sponsored Display ads display only one item you’re advertising for and include the image of the product and ASIN. By clicking on the banner, it takes you into the Product Detail page for said ASIN.
Typs of Targeting
As we mentioned earlier, Sponsored Display has two choices for targeting, but they differ in comparison to Sponsored Brands and Brands. You can still target products and the second option will be “Audiences.” Targeting on products remains a manual selection of bids and items but Audiences is where it begins to become very different.
It’s time to discuss the more simple option of Product targeting. With product targeting you’re merely targeting specific groups or items. These lists are manually added as shown below.
If you choose Audiences, you’ll get an option to choose between “Views Remarketing” or “Amazon Audiences.”
Views remarketing can be described as an opportunity to re-target customers who have visited your product details webpages or other similar ones within the last 30 days. It’s a simple look-back, which is much more automated. We suggest that you run this campaign at the end of your campaign because you want to collect a large amount of information about traffic to Amazon to re-target people who have visited your site but didn’t buy.
In addition, Amazon audiences had a recent update that allows you to simplify the audiences you’d like to target through your advertisements.
There’s four types in Amazon Audiences –
- Lifestyle
- Interests
- Life events
- In-market
If you click on an one of those “audiences” you will see an even bigger drop-down. Audiences for Sponsored Display in their own could require a whole article to describe. For more details about how you can narrow your target audience, refer to this guide on Amazon sponsored displayads audiences.
Campaign Types
In addition to audiences, you cannot truly customize the types of campaigns for Sponsored Display in any way. All you have to do is select specific types that optimize bidding strategies. This is why Sponsored Display isn’t as flexible as Sponsored Products, or even Sponsored Brands.
It is also impossible to determine the off-traffic site the ads will appear placed on. It is impossible to choose which ASINs or keywords appear on unless you select “Product targeting” instead of “Audiences”. You can’t even change the bids, and not just in the case of “Product targetting”. You must choose from three bidding strategies offered. All child ASINs must be part of the ad group, in a group or separately to make it easier to target your bids.
Sponsored Display is much more broad in its target market, which means bidding customization isn’t an issue right now. We’re getting new, exciting changes to Sponsored Display coming from Amazon and other vendors, which means more flexibility and manual bidding could be coming soon!
Campaign Structure to Sponsored Products
The following structure strategy is a template made specifically for Sponsored Products campaigns. Because it is the most well-known advertising type, we’ve created a very precise structure plan. Other types of ads will be discussed in the following sections.
Step zero. Naming Campaigns
The most important thing to do prior to completing Step 1 is having a appropriate naming convention. Unorganized names for campaigns could be a disaster later on! Begin at the step 0 and adhere to our reliable name convention:
Step 1. Find out the type of Ad Group
First step to figure out the type of ad you will require for your particular product. If you’re looking to market only one item at one moment, Sponsored Products is your best option. It’s possible to make SP ads in all categories , except for recycled, used, or adult-oriented products. Sponsored Products give you to have the greatest control of your keywords and your targets from all the ad types.
If you prefer to direct customers to your entire store or a specific product or a specific product line, sponsored Brands is the best way to take. With well-designed headline banners, you can bring in lots of customers to your shops and can also promote several products at once. If you’re looking for additional traffic outside of Amazon, or to take on your competition by displaying advertisements on their product Detail pages the Sponsored Display option is the perfect option.
Step 2. Automatic Campaign
Once you’ve identified your advertising format, proceed to the next step. We will be going with Sponsored Products since it is, as we mentioned earlier this type of structure is targeted toward SP advertising campaigns.
Create an auto campaign. It lets Amazon take care of conducting keyword research. You must identify the campaign, establish the budget for each day that is minimum $10-25 for the start and then set the campaign’s date for the start and end. We suggest running it for at least for a month and at a minimum, when your budget permits. Make an “Ad group” and then select the SKUs you wish to promote and set the default bid that Amazon to use per customer.
Imagine an automated campaign similar to cooking your lasagne into the oven. You prepare the layers and let the oven take care of the cooking. After you’ve completed the fields, click submit the campaign will be now ready to go. Amazon will gather information for you as long as you maintain your SP automated campaign in operation.
Step 3. Campaign Analysis Part 1.
The third stage is where the work starts. After your SP auto-generated campaign has completed its course, you’ll need to review all the information Amazon obtained for you.
Visit Amazon Campaign Manager, click the sidebar, and then select “Reports.” Then download The SP Search Term Report, and then open it in Excel. Make the headers filters, and filter according to Campaign name, date, and time and, here’s the most important action – sort it by Conversion Rate% from the highest to the lowest.
What is conversion rate (CVR) you might ask? because CVR refers to the proportion of clicks to orders and is the most reliable indicator of the extent to which a particular keyword generates orders.
It’s not enough to just take a look at the Click Through Rate, because what happens when someone clicks your advertisement! Did it result in sales? Keywords that are only able to generate clicks isn’t worth it because it will only increase your advertising budget. It’s important to select keywords that translate in sales.
Sorting by CVR and then find the best performing keywords. We recommend that you set the filter to CVR higher than or equivalent to 10%, less than that isn’t really worth the effort.
Step 4. Manual Campaign
Do you remember the list of the top terms? Now is the time to utilize these keywords. Step 4 is the beginning of with an SP manually-run campaign. You’ve got the data You’ve looked it over and you identified the most effective targets, and now you’re ready to take control.
Amazon manual campaigns consist comprising one or two ads groups. Create a second SP campaign, however this time, select “Manual targeting.” Complete the same information as you did before and choose the SKUs you’re promoting. Select the “Provide your own keywords” option, and then enter all the keywords that you are most likely to use.
You’ll have CPC information from the SP automated campaign you conducted. You can utilize those CPCs as your base bids. Add 10-20% of your CPC amount to bid more aggressively on the top keyword. After you have set it up, simply send it in and allow it to run for the following week.
Step 5. Campaign Analysis Part 2.
After a week, you must review the Search Term Reports again. This time, you’ll need be able to access your SP Search Term report for your SP manual campaign. We highly recommend that you keep your SP automated campaign in place to search for new keywords, and to continue to analyze the latest data to discover information.
You can import your SP Search Report on Term into Excel once more and take a look at a different metric – ACoS.
ACoS also known as Advertising Cost of Sale, is the place to determine the extent to which you’re losing or if you’re earning money. Your ACoS should be at a low level at least 60 percent is a red flag. Sort your keywords according to ACoS. If you find any with low ACoSlevels, you should bump up your bids in order to be even higher. For keywords with high ACoS keywords, reduce them towards the CPC and allow the keywords a bit more time before deciding to eliminate them completely.
Step 6. Constant PPC Campaign Optimization
The final stage of any Amazon PPC campaign strategy is to continuously improve your current campaigns. However, you cannot allow your campaigns to sit and hope they be successful, to do this you require bid automation tools. It is essential to download these reports, continue finding new keywords, and keep improving your bids.
Amazon PPC campaigns are a work of passion. They can be time-consuming however the results are worth it if you do the work. Making sure you run your SP campaigns properly and adhering to the framework that will result in a successful manual campaign at the end is what brings the user on the path to Top of Search. The top of Search can lead to seven figures in sales. Be sure to keep the goal in your mind when you run Amazon PPC ad group campaigns!
Additional Campaign Structures
The way to structure the structure of a Sponsored Brands as well as a Sponsored Display campaign is likely to be different however the basic strategy for structuring remains the same.
sponsored Brands
Fortunately, your Sponsored Product auto-generated campaigns can be very beneficial. If you think about it, you’re looking to get your site to appear for the exact keywords but using an entirely different kind of ad. You can utilize your SP automatically-generated campaign data to discover a fantastic list of keywords to use in the Sponsored Brands ads.
Wait! Do not take this as an excuse to use the same approach for Sponsored Brands like you did with Sponsored Products. These are still two distinct ads and you should not blindly apply the same format like the one in the previous section.
The first step in your decision tree to modify your budget. The use of sponsored brand ads is to build your branding. It’s advertising your store not just a particular product. You should allocate more money, and ideally at minimum 50percent of the SP campaign budget to begin with.
You should run the SB advertising campaign over 30 days. Not one week as the data collection will take more time. After 30 days you can take a look at the SB Search term reports and continuously optimize your bids and keywords for the next time. SB as well as SP campaigns, when designed properly, will have a synergistic connection, and one feeds to the other. It is likely that your SB campaigns will help boost your SP sales an increase also, so don’t cut corners on your SB budget!
Show Sponsored by the Advertiser
Sponsored Display is the place where you must let the majority of the task to Amazon. However, you do can choose to target your ads towards specific products. Again, you’ll need to use your SP auto-campaigns, this time with your SP Product Target campaigns, which are also called SP PAT campaign.
You can identify which ASINs have the highest conversion rates from your reports on your SP PAT campaign and you can apply that same set of goals in your SD campaigns as a base. Sponsored Displays will require an additional strategy, as well.
The first thing we suggest is to look at your direct competitors, ranging between 5 and 10 of the biggest ones. It is important to know these major players all the time This step is straightforward. Be sure that your listings and offers exceed the 10 target you’ve identified prior to launching an SD campaign. Additionally, you can focus on any items that appear in the “Frequently purchased in conjunction” area of the product’s information pages.
We recommend that you run the two SD Product target campaigns, as well as other types of campaigns like Audiences Remarketing and Views. The purpose to use Sponsored Display is engaging customers, something that SP and SB advertisements don’t accomplish. Install Views Remarketing, narrow the segments you’d like to target with Amazon Audiences, then set an appropriate campaign budget and let Amazon complete all the work for you.
Conclusion
Amazon PPC is an tangled beast it’s been made evident by examining the details of it. It is essential to be successful within this Amazon Advertising space is to be a smart businessperson, and more crucially, to be well-organized. This guide to structuring the structure of your Amazon PPC campaign will aid you both in the short and long-term health of the Amazon business.
