Amazon Advertising: Everything You Need to Know

Should I Be Advertising on Amazon?

Are you a person or business selling a physical product? If your answer is yes and you aren’t advertising on Amazon already, you absolutely should start now.

Have you ever considered advertising on Amazon? If you’re selling a product online, it’s a no-brainer – the Amazon website provides a great online shopping user experience. In other words, you should definitely be advertising it on Amazon. This article will tell you everything you need to know about Amazon ads, Amazon PPC, and Amazon Prime Ads. It will also teach you how to get started and how SEO Design Chicago can help you use your dollars to utilize Amazon advertising most effectively.

Amazon Prime ads

Are you an Amazon user? It’s likely that you are. In 2019 alone, Amazon Prime had 112 million users! These days, people use Amazon’s website to buy everything from toilet paper to groceries and clothes, and more. Easy one click purchasing and free shipping are primary reasons why Amazon has designed such a successful online shopping experience. (One Amazon website design analysis explains how it employs psychological principles to increase conversions).

Some estimate Amazon to be the fifth most-visited website in the United States as of this year. Not only does advertising on Amazon lead to more sales of your product, but it also leads to increased visibility for your business.

Haven’t convinced you yet? Not only are Amazon’s membership and traffic numbers wildly impressive, but Jeff Bezos’s site also knows a whole lot about us, because it’s where we buy so much of our stuff.

If you’re selling any products on the internet, then you should be advertising on Amazon.

How do Amazon Ads work?

When you go to shop on Amazon and search for a product, some of the top results will be sponsored posts. Sometimes sponsored posts will appear on the home page even before you click on the search bar. Those sponsored posts are considered Amazon ads. You’ll see that they are noted with text that says “sponsored” or “ad.” (Whether you realize it or not, you’ve probably seen this before. That’s how inconspicuous those tags are.)

Advertisers who want those coveted top sponsored ad spots in the search results pay for them by bidding on certain keywords. The advertiser is charged when someone clicks on their Amazon ad.

But Amazon ads don’t just appear on search results pages – they also show up on pages for individual products, which just means more opportunities for advertising.

What is Amazon PPC and how can it help me?

What is Amazon PPC? PPC stands for pay-per-click advertising. PPC advertising is a system in which advertisers pay only when one of their ads is clicked on a website by a potential buyer. Amazon charges for the number of clicks you receive on your ads. You can choose how much you want to spend for a click, then set a budget for the maximum amount you want to spend on your ads in one day.

Amazon PPC has three different options for ad types: sponsored product ads, product display ads, and headline search ads.

When an Amazon PPC campaign is created and managed well, it can help boost sales for your business. A full service digital marketing agency like SEO Design Chicago can help you build, oversee and maintain an Amazon PPC campaign for your business.

An additional bonus for using Amazon PPC is that if you’re using it, it will boost your organic Amazon rankings, as well.

How to get started with Amazon Ads

If you think you’d like to start advertising on Amazon, here’s how to get going. If you’re hesitant and not ready to commit yet, you can get started by picking one product you sell that you already know is very popular and sells well for you online. Once you start to see a return on your investment for that ad, then you can add more types of products to expand your campaign. Or if you’re more adventurous, go ahead and start advertising plenty of products at once.

To start advertising on Amazon, you’ll need to log onto Seller Central. If you don’t already have an account, you’ll have to make a new one and choose a seller plan. Amazon has several options.

You’ll then choose a campaign type: 

Amazon Sponsored Product Ads

Sponsored product ads must run for at least one day but can be paused at any time. You can choose your daily budget and how long the campaign will last. The ads are usually displayed at the top or bottom of the search engine results page on Amazon, and on other product detail pages. The ads are keyword-targeted and you have the option of choosing from exact, phrase or broad keyword types.

Headline Search Ads

When you search for something on Amazon and get the search engine results page, you’ll see a banner ad at the top of the page. The bonus to these kinds of ads is they always are displayed above the results listed. However, the minimum budget for these kinds of ads is $100, with a limit of $1 spent per day. When you click on a headline ad, you are typically directed to a landing page for the product. These ads are also keyword targeted and can be used to advertise for at least three products at the same time.

Amazon Product Display Ads

Product display ads are dissimilar to sponsored product ads and headline search ads in that they are not keyword targeted. Instead, they are interest or product targeted ads. However, they are still priced by a price-per-click system and drive shoppers to the product details page.

Once you get started with your ads, Amazon helps you monitor your click, click-through rate, and more.

If any of these steps are confusing, or if you’d rather let an expert handle them for you, reach out to us at SEO Design Chicago. We’d love to help you get started choosing which Amazon ads are right for you, and help you set them up.

How to Optimize Ads for Amazon

Structure Your Ads by Product

This part can be tricky, but basically you will want to have a separate ad campaign for each of your main product categories (assuming you sell more than one.) If you sell sports equipment, you’ll want to start different campaigns for tennis gear, golf gear, baseball gear…you get the picture. You can keep getting more specific with more ad groups within each campaign. If you’re selling baseball gear, you can have keywords for mitts, gloves, bats, etc.

Write Persuasive, Captivating Copy

Just like any kind of ad copy, you’ll want to stand out from your competition. Keep it true to the product, but also add some personality to the copy if you can. Also add some action words to keep the seller interested and make them want to choose your product over the myriad others offered on Amazon.

Make It Specific

Include as many details about your product as you can. If a potential buyer can’t figure out a certain part of your product and it’s important to them, they’ll move on to the next option on Amazon. Be as honest and detailed as possible when describing your product. Look at ads for products similar to what you’re selling and make sure you’re not omitting any specifics that they’re including.

Try All Three Different Kinds of Ads

Though there are positives and negatives to each kind of ad Amazon offers, they’re all worth trying out. Sponsored ads might work the quickest for making money, but headline search ads increase your brand’s visibility and might lead to repeat customers.

Do Keyword Research

It may sound counter-intuitive, but make sure you use negative keywords. For example, if you’re selling baseball bats like in the earlier example, you’ll want to omit pet bets from your ads. If you’re paying for the click on your ad, you don’t want someone searching for a different version of whatever it is you’re selling. Then you’ve wasted money. Bid on Keywords that Sell Similar Products

First of all, find your top competitors by searching the products you sell on Amazon and seeing which brands pop up. Then, bid on the keywords that include not just the product you’re selling, but they’re brand name. It’s a great trick to gain visibility for your product by diverting someone from buying a different version of what you’re selling. You will reach possible clients who never knew they were searching for your brand in the first place.

Video Amazon ads

If you want to take your advertising on Amazon to the next level, Amazon also offers video ads to reach more customers. With video ads, you can reach Amazon customers on several of its platforms, including their mobile apps and the Amazon Fire tablet wake screen. But they do require a lot of specifications. If you need help with custom videography services, SEO Design Chicago can help.

Still need help with advertising on Amazon? Contact us. 

Still have questions about advertising on Amazon, pay-per-click advertising, or want some help getting started? Contact us at SEO Design Chicago for help today! Our team has years of experience with these kinds of advertising and can help you, no matter the scale of your campaign. Give us a call at (773) 677-5747, or email us at info@seodesignchicago.com.