How To Run Amazon Ads

How To Run Amazon Ads

Every marketer in the food and kitchenware market should know how to run Amazon Ads. There’s simply no better platform to promote products nowadays, especially for those in the e-commerce space. Whether you’re a seasoned digital marketer or just starting out, learning how to effectively use Amazon Ads can greatly benefit your business and help you reach a wider audience.

In this blog, we’ll walk through the basics of Amazon Ads and how you can use them to target potential customers, increase brand awareness and ultimately drive sales. Let’s dive in!

What Is Amazon Ads?

Amazon Ads, formerly called Amazon Marketing Services (AMS), is a suite of advertising solutions offered by Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer. It gives businesses the opportunity to promote themselves to audiences across Amazon’s ecosystem of websites with display, audio and search ads.

Broken down further, campaigns can be run in one of two ways: self-service PPC or managed service DSP.

Amazon PPC is a do-it-yourself, pay-per-click advertising option that allows businesses to set up and manage their own campaigns. Amazon DSP (Demand-Side Platform), on the other hand, is a managed service option available to advertisers and agencies with a budget of at least $50,000.

How to Run Ads on Amazon: A Step-by-Step Walkthrough

Ready to unlock the unfettered power of Amazon Ads for yourself? This section will teach you how to do just that. Read through the sections below for a high-level overview of what’s involved in getting up and running on this exciting PPC platform.

1. Set Up an Account

Begin by registering for a Seller account on Amazon Seller Central. It has multiple options for pricing, with the most basic being a pay-as-you-go plan for independent sellers. If you have a higher sales volume, consider opting for the Pro version which offers additional features and benefits.

2. Select an Ad Type

Next comes a big question: What kinds of ads are you looking to run on Amazon? Again, the platform offers multiple options. We briefly explain each below.

Amazon Sponsored Product Ads: These allow businesses to showcase their product at the top of search results or on relevant product detail pages. They work similarly to other advertising platforms where you bid on keywords for placement.

Amazon Headline Search Ads: Also known as Sponsored Brands, these ads appear above search results, showcasing your brand and multiple products at once.

Amazon Product Display Ads: These display ads show up on relevant product detail pages, targeting competing or complementary products.

Amazon Video Ads: These ads feature video content and can be played on product detail pages, search results page and even across the web as part of Amazon’s extended network.

You’re in no way limited to any one of the options presented above. In fact, it usually makes more sense to run a variety of ad formats at once to reach a wider audience and drive more conversions.

But how do you determine which type of ad is best for your business? It all comes down to knowing your target audience and their behavior on Amazon.

Consider these questions:

1. Who is your target demographic?
2. What products are they interested in?
3. How do they typically search for and discover products on Amazon?

3. Set Targeting Parameters

Now for targeting. This stage is what will give Amazon the context it needs to serve your promotions to relevant audiences. It can look different depending on the specific ad format you choose, but broadly speaking, there are three options: keyword-based targeting, interest-based targeting and product-based targeting.

Keyword-based targeting relies on common search terms and phrases that users input to find products on Amazon. For example, if you sell organic coffee, you might want to target keywords like “organic coffee,” “fair trade coffee” and “coffee beans.”

Keyword targeting can be further configured to be exact match, broad match or phrase match. Exact match means that your ad will only appear for searches that exactly match the keyword you have chosen, while broad match and phrase match offer more flexibility and allow for variations in the search term.

Interest-based targeting uses data from a user’s browsing history and purchase behavior to determine their interests. This can be a powerful tool if your product appeals to a specific niche or interest group in food and kitchenware, such as “paleo diet,” “vegan cooking” or “gourmet food.”

Product-based targeting is generally most useful for sellers who have a specific product or brand that they want to promote. This option allows you to target ads based on ASINs (Amazon Standard Identification Numbers) or specific categories. If you sell a popular kitchen gadget, for example, you can target your ads to show up when users search for that product or browse related ones.

4. Create a Budget and Configure Bid Settings

Amazon Ads’ bidding system is multi-layered, allowing brands to take multiple routes with regard to how their marketing campaign budget gets spent.

Fixed bids are the simplest form. They follow a protocol that keeps the same bid throughout the campaign. A fixed bid strategy is suitable for those who have a stable budget and want to focus on maintaining a certain cost-per-click (CPC).

If you’re open to experimenting in favor of potentially better results, consider dynamic bids. These can be set to ‘down’ or ‘up and down’ options depending on your goals.

Down bidding is a more conservative approach, as it sets a maximum bid cap to ensure that ad spending stays within budget. This option is recommended for those with limited budgets or who want to minimize their risk.

5. Optimize, Optimize, Optimize

The work involved in running marketing campaigns on Amazon Ads doesn’t end after you hit ‘Publish’. That’s really where things begin. Despite being a large and naturally far-reaching platform, Amazon Ads doesn’t guarantee success. Just think about how many other businesses use it as well; without a unique approach, it will be hard to break through the noise and truly showcase what you have to offer to the broader market.

Continuously monitoring and adjusting your campaigns is crucial for achieving the best results on Amazon Ads. This includes regularly reviewing your keywords, bids, ad copy and targeting to make sure everything is performing at its best.

You might also want to consider using Amazon’s remarketing tools, which allow you to target customers who have previously interacted with your products but did not make a purchase. This can be a powerful tactic to convert potential customers into actual buyers.

 

Now that you’re familiar with the basics of Amazon Ads, it’s time to put that knowledge into practice. You can only learn — or perhaps better said, succeed — by doing, after all. Start following the process outlined in this article to get used to using the real-world tools. From there, it’s simply a matter of refining your strategy for ultimate success. Good luck!