When customers look for a new product to buy, about 66% of them start their search on Amazon. And when they begin their searches with one specific product already in mind, 74% go straight to Amazon.
Most sales on Amazon come via the search function, but the results are mainly based on past sales. That makes it difficult for sellers outside of page one to gain visibility for products using only organic SEO methods. To increase visibility for their products, sellers can use different types of Amazon PPC ads to bid on product exposure.
Amazon PPC is an advertising and marketing platform that allows you to buy and optimize different types of Amazon ads. Through the platform, you can bid on keywords and competitor listings, create advertising strategies, and run a variety of PPC campaign styles. Bids and ad performance are specific to your Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN), so you can figure out which campaigns are the most beneficial.
Since its 2012 introduction, sellers have optimized and automated Amazon PPC to achieve several highly specific goals. For example, you may want to make your sales cycle more efficient or maximize the rank of a brand or product. PPC optimization is all about figuring out your goals and accomplishing them with the available resources.
Setting Up Different Types of Amazon PPC Ads
At its core, an optimized PPC strategy helps you avoid inefficient ad spend while accomplishing your goals. You can boost short-term profits by running efficient PPC campaigns or spend more to build long-term strategies in order to increase rank so your listing can see more organic sales down the road. Because Amazon PPC is still relatively new, many sellers aren’t familiar with it. This makes for an excellent opportunity to enhance your competitive edge.
To begin, go to your Seller Central account and hover over the Advertising tab; then, select Campaign Manager. From there, you’ll be asked to set up the budget and duration of your advertising campaign. The entire process is built into your Seller Central account, so you won’t need to download anything to create and track your campaigns.
The next step is to choose what types of Amazon ads you want to utilize. It’s possible to sponsor products or brands specifically and to choose manual or automated targeting. Automated Amazon PPC ads determine what keywords and products are associated with and then run ads based on that information. Manual targeting allows you to choose what, specifically, to dial in on.
Optimizing Manual and Automated Amazon PPC
Both manual and automated Amazon PPC can be highly useful. PPC automation shows you what Amazon recognizes your product for and, over time, conversion rates for each keyword or product. You can then use this information to manually optimize campaigns further and spend more efficiently on long-term campaigns.
By combining Amazon PPC automation with manual targeting, you can build a more hands-on type of campaign in which you retain total control of your ad spend in the context of your goals. Pinpoint the keywords and products that Amazon finds most relevant and successful, then target them specifically to maximize your ROI.
For a few examples of how we recommend properly structuring these automatic and manual targeting campaigns in Kinetic and why we recommend setting them up that way, check out this handy video!
Strategizing a manual and automated Amazon PPC campaign can seem overwhelming, especially if you don’t have a background in marketing.
How can I manage my Amazon PPC?
Viral Launch’s Kinetic platform helps simplify it for you by presenting extremely detailed data taken directly from Amazon in a user-friendly and easily understandable format.
Save time tracking your PPC spend by seeing all of your data within a few tabs instead of digging through multiple Microsoft Excel tabs.
Within Kinetic, you can create rules to automate Amazon ad campaigns based on past performance and receive optimization tips. With Kinetic’s preset advertisement types, you can better understand different types of Amazon ads and PPC strategies.
