Everything you need to know about advertising on Amazon

Looking to conquer Amazon advertising? This guide is your one-stop shop. We'll break down every ad type you can leverage and share best practices to help you skyrocket your sales. Whether you’re aiming to boost your product visibility or supercharge your organic success, this guide has everything you need.

What are Amazon Ads?

Have you ever noticed products on Amazon marked "Sponsored" or entire brand stores getting featured in your search results? These are Amazon Ads in action. They work using a pay-per-click (PPC) model, meaning that you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. Just like other search engine ads, Amazon Ads connect shoppers with relevant products based on their shopping behavior and/or queries.

Benefits of Amazon Ads

On Amazon's massive marketplace, it can be tough to get your products noticed. But Amazon Ads offer several advantages to help you stand out from the crowd, such as:

• Increasing brand awareness by promoting your products or store
• Improving product visibility by featuring your products in prominent positions
• Boosting your organic sales as Amazon ranks better selling products higher in the search results
• Reaching a more targeted audience via ad campaigns
• Gaining valuable insights on what search terms your customers are using

What you need to get started

Before advertising on Amazon, it’s important to have a well-organized Seller Central account and optimized product listings. That’s because your Amazon Ads will link directly to your store or product detail pages. Remember, clicking on your ad is just the first step. It’s on your product detail pages where you’ll turn interested shoppers into repeat customers.

As a general rule of thumb, your product detail pages should be optimized for the keywords you want to target, include high-quality images, and list all the features and benefits of your product in an easy-to-digest way.

Different types of Amazon Ads

Whether you want to drive product sales or increase brand awareness, Amazon has three main ad types depending on your advertising goal:

Sponsored Products

The most common ad type is Amazon’s Sponsored Products which promote individual product listings. Typically, these ads show up at the top of search results and on other product detail pages.

Sponsored Products allow you to target specific keywords and other product ASINs (such as your competitors’ products). When a customer searches for a keyword related to your product (e.g. waterproof hiking shoes), there’s a chance your ad will appear in a prominent position at the top of the search results page. Not only does this boost the visibility of your products, but also increases the likelihood of conversions.

Consider using Sponsored Products ads if:

• You want to increase sales of specific products: Sponsored Products are ideal for driving traffic to individual product listings and increasing conversions. This is especially useful for launching new products, promoting seasonal items, or clearing out excess inventory.
• You have high-quality product listings: Because Sponsored Products rely on your product details and reviews to convert viewers into buyers, make sure your listings are optimized with clear descriptions, high-quality images, and competitive pricing.

Sponsored Brands

Sponsored Brands are advertising placements that showcase your brand and multiple products (usually three) to Amazon shoppers. These can include carousel ads or headline ads with your brand logo. Sponsored Brands appear on search pages, product detail pages, and on the Amazon homepage.

Additionally, if you have a branded Amazon Store page, you can use it as your landing page for your Sponsored Brands campaigns.

Consider using Sponsored Brands if:

• You want to increase brand awareness: Sponsored Brands put your brand logo front and center, helping new customers get acquainted with your brand and products.
• You have a diverse product portfolio: This ad format allows you to showcase the variety of your products.

Sponsored Display

Amazon Sponsored Display ads allow sellers to reach potential customers on and off Amazon. Unlike Sponsored Products Ads that target keywords, Sponsored Display Ads target audiences based on their browsing behavior and interests. These ads can appear across Amazon's website and apps, as well as on external websites and apps that are part of Amazon's advertising network, such as Twitch and IMDb.

Consider using Sponsored Display ads if:

• You want to increase brand awareness: By showing your ads to a wider audience, you can help people become more familiar with your brand.
• You want to reach new audiences: Sponsored Display Ads can help you target people who are interested in products similar to yours, even if they haven't searched for them by name.
• You want to retarget shoppers: You can use Sponsored Display Ads to show ads to people who have already visited your product listings or added your products to their cart.

How to create your first Amazon Ads campaign

Setting up an Amazon Ads campaign is fairly straightforward. From your Seller Central account, go to “Campaign Manager” and follow these steps:

1. Select “Create campaign”.
2. Choose your campaign type. You’ll be able to choose between Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display.
3. Name your campaign and choose your daily budget. Amazon recommends a daily budget of $10 / €10 (or the equivalent in your currency).
4. Select “Automatic targeting” or “Manual targeting”.
5. If you choose “Manual targeting”, you should add at least 30 keywords. Amazon recommends starting with the “broad match” option for your keywords.
6. Launch your campaign and monitor the results.

Automatic targeting vs. manual targeting

When advertising on Amazon, you have two choices for targeting your ads: automatic and manual. With automatic targeting, Amazon automatically matches your ads to keywords and products, saving you time compared to manual targeting. This is a good option if you're new to Amazon advertising or have a large product catalog because it can help you discover relevant keywords.

With manual targeting, you choose the exact keywords and product searches you want your ads to appear for. This gives you more control over your campaign, but it also requires more research and ongoing management. Automatic targeting is faster and easier to set up, while manual targeting offers greater precision.

Amazon Ads strategies and best practices

Depending on your goals, you might use one of the Amazon ad formats mentioned above or a combination. Here are some best practices to help you get the most out of each ad format.

Strategies for Amazon Sponsored Products ad campaigns

Getting Sponsored Products to work for you is about putting together a smart game plan that covers everything from choosing the best keywords to constantly optimizing your campaigns.

Here are some best practices to improve the performance of your Sponsored Product ads:

1. Organize campaigns by product or product type: For better targeting and ad ranking, group related products together in campaigns. This allows you to ensure your keywords directly connect to the specific product details you're advertising. For example, create a campaign for "Men's shirts" and include all variations like size, color, and brand within that campaign.
2. Monitor and adjust bids with analytics tools: Regularly monitor your campaigns using Amazon's analytics tools. If you see high spending or Advertising Cost of Sale (ACoS), gradually decrease your bids on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. If spending is low or your ACoS is below 30%, consider raising bids to increase ad visibility.
3. Prioritize top-of-search placements for high-performing campaigns: Since top-of-search ads receive the most traffic, consider increasing your bid adjustments for these placements by 50% to 150%. This strategy is recommended for campaigns that are already performing well.

Strategies for Amazon Sponsored Brands ad campaigns

Unlike Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands offer more creative control, allowing you to create headlines and visuals that grab attention. Here are some strategies to make sure your ads reach the right customers:

1. Build a strong keyword mix: Incorporate at least 25 keywords using a blend of broad, phrase, and exact match types. This widens your reach while still attracting targeted customers. Broad match captures similar terms (e.g. "athletic shoes"), phrase match targets specific phrases (e.g. "best running shoes for men"), and exact match focuses on precise searches (e.g. "Nike Pegasus running shoes").
2. Optimize campaigns with negative targeting: Prevent irrelevant searches from draining your budget by adding negative keywords or products/brands. This ensures your ads reach users genuinely interested in what you offer (e.g. exclude "cheap watches" if you sell luxury watches).
3. A/B test creatives: Sponsored Products ads are customizable, giving you more opportunity to see what resonates most with your ideal audience. Run A/B tests by cloning your campaign and modifying one element at a time (such as the headline or main image).

Strategies for Amazon Sponsored Display ad campaigns

Sponsored Display campaigns offer a powerful way to reach potential customers beyond traditional product searches. Here are a few strategies to get the most out of your Sponsored Display placements:

1. Include products that perform well on Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands: Products that generate good click-through rates (CTR) or conversion rates through our other sponsored ads products may equally perform well in display ads.
2. Advertise discounted products: Sponsored Display ads support automated deals and savings badges to help shoppers easily spot special offers when your products are on sale.

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