If you work in PPC advertising, you are always keen to find a network that will give you the best return on investment for the money you spend.
If you haven’t considered it in the past, Amazon Advertising could be a great way to help your business grow, especially if you already sell products on the marketplace.
Let’s look at what Amazon Advertising is, and the benefits the platform can offer when it comes to your ad campaign.
What is Amazon Advertising?
Amazon Advertising lets you promote your products above other products in the Amazon Marketplace.
Similar to services like Google Shopping and Bing Shopping, you bid on specific keywords and are charged when someone clicks on your ad.
You can also promote your products on other product pages and even advertising emails.
Why try Amazon Advertising?
If you’re still on the fence regarding the Amazon Marketplace, here are five reasons why it is worth giving this PPC platform a try.
1. The learning curve is easy to get to grips with
Users say that Amazon Advertising is one of the easiest PPC platforms to work with. All you need is a seller account, and you’re ready to go. Your Amazon account will also need to be in good standing, with low cancellation and low late shipment rates.
2. You can reuse your keywords from other PPC platforms
Like Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising, Amazon Advertising runs on keywords. You can set up a broad match, phrase match or exact match, as well as negative keywords to reduce wasted ad spend.
If you already know what keywords people are using to find your products, you can plug these keywords into Amazon Advertising to create a speedy campaign.Our top tip: long-tail keywords work particularly well in Amazon Advertising!
3. There’s a lot of variety when it comes to Amazon Advertising
There are a lot of different ad types you can use on Amazon Advertising. From headline search ads, sponsored product ads and adverts in marketing emails, you can choose the ad that best suits your product, campaign and budget.
4. You can get a lot of valuable data to help with future campaigns
Metrics are essential to every PPC campaign and with Amazon Advertising, you can get a lot of interesting information that you can use to your advantage. Amazon has a great handle on its customers, so you can see who is clicking on your ads and what else they are interested in.
5. It’s everyone’s marketplace of choice
Amazon is one of the most popular marketplaces in the world, with 200 million Prime users worldwide. This means that you are guaranteed many views and potential purchases, no matter what you are selling.
We hope that this guide has inspired you to give Amazon Advertising a try!
As you’re probably aware, Google is looking to remove support for third-party cookies in Chrome in the near future. This was initially mooted to happen later this year but has now been pushed back to 2023.
One of the questions that digital marketers had when they heard the news was how they would be able to advertise to customers using Google Ads and other PPC tools. If Google were to ban third-party cookies, how would marketers be able to serve relevant as to prospective buyers?
Luckily, Google had a plan in place, in the form of FLoC, or the Federated Learning of Cohorts.
Let’s look at what FLoC is, how marketers can use it and the future of this new technology.
What is FLoC?
FLoC was devised in 2021 with the aim of enabling ‘interest-based advertising on the web.’ Although it is not live yet, it is being trialed in countries including the US, Australia, Japan and Brazil.
How does FLoC work? Rather than identifying customers individually, which is what Chrome does now, your browsing information will be associated with what is known as a ‘cohort’. This is a large group of users who share similar qualities and things in common.
Google claims that the advantage of this is that your browsing history and other personal data are kept private from others.
As an example of how FLoC works, let’s say that you search the internet for vegan recipes, knee-high socks and garden furniture. FLoC will take this information and put you in a numbered cohort with thousands of other users with similar search history. These cohorts will be created algorithmically, rather than Google creating them manually and adding people to them.
Google claims that third parties will see the cohort number and what the cohort is interested in, but they will not see you as part of the cohort. Web users will also be able to opt-out of FLoC if they want to.
Google says that FLoC is an effective replacement for third party cookies, with advertisers expecting to see 95% of the conversions they would see with cookie-based advertising.
What will this mean for advertisers in the future?
The honest answer is… we’re not too sure.
FLoC is still shrouded in a lot of mystery at this moment in time, which is making the digital marketing industry a little uncomfortable.
There have been concerns over whether FLoC is really as private as it says it is, and whether customers will still be able to be identified through their IP address. It is not being trialed in Europe at the moment because it is not GDPR compliant.
Other browsers like Safari and Firefox have already blocked third party cookies outright, and they have expressed no interest in using FLoC in the future.
Now that Google has pushed removing support for third-party cookies back, this will give the company time to review its position and clarify how secure FLoC is.
We’ll keep you updated with future developments.
‘If people believe they share values with a company, they will stay loyal to the brand’ - Howard Schultz
One of the best ways to increase conversions and leads for your business is to align your own brand values with that of your customer. Think of some of your favorite brands and what they stand for. It’s likely that their values are the same as yours.
Whether it’s integrity, honesty, inclusivity or accountability, people are more likely to buy if they feel a sense of kinship with a particular company. Let’s take a look at generational consumer values in more detail and how you can apply them to your business to boost growth.
Know your target customer’s age
Your customer’s values will change depending on the generation they were born in.
According to a survey by eMarketer, Gen Z and Millennials (those born between 1981 and the present) value curiosity and knowledge most of all. Gen X and Baby Boomers (those born between 1946 and 1980) value honesty, authenticity and hard work more.
If you haven’t done so already, take the time to determine who your target audience is and how old they are. You can use this information to pinpoint the values your business should adhere to.
Stand for something
As the old saying goes, ‘If you stand for nothing, you’ll fall for anything’.
The younger generations are placing more importance on brands taking a political, economic or social stance, with Gen Z leading the charge. Two out of three Gen Z’ers have stopped or considered stopping supporting a brand that clashes with their own personal values.
One of the best and biggest brands that does this is Ben and Jerry’s. The ice cream company not only encourages customers to vote, but fights for LGBTQ+ rights and even called for the impeachment of Donald Trump.
In the UK, a popular tea brand told someone who had expressed racist opinions never to buy their product again. Although they received some criticism for the move, customer sentiment was overwhelmingly positive.
The takeaway from this is that taking a stand on specific issues can strengthen relationships with customers and encourage brand loyalty. Don’t be afraid to let your company’s opinions be heard.
How to apply generational consumer values to your marketing
You need to apply your values throughout all of your marketing channels. Here are some of the ways you can do this:
· Add your mission statement to a prominent page on your website
· Make sure your messaging is consistent. You don’t want to say one thing in your advertisements and something else on your web pages
· Prioritize your values according to each generation. For example, highlight your activism with the younger generation and promote your integrity with your older customers
· Most importantly – don’t just pay lip service to a value. Make sure your business lives and breathes that value through your company culture. If you don’t, you will quickly get found out!
We hope this short guide has given you some insight into your brand values and how you can showcase them to your customers.