If you’re selling on Amazon, ads can be a great way of increasing your sales.
Nearly 215 million people visit Amazon every month, so promoting your products using PPC can help boost sales and increase brand awareness.
If you’re new to the world of Amazon advertising, you may be wondering which ad type is the best one for your business. Here is our guide to the best ones out there.
1. Product display ads
Product display ads show up on other product listings. You have complete control over the type of products that you target.
This means that you can use product display ads to target complementary goods (for example, beer when you sell peanuts) or even your competitors’ products.
Our top tip is to look at competitors that have lower reviews than you. You can then use your higher ratings and glowing customer feedback to entice customers to shop with you instead!
2. Branded keywords
Many businesses see bidding on their own name as a waste of money, but it has a lot of benefits.
Firstly, as you use your brand name in your own ads, you can get branded keywords for minimal spending.
Secondly, it helps ensure that you appear at the top of the search results. If customers often misspell your brand name, bidding on these keywords can help people find your products.
Finally, bidding on your own keywords drives the costs up and discourages sneaky competitors from bidding on your brand name.
3. Retargeting
There’s nothing more frustrating when a customer looks at your product or puts it in their basket, but forgets to buy it!
Retargeting means that your product is shown to customers on other websites they visit, encouraging them to come back to Amazon and complete their transaction.
4. Amazon sponsored brands
Amazon sponsored brands let you promote your product at the top of the search page. The benefit is that you can promote multiple products at the same time, showcasing your entire brand.
You need to be Amazon Brand Registered to use these types of ads. This means that you need to own the brand and have an active or pending registered trademark. Applying to the Amazon Brand Registry is free to do, and you get additional benefits including more detailed analytics and the ability to report products that misuse your brand.
Your sponsored brand ad is fully customizable, meaning that you can do A/B testing to see which ads get the best results.
5. “Catch-all” campaign
This isn’t a specific type of ad as such, but a strategy that Amazon sellers have seen impressive results with!
What you do is set up a campaign with relevant keywords, but set the bids incredibly low (i.e., between 5 cents and 25 cents).
The theory is that this type of campaign will catch keywords that other companies haven’t bid on, meaning you appear at the top of the search at a low cost!
Catch-all campaigns don’t work for all businesses, but may be worth trying to see if you get a good return on investment.
When you are starting out with PPC for your business, there is so much advice out there to consider. Type ‘help with PPC’ into Google, and you get nearly 75 million results! However, some advice can do more harm to your campaign than good.
Here are five of the ‘best practices’ that we think are best left where they are.
1. Using broad matches
Broad matches are sometimes seen as the easiest way to get started on PPC, especially if you are short on time. You enter a keyword and get matches when people type that keyword or ones that relate to it.
However, the issue with broad match is that you can waste money on search queries that don’t relate to your business.
Broad match does have its uses, especially if you are looking for potential new keywords. However, you should watch your keywords closely and exclude any irrelevant ones as negative keywords.
2. Using automated bidding
PPC companies are
currently pushing automated bidding on customers. While automated bidding has
its uses, it can be harmful as you lose control over the process.
If you want to use
automated bidding, make sure conversion tracking is set up on your website or
app, and you know the goals you want your campaign to achieve.
3. Accepting recommendations
Sometimes Google and other PPC companies will make suggestions as to how you can improve your account. This can be anything from introducing new keywords, expanding your campaign to new audiences and increasing your overall budget.
However, bear in mind that the PPC companies have one ultimate goal in mind… they want you to spend more money!
Our advice is to always thoroughly review what is being suggested, don’t be afraid to say no and turn automatic recommendations off.
4. Using search and display together
When you set up your search campaign, you may be asked if you want to use display ads for your campaign too. If you say yes, your PPC system of choice will set up one campaign that utilizes both search ads and display ads in one.
If you want to use both search and display in your campaign, we’d recommend running separate campaigns for both. As both networks are so different, but are using the same options, you won’t be getting the best return on investment.
5. Spreading yourself too thin
When you have a new product or service to sell, it’s only natural that you will want to go all out on promoting it.
You might want to spend some money on Google Ads, a little money on Microsoft Advertising, a few dollars on Facebook… oh, and you’ve heard exciting things about TikTok…
With PPC, it’s best to think about your target audience and what you want the campaign to achieve. For example, if your target audience is the over-fifties, TikTok might not be your best bet after all!
Try one PPC channel first. If it’s successful and you’re getting a solid ROI, then you can consider another one.There are many different stages to implementing a successful Google Ads campaign. You have to decide which demographics to target, create excellent ad copy and ensure that your website is as simple to convert on as possible.
However, all great campaigns start with keyword research. These keywords are the triggers that will make Google serve your ad to prospective customers.
The good news is that it is easy to find high-quality keywords for your PPC campaign. Here are some of our top tips.
1. Think like your customer
Sometimes the best place to start is to grab a pad of paper, pour yourself a big cup of coffee and brainstorm as many potential keywords as possible. When you do this, it’s essential to have your target audience in mind. What will they type to find the product or service you sell?
For example, you may sell sneakers online. However, your customer may search for your product using different terms, including ‘tennis shoes,’ ‘trainers’, or ‘plimsolls.’ Try and consider as many alternatives as you can.
2. Opt for long-tail keywords
Let’s go back to our sneakers store. It may be tempting to put ‘sneakers’ as a keyword in your campaign. However, as there is a lot of competition for this keyword, you risk spending a lot of money in the hope that Google will show your ad.
Bear in mind that not everyone who types in ‘sneakers’ will be looking to buy from you. Some people might be looking for how to clean sneakers or how to tie sneaker shoelaces. They may even be looking for the 1992 movie!
This is where long-tail keywords can help. Long-tail keywords help narrow in on customer intent, making the people who search more likely to buy your product or service.
As an example:
· ‘Sneakers’ has 3,420,000,000 results in Google
· ‘Men’s sneakers’ has 2,050,000,000 results
· ‘Men’s sneakers black’ has 140,000,000 results
· ‘Men’s sneakers black size 11’ has 118,00,000 results
So if in doubt, always go with longer keywords!
3. Use research tools
Thinking of keywords can be hard. Thinking of good keywords can be harder! If you’re struggling to find good keywords, there are lots of free and paid-for tools that can help.
Some of our favorite tools include SEMrush, Ahrefs, Majestic and Moz. Although you have to pay to unlock the full functionality, they offer free tools or even a seven-day trial.
Think of them as a return on investment – if these tools help you land lots of sales, then they are well worth the money!
There are also many free tools including Keyword Tool, Keywords Everywhere, Answer the Public and Ubersuggest.
If you already have a Google Ads account, you can take advantage of its Keyword Planner, which will not only suggest keywords but estimate how much they will cost.
The final suggestion we have... experiment! Sometimes the most valuable keyword for your campaign will be the one you initially thought would not work. Check your account regularly and see which keywords are performing, and which you need to go back to the drawing board on.
When you have a small marketing budget, you have to choose your marketing channels very carefully. After all, you want to choose the ones where you will get the best return on investment for your business.
Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising can be a good option if you have a limited budget. The great thing about PPC channels like Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising and Facebook Ads is that you can set a finite budget. This means that there is no risk of overspending.
However, you still need to take action to make sure you get as many conversions as possible for your money.
Here are our top four tips for managing a high-quality PPC campaign when your budget is small.
1. Stick to manual bidding
If you don’t have much time, automated PPC campaigns can be a great choice. You can set adverts up in the background and leave them to run, safe in the knowledge that Google, Microsoft or Facebook will do the hard work for you.
However, if the wallet strings are tight, manual bidding is the best choice.
With automated bidding, you are putting bidding decisions in the hands of the platform, which may mean you spend more money than you initially expected. For example, with Google Ads enhanced cost per click (CPC) option, Google can increase your bid by up to 30% of the maximum keyword price.
Manual bidding can take more time and effort, but gives you more precision over your ad campaigns.
2. Consider brand keywords
When you’re using search ads, some keywords can be incredibly expensive. According to WordStream, if you have a casino or bail bonds business, you can expect to shell out nearly $60 a click!
If you’re looking to do ads on a budget, branded keywords (i.e. ones that include your business name) can be a savvy marketing technique. As you use your own branded keywords across your website, your quality score will be higher, meaning you will pay less to appear in the number one position.
3. Try retargeting
If someone has already visited your website, a retargeting ad campaign can be a cost-effective way to get them to buy your product or service.
With remarketing, you can serve a social media advert or display ad to someone who has already engaged with you, reminding them to come back and make a purchase.
In fact, marketers see retargeting as the best ad placement strategy, with an incredible 1,046% efficiency rate compared to other types of PPC ad!
4. Keep checking your campaign
When you have a reduced budget, you have to make every cent count.
Ideally, you should check your PPC account of choice every day to see how things are working and whether any ad campaigns are wasting any money.
If you are using search adverts, can you tweak your ad copy or add new keywords? If you are using social media advertising, will changing your target audience help?