Amazon Advertising Strategies to Scale in Competitive Markets [Webinar Recap]

Stay on top of the latest e-commerce and marketplace trends.

In our most recent webinar, we were joined by Amazon Advertising expert Cherie Yvette to discuss the importance of advertising at scale and being the first to scale in your market. From keyword and product targeting to remarketing and taking ownership of the consumer’s path to purchase, Cherie detailed specific strategies that brands and retailers can implement to transform their PPC advertisements on the expansive platform.

By establishing itself as the number three player in the digital advertising space, Amazon has effectively demonstrated that it — like any velocity situation — is powered by speed, in this case with regard to sales. With more and more stakeholders leveraging Amazon Advertising for a variety of reasons, the platform is driving more sales as a result. With the right advertising optimization technology and data-backed strategies, you can effectively use advertising on Amazon to power growth to your brand and overall business.

Within her presentation, Cherie mentioned that you will be able to tell when Amazon Advertising is working when you see a gain in market share and growth for your brand. To drive customer acquisition at scale, attempt to be the first to establish a strong customer acquisition strategy in your market, roll it out across your products, and then leverage advertising to increase visibility. To fully harness the power of advertising, think critically about how you can acquire customers faster than the competition.

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Keyword Targeting for Customer Acquisition

In order to start your campaigns off with a solid foundation, you need to know and understand your competitive landscape. Winning on category keywords is essential for both accelerated business growth and customer acquisition. On Amazon, 20% of your keywords will drive 80% of your sales, so be sure to fight for those important keywords and optimize them for performance and visibility. Cherie recommends that you separate those keywords that drive the most sales into single keyword broad and phrase ad groups and match types.

Doing so will help you mine different variations and help you end up with a much more targeted campaign, which will, in turn, help you build a stronger sales history. Next, Cherie mentioned that you should consistently mine long tail keywords from your search term report, which will enable you to rank on category keywords. Mining for long tail keyword discovery will also help optimize your campaign structure from the start.

Starting with a broad keyword may require more budget upfront, but it can then be used to mine several long tail variations on that broad keyword, which is where customer acquisition happens. From there, you can add new search terms every 30 days, which will help you continue to build sales history in a top-down fashion. By mining the mid and long tail keywords, you effectively take the guesswork out of your keyword process.

Lastly, segmenting your headline banners for top of search and other placements will help you gain incremental visibility. By running a headline ad on the same keyword as a Sponsored Product ad, you can win the Sponsored Product position and increase performance for both groups.

By making sure your headline banners and Sponsored Brands are targeted to the top of search, so when you pay the premium bid, you get a return on your investment. A key takeaway here was that Cherie recommended always having an active Sponsored Product campaign, as they convert highly on mobile.

Product Targeting to Gain Market Share

Amazon is constantly rolling out new advertising placements for brands and retailers to leverage on the platform. By leveraging product targeting, you will be able to own prominent ad positions on the shopper’s path to purchase and stay competitive at the same time.

Start with the keywords that drive the highest percentage of sales and look at titles for the competition in your entire market, focusing on competitors with top positions on multiple keywords, competitors with positions above the fold, competitors across multiple keywords in the category, and so on. You will eventually be able to uncover that most competitors have a gap in their keyword strategy somewhere.

According to Cherie, the key to covering the path to purchase is covering the keywords first and foremost, covering the product pages within the path to purchase off of those keywords, and targeting competitive product pages. Category leadership is critical for shoppers — when you confirm this position across your keywords, products, and category, you open the door to being the store that shoppers look to, granting you increased market share and shopper loyalty naturally.

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Remarketing to Drive Conversion

Remarketing on Amazon will work best by targeting your own brand ASINs and best selling products. In any PPC advertising scenario, Cherie recommends that remarketing is integrated somehow, as it targets shoppers both on and off Amazon. To make remarketing work, you need to be at the top of search. In the e-commerce space, you should start with relevant keywords, use the repetition of detail pages and remarketing to bring a shopper back to your ad, and rotate your remarketing creatives in order to increase click-through rates. Given that consumer purchase decisions are highly influenced by reviews, be sure to leverage and rotate your review creative in order to avoid ad fatigue, pique shoppers’ interest, and establish trust and credibility.

Final Thoughts

Balancing keywords, placements, and category leadership are all critical for establishing prime positioning on Amazon and driving effective advertising campaigns. By experimenting with both manual and automatic campaigns and leveraging various ad types, you will be able to identify profitable and effective keywords, increase click-through and conversion rates, and elevate your advertising strategy while you scale.