The Top Amazon Advertising and Promotional Tools

From using enhanced content to strategically employing keywords, there’s no end to the number of ways Amazon sellers can draw traffic to their listings. And if you’re ready to pay up, Amazon offers plenty of advertising tools to help you to grow your sales. Each advertising option offers unique benefits and drawbacks, which we’ll explore here.

Amazon Sponsored Products (ASP) — Seller Central

Sponsored Products are ads whose main added value lies in appearing like regular search results, with an image and product name. Aside from the small font reading “sponsored,” these ads are virtually indistinguishable from the search results surrounding them. They can also be found boxed off on the right hand side of the page, but retain a naturalness that prompts shoppers to click.

The program uses keywords to ensure you only pay a fee when someone clicks on the ad. Once they click, it takes them straight to your product listing page. Pretty simple, right? Just make sure you meet Amazon’s eligibility for being in the program.

But before you jump in, it’s critical to take a step back to evaluate where you are in your product lifecycle. Are you trying to increase your organic rank and gain more visibility on Amazon? Or are you trying to get an immediate return on your investment? Your strategy will depend on whether you’re launching a product, or maintaining a product. If you’re launching a product for the first time, you’ll probably want to get at least 10–15 solid reviews before you invest in sponsored product ad campaigns.

Amazon Marketing Services (AMS) — Vendor Central

If you sell to Amazon as a supplier via Vendor Central, you have Amazon Marketing Services at your disposal. If you’re a vendor, you have three different advertising options available on AMS. Read on and consider which aligns best with your business strategy:

Sponsored Products

Like Amazon Sponsored Products for third-party sellers, you use ads that target chosen keywords, and only pay for ads that shoppers actually click on. Because the program is driven by keywords, your products will only appear in the search results to shoppers who are looking for what you have to offer!

Headline Search

This is definitely the hotspot of AMS ads. Here, you are also targeting by keyword, but your ad is placed above other search results — ensuring your listings will be the first to be seen. Running this type of ad will require advance approval. Also, you can’t just run a single product; you need to have three or more products that are variations of each other.

Product Display

Another powerful ad form, which appears on related product detail pages. This means you’re essentially advertising your product on your competitors’ pages — obviously a huge plus.

Amazon Lightning Deals

Lightning Deals are discounts that apply to a small number of items for a limited period of time. These deals run until the promotion ends or all the quantity is sold out.

You shouldn’t expect to profit from these deals, but they serve an important role in increasing your brand recognition. If you get happy customers who wouldn’t have normally bought your product, you’re increasing the likelihood of creating a loyal customer. That’s why Lightning Deals have the potential to boost sales in the long term, not just the short term.

You can create your own Lightning Deal through the new Lightning Deals Dashboard. Amazon even generates recommendations for which of your products are most likely to get accepted into the Lightning Deals program — use them.

Conclusion

As an Amazon entrepreneur, you’re probably reluctant to part ways with your hard-earned money. Nonetheless, investing in pay-per-click and promotional tools on Amazon is an excellent way of ensuring continuous business growth. In this highly saturated market, having a steady stream of new customers discovering your products is key to your success. And when you combine advertising with the right Amazon repricer, your chances of winning the Buy Box shoot up dramatically.