Sponsored ad campaigns are one of the most effective ways to scale up your business as an Amazon seller. However, they can be challenging to set up and navigate if you’re new to Amazon PPC. In this blog, I discuss four Amazon advertising types you should be exploring to get more visibility on Amazon and some best practices to try and test around with.
Sponsored ads are highly beneficial for third-party sellers. They can help you retarget your potential customers, differentiate your products and listings from your competition, help you scale up your Amazon business, and reach shoppers on Amazon.
Before we get into it, if you don’t know who I am, my name is Ian Smith, and I run an Amazon Marketing Agency called Evolve Media Agency.
What We Do At Evolve Media Agency
We help Amazon sellers optimize their Amazon listings with photos, videos, and copy to get their listings converting as high as possible through product photoshoots, video shoots, as well as on and off Amazon marketing, Email Marketing, and Google Ad campaign management.
To book a free strategy and consulting call with us, visit emaamz.com.
If you’re a DIY Amazon seller and you want to optimize your Amazon listing on your own, we’ve got a great Amazon listing checklist for you at zonchecklist.com. We broke down all of the different sections of an Amazon detail page and created different sales strategies for each area of a listing. You can check these items off as you and your team implement the different sales strategies.
Now, back to the blog.
Top 4 Amazon Advertising Types
More product searches begin on Amazon than any other search engine, including twice as much as on Google. Amazon’s growth is attributed to it being the number one destination for online shopping, with over 200 million prime members in the USA. In 2021, over USD 31 billion was spent on Amazon advertising alone and is continuing to grow in 2022.
As a seller, your objective should be to be on the first page of the search results. More than 70% of Amazon shoppers don’t even click past the first page. And 35% of Amazon shoppers click on the first product featured on the search results page. Here are those four Amazon advertising types every seller needs to leverage.
1. Sponsored Brand Ads
Amazon Sponsored Brand ads are keyword-targeted banner ads at the top of the search results page. Sometimes referred to as Headline Search ads, they can feature a product video, three different products or product categories from your listing, and up to 50 characters of sales copy. If you have an extensive product lineup, using product categories instead of actual products is a much better option since it allows you to show the different categories of products you have.
Sellers can leverage the position of the Ad to send shoppers directly to their product page details or brand storefront. They are a great way to show your brand, build trust and credibility, and establish yourself as a brand authority in your niche. To begin with Sponsored Brand Ads, you need to be a registered brand with Amazon.
2. Sponsored Brand Video Ads
Amazon launched sponsored Brands Video Ads in early 2020 to allow brands to create video ads that appear in the search results. These videos can be as short as 6 seconds and as long as 45 seconds. We recommend this ad type since not many sellers engage with it. It’s an excellent route to differentiating from the competition.
The catch with creating Sponsored Brand Video Ads is that sellers can reuse those videos to sell on many other platforms. Video ads can be used on and off Amazon on social media platforms like TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Even Walmart.com.
On Amazon, you can use them for your Sponsored Brand Ad campaigns. Also, whether your shopper is using a mobile or desktop, Amazon optimizes video ads to take up enough screen space and grab their attention.
Sponsored Brand Video Ads also play automatically. It’s, therefore, essential to ensure that you grab your shoppers’ attention in the very few seconds of your videos. You need to intrigue your viewers enough to click on the little speaker button to listen to the sound of the video. We highly recommend using subtitles as well to keep your audience informed, even in situations they don’t click to unmute the video.
Amazon offers creative guidelines, best practices, and video and audio technical specifications to guide you when creating your Sponsored Brand Video Ads. If you need help making these types of videos, reach out to my team and me at emaamz.com, and we’ll help you create an excellent brand video that captures your products’ key selling points and your brand values in a way that is intriguing to your shoppers.
3. Sponsored Display Ads
These fast-acting ads appear on product detail pages based on selected targeting options. They look similar to the banner ads you see on other websites. One of the best things about Sponsored Display Ads is they don’t require you to design the whole ad. Amazon collects and puts the images, logo, and copy you provide together to create them.
Sellers can use sponsored Display Ads for both offensive and defensive targeting. Defensive targeting means advertising your products or taking up the advertising space on your listing page to prevent competitor ads from showing on your listing pages. This is an ideal approach to decreasing the chances of you losing a sale to one of your competitors.
They are also great for cross-selling and showing your shoppers the different products you may have in your lineup. They are also excellent for converting window shoppers to buyers. One key advantage of this type of ad is being able to retarget shoppers who are yet to purchase after viewing your product detail page. Retargeting shoppers keep the product at the top of their minds and increase the likelihood of making a sale.
We recommend getting familiar with retargeting. It helps you follow up on potential customers and remind them of their interest in your product. Shoppers need time to think about buying products beyond their impulse buying range. Retargeting nudges them over the fence and converts them to customers.
4. Sponsored Product Ads
The fourth Amazon advertising type is Sponsored Product Ads. These keyword-targeted ads appear in line with other organic search results and across various sponsored widgets and placements on product detail pages. They help you appear at the top of the search results, and you can only promote one product.
One key benefit to these ads is that while many customers may see the ad, the brand is only charged for those that click on it. They also blend in with the rest of the search results providing customers with the idea that the product is popular and useful rather than a paid ad. The goal is to drive conversions by focusing on keywords and product-level relevance.
Bonus: Amazon Demand Side Platform (DSP) Ads
Here’s a bonus addition to the four Amazon advertising types: Demand Side Platform (DSP) ads. These ads allow advertisers to proactively reach highly qualified targeted audiences with display and video ads on and off Amazon. Sellers and vendors can buy ads to drive traffic off the Amazon platform and onto the brand’s website while providing advertisers with granular targeting options.
It comes with a big catch; a USD 50,000 campaign budget to get started. Self-service and managed-service options are available. Self-service customers have complete control of their campaign, similar to going into the Amazon ads platform and building your campaigns. The managed service option is designed for companies that want access to Amazon DSP inventory with consultative service or those with limited programmatic advertising experience.
Sellers may bypass this fifty thousand dollar campaign budget requirement by partnering with Full-Service Amazon Agencies like Orca Pacific.
Types of Sponsored Product Campaigns
There are two types of sponsored product campaigns to be aware of. These are automatic and manual campaigns.
Automatic campaigns allow sellers to name their budget and leave the targeting details to Amazon. Amazon then does the behind-the-scenes work and matches the products to the appropriate keywords. Automatic campaigns are ideal for those starting with PPC ads and help identify relevant keywords. On the other hand, manual campaigns require sellers to choose their keywords and are best for experienced PPC ad managers.
These are the four Amazon advertising types that we recommend for all Amazon sellers. Hopefully, this was insightful in educating you on the different ad types you need to explore and test. Thank you for reading!
