Any savvy marketer knows that a digital presence is necessary in today’s overcrowded marketplace. Your business simply can’t survive if you’re not promoting your product online. In order to reach potential customers, you must target the types of media they frequent most. Amazon is definitely one of those places. In fact, there are currently more than 100 million Amazon Prime subscribers in the US alone. Amazon advertising is gaining in popularity. It comes in third behind Google and Facebook for ad sales.
If you’re not currently running Amazon ads, you’re already behind the curve. Don’t worry. There’s still time to get in on the game. With so many people using Amazon to find the products they need, it makes sense to highlight your company’s offerings with ad placements on the platform. Keep reading to get the scoop on all things Amazon ads.
Why Amazon Ads?
As noted, the sheer volume of users and Amazon’s top-three online advertiser position are quite compelling reasons to consider placing Amazon ads. In addition, we’re seeing a recent shift in the ways that people conduct their online searches. Amazon is becoming a go-to location for many buyers when it comes to finding what they want. According to Social Media Examiner, Amazon is catching up to Google in number of product searches. It’s estimated that 52% of product searches begin on Amazon, with only 30% being conducted through search engines. Younger people, ages 18 to 29, report even higher use of Amazon for finding products.
Because of their sheer inventory volume and the record number of searches being performed, Amazon has access to a wealth of consumer-related data. This type of insight offers unique advantages, both on and off site, that other platforms don’t have. Information such as past purchases, current shopping interests and times shopped can help you a great deal with finding just the right target demographic for your offerings.
Types of Amazon Ads
There are two traditional types of Amazon ads. These are sponsored products and sponsored brands. The ads are meant exclusively for retailers that are selling on Amazon. Their purpose is to drive immediate sales and to provide a high return on your advertising dollars. These types of ads show up in a timely manner when someone is shopping for or ready to purchase a similar item. The majority of advertisers choose to invest in sponsored products, with sponsored brands coming in close behind.
Sponsored products appear in an Amazon search much like organic results, but they’re clearly marked as “sponsored.” They work a lot like Google ads. Because they’re set up to run as cost-per-click (CPC) ads, you pay only when a shopper clicks your ad. Sponsored brands also run on a CPC model. They show up a bit differently, though. When you invest in this type of Amazon ad, users will see a banner at the top of the page that features three similar products from your brand for each search query they perform. It’s a great way for your company to be seen by Amazon customers. You can customize the look of these banners and direct where users land upon clicking.
About Amazon Demand-Side Platform (DSP) Ads
Amazon DSP ads are meant for advertisers who don’t sell on Amazon. That’s right. You can still target Amazon users even if you don’t have a storefront or sell through the platform. It’s a fantastic way to create awareness for your brand with a wide audience. You can choose from various ad formats, including mobile banner, mobile web display, mobile interstitial, desktop and video. The primary goal of this type of strategy is to promote your company and gain brand recognition. You can even use the ad app to gain users’ demographics and shopping habits to better target your ads. This ad format allows you to direct users away from Amazon and to your own site, as well.
Locations of Amazon Display Ads
Amazon ads can be displayed in several different ways, in different areas of the page. It’s possible for an ad to show up on a category page through a completely unrelated search simply because a user was looking at a particular item in an earlier session. This is a strategic way to redirect a shopper based on prior search behavior. You can also target your ads to appear on pages for similar or related products. This makes sense as a means to help consumers discover your brand when searching for products like yours. These ads may be displayed at either the top or bottom of the page.
It’s also possible for Amazon display ads to end up on other sites such as CNN or ESPN. That’s because such sites are part of the Google display network, and Google’s AdX exchange is offered through Amazon DSP. Using Amazon DSP lets you choose from seven open ad exchanges, providing your ads tremendous variety and reach.
How to Access Amazon Ad Services
You can access Amazon’s ad services in a number of ways. If you’re an Amazon seller, it’s easy to use the Amazon Marketing Group to set up your ads. Those who wish to gain access to Amazon users but who don’t sell on the platform can go through Amazon DSP. It is important to know that Amazon has rather high monthly advertising minimums. Therefore, you’ll need a large budget set aside for this purpose. Currently, you can expect to need to allot between $15,000 and $35,000 per month in order to have access to their services.
If your ad spend budget is much smaller, you still have options. It’s possible to hire an outside agency to run ads for your company’s products or services. The way this works is that such agencies pool the resources of several clients in order to meet Amazon’s monthly spending quotas. The agency works with each client in order to be sure they receive their desired campaign spending.
There you have it, an Amazon ads 101 primer. Hopefully, you now understand the basics and benefits of running ads on Amazon and are ready to give it a try for your company.
Eric Sachs
SEO virtuoso, CEO @Sachs Marketing Group. Focused on being of service to business owners - helping to better position them in the eyes of their audiences.