Amazon Advertising helps sellers enhance visibility on Amazon and beyond through various ad types. Based on cost-per-click (CPC) and cost-per-mille (CPM) pricing models, sellers pay Amazon to promote their brand and products to increase visibility and sales. Amazon offers various ad formats tailored to the specific needs of the seller.
So, before starting your Amazon campaign, it is important to have a grasp on Amazon ad types and some other key aspects of advertising.
Four key aspects of advertising to consider:
Product Selection: Start with a few key items before expanding.
Goal-setting: Define what you want to achieve, like higher traffic or brand awareness.
Understanding Key Metrics: Track ACoS, ROAS, clicks, and conversions.
Budgeting: Allocate a daily budget to avoid overspending.
Types of Amazon Ads
Sponsored Products: Promote individual items, visible in search and product pages.
Sponsored Display: Create brand awareness and reach customers on Amazon and other platforms.
Sponsored Brands: Showcase your brand and product collection at the top of search results.
Brand Stores: Create a custom Amazon storefront for your brand.
With the right strategy, Amazon Advertising can significantly increase visibility, attract new customers, and drive sales growth. Check out the detailed article below for a complete breakdown of Amazon ad types.
Suppose you successfully set up your Amazon seller account and have been through the painstaking process of product hunting, finding suppliers, creating listings, setting prices, and all the other e-comm stuff. Good for you, but how will the buyers find what you’re selling?
With hundreds of millions of product listings on Amazon, the odds are that your product would be buried under a mountain of competitor products. Organically getting to the top of the search results would be like building a ladder to the Moon. So what to do?
Amazon advertising! Amazon allows you to use its advertising tools and services to promote your products and attract more traffic. Whether you are new to Amazon or an old-timer, Amazon ads will give your business the uplift it needs to reach its full potential.
But before jumping into your new Amazon ad campaign, just take (a deep breath and) a few minutes to find out: What is Amazon advertising? How many Amazon ad types are there? Where do Amazon ads appear? And how to choose the perfect Amazon ad type that fits your needs?
Amazon Advertising
Amazon Advertising (formerly AMS or Amazon Marketing Services) is an advertising service provided by Amazon that allows its sellers to advertise their brands and products to their targeted audience.
Amazon sellers can pay Amazon to advertise their products across Amazon marketplaces homage and product detail pages, Amazon-owned and operated sites like Twitch and IMDb, and third-party destinations.
With Amazon Advertising, sellers can display their products through various types of ads, even if the products don’t appear in the organic search results.
How Amazon Advertising Works
Amazon Advertising supports both cost-per-click (CPC) and cost-per-mille (CPM) pricing models, depending on the Amazon ad type. In PPC, sellers only have to pay when someone clicks on their ad, whereas in CPM, sellers pay per one thousand ad impressions or views.
Amazon sellers can target specific audiences and niches by picking the relevant keywords and search queries. Sellers have to bid on targeted keywords to display their ads in the search results for those keywords. A bid is the maximum amount you are willing to pay for the ad. Bids can vary based on the level of competition for a particular keyword.
For example, if you want your ad to appear in the search results for the query ‘cotton shirts for summer’ you might want to bid on the keyword ‘cotton shirts’. This advertising model allows you to have greater control over your advertising budget. Amazon also provides sellers with advertising data and analytic tools to track the effectiveness of their ad campaigns. Sellers can track metrics like impressions, clicks, and conversions to make data-driven decisions and measure the return on ad spend (ROAS).
4 Important Things to Consider Before Starting Amazon Ad Campaigns
Before you begin with your Amazon ad campaign, it is essential to determine the following things:
1. Selecting the Products
Ideally, you want to promote your entire inventory because you might think every product is worth promoting. However, this is not possible when you’re running your business on a limited budget. So you need to select a particular number of products to promote through advertising.
You might want to advertise one or two products at first, and once you figure out the process, you can add more listings to your ad campaigns.
When promoting your products, you can make use of more than one strategy: you can promote a high-selling product to minimize the risk of low ad return, or you can choose a new or underperforming item to uplift its sales and visibility. Depending on planning and execution, either one can be a good strategy.
Determining advertising goals and overall objectives is crucial for any successful ad campaign. You need to know beforehand what exactly you want to achieve to reap maximum benefits from your advertising efforts. Knowing your objectives will also help you determine which Amazon ad type best fits your needs.
Some of the key advertising goals include:
Reaching a wider audience
Promoting particular items
Increasing traffic
Fostering customer loyalty
Building brand awareness
Selling off excess inventory
3.Knowing Key Advertising Metrics to Track Success
Running an ad campaign without tracking key performance metrics is like shooting an arrow in the dark. You need tangible data to determine whether you are on the right track or not. The following metrics can help you track your Amazon advertising performance:
Advertising cost of sales (ACoS): A metric that measures the ratio of ad spend to advertised product sales.
Brand lift: A measurement of the actual impact of advertising on customer perception and behavior toward a brand.
Click-through rate (CTR): The percentage of clicked ad impressions compared to the total number of impressions.
Conversions: An action that a customer takes; this phrase can refer to any number of actions, including clicking “Add to Cart,” completing a purchase, etc.
New-to-brand metrics: This metric shows the percentage of customers purchasing your brand/product for the first time on Amazon over the past year.
Impressions: The number of times an ad was rendered on a page or device.
Reach: The total number of users shown an ad on any webpage or screen.
Return on ad spend (ROAS): A measure of the earned revenue from an ad campaign for each dollar spent on the campaign.
Knowing your goals and setting key performance indicators (KPIs) helps create effective ad campaigns and track their success ratio.
4.Budgeting
Budgeting is a vital part of your ad campaign planning. You need to allocate a daily budget for your campaign based on your needs and finances.
If mishandled, ad campaigns can easily eat into your investment. So make sure your bids are neither too high to consume all your profits nor too low that your ads don’t get enough impressions.
It takes some time for your ads to become profitable. At first, you might be spending more on your ads than earning from them, but staying patient and focused will get you there.
Amazon campaigns are designed to enhance your brand’s visibility through a variety of ad types, each tailored to specific goals. Let’s dive into the Amazon ad types to find the right fit for your advertising strategy.
1. Sponsored Products
As one of the most widely used Amazon ad types, Sponsored Products promote individual product listings based on a pay-per-click (PPC) model.
To be eligible for Sponsored Products you must be a professional seller, vendor, book vendor, Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) author, or agency. Also, your products must be in one or more eligible categories and be eligible for the Featured Offer. You can review the full list of permitted and prohibited categories here.
Sponsored Products ads appear on desktop and mobile devices. They can appear:
on product pages
at the top of, alongside, or within search results.
The ads are displayed to customers based on relevant keywords or products.
Benefits of Sponsored Products
Higher sales with simplified buying: Sponsored Products ads directly take buyers to the product detail page. This helps increase sales of individual products by simplifying the buying journey to one or two clicks.
Control over budgeting: You can control your ad spend with multiple budget options to manage your costs effectively. Also, you only pay when a customer clicks your ad, ensuring your investment is spent on interested customers.
Smarter decisions with data insights: The analytics dashboard provides valuable ad performance data to help you optimize your campaigns.
Targeted messaging: You can select from a number of keyword and product targeting options to reach relevant shoppers and optimize your campaigns.
How to Create a Sponsored Products Campaign?
To create a Sponsored Products campaign:
Register for sponsored ads.
Sign in to your account, click “Create campaign” and choose Sponsored Products.
Add the products you want to advertise.
Set your targeting, keyword, and bidding strategies.
Select your settings: name your campaign, set your start and end dates, and enter your daily budget.
Launch your ad campaign.
2. Sponsored Display
These ads allow you to reach audiences both on and off Amazon. Sponsored Display ads promote your products to targeted customers across the Amazon store and thousands of apps and websites.
Sponsored Display works on cost-per-click (CPC) as well as cost-per-mille (CPM) pricing models. In the CPM model, you pay Amazon per one thousand viewable impressions. Amazon does not set any minimum campaign spend requirement, and you can specify your daily budget and bids according to your needs.
Benefits of Sponsored Display Ads
Attract Customers from multiple channels: You can attract customers as they stream, shop, or browse by displaying ads across a wide range of channels like product detail pages, owned and operated sites like Twitch and IMDb, and third-party destinations.
Engage the most relevant audiences: Sponsored Display ads allow you to engage your existing audience by leveraging multi-platform capabilities. You can also use videos in your Sponsored Display ads.
Increase demand on and off Amazon: Whether you sell on the Amazon store or your own website, Sponsored Display ads can drive conversions, page visits, or reach.
Where do Sponsored Display Ads Appear?
Sponsored Display ads are displayed on
Amazon homepage and product detail pages.
Amazon-owned and operated sites like Twitch and IMDb.
and third-party platforms.
Sponsored Display ads are unique among Amazon ad types, as they extend beyond Amazon, reaching audiences on various third-party platforms.
How to Create a Sponsored Display Campaign?
To set up a Sponsored Display campaign:
Register for sponsored ads.
Sign in to your account, click “Create campaign,” and choose Sponsored Display. Name your campaign and choose settings.
Choose your optimization strategy and input your cost.
Choose between static image creative and video creative.
Add the products that you want to promote in this campaign.
Define your targeting strategies.
Customize your creative in the Creative Builder by choosing a headline and logo, image, or video.
Launch your campaign.
3. Sponsored Brands
Sponsored Brands are ads that showcase your brand and collection of products on the Amazon store. Their prominent placement and attractive visuals can grab your audience’s attention.
Sponsored Brands also supports both cost-per-click (PPC) and cost-per-mille (CPM) pricing models. In the CPM model, you pay Amazon per one thousand viewable impressions. Amazon does not set any minimum campaign spend requirement, and you can specify your daily budget and bids according to your needs.
Benefits of Sponsored Brands
Eye-catching placement: Sponsored Brands appear at the top of the search results and on product pages, helping your brand grab the attention of Amazon customers.
Establish brand presence: This Amazon ad type strengthens your brand presence on the Amazon store and builds brand awareness and customer trust.
Create customized visuals: With Sponsored Brands ads, you can create customized visuals to achieve higher click-through rates and branded searches than ads with only product images.
Where do Sponsored Brands Ads Appear
Sponsored Brands ads are displayed on the Amazon store on desktop and mobile devices. They appear:
above
alongside
or within search results.
How to Create a Sponsored Brands Campaign?
To create a Sponsored Brands campaign:
Register for sponsored ads.
Sign in to your account, click on “Create campaign,” and select Sponsored Brands. Name your campaign and choose your settings.
Select the campaign goal that aligns with your business objective.
Select your ad format. If you need help with building video creative, click “Use our video builder templates” to access the video builder.
Under “Landing page,” select whether you want to direct customers to your Brand Store or a product detail page.
Specify your targeting strategy and select bids for your campaign, or use Amazon’s recommendations.
Upload your visual, which can be a static image or video that features your product or brand.
Submit your ad. Amazon will review it within 72 hours.
4. Brand Stores
While Brand Stores are not essentially ads, they allow you to display your brand uniquely and creatively. A Brand Store is a customizable storefront on Amazon where you can showcase your brand and products. You can create and maintain a Brand Store free of cost.
Your Brand Store can showcase your entire collection of products. Moreover, it gives you a great opportunity to tell your brand story with engaging content like lifestyle imagery or videos.
How Customers Discover Your Brand Store
Shoppers can access your Brand Store from:
the byline on your product detail pages
your Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display campaigns
or via a short URL, such as amazon.com/brand-name.
Benefits of a Brand Store
Create a unique brand identity on Amazon: Showcase your brand, narrate your unique story, and earn trust with customers. Only brands with a pending or registered trademark can create a Brand Store on Amazon.
Educate customers about your products: According to Amazon, new-to-brand customers who visit a Store are more likely to make a purchase compared to those who don’t visit a Store. Also, they spend more on their order on average than those who didn’t visit a store. This is due to learning about the brand’s values and narrative.
Promote your entire product collection: Highlight your products in new ways, by adding videos or dedicated pages, to educate shoppers on the value of your products.
Increase traffic to your product collection: Users can use your Brand Store as a landing page for your Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display campaigns to increase traffic to your product suite.
Track engagement and performance: The Amazon Store insights feature allows you to track metrics like sales, visits, page views, and traffic sources.
How to Create an Amazon Brand Store?
To set up an Amazon Brand Store:
Register for sponsored ads. If you are not a registered brand, you’ll need to register your brand in the Amazon Brand Registry.
Sign in to your advertising console and click “Brand Store.”
Build your Brand Store with Amazon’s self-service store builder.
You can use and rearrange templates to build your pages or build your own design.
After designing your Brand Store, submit it for review.
Conclusion
Amazon Advertising can uplift your e-commerce business. By understanding the various Amazon ad types and how to utilize them effectively, you can improve your visibility, attract more customers, and ultimately drive sales.
Whether you’re starting small or looking to scale, Amazon Ads provides the tools to help you succeed. With careful planning, goal-setting, and budget management, your advertising efforts can lead to significant growth and success on the platform.
Amazon Advertising works on both cost-per-click (CPC) and cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM) pricing models, depending on the ad type. Ads are displayed across Amazon’s ecosystem, including product pages, Amazon-owned sites like IMDb and Twitch, and third-party websites. Amazon also provides metrics for impressions, clicks, and conversions to help advertisers monitor and optimize their campaigns for better ROI.
Sponsored Products ads focus on individual product listings, while Sponsored Brands ads promote the entire brand with multiple products. Sponsored Products aim to drive conversions for a specific product, whereas Sponsored Brands help with brand visibility and trust by showing a selection of products in high-visibility areas, like the top of search results.
Selecting the right Amazon ad type depends on your objectives:
For individual product sales: Sponsored Products are ideal.
For reaching audiences beyond Amazon: Sponsored Display extends visibility off-platform.
For branding and awareness: Sponsored Brands boost recognition by showcasing multiple products.
To build a brand presence on Amazon: A Brand Store showcases the entire suite of products in one branded storefront, ideal for creating a unique brand identity and educating shoppers about the product range.
Amazon doesn’t charge any upfront fees, and there are no minimum or maximum limits for Amazon PPC costs. The amount you pay for your campaign depends on the bidding price and the number of clicks or impressions on your ads.
