Amazon is one of the world’s largest companies, and thousands of businesses worldwide sell their products via the Amazon marketplace. Most people know this, but did you know that Amazon also has a PPC marketing platform similar to Google Ads and Facebook Ads?
In this article, I answer the question, what is Amazon PPC including looking at how it works, the types of ads you can create, and how to optimize your Amazon PPC campaigns.
What is Amazon PPC?
Amazon PPC is an advertising platform specifically for the Amazon marketplace which allows third-party businesses such as yourself to create customized adverts for their products. Each time an ad is viewed and clicked on, the business is charged a small fee by Amazon, as per the standard pay-per-click model.
These ads use keywords that customers are expected to search for when looking for products on Amazon. When a customer completes a search with a keyword from your ad, the ad or product listing is then displayed in their search results.
There are various metrics involved to measure the success of your ads including ACoS, attributed sales, impressions, and clicks. A first-rate PPC service can help manage these things and optimize your ads, but it’s still a great idea to learn and understand the basics.
How Does Amazon PPC Work?
So, we know that as a business you create ads using the Amazon PPC platform. These include keywords that act as triggers. When someone searches on Amazon and uses a keyword in your ad, it could be displayed as a search result.
If the person then clicks on your ad, you get charged by Amazon. Like Google Ads, Amazon Ads has some key metrics that you must be aware of – I mentioned them above, but I describe them in more detail below:
- ACoS: The Advertising Cost of Sales is basically how much you spent on advertising, and the sales this generated. Ideally, you want to continually lower your ACoS.
- Attributed Sales: Attributed sales in Amazon PPC equates to how many sales you generate within a single week of your ad campaign running.
- Clicks: This is basically how many clicks you get on each Amazon ad. On the Amazon PPC platform, invalid clicks can take up to 3 days to be removed.
- Impressions: This represents how many times your ads were shown (but not necessarily clicked).
With these four metrics, you can calculate the effectiveness of your Amazon PPC ads and create tangible goals to work towards.
Types of Amazon PPC Campaigns
It’s vital to understand the different types of ads available on Amazon PPC as they work in different ways:
- Sponsored Product Ads: These ads are the most popular and approximately 77% of Amazon PPC customers use Sponsored Product Ads. These ads appear as real product listings at the top of search results when a customer searches for a relevant keyword.
- Sponsored Brand Ads: Brand ads are next in popularity and allow a business to market several of their products or their brand. These ads can be displayed at the top of search results, or even as a store spotlight video.
- Sponsored Display Ads: Display ads are great for retargeting and they can also be shown on affiliate websites like Facebook, Netflix, and Google so they have a broader scope.
How Long Does it Take for Amazon PPC to Work?
When looking at Amazon PPC, one of the most common questions I get is how long does it take for Amazon PPC to work? I get it – everyone wants to see results and a quick ROI. With Amazon PPC, there is no definitive answer; how long it takes depends on various factors. However, for a generalization, you can expect to see results anywhere between 1-2 weeks.
Best Practices and Tips for Amazon PPC Success
Different types of ecommerce business will approach their PPC campaigns differently, but there are some things you can do to monitor and optimize your Amazon PPC including:
- Set clear ad goals: You can’t jump into an Amazon PPC campaign without clear goals. Before joining the platform, look at your wider business goals and decide what you want to achieve from your Amazon PPC. You then have something to work towards and that can be used during reviews and monitoring.
- Perform detailed keyword research: Keyword research forms the backbone of your Amazon PPC campaigns so take the time to research the right ones. You have to think about what customers are most likely to search for, and there are plenty of keyword research tools available.
- Consider the use of negative keywords: Negative keywords are also great – these are keywords that you DON’T want your ads to appear for. For example, you may not want your products associated with particular words like cheap or budget.
- Use your PPC budget on high-performing products: If you have products that sell well and perform great on Amazon, it’s a good idea to concentrate your PPC efforts on these as you should get a better ACoS as opposed to trying to push struggling products.
- Keep track of key metrics: Constant analysis, monitoring, and improvement is the only way to keep your ads optimized and cost effective.
Boost Your Amazon Listings with Amazon PPC Today
As you can see, Amazon PPC has so much potential for businesses that sell their products on this platform and want to gain a competitive advantage. The key to success is to perform appropriate research, experiment with different ad copy, and be clear on your budget and what you want to achieve.
