There are over 26 million transactions made per day (yes, 26 million!) and you still haven’t considered advertising on Amazon? If you are in the e-commerce business, have at least an Amazon Professional account and hesitate over whether you should advertise on the biggest e-commerce platform, keep reading. I will go through some fundamentals, benefits, and tips on Amazon advertising. Hopefully I’ll be able to change your mind and you will start to expand your business and attract more customers.
A quick recap on what Amazon is
Once upon a time, Amazon was a book retailer. Today it’s a magnate of e-commerce, logistics, payments, hardware, data storage, and media. According to the last available data there are 300 million different Amazon users and that’s reason one for you to seriously start thinking of advertising on this platform. Here are some more numbers that I think could be interesting for you:
- there are 30 million average monthly users of Amazon mobile app,
- Amazon accounts for 43% of all online sales,
- Amazon’s net sales were $177.9 billion and its net income was $3 billion in 2017,
- they shipped 35 items from the warehouse in the second you read this.
But here’s the most important fact: about 55% of web shoppers go directly to Amazon for product searches. It’s the place to be if you’re a B2C company.
The renamed Amazon advertising service and what it offers
A few weeks ago we got a big announcement from Amazon regarding their advertising platform and it’s good news. They decided to simplify the user experience of their ad platform and simply call it “Amazon advertising”. I’m telling you this because you might have come across previous naming’s of their advertising services and found them too confusing to even bother getting to know them. With the new design and name you may consider giving this platform another chance. Anyhow, let’s see the possibilities for you to shine!
Sponsored ads
Sponsored ads allow you to reach Amazon customers as they research and discover products. Ads appear on search results pages and relevant product pages, directing customers to your product detail page or store. First you select the products you wish to advertise, set your budget and choose a combination of keywords, products, and product categories you want to target. You only pay for performance, which means you’re not charged until a customer clicks on your ad, and you always control your campaign budgets.
Let me just clarify that there are two options with Sponsored ads: Sponsored Products if you have a Professional account and Sponsored Brands if you registered your brand on Amazon (Amazon Vendor account).
Display ads
By setting up display ads you are able to use relevant audiences, customizable creatives, and actionable insights to deliver your message to the right customers. You can set up these ads on Amazon sites, apps, devices, and third-party sites. You’ll be able to reach customers on or off the platform whether or not you sell on Amazon—reaching your ideal audience should be a piece of cake since Amazon advertising uses insights based on first-party shopping behaviors.
Video ads:
Video is currently the number one format for influencing your potential user in a fast and efficient way. Amazon lets you pair your display ads with video content and it’s a neat way to share the message and showcase your products or services.
You might be wondering where are these ads supposed to appear, right? Here’s the list with short explanations:
- Amazon’s search engine results page – very similar to Google Search ads, when a shopper types something into the Amazon search bar the ads may appear on the results page (the top, right column, the bottom or in-between other entries).
Example of SERP
- Sponsored brands – Amazon registered brands that have three or more products in their catalog can purchase headline ads which can then appear at the top of the results page.
- Email newsletters – your ad can also appear in a newsletter and this is purely in Amazon’s hands and depends on their decision to add some targeted products in the email. They really advertise a lot and this is also one of the perks which I’m sure you’ll love.
- Product pages – there’s a band of sponsored products that appears on product pages, usually below the fold, above the reviews and in product FAQ. Of course, it only shows products related to the item the user is currently looking at, here’s an example:
Example of product pages placement
Why you should include Amazon in your advertising strategy
Simple: it’s the best opportunity to influence users who are prepared to make a purchasing decision. If you’re a smaller or newer company, Amazon is an especially good opportunity to show your products to a wider audience. And since you have your Facebook and Google advertising all set up, why not include Amazon? Compared to Google Ads, people searching on Amazon are much deeper in the sales funnel and thus more relevant to you (conversion rates are much higher, 🙂 ).
Another plus is the cost of your campaign, which can be much lower than on Google Ads because, of course, there’s less competition. Marketers are just now realizing the potential of Amazon advertising, it’s just starting to grow and develop even more, which can be a great advantage for you.
Next, if you’re advertising your organic Amazon rankings will go up – this is due to the sales history of a product, if it sells better it will automatically go up the ranking of search results (wow, right!?).
The biggest reason is in the data that Amazon has: what people are buying and how. This is something Google and Facebook know nothing about. Advertising on Amazon is the most logical decision if you want your e-commerce business to be in the spotlight.
The potential of Amazon advertising is huge and it’s really simple to use, especially if you’re already a Google Ads expert. So, what do you say, will you try it?
Let me know in the comments!