Amazon PPC Strategies: Best Advanced Methods for 2022

Amazon's internal advertising system includes Pay-per-Click (PPC) advertising. Brands, agencies, and third-party sellers can use Amazon PPC to target specific keywords and generate product adverts that display in Amazon's search results and rival product listings.

Advertisers can use Amazon PPC to show their products to potential customers more frequently at crucial locations on the search results page, enhancing product visibility. Ads can be presented in prominent positions on the search results page, with varying degrees of visibility, depending on the ad kind. People use Amazon more than other search engines, such as Google, to look for things they want to buy.

You'll encounter terms such as auto campaign, negative keyword, keyword match types, and more. All of these seem very overwhelming, but we're here to help. We'll go over each of the major types of Amazon PPC ads in detail, along with tips on how to implement strategies.

Different Types of Amazon PPC Ads

Amazon provides vendors with a variety of PPC ad options. Certain ad types and methods have a higher return on investment (ROI) than others. One sort of Amazon PPC ad may outperform others in terms of Return on Ad Spend. What matters is that you figure out which one is suitable for your current scenario, requirements, and capabilities.

Of course, optimizing Amazon PPC ads takes time and practice, and your results may vary. However, having a rough idea of your return on investment might help you make better judgments.

Let's first go over all of the Amazon PPC ad options available to you:

Sponsored Products

Amazon PPC ads for Sponsored Products are used to drive more visitors to product detail pages. Sponsored Product ads appear alongside organic listings in search results, headline search ads, and product listing pages. This is the most prevalent Amazon PPC ad, with the majority of third-party sellers using it.

They assist in increasing the visibility of your goods. Keywords or items are typically used to align ad placements with specified search phrases or product categories, depending on the type of campaign.

You can use an automatic or manual campaigns keyword targeting technique when developing Sponsored Products advertising. Each has its own set of advantages and disadvantages.

Manual Targeting

Manual targeting entails choosing the terms you wish to bid on by yourself. Only if a shopper's search terms match your chosen keywords will manually customized advertising display.

You'll need to keep an eye on cost changes and make modifications as needed. This tuning frequently leads to more effective commercials and lower long-term ad expenditure.

Automatic Targeting

Targeting keywords that Amazon's algorithm deems pertinent to your product listing is part of the automatic advertising campaigns strategy. Amazon collects data from consumer clicks and sales over time, then tweaks the advertising to better suit your listing and enhance conversions.

From the seller's standpoint, this is the easier targeting technique. The disadvantage is that it does not provide the same level of customization as other ad types.

Sponsored Brand Ads

The adverts that display at the top of search results pages are known as sponsored brands. They appear in three packs, implying that you must have at least three things to promote. The prominent positions of Sponsored Brands can help you raise brand awareness and enhance brand discovery.

Sellers can choose one of three styles for Sponsored Brands, which can display at the top of Amazon search results as headline banners or further down the page as a video. These PPC ads take customers to product detail pages or a brand's Amazon Storefront when they click on them.

Sponsored Display Ads

You can use Sponsored Display advertisements to retarget your products outside of Amazon. Sponsored Display Ads are a type of PPC ad that allows you to target people who have looked at your products but haven't purchased them yet, or users who have expressed an interest in specific products or categories.

Professional sellers, vendors, and agencies who are members of the Amazon Brand Registry can use this PPC ads type. Charges occur only if a potential customer clicks on your display ad. That is why the bid expenses and daily budget are determined by you.

Sponsored ads display, unlike Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands ads, can be found on Amazon's affiliate sites, such as Google, Facebook, Netflix, and even mobile phone apps.

Understanding the ACOS

Advertising Cost of Sales (ACOS) is a term used to describe the cost of advertising. ACOS may be calculated as ACOS = Total Ad Spend Total Sales in layman's words, which signifies how much it costs to produce sales using Amazon PPC. Something is definitely wrong if your advertising costs exceeds your earnings.

Relevance of ACOS

What makes Amazon ACOS so valuable is that it allows merchants to keep track of all of their advertising expenses and estimate how much money they will make from a campaign.

However, as they develop their Amazon marketing tactics for better success, shops with a high ACOS are likely to have a high ACOS when just starting started advertising on Amazon. As a result, merchants must be patient and deliberately adopt techniques that will reduce their Amazon ACOS.

Furthermore, Amazon ACOS can assist retailers in determining their break-even threshold. It's critical to understand where this position is so that retailers can try to outperform it.

Why is a PPC Campaign Important?

Ecommerce firms and sellers have enormous chances to flourish as consumer shopping changes online. However, with an increase in online shopping traffic comes an increase in competitors vying for the most sales.

For Amazon businesses of all sizes, having an effective Amazon PPC strategy is almost mandatory. Because Amazon has hundreds of millions of products, listings can easily get lost in the shuffle. If you don't want to get consumed by the torrent of online traffic, you need PPC ads to give you a lifeline.

Getting Started on an Amazon PPC Campaign Structure

To get started, you first need to log on to your Seller Central account. After logging in, go to "Advertising" -> "Campaign Manager" -> "View Campaign" -> and finally, click "Create Campaign"

Now that we've established the first step, here are a few things you need to consider before actually clicking on that button:

Choose a PPC Ad type

To evaluate what works best for your brand, try out several types of PPC ad campaigns and experiment with automatic and manual keyword targeting. This selection has an impact on the position of your adverts in search results.

However, keeping your choice between sponsored companies or sponsored products would be excellent.

Sponsored Brands, which appear at the top of the search results page, are more expensive than Sponsored Products. We recommend using Sponsored Brands for your finest products with a high conversion rate.

The type of campaign you choose is mostly determined by the products you wish to promote. If you're just getting started with Sponsored Brands, you probably don't have the necessary performance statistics for your products. As a result, we recommend Sponsored Products for your Amazon PPC strategy.

Perform Keyword Research

‍

The first step is to create an exact keyword list. This is critical since you obviously want people to be able to locate you using any keyword they may use. Conduct thorough keyword research for exact match keywords, concentrating on related terms as well as competitive items. 

Keyword research for exact match keywords is essential for your initial steps toward creating an Amazon PPC strategy. And so, below are some tools you can use to make things easier:

Google keyword match types

This is a Google keyword search volume checker. Simply type your primary term into Google, and it will return a long list of related keywords and sub-keywords. It will also include a search volume estimate for each keyword.

However, this is not specific to Amazon. The results will reflect keywords used for Google ads and Google's search engine. However, this can still be used for your Amazon PPC strategy when utilized correctly.

Jungle Scout keyword tool

This tool works similarly to the Google Keyword Tool. However, it is geared towards Amazon! As a result, it will provide a list of keywords for you, together with an estimate of their search traffic. Not only that, but it will also recommend a PPC bid as well as a number of other possibilities.

Amazon search bar

The most frequently searched phrases will most likely be suggested by Amazon. This is a fantastic start to the search for relevant keywords for your Amazon PPC strategy. However, the search volume per keyword is unknown to us. As a result, you'll still require a Keyword Search Volume Tool like the ones listed above.

Set Your Daily Budget

‍

Amazon allows you to enter an amount to be set as your daily budget. This gives you a lot of control and flexibility to adjust accordingly. 

According to Amazon, if your ad expenditure falls below the stated amount at the end of the day, the remaining funds can be used to boost your advertisements by 10% at a later period in the same month.

The cost of your ads is deducted immediately from your account balance, and if there are insufficient funds in your account to pay the cost of your ads, Amazon will charge the credit card you provided at initial registration for your Seller Central account.

Manual or Automatic Targeting

When going for Sponsored products, you can choose between manual campaign targeting or automatic campaign targeting. However, it is highly recommended for beginners to opt for an automatic campaign. 

When incoming search queries look to be relevant, Amazon assigns an auto campaign to them. The keyword report shows whenever Amazon has assigned a campaign to a search query.

Bidding Strategy

There are three different options available for you to use as a bidding strategy:

Dynamic bids - down only

When you're less likely to sell something, Amazon decreases your bidding in real-time. This keeps your ad from showing up in searches for products that aren't relevant to you.

Dynamic bids - up and down

If your automatic-targeting sponsored product is more likely to convert, Amazon will increase the price of your bid by 10% in addition to lowering it as a 'down only' bid.

Fixed bids

You set your bid, and unless you choose to modify it, Amazon does not change it.

What's the ideal bid?

If you're just getting started with Amazon Ads, we recommend avoiding the new campaign bidding tactics at first. Instead, select the previous option "Dynamic Bidding – down only" or "Fixed bids". The latter technique is particularly suggested if you routinely monitor and alter keyword bids based on their performance.

Set default bid

You can establish a default bid for all types of matches if you want to make things easier for yourself. When you're first starting out, however, you can be a little more aggressive to secure early sales.

Bid by targeting group

You can choose bids by a targeted group for more advanced automatic targeting, and place various amounts for each method. There are four bid targeting strategies to choose from depending on the customer search term:

Close match

This displays your sponsored product ad to people who search for terms that are similar to your products. For example, if you are selling a "blue, silk pillow cover", your product will appear in searches made for "blue pillow covers" or "silk pillow covers."

Loose match

This displays your sponsored product ad to people who search for terms that are only tangentially relevant to your products. Back to the example earlier, your "blue, silk pillow cover" will show up in searches for "pillows covers" or "pillows."

Substitutes

Shoppers who view detail pages of products similar to yours will see your sponsored product ad. Your "blue, silk pillow cover" will show up in detail pages for "yellow, satin pillow covers."

Complements

Shoppers who visit the detail pages of products that complement yours will see your sponsored product ad. Your "blue, silk pillow cover" will show up in detail pages for "king-sized beds" or "Fluffy cotton pillows."

You can set different values for each of the bids of your PPC strategies. Amazon makes recommendations for these bids based on similar bid amounts by other similar sellers.

Create an Ad Group

Within the same campaign, ad groups are a means to organize and manage ads. Ad groups can be used to organize your ads by brand, product, category, or other criteria such as targeting strategy.

One or more ad groups make up each campaign. When you build a campaign, the first ad group is created. After you've saved the campaign, you can add more ad groups.

Within the ad group for Sponsored Products campaigns, you can additionally configure bids for an individual keyword or product target. You can apply a single bid to the whole ad group in auto-targeted campaigns.

You can start creating ad groups in the "Create Campaign" page. To create one, you need to enter the following information:

Ad group name

The name of your ad group refers to the items that have the same bids and budget. The name can be anything, but it should ideally assist you in remembering the ad group's purpose.

Products

Choose the products you want to promote. For beginners, it is recommended to choose only one product per ad group.

Targeting for Negative Keywords

‍

Amazon's broad match types and automatic campaigns frequently show your advertising on search terms that aren't relevant to your goods. By directing the system on which keywords not to show your ads on, we can increase its performance. The more you do it, the more precise your advertisements will get.

You can add a negative keyword to the automatic-targeting list if you don't want your product to appear in particular keyword searches. We recommend leaving the list blank when you first start off.

Using a negative keyword is helpful for your Amazon PPC strategy, but be careful not to use too many that are genuinely relevant to your goods. Lowering bids are preferable to negative matching if relevant keywords aren't performing well.

Launch Your Campaign

Make sure all of your information is correct. Be extra sure that your Amazon PPC strategy aligns with your objectives. After reviewing everything, go to the bottom of the page and click the yellow 'Launch campaign' button.

Your ad will normally appear on Amazon within 30 minutes to an hour.

Advanced Amazon PPC Strategies

After going over the fundamentals of developing an Amazon PPC strategy, you're now ready to start your very own PPC campaigns. For beginners, it's usually enough to know the basics and then go from there.

But if you want to do even better in the long run, then we've got you covered. Here are some of the more advanced Amazon PPC strategy you can utilize for your PPC campaigns:

Slowly work your way up from the bottom to the top

Going after the top, generic keywords as a beginner means your Amazon PPC strategy is bound for failure. As a small start-up seller, there's no sense in trying to compete with the bigger and more established brands in an attempt to increase your organic ranking. 

Even if your listings receive ad impressions, your chances of obtaining sales are slim because your competitors have a much stronger market position and reputation for those generic keywords.

Start your Amazon PPC campaigns using long-tail keywords to give yourself the best chance of success. Although it may not have the same search traffic as the top-level ones, you can be sure that the competition isn't as severe, and your conversion rate will be higher.

You should only go up in the pecking order and go for the generic, most-searched phrases once you've mastered and succeeded with these long-tail keywords.

Aim for a high ranking in Amazon SERP

If you have a high ranking, you will have more money to spend on PPC campaigns, giving you more options for which tactic to utilize. The bids and budgets associated with a keyword are generally determined by the search rank of the listing in the Amazon SERP for that search query.

Generally speaking, the higher your ranking is, the more keywords you'll want to use.

Page 5 and below

If your listing appears on Amazon's page five or six, it's best to concentrate on a small number of keywords that convert well rather than all of the phrases that appear there. You don't have enough money to cover all of the keywords in this scenario, so pick the ones that perform best for your goods.

Page 2 to 5

Landing on pages between 2 and 5 will mean you have more room to move. If you can, bid on the top-performing keywords on a regular basis. Concentrate on long-tail keywords and alternative terms that are more effective for you. As your conversion rate improves, Amazon will automatically change your ranking.

Page 1 to 2

Because you're only a few spaces away from the top slots, you'll want to take a more aggressive method of approach with your bids in order to secure and boost your product's visibility. Bid aggressively on top-tier keywords, but have some long-tail keywords on hand as a backup.

Bid adjustments according to ad placement

Determine the optimum ad placement for conversions and dedicate your ad budget to that PPC strategy. You can freely lower your offers on ad placements that don't convert well and raise your bids on those that do.

Get an experienced partner to help you

Running Amazon PPC campaigns isn't easy, to be sure. There are numerous factors and angles to take into account for your PPC campaigns. Furthermore, the duty of balancing your spending and earnings should not be overlooked. While you can manually implement all of these ideas and best practices into your Amazon PPC strategy , it will almost certainly take a significant amount of time and resources.

Seller Universe eCommerce Group has a long-standing portfolio and industry expertise. SUEG covers all Amazon management, with a particular specialty in advertising campaigns, optimize PPC campaigns, Amazon PPC management, and listing optimization.

If you are not confident about tackling the technicalities of Amazon PPC strategies, check out SUEG and get a highly reliable Amazon management partner.

‍