What You Should Know About Amazon PPC Service?

Table of contents:

• What is Amazon PPC, and why should you start with it?
• Ten reasons to start with Amazon PPC
• How to start advertising on Amazon with zero experience
• Basic Amazon PPC terms and metrics you need to know to start
• Write a captivating copy for your Amazon ad
• How to prepare for a successful Amazon PPC campaign
• Growing on Amazon and crushing your competition
• Getting those “gold goose” keywords on your own
• Keyword harvesting
• Positive and negative keyword harvesting
• Keyword match types for manual campaigns
• Non-performing keywords
• How to know if you need an Amazon PPC Expert
• Sellers Alley PPC Academy

What is Amazon PPC, and why should you start with it?

Amazon PPC (pay-per-click) is advertising done through Amazon’s ad platform — Amazon Seller Central. PPC works by paying when a potential customer views an ad, but advertisers will pay only when a user clicks on an ad on Amazon.

The most important thing to know is that Amazon PPC is an auction system where advertisers bid on keywords. So, when an Amazon customer performs a product search, the sellers with the highest bids on relevant keywords win the auction. That means that their products will be listed first. But, the best thing about Amazon PCC is the rule that advertisers only pay the bid price if their Amazon ad gets clicked.

With Amazon PPC, you can create and optimize your campaigns based on your goals and business strategy.

The good news with PPC is that Amazon PPC can help improve organic sales. Organic and PPC sales are linked and affect each other.

Ten reasons to start with Amazon PPC

1. More buyers start their search on Amazon and usually finish the purchase there.
2. PPC will increase your organic sales.
3. Enhanced Brand Content will allow your small business to look like a big one.
4. PPC will bring you Adjust Bids by Placement feature.
5. You will build brand awareness.
6. You’ll get new customers with PPC. Lots of new customers!
7. You can use PPC to get more product views.
8. PPC will allow you to create more of those eye-catching video ads.
9. While using Amazon PPC, you pay per click, not per impression.
10. You’ll advertise on the most secure and trustworthy eCommerce platform.

How to start advertising on Amazon with zero experience

• Write down your goals and determine if you want sales, reviews, or brand exposure.
• Do the research and read about different Amazon PPC strategies.
• Create both Auto and Manual campaigns.
• Create ASIN targeting campaigns using this tutorial.
• Utilize negative targeting.
• Export reports for your campaigns and take some time to study them.

To help you further, we wrote down the 5 questions to ask yourself before making an Amazon PPC strategy:

1. For which products should I run a PPC campaign?
2. How important are copy and design, and should I invest in them?
3. Do I know all relevant metrics?
4. Do I know my KPIs by heart?
5. Will I know how to use the data from the reports to my advantage?

Once you answer all these questions, you will be on track to know how to create an Amazon PPC strategy for your account.

Basic Amazon PPC terms and metrics you need to know to start

Whether you are an Amazon seller or an Amazon vendor, you should know the basics of Amazon PPC terms and metrics. Key terms and key metrics are never out of fashion!

Amazon PPC key terms:

• ASIN - A unique identifier that represents your advertised product on Amazon.

• ACoS - Advertising Cost of Sales. It is also defined as the contribution of the amount spent on a campaign in total sales during the campaign run dates.

• TACoS - Total Advertising Cost of Sales.

• CPC - Cost per Click.

• Conversion rate - The percentage of customers that have clicked on your ad and made a purchase.

Most important Amazon PPC Metrics:

• ACoS - Some call it real, blended, or total ACoS, but we must admit that this is one of the most important metrics. The ACoS percent depends on the size of the account. The biggest accounts on Amazon, with high income, usually have a smaller percent of ACoS. Smaller businesses that just started selling have higher ACoS percentages because they are mainly ready to invest a lot and earn almost nothing to build their business.

• CPC - As more people click on your ad, Amazon thinks you are relevant and shows your ad to more people. So, your CTR is going up, and the CPC is going down. Also, it is essential to know that CPC varies from country to country.

• CPA - This metric refers to a Cost per Sale. There are two different versions to track: 
• The first one is for PPC, and it lets you track all the money you spent to get one PPC sale.
• The second is for CPA. Basically, how much money you spent to get one sale.
  
  
• CR - Conversion Rate is tracked on Amazon a little bit differently than the other advertising platforms. Amazon has unit session percentages regarding the units being sold per one session. Note: This metric is always higher than what we usually consider the normal conversion rate on other platforms.

• ROAS - Return on Ad Spend is almost the same metric as ACoS. We already said that ACoS is your ad spend divided by your revenue from ads. So, the definition of the ROAS would be your revenue from ads divided by ad spend.

Write a captivating copy for your Amazon ad

To run successful Amazon ads, you will have to take some time to utilize the full potential of creative copywriting for promoting your products. There are many tips and tricks for writing a successful copy for an Amazon ad, but we will focus on the main four:

• Master the description - Your ad has to be written clearly and accurately, providing customers with the correct information about your product. Also, the description needs to be in the primary language of the Amazon site on which your ad is displayed.

• Pinpoint your target audience - Since Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display have a 50 characters limit for the headline, it is crucial to focus on your product's most significant benefits that will work well with your target audience. The secret could be in the product's bullet points, old versions of the description, and customers reviews.

• Nail the CTA rules - A clear and direct CTA will improve your ad's performance and is required for desktop ads running onsite and for Fire device ads. It's encouraged on mobile but not required. Also, you can't use end punctuation, and CTA has to remain in a single line.

• Forget about pressuring language - Amazon protects the customer's shopping experience by prohibiting pressuring language, which can create a sense of urgency.

How to prepare for a successful Amazon PPC campaign

The world of Amazon is expanding, with the number of sellers and products increasing every day, and Amazon PPC campaigns multiplying every millisecond. Many of those campaigns are successful, but many sellers struggle every day to keep them profitable.

It’s ok not to know if your Amazon PPC campaigns are successful initially, but you will have to master this lesson if you want to stay in the Amazon business.

Here are some tips and tricks that will help you build a successful Amazon PPC campaign:

1. Before you start, make sure to have your product page well optimized. This is the only way to compete with other sellers in the beginning. Ensure you have good quality images, suitable titles, clear bullet points, and keyword-optimized product descriptions.
2. Get to know all campaign types very well before deciding to go with one.
3. Learn how to read PPC metrics to use those reports to your advantage.
4. Always take time to analyze your PPC campaign performance during and after the campaign is over. This is how you will be able to read the signs and do better next time.
5. Be bold with those video ads! Video ads perform better than any other media formats on advertising platforms. It's not just that consumers that like video ads, video ads drive performance!
6. Know the difference between Sponsored Brands Videos & Amazon OTT Video Ads.
7. Use custom image ads because they have a higher conversion rate, a better visual look, and they will bring more clicks.
8. Learn the role of bidding in reducing PPC spend and try to understand the whole bidding strategy.
9. Take full advantage of the Penny Auto Campaigns.
10. Learn how to create Non-Performer Campaigns so that you can use those keywords that are making no sales.
11. Having Sponsored Display product targeting campaigns could be crucial for your products.
12. Learn everything you can about the Amazon Ad Spend strategies — profitability and scaling.
13. Having low inventory doesn’t mean that you don’t need to optimize your campaigns.
14. Test advertising your products through Amazon Category Targeting campaigns.
15. Amazon marketing campaigns are different for new and developed sellers. Learn the difference in those campaigns and save money on the way!

Growing on Amazon and crushing your competition

So, let’s say that you started with Amazon PPC on your own, and you kind of figured it all out. You started growing your business and reading the reports like a pro. Congrats! 

Now you’re ready for the next step — embrace your growth, be smarter about your campaigns and compete on a higher level with other sellers.

To help you grow your Amazon advertising revenue, here are some tips we apply every day:

• Advertise with your best ASINs - You must have noticed that the top-performing ASINs in organic are also top performers in PPC. So, feel free to choose a few most successful ASINs each month, collect profit, and expand to other ASINs.

• Your budget is your advantage - The initial budget doesn’t have to be high to grow your advertising revenue. If you have an overall low budget, as most beginners do, you probably noticed that a budget of $10 daily per campaign still allows your campaign to collect traffic.

• Optimal bids run the world - Bids on keywords you choose and ASINs that you think you need should be neither too high nor too low. If the bid is set too low, the campaign will not run and collect impressions, and there will be no traffic (you probably know this by now). But, if it’s high, it is possible to see an increase in the average CPC, which leads to an increase in spending. Your goal is to set up the most optimal bid so that the campaign can successfully convert with the lowest possible spend.

• Optimize your placements - Yes, it is essential to regularly optimize your campaigns to maintain the best possible product ranking. The best practice is to optimize placements at least once every two weeks.

• Run more campaign types simultaneously - To be competitive in an enormous Amazon market, you need to seize every opportunity to show your product to a potential customer. We can even say that creating all types of campaigns is necessary to compete every day.

• Know the most common mistakes made while setting an Amazon sponsored ad - Whether you’re doubting that you need a brand campaign with your brand name, or you think that placing high bids will get you where you want to be faster, make sure to take some time to study those mistakes before starting.

Getting those “gold goose” keywords on your own

To compete on Amazon, you will need stellar keywords for all your campaigns. This is why you need to know more about keyword harvesting, negative keywords, and our favorite keyword match types.

Keyword harvesting

Keyword harvesting refers to adding customers’ search terms that have converted and performed well from Auto and Manual campaigns.

Positive and negative keyword harvesting

Positive harvesting includes transferring the converting search terms or ASINs from one ad group or campaign to another. 

Negative harvesting means excluding search terms or ASINs that are not profitable by putting them to the negative exact or negative phrase in campaigns in which they are targeted.

Keyword match types for manual campaigns

Manual campaigns can be conducted for Sponsored Products or Sponsored Brands. We can target broad, phrase, and exact keyword match types, and each type has use cases and different rules about keyword harvesting.

• Exact Match - In the exact match, the ad will appear if the customer’s search term is exactly the same as the keyword targeted in the campaign. In this case, we never conduct keyword harvesting.

• Broad Match - In the broad match, the ad will appear when the customer’s search term contains all the targeted keyword terms or close variations (plural forms, acronyms, steaming, accents, etc.). We can conduct keyword harvesting in this case.

• Phrase Match - The ad will pop up in the phrase match when the customer’s search term is the same as a targeted keyword. We can conduct keyword harvesting in this case.

Non-performing keywords

If you’re an Amazon seller, your advertising campaigns are probably full of different relevant and less relevant keywords. You will notice that some keywords get you no traffic at all. But there is still a reason why you should give those non-performing keywords a second chance.

Use non-performing keywords to start non-performing campaigns. 

Extra tips:

1. Start with lower bids/budgets and monitor these campaigns
2. Place no more than 20 keywords per Ad group
3. Try separating them into different campaigns to analyze each keyword with more attention

How to know if you need an Amazon PPC Expert

Once you have established your product on Amazon, you probably realize that selling your product on Amazon requires a lot of work. 

To figure out Amazon Ads, you need a lot of time and effort. Yes, you can find time to study advertising on Amazon, but this is why most small business owners hire an Amazon PPC expert:

• PPC isn’t something you can learn in one day. Amazon Ads can be very complex. You must simultaneously consider keyword match types, bid adjustments, location extensions, specific e-commerce audiences, etc. Before starting with this, you need to know which features are relevant to your business. After that, you need to learn how to maximize their use.

• Great PPC experts take Amazon Exams. After passing the exam with a high-enough score, they become Amazon-accredited.

• Amazon PPC is time-consuming! Things change fast on Amazon, and you need to take time every day to study and spot these changes to help your business with Amazon PPC. PPC requires time and attention. For example, from setup, through the ongoing basis, and to the process of nurturing it, you will need to know how to evolve with changes to stay ahead of your competitors.

• Do you wonder if you can adapt your PPC campaign effectively by yourself? Well, be sure that analytical tools and compiling data from various sources are something that will become vital for your business. Don't worry - you will need just a couple days to figure out which of your ads are actually working and what pages users are viewing the most.

Sellers Alley PPC Academy

Sellers Alley runs a free PPC Academy on YouTube, packed with valuable tips and tricks. We suggest you watch our expert videos before deciding if you can pull off the Amazon PPC campaigns on your own or if you need some help from PPC specialists.

Even if you are eager to do this yourself, leave us a question in the comment section of our videos, on Instagram posts, or TikTok videos, and we’ll make sure to reply. 

Also, visit our Facebook page and join our Facebook groups where all masterminds of Amazon PPC have their morning coffee, and let us know what's bugging you.

If you strive to become a successful Amazon seller, investing time and money is necessary. By setting your PPC campaigns correctly, you’ll see a boost in sales, the visibility of your products will improve, and your ROI and profit will increase.

Remember that patience is crucial. It takes up to 72 hours for the Amazon PPC platform to get all the information from your first PPC advertising campaign. Those three days may seem like a lifetime, but keep in mind that those will be the first and last three days without any analytic information.

If your Amazon PPC journey is not as easy as you thought it would be, contact us HERE, and we'll let you know how we can boost your sales!