In an increasingly competitive online retail ecosystem, advertising has become unavoidable. It comes as no surprise that Amazon’s revenue from advertising crossed the $10 billion mark last year. It is an incredibly profitable advertising solution that has helped sellers make millions.
However, a poorly optimized Amazon PPC campaign can eat through your advertising budget for very little return. To get guaranteed results you need to master some fundamentals and make data-informed decisions.
Before diving into the tips, it is important to understand that they are the foundations of a good advertising strategy. There will always be factors that vary depending on your business goals. You need to study and analyze the context and your goals when creating your Amazon PPC strategy.
Without further ado, let’s take a look at the Amazon PPC tips guaranteed to help you boost sales.
Tip 1: Structure your campaigns
An organized campaign is easier to manage and optimize. Time is money, and a poorly structured campaign will end up costing you hours of your valuable time.
There is no fixed rule on how you should structure your campaigns. That is a subjective decision. Find a structure and a naming convention you are comfortable with and use it consistently. Clarity is vital.
Amazon sellers generally create ad groups under the following categories:
- By product category
- By brand
- By top sellers/your top competitors
You can sort this further by using the following:
- Product similarity
- Keyword similarity
- Amazon Match type
These are just options that you can choose from. You do not need to limit yourself to them. Find a structure that works for you, your niche, and your product line!
While a poor campaign structure won’t be an issue early on, it affects your ability to scale and increases the likelihood of cannibalization.
Tip 2: Run automatic campaigns
Everyone in the industry agrees that manual campaigns have the potential to unlock better returns. However, that does not mean that you should ignore automatic campaigns.
Both types of campaigns complement each other.
Automatic campaigns can be used to find high-converting and profitable long-tail amazon keywords. This is because Amazon’s algorithm discovers potential keywords based on the available data. In short, Amazon does keyword research for you.
Once you discover these keywords through amazon keyword research, you should shift them to manual campaigns to improve profitability further.
Tip 3: Start automating
Managing your PPC campaigns is like a full-time job. There are multiple moving parts and you need to be alert to ensure your competitors aren’t taking your ad spots. Bid management is almost a daily affair while keyword harvesting and targeting need to be optimized every week.
Modern technology allows you to easily automate such monotonous tasks. This will save time and eliminate the possibility of any human error. This can be incredibly helpful once you start scaling and have to manage over 30 campaigns regularly.
Before you start using a PPC automation tool, make sure you find one that fits your business needs. You can read this detailed guide to learn more about Amazon PPC automation.
Tip 4: Leverage long-tail keywords
There is usually less competition for long-tail keywords. Consequently, the cost-per-click is usually lower. At the same time, they are also very profitable.
The longer and more detailed a search, the more likely it is that a customer knows exactly what they want to buy. Since there is less competition, it gives you a better shot at winning the bid. The high purchasing intent also makes it easier to close a sale – if your product has the features necessary.
One thing to remember when using long-tail keywords: Make sure it is relevant to your product!
Tip 5: Use negative keywords
Reducing wasted ad spend is critical and the best way to weed out the non-performers is by using the negative targeting feature. A product will no longer be advertised for a keyword when it is marked as negative in the campaign.
You should be on the lookout for keywords with high CTR, but no conversions. This is a situation where a keyword is costing you money.
In situations where a keyword has low conversions, it is recommended that you try optimizing the bid and listing first. If attempts at optimizing do not work, then you should consider marking it negative.
Watch this video to learn crucial Amazon PPC bidding strategies:
Tip 6: Keep fine-tuning your campaigns
Creating the perfect Amazon PPC campaign is next to impossible. There will always be elements you can improve or trends you can tap into. That is why you need to pay attention and optimize your PPC campaigns regularly.
Nobody gets it right on the first day. Effective keyword research and a robust advertising strategy will ensure a smooth start, but optimization is iterative. You need data to trickle in before you can make adjustments. That is why the most successful advertising campaigns are the result of months of optimization.
How can you ensure that you make the right decision every time? You need data and you need expert insights – both of which you’ll get with SellerApp. You can let their experts take over and manage your accounts or you can do it yourself with the help of the state-of-the-art advertising suite.
Final thoughts
These are some of the tricks you can use to run profitable campaigns. So, what are you waiting for? Start leveraging Amazon PPC campaigns to boost your sales!
Arishekar N, the Head of Marketing at SellerApp, specializes in digital marketing, in addition to website keyword optimization for search engines. His areas of expertise include enhancing the organic ranking of web pages on search engines with innovative SEO strategies and online promotions.
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