Amazon has rolled out Amazon Marketing Services (AMS) in Canada, making the pay-per-click service available to Canadian vendors in time for the holiday season. The service has been popping up across the globe, so it is no surprise that AMS has expanded to include the eighth most lucrative market.
Current Amazon vendors can access AMS Canada and begin campaigns.
**Leading countries ranked by retail e-commerce sales from 2014 to 2019 (in billion U.S. dollars). (n.d.). Retrieved October 5, 2017, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/377624/leading-countries-retail-e-commerce-sales/
Why Now is the Time to Get Started with Your AMS Canada Strategy
Now that the service is live, it won’t pay to postpone your strategy until 2018. Early adopters will benefit from low cost-per-click (CPC) rates due to the lack of early competition, but as more brands start using AMS in Canada, the rates will gradually rise. Now is the time to strategically use AMS to increase your market share while costs are minimal.
How Can Brands Make the Most of the AMS Canada Launch?
Fortunately, if your brand already has an AMS strategy for the US market, getting started with AMS Canada will be simple. (If you are not using AMS in the US, see our primer here.)
The easiest path is to copy your US campaigns into the Canadian market, with adjustments for budget and French-speaking Canada. The existing campaigns should already have gone through a few levels of optimization, so they are a great place to start.
Since the US market spends more than 10 times as much as the Canadian market, your budget should reflect the value of potential return with AMS Canada. However, you should also consider your ecommerce goals: which products are key sellers in Canada? How much of your market share is typically expected to be dominated by Canada? Do you have goals to grow your Canadian market?
Additionally, 20 percent of the Canadian population speaks French. As you evaluate your campaigns, be sure to consider French keywords and implement your campaigns accordingly.
