Amazon Marketing Services (AMS) promises to drive sales by making your products stand out from their competitors, but how does Amazon Marketing Services work?
Amazon Marketing Services offers three types of ads for your products – Headline Search Ads, Sponsored Product Ads, and Product Display Ads. Depending on which type you choose, different data is used to place the ad in a location where potential customers are most likely to see and click on it.
Headline Search Ads
Headline Search Ads show up as a banner at the very top of Amazon’s search engine results page, making them the first thing that a shopper sees.
These ads are keyword driven, so you can choose which types of searches you want your ads to appear on.
If they typed “DSLR Camera,” your ad will appear if your campaign contains the same keyword or a close variant of it. You also have to out-bid the competition for that keyword. In the case of “DSLR Camera,” the keyword could cost you $.31 per click.
Here’s an example of a Nikon Headline Search Ad that appears for the “DSLR Camera” keyword.
You can choose where you want traffic from Headline Search Ads to be sent, including branded landing pages you can create within AMS, to custom pages for your best selling products, or even to a custom URL. Headline Search Ads also give you the ability to add custom copy to your ads, so you can create consistent messaging between your advertising and product page content.
Sponsored Product Ads
Sponsored Product Ads are also keyword driven, and can either be targeted by keywords or automatically. Automatic targeting allows an advertiser to rely on Amazon to target their ads to relevant searchers based on product information. With either targeting method, ads show up in a number of different places both in search results and product pages. On desktops these ads can appear on the right hand-side or on the bottom of search results pages as well as on product detail pages.
Take a look at the Sponsored Product Ads for the search term “DSLR camera.”
On mobile devices, Sponsored Product Ads appear below search results and at the bottom of product pages.
The minimum cost-per-click bid for Sponsored Products is $0.02, but Amazon claims a minimum of $0.05 per click is required to be “competitive.” If the searcher clicks on your ad, they are taken to the product detail page of the advertised product where they can complete their purchase.
Product Display Ads
Product Display Ads appear in several more locations than Headline Search and Sponsored Product Ads. These ads can show up on the side and bottom of product detail pages, on the customer reviews page, on websites outside of Amazon, as well as at the top of an offer listing page.
These “bottom of the funnel” ads are great for cross-selling, up-selling across product lines, and competing head-to-head with competitors.
Unlike the other two options, Product Display Ads are product targeting and interest based, not keyword based. Product targeting lets you choose the specific product detail pages where you would like your ad to appear. Interest-based targeting casts a wider net, letting you select from a list of consumer interests and categories where you would like to send your ad.
Since Product Display Ads aren’t keyword driven, they work a little differently. If the same potential customer is looking for DSLR Cameras, you can choose specific DSLR Camera product pages where you would like your ads to appear, whether they’re similar products in your company’s line or on the pages of your competitor.
For example, this author is promoting his book about digital photo retouching to digital shoppers on a top selling DSLR camera product page.
You can also send relevant product advertisements to anyone viewing specific interests you have predetermined, like “photography” or “cameras.” Once again, you are only charged if the potential customer clicks on your ad and is taken to advertised product page.
Amazon Marketing Services offers detailed reporting metrics that let you know the success of each marketing campaign, so you can analyze what’s working well and what isn’t, adjust your strategy, and optimize results.
Additionally, smart brands combine targeted advertising from Amazon Marketing Services back to their product page content. This strategic approach allows brands to increase discoverability for products on Amazon.
The Takeaway:
By targeting advertising to potential customers, you can get your products in front of the people who are most likely to buy.
Download The Definitive Guide to Amazon Marketing Services to start optimizing AMS campaigns and get the most out of your ad spend.
