Creating the Best PPC Campaigns with Sponsored Products
PPC campaigns, or pay-per-click, is a method of driving traffic to a website or product listing. Instead of traditional advertising, where you pay a flat fee and hope for the visits, the individual running the PPC campaign is charged based upon the number of clicks generated by the campaign and the ads within it up to a certain budgeted amount. Amazon allows for PPC advertising via Sponsored Products campaigns, meaning sellers can advertise their products and generate traffic to their listing.
Most of the world’s product searches actually run through Amazon instead of Google. In 2018, the two giants flipped places, with Amazon taking a 56% to 44% lead. When someone searches on Amazon, the first row of results highlights advertised products. The three “top” placement spots are up for grabs through Sponsored Products campaigns. You can steal a competitor’s sale by sliding into the search results with PPC campaigns!
- Have Good Listings
This may sound like a no-brainer, but you’d be amazed at the money thrown at PPC campaigns for products that have poor listings. If someone navigates to your product and discovers a 3-star rating, a few bad reviews, and poorly written copy, they’ll hit the back button. As soon as someone hits the back button on their browser, those dollars for the click are wasted.
Try a help desk solution which will manage your customer relationships through feedback and review request emails. Messaging services can protect your customer ratings, which are essential to advertising campaign success. Amazon has some restrictions on who can run PPC campaigns based upon seller metrics. If your brand isn’t performing well, you won’t be eligible to advertise.
Don’t toss excessive money at listings that don’t have good reviews or ratings yet! Build a little momentum for a product and then use the PPC campaign to ride that momentum into the profit-atmosphere! Monitor your metrics & know the basics to call audibles on the fly and make sure that the products you’re advertising will sell once people get there.
- Identify Your Costs
Know your margins so you are aware of how much you can safely invest into Sponsored Products PPC campaigns to still breakeven. Factor in the product cost and Amazon’s fees for sales and FBA, be aware of fees associated with your specific setup, and then you’ll be able to spend anything up to the breakeven point and still make money!
You can save money by lowering your budget, but also analyze your CPC (cost per click) and avoid campaign draining keywords.
- Do Your Keyword Research
The most popular type of PPC research that you’ll come across is “keyword research.” Keyword research is the most important type of research that you’ll do, because your ads only appear when a search term matches one of the keywords in your PPC campaign.
Going after high-volume search words can get you a ton of purchases because there is more traffic going towards your listing should you win the bid. These high-volume words are crowded, and the bidding cost matches the volume of the crowd. Go for the high-volume words to muscle out the competition in big game keyword searches, but keep an eye on your conversion rate as you’ll want to ensure you’re converting if you are spending more for each click.
The lower-volume searches tend to be less crowded and contain more specific queries. Low-volume searches are specific, usually containing three or more words. “Bright red stuffed animal” and “little stuffed bunny toy” will rank much lower on search volume than a simple “stuffed animal,” but if you happen to be offering stuffed animals that are bright red or tiny bunnies, then target those specific searches.
Keyword search tools and other Amazon PPC services can help you determine and target that audience you’re seeking with well-placed ads and punchy headlines. It’s essential to manage your keywords for maximum profit.
The second, less glamorous type of research is to familiarize yourself with PPC campaigns in general (like in this post!). Do PPC research on sites with dedicated blogs. Pay attention to your stats, run A/B tests, and get advice from other sellers and consulting companies.
- Have a Complete Selling Strategy
Using PPC campaigns is an important piece of an overall marketing strategy. There are a couple of different PPC ads that Amazon offers in addition to Sponsored Product ads.
Sponsored Brands offer you the greatest customization and brand awareness. If you’ve got a cluster of products with a story, this is your go-to. Product display ads help you piggyback off of a different product listing to suggest your own. If you can predict the connections in the brain of your clients, you can get them from clicking on bath towels to checking out shower curtains.
You can get services which automatically reprice your goods for optimized selling, helping you win the buy box more often and stay eligible for Sponsored Product campaigns. Make sure to track your competitors, because their Sponsored Products might show up next to yours! Be sure that your copy, images, and product branding can go head to head with others.
Of course, you don’t want to be changing campaigns every day. Good data (and therefore, good decision making) take time and experience to develop. Don’t pull the trigger too early on changes. Let ads run for enough time to have viable, decision-worthy data before making any major changes.
- Call Audibles
Remember to stay open to adjustments, such as changes related to seasonal product campaigns or holidays. Sometimes your strategy will change with the seasons, and sometimes it will change because it isn’t working! Pay attention to the trajectories of keywords and pricing, not the static numbers. Continue to run keyword searches and watch your metrics over time.
Use your negative keywords to prevent the low-turnover search terms from costing you money, and cut the high cost per click keywords from campaign if the ends don’t justify the means.
- Be a Data Junkie
You might start out by letting Amazon run an automatic campaign. It will use its best algorithms to match you with the best search terms for your products. But just like in stocks, you don’t beat the market by playing with the basic set: you make bets.
Collect data from your campaigns and get creative with it. If you can read the data and figure out which keywords and search terms get the highest sales and then predict the trends of keywords, you’ll generate more revenue. Amazon only uses data it already has, but you can make predictions based on the data you see.
You aren’t trying to fool people, you’re trying to satisfy their queries. If you knew, for example, that the youngest buying generation had a different name for “coffee mugs,” then snagging that keyword early could drive a ton of business with low competition.
Conclusion
Sponsored Product ads are the most popular variety of PPC that Amazon offers. It isn’t rocket science unless you’re selling rockets. Do your keyword research, know your profit margins, have quality listings… then open the gates. The best Sponsored Product campaign is the one that adapts over time.
About the Author
PPC Entourage efficiently optimizes and expands your Amazon Sponsored Products campaigns to increase sales and profits so you can focus on growing your Amazon business. Sign up for a free 14 day trial at https://ppcentourage.com/
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