Several eCommerce business owners and their respective marketing teams often discuss Google Ads, YouTube Ads, and Facebook Ads (which includes Instagram).
Quite rightly, since these are the most commonly used platforms for product searches and for remarketing purposes.
While many business owners are also investing in Amazon Ads, there are still many others who are failing to take this opportunity to grow their business to the next level.
Here’s the question: is it worth it to advertise on Amazon? Do you really need another advertising platform for your marketing?
Vertical Leap, a marketing company from the UK, published a quick, yet extensive guide about Amazon advertising.
The post was incredible and acts as an eye opener for everyone.
To help you understand if it is worth it to advertise on Amazon before you spend 20 minutes of your day reading the guide, we’ll sum up the best and most important parts in this post.
Should you advertise on Amazon?
Amazon, like Facebook or Google, has its own advertising platform.
It works like a Google Shopping campaign so if your marketing team is familiar with shopping, they’ll quickly understand how Amazon Ads work.
Amazon ads also work like Google in terms of costs: you only pay for the clicks you get.
Now, here’s where Amazon may win over Google ads:
Because customers are actively looking for products on the platform they also use to purchase those products, they are more than ready to click on your add button and buy your product if it shows up first.
Markets will, of course, say that Google does the same.
And it does. It showcases your products to people who are looking for them.
But this works like when you go grocery shopping. You may not need another chocolate bar – it wasn’t even on the list!
However, if it’s showing up in front of you while you’re already at the grocery shop, you’ll more likely take it.
Amazon will be your supermarket. When your customer is browsing there, he/she is ready to buy.
If your eCommerce business is an Amazon FBA, you should always set aside a piece of your marketing budget for Amazon Ads.
The prospective customers are hotter leads and you’ll be getting them while their wallets are on the table.
How to advertise on Amazon
Like with other platforms, there are different types of ads.
We’ll be covering them briefly but you can head over to the Amazon Ads website to learn more about each one of them.
Sponsored Products
Like Vertical Leap puts it, these are your sort of Google Search campaigns.
Let’s say your customer is looking for a new keyboard and your eCommerce sells keyboards as well. Your keyboard can show up in the top results and have just a small, unnoticeable mention that it is a sponsored product.
Like this one:
Sponsored brands
Highly effective for brands who take their branding very seriously. But also a bit more expensive.
We would not recommend these ads for eCommerce businesses who sell multiple products, like gardening tools, kitchen appliances, and so on.
That’s because these ads show up in predefined categories that are related to the products you sell.
Every time your potential customer enters the Amazon website, he/she can search for specific categories: books, PC hardware, etc.
These ads are extremely powerful because they include an image, custom headline and up to three product listings.
Positioning your brand with sponsored brand Amazon ads will make you stick in that potential customer’s brain every time he thinks he needs something that you offer.
Because sponsored brands ads are all about showing up on the biggest online billboard there is.
Sponsored Display
To advertise on Amazon display ads is the same as with Google Ads display.
Basically, you can show your product in another product’s page.
These campaigns are effective in, at least, two ways:
- Remarketing campaigns. Remind someone they haven’t purchased your product yet;
- Order Bump sort of thing. If your product can be a complement of someone else’s, make it appear on that product page. If a customer is looking for a sound system, present them with a TV.
Always have a display campaign in place. These are usually cheaper campaigns and they work wonders to get an otherwise lost customer into an actual customer.
Video Ads
You don’t see that many videos on Amazon, right?
But Amazon owns video platforms and websites, like Amazon Prime or Twitch, or subsidiaries like IMDb.
Your product ads can be shown to future customers in video format, which is currently the preferred media for remarketing and cold leads.
For remarketing, you can present your product in depth. Show potential customers how it works or show them some feedback from previous customers.
For cold leads (people who’ve never looked for your product), you can come up to them as an opportunity to fix a problem.
If their sound system is good, but the TV is not 4k… How about upgrading to 4k?
This is just an example, of course. Your creative team can help you come up with the perfect video ad campaigns to advertise on Amazon.
Audio Ads
These are similar to the ones you may have heard on Spotify.
Amazon also has its fair share of audio only devices and platforms, like Amazon Music or other devices Alexa can connect to.
Audio ads are great and work similarly to video ads. With the prime difference being that there’s no image and you need to make a compelling case using audio only.
Many businesses have been doing these ads for ages, while advertising on the radio, so it’s not impossible to make it work.
Now’s the time to start advertising on Amazon
This was just a brief introduction to Amazon advertising and its potential.
Ads costs are increasing every day, which means your marketing budget will either be increased as well or you’ll need better, more suited strategies.
To advertise on Amazon all you need is someone who’s familiar with Google Ads. The platforms are similar and entering this new ad platform can help you increase potential sales, especially with Sponsored Products.
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PS: if you’re thinking about selling your eCommerce business, schedule a free call with an AEPIC Partner’s advisor. We’ll help you to figure out the fair valuation of your business and also help you find the right buyer.
