Understanding and utilizing opportunities in the marketing space is essential for managing a successful e-Commerce program and, with the holidays fast approaching, many companies are already looking for high-impact strategies to get the most out of the 2017 shopping season. Amazon continues to be the first touch point along a shopper’s path to purchase. Many studies, including one conducted by BloomReach Inc. in 2016, state that more than 50% of all shoppers begin their journey on Amazon, meaning that if you have yet to begin marketing your products on this retail giant, heading into the holiday shopping season is the perfect time to claim your stake.
In an ever-evolving industry like digital marketing, adaptability not only defines brands in relation to competitors in the short term, but could serve as a crucial catalyst of sales for years to come.
What is Amazon Marketing Services?
AMS, a sales platform hosted by Amazon.com, operates in an auction-like fashion, similar to Google, Bing and Yahoo! Gemini, in which a bidding system is employed to map queries conducted on Amazon to keywords included in AMS campaigns. Winning the query thus results in the display of one or more products. The utility in AMS itself stems from the control it enables for managing the products advertised, the bids of the keywords included and any budgets under consideration, all while providing metrics of performance and efficiency at the keyword, product and campaign levels.
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AMS has been such a remarkable and profitable tool for advertisers because the platform services shoppers nearest the bottom of the sales funnel. Since these people are actively searching for the products they need, it’s likely these searches will result in a transaction. Thus, AMS creates low-effort, high-impact marketing opportunities for advertisers to specifically target consumers with the intentions of purchasing a product.
Further up the sales funnel, however, Amazon offers its vendors another service, called Amazon Media Group (AMG), which provides offerings like programmatic display and visual Fire and Kindle advertising experiences. These strategies are typically oriented around longer term goals like brand awareness and market share growth. Therefore AMG tends to be less ROI-focused than AMS. Many organizations begin with AMS, later utilizing AMG as well, to fill the marketing funnel when the growth of their AMS program begins to slow.
Overall, leveraging AMS heading into the holidays is a great way to begin generating revenue, occupying market share and acclimating to the environment before considering other products within the Amazon family.
Who’s Eligible For Amazon Marketing Services?
To be eligible for AMS, a company must become an “Amazon Vendor,” enabling product sales on Amazon.com while also selling products to Amazon in bulk as a “first-party” seller. There are three kinds of vendors that are first-party sellers and qualify for AMS:
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Vendor Central – An Amazon managed service and available by invitation only, based on previous sales volume and good business practices;
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Vendor Express – Like Vendor Central in that orders are sold to Amazon in bulk and fulfillment is performed by Amazon. However, because this service is free and has open-enrollment, it comes with caveats such as having a trial period with unspecified time frames and, at times, the forfeiting of price control; and
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Advantage Central – A self-service consignment program intended for publishers, music labels, studios, authors and other content owners.
What Ads Are Available Within AMS?
AMS offers different campaign types that shoppers interact with in different ways, increasing the number of touch points the seller can present. Keep in mind that an advertiser can use these ad formats in tandem, and therefore should consider doing so to reach its target audience, especially during the pivotal holiday shopping season. AMS currently offers the following ad types:
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Headline Search ads: Operate using biddable keywords and display at the top of the results page, presenting an immediate advantage as the first products a shopper sees when landing on the search results page. These ads consist of a text line that permits up to 50 characters, and the advertiser selects which product images to display for the ad. To create Headline Search campaigns, a seller must create a custom URL housing all the products to present when the shopper clicks this ad or sends traffic to the brand’s Amazon page.
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Sponsored Product ads: Operate using biddable keywords, but display in a mix of top, bottom or the right-hand panel of the page, and contain separate sales information such as price, ratings and expected delivery date. This information is generated automatically when the ad displays, and therefore does not require the advertiser to have this information when creating the campaign. Additionally, because these ads can display products multiple times per search, the number of impressions (and thus, the number of times you’re able to connect with your audience) is typically higher for Sponsored Product campaigns than Headline Search campaigns.
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Product Display ads: Provide advertisers the opportunity to target another product based on its ASIN (product number) or based on categories of shopper interests. When a shopper clicks on a product, these ads display on the right-hand side of the screen below the “Add to Cart” button. Because these campaigns can be used to target specific products, advertisers should consider using these ads to target complementary products within an inventory, or use this ad format to target competitors’ products.
As discussed above, AMG offers additional services that some vendors may want to consider in conjunction with their AMS program. These services differ in their goals, and therefore their measurements of success. However, these typically drive high-volume, highly targeted impressions, making them ideal for brand awareness. AMG includes:
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Amazon Display Ads: Reach target audiences at every stage of interaction on Amazon.com with individual product ads that drive traffic to a product’s detail page;
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Amazon Advertising Platform: Expand campaigns by targeting Amazon shoppers on Amazon-owned sites and other (qualified) third-party sites. This programmatic opportunity has the capacity to integrate Product Display Ads functionality, like the “Add to Cart” button and product reviews; and
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Kindle & Fire Advertising: Create visual campaigns to advertise to audiences on Kindle, Fire TV and Fire tablet.
Understanding Match Types
Like more traditional PPC platforms, AMS offers different keyword match types for Headline Search and Sponsored Product campaigns for funneling traffic and prioritizing budget: If you’re unfamiliar with complex match types and how to add negative keywords, you may want to consider an auto-targeting system that can handle the process for you. However, without control of individual keywords, advertisers must trust that captured traffic is relevant and subject campaigns to one max CPC for all the clicks conducted on an ad. This is a strategy that should only be used to source new keyword ideas for Exact, Phrase or Broad match campaigns.
As advertisers begin developing holiday sales strategies (or strategies for any significant sales period like back-to-school), they should consider the extent of their Amazon coverage. With Amazon becoming the “one-stop shop” for many consumers, and thanks to AMS, the task of creating campaigns to advertise products and analyze data has become a more manageable effort. Although an AMS account isn’t necessary to sell on Amazon, the platform’s capabilities and offerings reaffirm its utility; the more levers advertisers have to manage advertising, the more opportunities they have to control its success.
Trevaris Anderson serves as a Digital Marketing Manager at Chacka Marketing. Through his strategic analysis, insight and adoption rate of new products like Amazon Marketing Services, he has helped fuel client growth. Anderson graduated from the University of South Florida with a Bachelor of Arts in International Business and a concentration in Marketing.
