Lead Forensics

Amazon Advertising: Can Your Brand Afford to Ignore it?

29 January 2020

We’re all aware of just how powerful a beast Amazon has grown into; one only needs to peer down a High Street to recognise the profound impact it has had on our way of life.

According to research from Mintel, nearly 90% of British shoppers now use Amazon, with just under a fifth visiting the website every week. What’s more, a whopping 25% of British adults are now signed up to its Prime subscription service, while a further 15% have regular access to it via somebody they know.

So, if you’re a retailer and aren’t leveraging the Amazon advertising platform, why not? That’s like handing out flyers down an alley way.

Of course, direct-to-consumer should form a sizeable chunk of your marketing strategy. But just imagine how potent a dual-pronged approach involving the world’s largest online marketplace could be…

Let’s take a look at some of the avenues open to you and your agency partner via Amazon advertising:

Sponsored products

First you choose the products you want to advertise. Then you decide which keywords you will be targeting and how much you want to bid for clicks. You can get started with a small budget and create your ad in minutes, placing your business beside products that are similar to yours with ease. This is executed on a cost-per-click basis, meaning you only pay when a user clicks on your ad.

Sponsored products is available to professional sellers and vendors who want to generate awareness of a new product, promote season availability or drum up further demand in an already popular product. Please note, however, that Amazon will not accept adult, used, refurbished or closed category products – this, in fact, applies to every format.

Sponsored brands

The sponsored brands feature enables advertisers to bring customers to a ‘brand store’, custom landing page (if a user clicks on the brand logo), or product page (if they click on the product). Like sponsored products, this format is calculated on a cost-per-click model; brands can measure the performance of their campaign using Amazon’s insights tool, including how many first-time buyers it delivered in the last 12-months.

Once again, your position in search results is determined by the keywords you target and the bid you’re willing to put in for clicks. To ensure accurate brand representation and avoid infringement by third parties, it is strongly recommended that advertisers enrol for the Amazon Brand Registry.

Sponsored display

With sponsored display, advertisers choose whether they want to target by audience or product. You set your bid and daily budget, then choose the product you would like to promote. If opting for audience targeting, the audience you reach will be automatically defined by relevant Amazon shopping activities.

This feature is available to vendors or agencies with vendor clients who sell on Amazon.

Stores

A brand store lets you develop pages from pre-designed templates or drag-and-drop tiles. With it you can upload videos, text and images that enable you to communicate compelling brand stories.

Stores are free to create and come with their own Amazon URLs, meaning you can use it as part of a wider marketing strategy, if you so desire. Advertisers also gain access to their own store insights tool.

Display ads

Display ads powered by the Amazon DSP are available in a variety of formats. They permit brands to advertise their products both on and off Amazon; this includes all related Amazon apps and devices, as well as websites not owned by the company.

Added flexibility comes in the form of where the advertiser chooses to link to: choose from a brand store, custom landing page or external website. Brands can also leverage Amazon shopping insights to inform the strategy.

The added good news is you do not need to be an Amazon seller to harness the power of the DSP framework.

Video ads

Amazon’s video ads format allows businesses to showcase their products in a brand safe environment – whether they sell on Amazon or not.

Billed as a capability that enables advertisers to go beyond traditional TV ads, video delivers supplementary coverage that reaches valuable audiences in eye-catching ways.

Pricing is subject to the format and placements selected.

So, there you have it: a whistle-stop tour of the Amazon advertising options available to your business. If you would like support with the planning and execution of your Amazon campaign, we can help. Simply give us a call or send a message.

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