Scaling Accounts With Amazon Ads Automated Campaigns
So your seller account is complete and you’re finally ready to launch Amazon Ads. Depending on your available budget choosing that first campaign to launch is tricky.
There are so many different levers available to pull within each campaign type to help you achieve your objectives.
Most businesses come to us looking to scale their business growth, they have hit a ceiling and are looking to level up.
So with this in mind, today I’d like to share a campaign type that we create with the goal of generating revenue.
Getting the Data: Sponsored Products Automatic Targeting
As digital marketers typically we want as much control over our advertising capabilities as possible, algorithms and machine learning have come a long way, but most if not all still require the human eye to guide them along the way.
In this case we want to harness the wide net of Automatic Targeting to see what resonates for our brand. Here are the benefits we are looking to utilize from Automatic Targeting:
- Easy/quick setup
- Keywords automatically selected
- Product Placements automatically selected
To draw parallels with Google Ads Automatic Targeting campaigns feel a lot like Dynamic Search Ads used to. There is a higher risk of poor performance, and wasted ad spend, but with the right campaign sculpting you can generate incremental conversions and collect valuable data for future campaigns.
Campaign Setup
Products: We want to cast a wide net, but there should also be some focus. Choose a specific product category theme with no more than 30 SKU’s to start, e.g. Shoe type by gender.
Amazon will automatically gravitate towards what it thinks are winners, so not all SKU’s will get budget. from here we can either pause poor performers, or isolate winners into new “Manual Targeting” campaigns, more on this later.
Budget: It depends. The budget amount shown in the campaign below is low, but that’s just where this particular store is at. Setting $10-$20 to start and scaling up depending on performance would also work.
Dynamic Bids – up and down: We want more data quicker
Top of search (first page): This may be more important for ecommerce sites over DTC, but the majority of conversions have been generated through first page rather than Product pages. We want data, but if we can achieve profitability early too then great.
+100% is quite aggressive, so adjust as needed
Ad Groups
Bids: Set these to the lowest suggested bid to start, depending on how aggressive you’re being with the first page bids. No traffic? Simply increase incrementally by $0.05 to $0.10 until you start to see the budget spend.
Here’s a great breakdown of how adjusting bids by placement works from Amazon support:
Using the Data
Monitoring Progress
Now depending on how much budget and how aggressive your bids are you’re going to want to keep a close eye on a few different areas:
> Campaigns: Placements Page
The placements page report is a great way to see specifically where your campaign is resonating with the audience. As discussed above already adding bid adjustments may make sense here.
> Ad Groups: Search terms, Targeting, Products
Unlike Google the search terms report shoes more than just search terms: For automatic campaigns, this report may include words that customers enter when searching on Amazon or ASINs that match your advertised product. Keep an eye on what’s working and what isn’t and add negative keywords where necessary.
Isolating Keywords & Products
Once you have at least four weeks of data then you can start to build out new campaigns with your data.
If there were particular keywords that performed well group them into themed campaigns. Perhaps product targeting worked specifically well, isolate the best performing SKU’s to see if you can replicate and then build on this performance.
Negative Keywords & Products
In the same vein as above follow the story the data is telling to refine your campaigns. Unsuccessful search terms and product’s from automatic campaigns are helpful additions to negative lists. Build these lists as you go and re-use them where necessary.
Potential Hurdles
One of the greatest issues that can arise from this type of activity is making too many changes. It’s very easy to overdo it and end up with poor data, or a campaign that isn’t sustainable anymore, give the changes you make time to run before making any other significant changes.
Also, be wary when adjusting the CPC in Amazon as it can be a lot more volatile when compared to Google.
Happy Trails
Amazon Ads are an interesting offering for brands looking to grow their business online, with opinions varying based on people’s experience with the platform.
I am of the opinion that for the right business, with the right products, and resources available to manage there seller account, Amazon Ads can be a highly effective way of scaling your brand ahead of the competition.
Interested in Marketplaces?
Check out some of our other articles about Marketplace advertising
