Drawing customers to your products is the goal of any eCommerce business, and there are quite a few ways of going about it. Whether it’s aggressive social media marketing, fine-tuned SEO, or strategically implemented pay-per-click advertising, you have a multitude of options available to you. The only question is, which method is best suited for your particular goals?
In terms of driving traffic to Amazon specifically, you can rely on a blog and your social media presence to get you through. However, if you are interested in quicker returns and a means of steady growth, Amazon PPC might be more to your taste.
The eCommerce market is rapidly evolving with each passing year, but one thing remains the same: Amazon is still one of the leading forces in online shopping. In fact, it ranks among one of the largest corporations in the entire world. Clearly then there is massive advertising potential there regardless of the ups and downs the company has faced while navigating the spotlight.
As a vehicle for generating revenue and as a sustainable eCommerce platform, Amazon is without a doubt one of the most viable places there is and makes a perfect headquarters for your brand. Even if you have just started selling on Amazon and have yet to make substantial inroads with your brand or products, you can quickly begin to see revenue if you know how to take advantage of all of the platform’s features.
One of the most powerful assets you have as a store owner on Amazon is the ability to serve ads on the platform. Amazon PPC is a powerful tool that gives you the ability to leverage the millions of buyers that are already on the platform willing and eager to make purchases. All you have to do is craft the proper campaign to start seeing results.
This can be more arduous than it sounds, however, because like any advertising platform online, it can quickly become a bottomless money pit. If you don’t understand the nuances of how to use the right keywords, for instance, you may spend a ton of money only to see very little in return. There is a certain art to PPC that must be handled properly, otherwise, you stand to lose money and waste a ton of time on nothing.
Here we will cover an overview of how to put together a winning Amazon PPC strategy and why it may be in your best interest to let an experienced agency handle your PPC campaign instead of trying to tackle it all on your own.
Why Amazon Ads Are So Effective
Amazon ads are an extremely effective means of making money online if you are a store owner. You might be wondering if there are any advantages to running ads on Amazon rather than more traditional platforms such as Google, and the truth is that there are.
First off, while most of us are used to searching for products on Google, half the time it’s only to get onto Amazon anyway. Once we’re on their site, we simply use their search functionality to continue our quest for the right product. Between that and their related product features, there’s rarely a reason to venture back to Google in order to begin another search.
This is powerful because this classifies Amazon as a kind of search engine unto itself. Keywords, titles, and descriptions all play a role on Amazon just as they do on Google, and is something you want to keep in mind regardless of whether you are running a PPC campaign or not. It’s in Amazon’s best interest to connect buyers with the best “answer” to their questions, just as Google does, but in this case, the answers to all of the questions are products. Which ads are shown to which users are determined by similar algorithms: it’s all a matter of Amazon trying to address the needs of its users.
Another reason why Amazon PPC is so effective is because users that are on Amazon are already looking to purchase something. It’s been shown that conversion rates skyrocket after someone has already bought something as opposed to being a first-time buyer. Users on Amazon are already primed and ready to spend money on items that they need.
This means that if your ads match their search intent, they are already on the site waiting to spend money. With Google and other advertising platforms, there are more steps involved, because all of the users aren’t necessarily there to buy something. Everyone that’s on Amazon is there to make some kind of purchase, even if they are only “window shopping” for the time being.
There is also massive remarketing potential on Amazon. Serving ads to people who have already visited one of your products is extremely powerful, and easy to accomplish with their pay-per-click campaigns. Not only are the users on Amazon in a buying state of mind, but they have also already visited one of your products. Perhaps you serve them an advertisement for something related to the product they originally landed on, that meets their needs better? The money-making potential here is obvious.
The last major benefit of Amazon as an advertising platform is that it is relatively affordable compared to platforms such as Google. Depending on the industry and keywords you select, you could be spending double or even triple what you would spend on Google to see the same amount of traction.
It’s clear that Amazon advertising is effective and potentially quite lucrative, but where do you begin? What are the keys to putting together a knockout strategy that will get you more traffic and conversions to your products?
Let’s take a look at the foundation of any solid PPC strategy: the keywords.
How to Choose the Right Keywords
Choosing your keywords is a major aspect of any pay-per-click strategy, as well as in matters of search engine optimization. Knowing your most relevant and impactful keywords is the backbone of making money online these days, so it’s important that you take the time and map them out.
In terms of finding the most important keywords for your Amazon PPC campaign specifically, what you want to target are keywords that have a high degree of relevancy to your niche and products. Years ago, it was common practice in online advertising to focus on broad keywords and topics, because the theory went that a large net would catch a lot of fish.
The eCommerce world has shifted drastically away from this model, and those who still insist on targeting only broad range keywords are almost surely wasting a lot of money. The real focus should be on longtail keywords with high relevance and preferably low competition.
One very profitable area you want to focus on is phrase match keywords. These are your various questions and issues that users will be inputting into the search bar in order to have their needs met. These can range from “best diet supplement” to “what is the best herbal weight loss pill for men over 50.” These phrases can be surprisingly specific, but that is why you need to have your ear to the ground in regards to understanding your niche. Mapping out these phrase match keywords is extremely important and the key to crafting a winning strategy.
Highly relevant phrase match keywords are your ticket to a successful campaign, but they also require the most research and investigation. The time you put in here may dictate the entire course of your campaign. To get a proper grasp of which phrases you should be targeting, you may have to place yourself in your customers’ shoes. What questions are they asking and how do your products address them?
You may be tempted to skimp here and select one or two somewhat in-depth phrases and then rely on generic keywords for everything else, but successful PPC campaigns require dedicated and comprehensive research these days in order to be successful. Not only do you need to search for the best possible phrase match keywords relevant to your business, but you also need to find out which ones you have a chance to shoot for. Many of the most viable ones have likely already been scooped out from under you by your competitors, which means you have to dig deeper and be more inventive with your research if you are to find lucrative ones.
As long as you focus on high relevancy and mix it up with plenty of powerful phrase match keywords, you have already taken the first major step forward to a properly implemented PPC campaign. Center your strategy around your best products but don’t underestimate how effective it can be to target products that fill a distinct niche that is highly relevant but has low competition. That’s where you’re going to see your best ROI.
Success Through Scaling
The other major element of an effective PPC campaign on Amazon is knowing when and how to scale. If all your doing is repeating the same campaign over and over again even if it’s making decent money, you’re missing out on one of the most powerful ways to grow your business online.
There is massive growth potential for your eCommerce business through the use of Amazon PPC if you carefully monitor the revenue you are making off of your campaigns and reinvest it into larger campaigns that target tougher keywords.
Every six months or so you should be reevaluating the keywords you are targeting so that you can begin to expand into keywords that you weren’t easily able to target before due to budget restraints. Not only this, but you can also expand your campaign by including brand new phrase match keywords as well. As soon as your campaign begins to generate more money than you are putting in, expansion should be the first thing on your mind. If you maintain the same level of quality in your keyword research strategy, you can slowly scale using PPC.
Choosing an Agency For Your Amazon PPC
The truth is that meticulous keyword research takes time. You also have to consider that in order to take full advantage of the platform, you have to familiarize yourself with all of the different tools that Amazon provides, as well as have a firm grasp on how to read all of the data that they provide on your campaign.
For the average store owner trying to manage a business, this can be a tall order. Running a full-scale advertising campaign on Amazon is no easy task even for an experienced individual. If you are serious about using Amazon to make more money and eventually scale, you need to consider hiring an adept and knowledgeable agency to handle your advertising efforts for you.
Here at Genius eCommerce, we have extensive experience in all areas of digital marketing and know-how to see an Amazon PPC campaign through to fruition. From deep keyword research to flawless execution, and everything in between, we can take the headaches and guesswork out of running your PPC campaigns so you can focus on managing your business.
We handle all aspects of PPC, so there’s never a need to play middle man or figure out things on your own. While it’s beneficial to understand the basics of running a successful eCommerce PPC campaign, we understand the reality of today’s busy digital world doesn’t always permit such luxuries. That’s why we’re here, to help make sure your campaigns are running smoothly and effectively every step of the way.
If you are an Amazon seller and are interested in high-quality PPC services that get results, jump on a call with our team today and we will get to work crafting a campaign that will help you grow your business. When it comes to running a high-level ad campaign online, there’s no reason to chance anything when you can leave it to the pros. Contact us today and we’ll help you put together a game-changing strategy for you and your business.
