You may want to hold your hands over your ears if someone brings it up again.
You might consider setting your device on fire if you read another article about it.
And yet, you need to keep reading.
Because you’ve probably heard about the rising star that is Amazon Marketing Services (AMS).
This self-serve ad platform from Amazon is attracting swarms of digital marketers.
So many, in fact, that its growth rate outpaces that of the biggest digital ad duo: Google and Facebook.
Experts are predicting that Amazon advertising is only going to keep on growing, too.
This favorable prediction is based on the perfect storm of activity of three parties involved in programmatic digital advertising:
The consumer: There are over 90 million Amazon Prime members, each which represents a motivated consumer willing to spend on average over $1,300 per year.
It wasn’t until five years later, in 2017, that they unveiled Amazon Stores as a true upgrade to the original.
Unlike Amazon Brand Pages, setting up an Amazon Store allows retailers to fully customize their layouts.
It’s even to the point where a storefront can mimic your own website.
As a results, top brands can establish a more cohesive identity across platforms as users get to enjoy a better user experience while shopping on Amazon.
Amazon Stores don’t just represent a UX/UI upgrade, though.
These include things like the colors you use on your Amazon Store, the interactive elements incorporated, and having a consistent theme across your brand’s channels (e.g. Instagram).
Compared to a simple product listing or even Amazon Brand Page, Amazon Stores are the most effective way to put your brand’s best foot forward.
How to Set Up an Amazon Store That Sells
An Amazon Store works similar to a website in that there are layers of pages that visitors can click through and that retailers can customize.
For example, an Amazon seller can have their store homepage, a product category page, and then a more specific category page where all relevant products are listed.
To begin building your Amazon Store, first make sure you are a registered vendor.
Then, log in to the AMS platform and select the Stores tab.
Using the Store Builder tool, you can then set up an Amazon Store fully customized to your brand.
There are three preset templates to choose from that provide the basic structure for your store:
1. Product Grid: the most simple and straightforward template for showcasing products.
Image source: https://advertising.amazon.com
2. Marquee: A grid-like format with more room for content, such as product descriptions and image blocks.
Image source: https://advertising.amazon.com
Showcase: The most content-rich and media-heavy template, which allows sellers to have more room for text and visual elements.
Image source: https://advertising.amazon.com
Whichever format you choose as you build an Amazon Store, keep in mind the elements you include in terms of how they portray your brand.
The goal of an Amazon Store is to present a cohesive brand image that people can recognize the moment they land on the page.
With greater brand awareness and recognition, retailers can build trust among their customers, and heighten loyalty.
And lastly, a cohesive brand image is how you stand out from your competitors.
When you provide this contrast against other competing stores on Amazon, visitors are more likely to convert on your page thanks to cognitive conversion principles.
Take advantage of the customizable features that are available as you set up an Amazon Store.
In doing so, you can develop a brand identity that ends up boosting your bottom line.
Best Practices to Build a Branded Amazon Store
Once you’ve gone ahead and finished setting up your Amazon Store, there are a few additional ways to enhance its success.
These Amazon ads can direct people searching for a relevant keyword or product to your storefront by having it appear right at the top of the results page.
Instead of directing people to a product landing page on your brand’s website, users don’t even have to leave the Amazon platform to enjoy a customized brand experience when they click on your Amazon search ad.
Besides linking your Amazon Store in ads, also include a link to it in your brand’s byline under the Product Details section of a page.
When they land on your Amazon Store, you can then upsell them with additional products that appear in a highly curated format.
The same rule applies for sharing your storefront’s link on your other networks: Facebook, Instagram, etc.
Advertise your Amazon Store’s launch, new products, and more by including a link directly to your page as part of your other marketing messages.
Amazon Store customization also provides the ability to include rich media, such as videos.
A video on a regular landing page can increase conversions by 80%, so the same principle can apply to your Amazon Store.
Place a product walk-through video, multi-angle view, or other form of display video on your storefront to engage visitors, distinguish your brand, and provide more information to potential buyers.
Lastly, continue to optimize your Amazon Store by tracking it with the built-in analytics tools.
Amazon Stores integrate directly with Amazon Analytics.
This way, you can view everything from third-party ad conversions to traffic on your store’s page.
It’s Time to Get Set Up
We’re all very well aware that Amazon is the trending advertising platform set to topple the Facebook-Google duopoly.
We’ve also heard the success stories of brands hitting benchmarks like 4X more purchases and 10X-20X ROI with Amazon marketing.
So with Amazon becoming an ever more saturated platform of sellers and advertisers, it’s time you set up an Amazon Store to stand out.
One option as you get started is to consult with a professional Amazon marketing agency that knows what it takes to stand out on the platform and drive traffic to your page.
An Amazon Store is an important extension of your brand that needs careful attention.
This includes everything from set up to execution to results-tracking.
Amazon advertising experts can provide the tools and insights to best set up an Amazon Store for success.
Building and customizing a branded storefront will boost your brand awareness.
It will also nurture customer loyalty, and in the end lead to greater conversions and sales revenue.
It’s all about tapping into the psychology of a consumer as they shop online.
They want a seamless, pleasurable shopping experience with a brand that appears trustworthy and established.
Let your Amazon Store be the one to accomplish just that.
Get the Latest Growth Hacks and More Insights Delivered Each Week: Sign Up Here.
Growth Hacks:
Growth Hack #1 – Get 5x Click Thru Rates By Using Better Headlines:
You can earn 5 times more traffic from Google with just a simple headline update.
Here’s what you need to do:
1. In Webmaster Tools, log into your website.
2. Go to “Search Traffic” -> “Search Analytics”
3. Choose “Queries”, then tick off: Clicks, Impressions, CTR, Position
4. Press “Download”.
5. Open in Excel then select the “CTR” and “position” columns and insert an X vs. Y plot.
6. Right click on the chart area and choose “add trendline” (select an exponential trend line).
7. The resulting graph should look like this.
8. Now take a look at the keywords at the bottom-left of your curve (high position, low CTR), and Google these.
9. Go to Google Analytics and find conversion rates for each link you came across in your search.
10. Start creating and optimizing headlines for these links with the highest conversion rates.
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Growth Hack #2 – Increase Content Sharing by 25X With Targeted Promotion:
Multiple experts (Neil Patel, Moz, etc.) say that super long-form content (over 3,000 words) is shared about2 times more often.
In order to boost shares by 15-25 times, you need to promote your content to the right group of people that love to share.
Here’s how to find them:
1. Write down links to content similar to yours.
2. Go to Twitter and search each link.
3. Switch to the “Live” tab to reveal the people who love to share precisely your type of content.
4. Hit reply near each tweet to make your intro.
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Growth Hack #3 – Make Your Facebook Go Viral With These Most & Least Shareable Words:
Here’s what Dan Zarrella from HubSpot found after analyzing 12,000 articles on Facebook for the words that most affect shareability:
After extensive A/B testing, they found that using screenshots that show a user’s “achievements and progress” led to 66% more app downloads.
The same rule applies for non-gaming apps. Show the user their potential rewards, benefits, etc. with screenshots from your app, and they’ll be more likely to download it.
The warning to Facebook and Google to watch their back: there’s a new digital advertising player on the block.
It’s being talked about by marketing executives, gaining traction among consumers, and proving it has unrivaled audience insights for digital advertisers.
Given its global scale and influence, Amazon marketing services are attracting more advertisers every day.
Image source: https://dazeinfo.com
As a result, the company has rolled out a series of updates and upgrades to its programmatic ad platform.
It is not just the wide consumer base and platform features that draw marketers to advertising on Amazon.
As we mentioned earlier, the access to consumer data and insights is the true factor that sets Amazon apart from the rest.
And, as of Summer 2017, it has a new tool that makes gathering audience feedback and information even easier.
The biggest question regarding this Amazon advertising tool, though, is should brands use it?
Here, we’ll discuss the newest feature, delve into its advantages versus its costs, and conclude what Amazon marketers (if any) benefit from it.
What Actually is the Latest Amazon Advertising Tool?
The newest feature to join the Amazon marketing suite is called Amazon Insights.
It lives within Seller Central, and can be set up easily through the platform.
What the tool essentially does is allow Amazon marketers to release surveys to customers and solicit their feedback on either your products or related products on the site.
In order to use Amazon Insights, first select your target respondent size (the range is set at 100-2,500).
Then, you can select the feedback question from either pre-determined Amazon templates or by creating your own.
The final step is setting up your target audience.
You can select up to four of the pre-set options:
Customers who have previously purchased your product(s) on Amazon.
Those who viewed your product(s) on the site.
Customers who viewed but did not purchase your product(s) on Amazon.
Amazon users who purchased a product in the same category as your product
Upon submitting your survey request to Amazon, they’ll get back to you with final details.
Keep in mind that the price of an Insights campaign through Amazon ads is based on the number of respondents.
You are only charged for people that actually complete the survey and submit their response.
The Advantages of the Tool for Amazon Marketing
Obviously, gathering customer feedback can be a huge advantage for a business.
Learn what your customers like (or don’t like) about your product.
Show customers you value them and their experiences with your brand.
Gather actionable suggestions to improve your product.
Once you’ve acquired the information from customers about what they enjoyed about your product, or where they saw room for improvement, you can then make iterations that help you succeed even more on the site.
Additionally, customers like providing feedback as it often affects customer service and their shopping experience.
With Amazon Insights, you can ensure consumers feel valued, heard, and improve their satisfaction and loyalty.
The Amazon ad tool also provides you with the insights you need to develop and improve your product based on the people that matter most: your customers.
Why Most Marketers Don’t Even Know How to Use It When Advertising on Amazon
Sure, Amazon Insights was just released a matter of months ago.
However, it has managed to stay unknown and unused by many Amazon marketers.
Even the FAQ page for the Amazon advertising tool is pretty sparse.
The major reason for this is cost.
Every response costs $5, and this can obviously end up accumulating if you launch a survey targeting 2,000 people.
But is it worth $10,000 to know it about a single product?
Imagine how these fees can rack up if you want to run a customer feedback survey across your product line.
Though it is possible that Amazon will reduce the price, for now it’s important that brands consider carefully how this tool can impact their Amazon marketing strategy.
Once you’ve determined the advantages outweigh the costs of using Amazon Insights, then you can begin integrating it into your campaign.
Which Amazon Advertisers Benefit from This New Feature?
For any business considering using Amazon Insights as part of their advertising strategy, they must have a concise goal in mind.
First, you’ll likely want to create your own survey question.
Though Amazon does provide those templates, creating your own question will allow you to gather the specific insights and answers you want most.
Even something as simple as “Why didn’t you purchase this product?” that is geared towards customers that viewed but did not purchase the product can make the entire initiative worth it.
A few other examples of instances in which this new Amazon ad tool can be worth it include:
You’re launching an initiative to bundle products and want to determine which of your inventory to do so with.
It’s about to be a big selling holiday, and you need to determine what products to stock up on.
You’re about to launch a new product and want to set it at the right price, and market it the best way possible to Amazon customers.
You want to figure out which of your Amazon marketing strategies are – or aren’t – working to draw people to your page and earn revenue.
They key to fulfilling any of these objectives is to create a survey that includes the specific question that provides the best insight.
You need the answer to directly benefit the goal you had set for the Amazon Insights campaign.
Get the Latest Growth Hacks and More Insights Delivered Each Week: Sign Up Here.
Growth Hacks:
Growth Hack #1 – 100% Opt-In Rate Without a Landing Page:
Opt-in pages help you get emails. But what if you could get an email without needing a separate page?
Here are the channels for getting emails, minus an opt-in page:
1. Twitter Lead Generation Card.
2. Cold email outreach
3. “Guest emailing” – promotion in someone else’s email list.
Here’s an example through cold email: “You can click here (insert Leadlink) to activate your membership.”
After clicking, a user was automatically subscribed and redirected to a “Thank you” page.
The results:
1. Opt-in rate: 100% (automatic opt-in means 100% success rate)
2. Unsubscribe rate: 3.5%
3. CTR: 12%
Growth Hack #3 – A Free Tool That Will Be Your Secret Weapon:
Seeding is a strategy for finding your target audience in related tweets, posts on Facebook, forums, and other sites.
Major benefits of seeding are:
1. You acquire new users instantly.
2. Increases your SEO rankings thanks to link building.
Here’s a weapon for your marketing arsenal that does a big chunk of this automatically – Buzz Bundle.
1. Provide your keywords.
2. The tool scrapes the internet to reveal all the related tweets, posts, and questions.
3. Reply to these without ever leaving the platform.
Here’s the money-saving part: The free version of Buzz Bundle provides access to 30% of posts.
As these numbers prove, Amazon has serious benefits for brands.
In order to take full advantage of what this online retailer has to offer, you need to launch an Amazon marketing strategy, or optimize your existing Amazon PPC marketing campaign.
Here are five ways you can improve your Amazon advertising and reach the top of product search results.
1. Organize similar products together into one Amazon ad group
Maintaining organization for your Amazon advertising campaign starts at the ad group level.
It is here that you can set a structure that is both easy to understand and is convenient for optimization.
Once you’ve decided on the goals you’d like to achieve from Amazon marketing, placing similar products together into a single ad group ensures that they appear in any relevant searches.
In order to decide which products should appear, organize them by keywords.
Therefore, whenever someone searches for one of your items, any contextually related ones would also appear.
Thus, you increase your chances of conversion and upselling.
Keep in mind that products within an Amazon ad group may share similar keywords, but vary greatly in price.
This difference in price margins means taking extra care as you track and optimize your Amazon PPC marketing strategy.
Additionally, it means determining your target Advertising Cost of Sales (ACoS).
Instead of always aiming for a profit, you could have an ACoS to simply break in order to promote your brand in search rankings through increased sales.
Vying for a break-even ACoS is beneficial for businesses that are just starting to advertise on Amazon and have a greater need for achieving a higher ranking in search results.
2. Conduct keyword research to make your Amazon marketing more relevant
Like web SEO, Amazon SEO is based on how relevant a product is based on a customer’s search.
However, unlike web SEO, Amazon’s A9 algorithm determines relevance based on how likely the user is buy the product.
“One of A9’s tenets is that relevance is in the eye of the customer and we strive to get the best results for our users. . .We continuously evaluate them [our ranking algorithms] using human judgments, programmatic analysis, key business metrics and performance metrics.”
In terms of keywords, this means that they’re still valued as Amazon as an indicator that your product will be desirable and relevant to the customer searching for it by context (versus brand name).
By using the automated keyword recommendation tools on the AMS platform to bid on over 80 relevant keywords, the company earned 35 million ad impressions in six months and enjoyed a 500%+ ROI.
3. Understand the difference between Amazon advertising SEO and Google SEO
As we just alluded to in the previous point, Amazon’s A9 algorithm works differently than web SEO.
One of the biggest differences is that Amazon marketing SEO doesn’t take backlinks/outside links into consideration at all.
Additional factors in product listings that matter to Amazon but not web search engines include:
Sales volume (aka Sales Rank): The more sales a product has, the higher it appears, as this is an indicator of customer satisfaction and performance.
Customer reviews: More customer reviews = better rankings.
Price: A lower price point increases a brand’s position on search pages because a customer is more likely to buy a cheaper product that maintains good ratings and reviews.
Completion of product listing: The more information you fill out and the more keywords you get into the product fields, the more favorably the A9 algorithm looks upon your listing.
By understanding what matters to Amazon SEO, you can build an optimized Amazon PPC marketing campaign that gives your listing the best chance for success.
4. Create Amazon ad groups that range in keyword generality
Depending on how many products you’re advertising on Amazon, the number and specificity of keywords will vary.
In order to maintain a level of organization and track your keyword bids, create Amazon ad groups based on keyword specificity.
For example, if you sell a variety of jackets you’ll likely cover the following fields of both general and specific keywords:
Children’s jackets
Women’s raincoats
Men’s parkas
For each of these, create a separate ad set.
Ad Set 1: General keywords encompassing “children’s jackets” and all similar phrases (e.g. children’s jackets, jackets for children).
Ad Set 2: More specific keywords focusing on “women’s raincoats” (e.g. “rain gear for women”, “women’s rain jackets”)
Ad Set 3: More specific keywords focusing on “men’s parkas” (e.g. “men’s winter wear”, “men’s winter coat”)
5. Track your Amazon marketing results and adjust accordingly
As with any other digital marketing campaign, Amazon advertising requires careful data tracking and analyzing results.
Only by tracking results and testing can you optimize a campaign and achieve even greater success.
One area of your Amazon PPC marketing campaign you must track closely is your CPC bid.
This will differ for each keyword, but the same general rules apply for all:
If the ACoS is above the target value, decrease the bid
When the ACoS is below the target, increase the bid
If keywords aren’t yielding any sales or impressions, try increasing the CPC bid to make them become active
In the case that over a longer period of time, still the keywords have led to no conversions, stop the bid
When results are followed closely and leveraged for optimization, they can improve Amazon marketing campaigns immensely.
In the case of Baggallini, they used the AMS real-time keyword tracking tools and performance reporting to improve their Amazon ads.
They then used this information to pause, increase, and decrease bids; they targeted new keywords; the brand cloned campaigns that were working.
As a result, Baggallini earned over 5X ROI with their Amazon PPC marketing strategy.
Other companies might find third-party tools, such as an Amazon PPC audit provides the evaluation and insights they need to better optimize their campaigns.
To get the most out of your Amazon campaign and have the best tools at your disposal, partner with an Amazon marketing agency.
Though AMS provides some tools to marketers, a professional agency will have the experience, tools, and knowledge of Amazon advertising best practices to help you launch and optimize the most effective campaign.
Growth Hack #1 – Get 5x Click Thru Rates By Using Better Headlines:
Growth Hack #1 – 100% Opt-In Rate Without a Landing Page:
