Due to Amazon’s unique position in the e-commerce industry, it is imperative for you to familiarize yourself with its ad platform.
By understanding the basics of Amazon advertising, you can start your campaign off on the right foot.
Focusing your energy on an Amazon advertising campaign – no matter what industry you’re in – means you’re more likely to see a significant increase in your overall conversion rate and thus a boost in your sales!
So, we’re exploring the essentials of the Amazon advertising platform.
In particular, we’re looking into what makes Amazon worldwide advertising so unique and effective.
We’re then breaking down the two most popular types of Amazon advertising campaigns.
This is your official intro: Welcome to Amazon Advertising 101!
What Makes the Amazon Advertising Platform Unique?
Amazon is a global online marketplace that attracts millions of visitors on it’s platform.
The traction that Amazon has surpasses that of any other, making it the largest retailer on the planet – online and off.
It is this dominance and increasing importance among online shoppers that makes the platform so unique and effective.
As a result, many sellers feel that they should leverage this kind of traffic in their favor by both selling on the platform and launching an Amazon advertising campaign.
Afterall, the more visitors that are exposed to your product through various promotional methods, the more likely they are to actually complete a purchase.
There’s no other e-commerce platform that offers the reach of Amazon, making it the go-to option to advertise and sell online.
Amazon offers various types of ad formats. These ads include the following:
Amazon Sponsored Product Ads
These Amazon ads show up on either the top or bottom of the search results page.
Sponsored Product ads are set up using keyword targeting, and sellers bid for clicks.
Sellers can choose from three separate keyword match options:
exact
phrase
broad
Furthermore, sellers have the ability to customize both their budgets as well as their campaign duration.
To enjoy even greater success from a Sponsored Product Amazon advertising campaign, make sure your product listings are optimized.
Ensuring your products are already keyword optimized and formatted for success will ensure your campaign runs even more smoothly and effectively.
Sponsored Brand Ads
Formerly headline search ads, Sponsored Brand ads also pop up on the results page – except that they are displayed above the result listing.
These kinds of ads are also keyword targeted, but you can choose up to 3 products to promote instead of just one.
Plus, you get to include your brand logo.
When people click on the logo, they’re directed to your Store or custom landing page.
Click on a product, and they’re taken specifically to that product page.
Keep in mind with setting up this Amazon advertising campaign that in terms of keyword match-types, exact and phrase match are the only two options for this type of ad.
Also, like Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brand ads are based on a cost-per-click budget.
Take Advantage of Amazon Worldwide Advertising Today
As you can see, the Amazon advertising platform is a great tool for pretty much anyone to use.
Whether it’s to increase your sales on Amazon, drive traffic to a specific Store or landing page, or simply spread brand awareness, a campaign on this platform enhances your overall e-selling experience.
We are an experienced Amazon marketing agency that can answer your questions, provide brand-specific recommendations, and partner with you to achieve the best results from the platform.
Growth Hack #2 – How Unroll.me Managed to Gain 1.3 Million Users Within Just 3 Years:
Unroll.me was an email inbox cleaning service that skyrocketed in popularity to reach over 1 million users in 3 years. How did they do it?
1. First, they discovered a really popular, massive problem: cluttered email inboxes.
2. They offered a simple solution for free: you can unsubscribe from all newsletters you are no longer interested in.
3. After the launch, tech blogs were happy to write about an app that solves a common problem of their readers. This helped them get the first few thousand users.
4. Right after you start using the app and choose 5 newsletters to unsubscribe from, Unroll.me shows a pop-up : “In order to unsubscribe from more than 5 subscriptions, help out by sharing on Facebook, Twitter or via email.”
Result: 1.3 million users virally in 3 years (+ Unroll.me was acquired).
Growth Hack #3 – The 2 Most Common Email Mistakes That Could be Decreasing Revenue 3X:
Noah Kagan, founder at Sumo (AppSumo) has sent more than 100M emails.
Here are the 2 biggest mistakes he learned:
#1. A couple of years ago, he tested segmentation, spending tons of time and a lot of money. He found that segmentation isn’t worth the effort.
Another source tested this and found that non-segmented emails generate 3.19 times more revenue than segmented.
#2. So many brands only put a CTA at the end of their email. However, very few people who open that email are going to make it down the page (on average, 80% read only the first screen).
This means that by placing your CTA at the top of your emails, you can see around 4 times more conversions.
With even more recent updates – like beta testing a Checkout feature – it’s easier than ever for companies to leverage this Instagram shopping feature and drive revenue
But, you probably have a few questions before getting started (or to optimize what you already have launched):
Why should I care about selling on Instagram?
How do I use Instagram shoppable tags and set up my posts?
What’s the best way to optimize my strategy?
We’re going to start with the “why” of selling on Instagram.
Then, we’ll explore how to sell on Instagram with the product tagging feature for both posts and Stories.
Finally, we’ll provide some best practices and suggestions for optimizing your Instagram shopping strategy, along with providing examples of brands doing it right.
Image source: https://homdor.com/search/onlajn
Shopping on Instagram isn’t the future; it’s happening right now.
So, it’s time for you to leverage the feature and drive sales directly from the platform.
Why Selling on Instagram Matters
To first understand the appeal of Instagram shopping, it helps to dive into what makes the platform so appealing and engaging.
Digging further into why shopping on Instagram is particularly popular, it helps to then look into how users interact with businesses:
1/3 of the most viewed Instagram Stories are from businesses.
70% of users turn to the platform for product discovery.
Since the launch of the Instagram shopping feature, over 130 million users have been tapping to reveal product tags in posts.
Without looking spamm-y or overly sales-y, Instagram shopping lets you promote your brand and provide a direct line to get users from browsing to buying.
The size of the audience alone is a compelling enough reason to learn how to sell on Instagram.
Further incentive, though, is that clearly users are engaging with businesses on the platform in a way that proves they are motivated to find products and make purchases.
How to Sell on Instagram
There are a few preliminary steps to take before selling and tagging products on Instagram.
Make sure you address these as a priority so you don’t get all set to launch and realize you forgot to connect your product catalog, for example (trust us: it happens).
Before You Get Started
Check over eligibility rules for the Instagram shopping feature and make sure your business meets them.
These include:
Are you located in a market that supports the shopping on Instagram feature?
Does your brand sell physical goods?
Is your brand compliant with the platform’s commerce policies?
Do you have an Instagram business profile?
Did you connect your Instagram account to a Facebook Page?
Next, set up your Facebook product catalog and connect it with your Instagram business account.
You can then adjust the placement and color of the sticker.
Users will know it’s a shoppable Instagram Story by the shopping bag icon included on the sticker.
When pressed, the sticker then opens up to the following screen, which can take users directly to your site to complete the purchase:
With the rollout of Instagram Checkout, however, this icon will soon change to say “Checkout on Instagram”.
This latest feature is currently available only to a select few retailers as its tested and tweaked.
However, expect it to become available worldwide shortly.
Essentially, it lets those shopping on Instagram to remain on the platform for the entire transaction – including purchase.
Reducing friction even further and preventing people from leaving the platform encourages more purchases and makes the Instagram shopping feature all the more valuable.
3 Examples of Highly Shoppable Instagrams
There’s no secret formula to a successful Instagram shopping strategy.
It all depends on your audience, industry, and your brand specifically.
How your customers (current and potential) prefer to engage with you isn’t some door to unlock and then leave unattended.
Instead, you should approach optimizing how you sell on Instagram as a constantly varying strategy that requires frequent testing and adjusting.
People preferences vary; let that be reflected in your strategy,
To get you started, though, here are a few brands that knock it out of the park with their shoppable Instagram posts and Stories.
1. Lulus
Women’s clothing brand Lulus was one of the first brands to implement Instagram shoppable tags.
What they do best is provide new types of content that inspire their followers to shop.
From user-generated content to providing images of outfit ideas, all of their posts feel fresh, engaging, and leverage the best parts of the Instagram shopping feature.
This sample post provides outfit inspiration that lets customers purchase everything they see to easily recreate the look at home.
What would otherwise be a regular, style idea post becomes useful for driving revenue and sales thanks to Instagram shoppable tags.
In another example, Lulus demonstrates the ways that Instagram shopping can integrate with an influencer campaign.
With a Lulus ambassador showcasing the outfit, followers can see the product in real life and how it’s worn by one of their favorite influencers.
To attest to their success, Lulus said that they directly attributed over 1,200 order and 100K+ website sessions to Instagram shopping.
2. Aritzia
Another women’s fashion company, Aritizia, uses the Instagram shopping feature to its fullest extent.
Almost every post and Story has product tagging, and it’s done in a seamless and simple way that emulates the brand’s image and values.
“We believe Instagram is integral to how our audience is inspired to shop. We’re seeing a strong lift in sales conversions whenever we use shopping on Instagram, since tapping to learn about our products has become the norm.”
Inspired by their success with the Instagram shopping feature, they continue to create content that feels organic while inspiring their customer.
This example from their Instagram story proves the appeal of keeping things simple.
Treating their Story like a product catalog gives users what they want from their Instagram shopping experience while staying true to the brand.
3. Barbour
Outerwear specialists Barbour leverage shopping on Instagram as a new way to connect with customers.
Additionally, the app acts as a platform for the brand to spread awareness of their messaging and history.
Often in each caption of a post, like the above, there’s an explanation of the design history and inspiration.
Beyond just using product tagging for selling on Instagram, the company also explains their design point of view to further engage customers.
And it’s worked.
According to Laura Dover, Global Digital Communication Manager at Barbour,
“Since we started to use the feature, our sales from Instagram have increased by 42% and traffic to our website from Instagram is up 98%”.
The brand also uses the carousel format to exploit every opportunity for product tagging.
With excellent brand messaging combined with a seamless shopping experience, Barbour proves the power of selling on Instagram with product tagging.
Time to Set Up Shop
You have the resources and now the knowledge to launch your Instagram shopping campaign.
If you want even more help and assurance of a successful strategy, try partnering with a professional Instagram marketing agency.
With the right know-how for optimizing and leveraging all possible features of Instagram shoppable tags, you can maximize ROI while boosting engagement.
Whether you go it alone or bring on a partner agency, it’s time to take advantage of the Instagram shopping feature.
With even more features rolling out soon, getting used to this feature and tweaking your strategy now will set you up for success in selling on Instagram into the future.
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Growth Hack #1 – This Small Thing is Very Popular, But It Can Ruin Your Organic Traffic:
Pop-ups are a great lead-gen tool, especially on mobile. But, 99% of people don`t know it can kill organic traffic if not done correctly. What do we mean?
1. You know that more than 50% of visitors access your website through their mobile devices. And Google ranks mobile-friendly websites higher.
2. Also you know that full-sized pop-ups generate the highest conversions (1.76% – 6.9%).
Here’s a bummer.
Did you know that you can kill your Google traffic if you don’t follow their guidelines?
Especially this short one.
What Google considers as an acceptable pop-up is when it covers no more than 20% of the screen.
