Amazon PPC Management

Amazon PPC strategies are essential to the success of Amazon sellers. Amazon PPC advertisements appear on Amazon search results and competitor listings and present relevant products to Amazon customers at the point of sale when buying decisions are made. 

Your Amazon PPC strategies measure the performance of your ads and identify those that are driving conversions. It’s a highly effective marketing technique used by most Amazon sellers. PPC ads are an expense. Sure, your products rank organically, which costs you nothing. But PPC ads increase your chances of ranking higher than your competition and gaining conversions. So it’s a well-worth expense, just as any business expense can help raise your bottom line.

This means if you don’t have Amazon PPC strategies for doing business in 2022, you need to start putting them together.

To make the most of your Amazon PPC strategies 2022, let’s take a look at:

• What Amazon PPC is
• Types of keyword strategies for different Amazon PPC ads 
• Amazon PPC strategies metrics
• Create your Amazon PPC strategies

What is Amazon PPC?

Amazon PPC is the platform Amazon provides for third-party sellers to create ad campaigns. Every time a potential customer clicks to view an ad for your product or brand, Amazon assesses a charge. Amazon’s PPC fee depends on the type of ad, how long the ad runs, and the price of the advertised product. Typical costs can run anywhere from a few cents to several dollars.

Amazon PPC strategies determine not only what are the best PPC ads for your products, but also the keywords likely to rank those ads ahead of your competition. Since you bid on these keywords, your Amazon PPC strategies aim to achieve the highest return on your ad spend (RoAS).

There are several different types of Amazon PPC ads:

• Sponsored Product
• Sponsored Brand
• Sponsored Display

Let’s look at the Amazon PPC strategies for each of these different Amazon PPC ads.

Sponsored Product

By far the most popular type of Amazon PPC ad among third-party sellers is Sponsored Product. These ads appear in Amazon search results and product listings pages and resemble organic listings.

There are two keyword strategies:

• Automatic 
• Manual

How do these differ?

Automatic Keyword Targeting

Automatic targeting relies on Amazon algorithms based on shopper clicks and purchases related to your product listing to adjust your ads and increase conversions. There are four different keyword match types:

1. Close Match. As the name implies, when shoppers type a search keyword that is related to the product you are advertising (for example, “running shoes” might closely match with “sneakers”).
2. Loose Match. Again, not closely related, but sort of (for example, you sell dumbbells, so your ad might display in a search for “exercise equipment”).
3. Substitutes. Keywords for similar products of a different brand. (for example, you sell Nike apparel, so your ad might appear in a search for Adidas apparel).
4. Complements. Keyword searches to view products that supplement yours (for example, “screwdriver” goes with a “tool kit”).

Each of these targeting types  can appear in different placements:

• Top of Search
• Rest of Search (meaning below the top)
• Product Pages (product detail pages and ad placements outside search results)

The advantage of automatic targeting is that you more or less let Amazon do the work for you. The disadvantage is there isn’t a lot of focus that might achieve better results. Imprecise targeting wastes your ad spend.

Manual Keyword Targeting

You select keywords that you think best identify your product and yield the best (RoAS). The advantage is it can result in more effective ads that make the best use of your ad spend. The disadvantage is you have to spend time and effort managing manual keyword targeting.

Sponsored Brand

For sellers who have a registered brand, this type of ad presents more than one product at a time. So if you sell stereo speakers, the ad shows several of your speaker models. Sponsored Brand ads can appear either at the top of Amazon search results or further down in a 15-30 second video (note the video ad is limited to one product demonstration). Shoppers who click on the Sponsored Brand ad are sent to product detail pages or your Amazon Storefront.

Sponsored Display

These ads enable registered brand sellers to retarget shoppers who have visited their product detail pages, whether the pages are on or off Amazon. This is the only PPC that can also appear on Amazon affiliates such as Google, Facebook, and Netflix, as well as mobile apps. The advantage here is that even when potential customers navigate away from Amazon, you haven’t lost them.

Amazon PPC Strategies Metrics

Amazon provides four KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to help assess PPC results found in the Campaign Performance report in Seller Central.

1. Advertising Cost of Sales (ACoS). The total ad spend divided by actual sales. For example, your ad spend is $5, your sales are $25, the ACos is 5÷20=.25 or 25%. While there is no perfect ACoS to aim at, generally speaking, you want the highest sales revenue with the lowest ACoS.  
2. Impressions. The number of times your ad is displayed. High impression suggests your product is in a popular category; low impression that although the ad is displayed often, your product isn’t popular. 
3. Clicks. Number of times your ads are clicked. Remember you only pay for an ad that is clicked, though the click does not guarantee sales. Note that it can take up to three days for Amazon to remove invalid clicks from this report.
4. Attributed Sales. Total sales generated within one week of clicks on your ads.  

Create Amazon PPC Strategies

With all that in mind, what might your Amazon PPC strategies look like? There’s always going to be a lot of moving parts that require ongoing adjustments, but a good place to start is with no more than three campaigns with a mix of automatic and manual keyword targeting. If you are just starting out formulating your Amazon PPC strategies, it’s best, to begin with, Sponsored Product ads. 

For each campaign:

• Perform keyword due diligence. Be sure to research related keywords and competitor products.
• Set a daily ad budget. Bid at least 50 percent higher than the Amazon defaults. 
• Let each campaign run for two weeks. Review the results to optimize the next round of campaigns. Look for:
  • High performing automatic keywords to transfer to manual keywords for further optimization
  • Low performing keywords to eliminate
  • A target ACoS to automatically lower or raise automated keyword bids

This is just a starting point. It takes time and practice to run PPC campaigns that get the best results and return on investment. Many Amazon sellers consider Amazon PPC strategies as one of the biggest challenges in running a successful business. But is it a challenge that is crucial to ongoing success for Amazon sellers?

Helping You Achieve Success

Successful Amazon PPC strategies result in more sales, which also results in higher inventory churn. That’s the good news. The bad news is that higher inventory churn can also lead to processing errors and incorrect charges. 

It’s not unusual for Incorrect Amazon fees owed to go unreported and uncorrected. Who corrects these errors? Not Amazon.

It’s your responsibility to audit your inventory and submit claims for error reimbursement. 

GETIDA auditing software keeps track of your Amazon FBA inventory transactions, refunds, seller data analytics, and FBA reimbursements easily and clearly. Equally important, dedicated case managers with Amazon experience follow up on FBA reimbursement claims on your behalf to help ensure you get back what you are owed.

GETIDA makes the process of claiming Amazon fee reimbursement easy. And it’s free, with no commitment. GETIDA charges only when a claim we file is successfully reimbursed. 

The more reimbursements you collect, the more available funding you have for your Amazon PPC strategies.

$400 in Free Amazon Seller Refunds with GETIDA.