How To Optimize Amazon PPC

There are various methods available for you to promote your products on Amazon. However, there’s one tactic that stands out as arguably the most important and effective: Amazon PPC.

Even if someone isn’t aware of Amazon Pay-Per-Click (PPC), they have undoubtedly seen it in action. This is because they can be viewed at the top of Amazon’s search results page, typically denoted with the word “sponsored.” By paying for the privilege, you can instantly boost the visibility of your products. When you incorporate an Amazon PPC strategy, the retail kingpin notes the following insights:

• 40% boost in units ordered
• 54% growth in glance views
• 55 times more impression numbers
• 93 times more unit sales

However, it’s essential you are not blinded by these lofty figures. All it takes are a few small errors to deflate the effectiveness of your Amazon PPC campaigns. At the same time, a truly optimized campaign has the potential to seriously boost your conversion rate numbers without eating up all your marketing budget.

If you’re wondering how to optimize your Amazon PPC ads, we have you covered. Below are the key steps to take with Amazon PPC optimization.

Know the Metrics

Before anything else, it’s important you have a general understanding about the key metrics used for Amazon’s PPC ads. This knowledge will help you to better measure, analyze, and plan ahead with your ad campaigns.

Consistent Campaign Structure

When it comes to Amazon PPC optimization, an important element is consistency. Without this consistency for your campaign structure, it can potentially cause repeat ads – not a good thing for maximizing your profit margin.

A set of characteristics are provided when you begin a campaign structure. A typical structure involves one or more of the following:

• By brand
• By product category
• By top sellers

If you start messing around with your organizational structure, this is where problems arise. Say you create one product ad campaign by top sellers and another by brand, the same products could appear in both campaigns. The result: a waste of your ad budget.

Identify Keywords with Amazon’s Help

When it comes to Amazon PPC optimization, an integral component is the keywords you use. With the right selection of specific keywords, your products will be displayed to the right people, and this will help maximize sales numbers with your sponsored ads.

There are various methods to identify keywords. There are keyword research tools, you can research the competition, you can look into current trends, etc. However, one of the easiest ways is to let Amazon do the heavy lifting.

This is possible by running an automatic Amazon PPC campaign. These campaigns make use of keywords they believe will perform best for ads. You can then measure the performance of these keywords – with the use of the “Search Term Report” – and the top performers can then be incorporated into your manual campaigns. This is ideal to avoid negative keywords that would only harm your Amazon PPC strategy.

There’s also the added bonus that Amazon’s automatic campaigns save you a lot of time!

Track Product Performance

It’s not just the performance of your ads you want to track and measure. You also want to pay close attention to product performance. When selling products, you could put together the best marketing strategy possible, but this might not count for much if your product isn’t captivating your customer base.

To optimize your Amazon PPC campaign, you have to ensure you are focusing on the right products. Are you getting people to click on your ad for a product, but the conversion rates are low? In this case, you want to avoid spending money on this product and instead inject it into those that are performing at a high level in your ad groups.

Continue to Evolve

With an Amazon PPC strategy, one of the last things you want to do is stand still. Every Amazon seller is searching for a way to gain an advantage over the competition. This means they are continually testing and tweaking their ad campaigns, looking for every edge that will push their products above every other via the Amazon search engine.

With this in mind, it is essential you continue to make changes to your ad campaigns. Now, these don’t have to be large-scale, sweeping changes. In fact, it’s recommended you avoid that type of approach unless absolutely necessary. What these should be, however, are gradual adjustments towards achieving Amazon PPC optimization.

It is advised that you analyze your ad campaigns each week. By doing this, you can stay informed about what is – and isn’t – working with your current strategy. Then it’s a situation where you adjust and eliminate mistakes from your plan.

Here’s a quick list of what to try when optimizing:

• Filter out keywords that are not performing as expected.
• Track your KPIs. Make informed decisions with this data.
• Do A/B testing with different copy and keywords.
• Track product performance and how this relates to your PPC spend.

In Conclusion

Amazon PPC is tricky. There are different ad types – Sponsored Brand, Sponsored Product, and Sponsored Display – to choose from, keywords to research and select, testing to perform, and so much more.

If it’s all a little too overwhelming and you’re struggling to achieve your goals, it makes sense to work with an Amazon marketing agency. This way, you can receive the experience and expertise required to fine-tune your campaigns and drive better results.