AMS Automated Campaigns Available for Vendors
As we anticipated, Amazon has officially introduced automated campaigns for vendors through Amazon Marketing Services (AMS).
AMS offers effective tools to help vendors stand out against their competitors and drive traffic to product detail pages and branded pages.
The primary benefit of using AMS over other services, is that it gives sellers/advertisers a direct opportunity to get their products and brand in front of additional in-market shoppers on Amazon.com.
It also gives sellers an opportunity to introduce their products alongside competitor products when consumers are at the last stage prior to conversion.
How will automated campaigns impact vendors?
Amazon Marketing Services (AMS) is an advertising solution to enhance brand discoverability and drive demand for their products sold on Amazon.com through:
- Headline Search Ads
- Sponsored Products
- Product Display Ads
Sponsored Products is one of the most powerful tools sellers can leverage to increase profitability for their online store.
With Sponsored Products, ads can appear below the search results, in the right column on search results pages, and in an ad placement on detail pages. Ads may also appear on both mobile and tablet browsers.
Amazon Sponsored Products gives (select) third party sellers more control over product merchandising on Amazon.com by boosting the visibility of their products when shoppers search for keywords to bid on. They also offer robust options through manual and automatic campaigns. Now vendors can have access to these options as well.
- Manual targeting ads are surfaced by the relevancy of the shopper query to seller’s chosen keyword targets.
- Automatic targeting ads are surfaced by the relevancy of the shopper query to seller’s product content.
Previously, Sponsored Products automated campaign targeting was only available to Third Party Sellers NOT vendors but now both vendors and (select) 3Ps have access to automated campaigns.
Campaigns with automated targeting are designed to generate more search traffic to your ads because Amazon targets your ads to all possible relevant customer searches based on your product information.
Check out the Amazon video below for more on “Automated Targeting”:
So, what does this mean for vendors?
The goal of Amazon Sponsored Products is to get products placed on the first page of the Amazon SERP for desired search terms. Sponsored Products also help vendors to increase product visibility for new offers, unique selections, offers with low glance views, clearance items, and seasonal promotions.
Making sure your products are getting found on Amazon is key for success and properly leveraging Sponsored Products is essential to maximize your visibility on the Amazon marketplace.
By introducing automated campaigns to vendors – this will significantly improve vendor capabilities on the Amazon marketing platform and their ability to serve ads based on the relevancy of the shopper query to seller’s product content.
“With this feature now being rolled out to vendors, I would expect the Sponsored Products’ environment to become more and more competitive,” Ethan Pilkenton-Getty, Retail Search Manager at CPC Strategy said.
“If we saw a 100 percent YOY lift in Sponsored Products adoption from sellers last year, I can imagine this will continue to compound that adoption rate in 2016.”
The level of data that we will generate from these new campaigns (in comparison to the much more developed 3P side of Sponsored Products) is still unknown.
As of now, the tab for Keyword Data states “Keyword Data is coming soon.” We will keep you posted as this new feature continues to develop.
“This is huge for Vendors who were previously at a disadvantage for not having this feature,” Nick Sandberg, Marketplace Channel Analyst at CPC Strategy said.
Advertising is one of the biggest value adds for Vendors and we will continue to leverage the learnings and expertise we already have from the 3P side using automated campaigns.
Additional Information on AMS:
Headline Search Ads:
Headline Search is banner advertising on Amazon located in prominent placement above the search results. Headline Search Ads are based on the ability to capture search intent and go after specific searches with a combination of a graphic and a text based ad.
Retailers can drive traffic from their ad to their Amazon Branded Page, best-selling products or a custom URL. One of the key strategies to remember when using Headline Search Ads is to match keyword intent with the landing page that you are driving traffic to.
The goal of Headline Search Ads is to allow brands to create keyword targeted ad campaigns to drive traffic to:
1) A brand page
2) A custom URL which is basically your own crafted SERP results page
3) An Amazon created page showcasing your brand’s best-selling products.
Headline search ads are most valuable to vendors who want to drive traffic to their retail brand page and target ads by keywords through high visibility placement in the search results.
The golden rule here is to reduce friction for your shoppers and drive traffic based on keywords to put the most relevant products in front of them.
Product Display Ads:
Product Display Ads boost product visibility by offering an “offensive and / or defensive” advertising strategy. Display Ads are typically found on the right side of a brand’s detail page (or on a competitor’s detail page).
The goal of Amazon Product Display Ads is:
Offensive Campaigns: Place a Product Display Ad on your competitor’s product detail page.
Defensive Campaigns: Keep competitors off your product detail page by placing your own Product Display ad on your own detail pages.
Product Display Ads help brands drive sales with interest-based or product-targeted advertising.
With product-targeting vendors can select the products and the detail pages where they want their products to show up on.
Want to learn more about AMS Sponsored Products?
Check out the video slide below, where Pat Petriello, Head of the Amazon Marketplace at CPC Strategy explains how we have been successful using the Amazon Sponsored Products program for our clients and some of the best practices every seller should be following:
For more on Automated Campaigns for vendors, email [email protected]