Amazon is the world’s retail market leader. In fact, it accounts for more than 40% of all online sales. As a result, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) rely on e-commerce websites to connect with customers and generate revenue.

Your team can now accelerate that process with Amazon Marketing Services (AMS) to increase revenue, brand awareness, and more. The question is, how do you develop a competitive advertising campaign strategy that maximises results while outperforming your competitors?

Begin with these seven effective tips for small and medium-sized businesses in the online marketplace:

Understand your Amazon ads

Before you begin advertising, you should familiarise yourself with the various types of Amazon ads available, which include:

• Sponsored Products: Sponsored Products are keyword-targeted ads that appear in Amazon search results and below the fold on product pages — they promote a single product. They also include product and keyword-level reporting, allowing you to see which keywords influenced specific product sales.
• Headline Search Ads: A keyword-targeted ad that appears above search results as a banner ad, Headline Search Ads promote up to three products. They only include keyword-level sales reporting, so you’ll only know which keywords resulted in a sale for any of the three products.
• Product Display Ads: A product or interest-targeted ad that appears below the fold on product pages as well as listing, review, and related product detail pages. They include campaign-level sales reporting, allowing you to see the overall success of the campaign.

It’s also critical to understand the distinction between keyword-, interest-, and product-targeted ads:

• Keyword-targeted ad: A keyword-targeted ad is one in which you create an advertisement that appears when a search contains a specific set of keywords. So, if you target the phrase “security camera wireless,” your ad will appear when users search for that phrase.
• Product-targeted ad: When you create a product-targeted ad, you are creating an advertisement that appears when a user visits a specific product page. It’s helpful when you want to target competitor listings as well as products that compliment your item. If you sell security camera covers, for example, you could target product pages with compatible cameras.
• Interest-targeted ad: When you create an interest-targeted ad, you’re creating an advertisement that appears when users visit product pages related to your product. As a result, you can target users who are interested in dashcams, security cameras, hidden surveillance cameras, and other products.

While each ad and target option has benefits and drawbacks, they all serve a purpose. You could use Headline Search Ads to promote a series of new products from the same line, for example. Alternatively, if you’re clearing out excess inventory, you can use Sponsored Products for each item.

The ads are all based on a pay-per-click (PPC) auction model. They also all require a minimum daily budget of $1, which allows you to keep your advertising budget under control, which is critical for small businesses.

Set Your Goals S.M.A.R.T.

Whether you choose to build an advertising campaign around Sponsored Products, Headline Search Ads, or Product Display Ads, you must set S.M.A.R.T. — Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely — goals.

Here are a few examples of S.M.A.R.T. goals for an Amazon campaign:

• Obtaining 30 product reviews in six months
• In three months, increasing a product’s sales by 15%
• Before the launch of a new product, a product’s inventory must be reduced by 100 per cent.

Your objectives frequently shape the advertisements you choose to run on Amazon. It’s important to note that your products will play a role in your advertising campaign strategy, as you can only promote products that have won their Buy Box.

What exactly is Amazon’s Buy Box? It refers to a box on the product page’s right side. When a user wants to buy a product, they use the Buy Box, which includes the following product information:

• Pricing 
• Shipping 
• Stock 
• Seller

If you win the Buy Box on Amazon, your product will be the default option when a user clicks “Add to Cart.” To win your Buy Box, you must provide a competitive price as well as a positive customer experience, which Amazon measures through a variety of factors, including shipping times.

Determine your advertising cost of sale

Before you begin creating campaigns, you must first determine your Advertising Cost of Sale (ACoS), which will influence your cost-per-click (CPC) bid and campaign budget. You can create a realistic, performance-driven budget with an accurate ACoS.

To calculate your ACoS, consider the following factors for each product:

• Price of sale
• Price of goods sold
• Cost of Amazon Fulfillment (FBA) 
• Miscellaneous costs

Once you have your figures, deduct all of your expenses — your cost of goods, FBA fees, and other costs — from your selling price. The remaining figure represents how much you can spend to make a profit on a sale.

Now, if you’re clearing inventory, you should figure out your break-even point. For this calculation, divide your maximum spend by the selling price of your product. As a result, your break-even point is determined.

When you begin advertising on Amazon, you can view the ACoS for each keyword in your AMS dashboard under “Advertising.” This feature informs you of which keywords are profitable to advertise for and which are not.

Research Your Keywords

Whether you’re a small start-up or a well-established medium-sized business, Amazon recommends starting with automatic targeting, which is available for Sponsored Products and Headline Search Ads — if you’re using Product Display Ads, Amazon suggests product-based targeting.

The reason for this is that you will receive valuable keyword data within two weeks. That information can then be used to create Sponsored Products and Headline Search Ads with manual targeting or Product Display Ads with interest-based targeting.

It can assist you in discovering new keywords for your campaigns, as well as keyword trends that are trending upward or downward. Keyword.io, a handy tool for finding keywords on Amazon, Google, YouTube, and other sites, can help you find them.

Examine your competitors’ listings as well. Depending on their experience with Amazon advertising, they may have their product titles and descriptions optimised for search, revealing which keywords they’re using to drive sales.

However, avoid creating a carbon copy of your competitor’s advertising strategy.

However, it is important that you conduct your own keyword research.

Improve your products

Before you launch your Amazon advertising campaign, you must optimise your product listings. With this extra step, you increase the likelihood that your ideal shopper will not only click on your ad but also buy your product.

When reviewing your products, keep the following features in mind:

• Title 
• Images 
• Description

Amazon recommends that you optimise these three areas for the best results with your advertising strategy, which can also help your ranking in organic search results on Amazon, which can lead to more organic sales.

Take the following steps to improve the quality of your title, images, and description:

• Make your product titles descriptive while remaining accurate.
• Provide high-quality images for your product listing.
• Make at least five bullet points part of your product description.
• Edit your product description to include relevant and useful product information. 

Consider adding keywords from your preliminary research as you revise your product titles and descriptions. After you’ve launched your campaign, you can use data from your ads to further refine your listings.

This optimization cycle can be time-consuming, especially for a small business, but it is worthwhile. It benefits both your advertising campaign and your business strategy. After your campaign has ended, you can continue to drive sales by optimising your product’s organic listing through keyword research.

Keep in mind that keyword stuffing is frowned upon by Amazon, so avoid it.

Encourage your customers to leave feedback

Reviews are extremely effective. Indeed, more than 60% of shoppers read reviews before making a purchase, which explains why they can increase sales by 18%. Not to mention that Amazon ranks organic search results based on customer reviews.

As a result, it is critical that you include reviews in your advertising campaign strategy.

One way to solicit feedback is through automated emails, such as those sent when a customer’s order is confirmed. Create an email to be sent after the expected delivery date, this time asking for feedback from the consumer. Make sure to invite users to contact you directly if they are dissatisfied with their order.

Another strategy is to include a product insert, such as a brochure on the uses of your product, with the package that your customer receives. A product insert is great for not only increasing brand awareness but also encouraging reviews, social shares, and other activities.

It’s important to note that Amazon does not allow solicited reviews.

It does, however, provide an Early Reviewer Program with a product fee. If you have a product with fewer than five reviews and a price tag greater than $15, the Early Reviewer Program is a viable option. Amazon will solicit reviews on your behalf for one year, or until you receive five reviews.

If your SMB is a wholesale supplier to Amazon, you can also take advantage of their Vine Reviewer Program. This is another paid programme, but it connects you with some of Amazon’s top reviewers. After receiving a sample of your product, the individual will provide an unbiased review of it.

Examine your search terms report

When you launch your advertising campaign, it’s easy to focus on sales and revenue, but it’s critical that you also consider what’s driving those purchases — keywords. That is why you should set aside some time to go over your search terms report.

The search terms report can be found in the “Advertising” section of your AMS dashboard. It’s a valuable data source for your Sponsored Products and Headline Search Ads because it shows which keywords are generating clicks and sales. This can help you plan your future and current campaigns.

As an example, suppose you notice that one keyword is generating a lot of clicks but no sales. When you look into it, you’ll find that while the keyword describes your product, it doesn’t match the user intent — a good example is “Saturn,” which can refer to either a car or the planet.

By devoting 30 minutes, you can save money on advertising while also improving your strategy, which is worthwhile.

Take Away

In this way, seven simple but effective tips can turn around your Amazon Advertising Campaign Strategy. Small and Medium-sized businesses can now use these tips to increase brand awareness, build revenue, and so much more. Take an ample amount of time and put in enough effort to make sure the campaign runs competently.