Amazon Full-Funnel Advertising

Amazon DSP

Maybe an obvious first step to expanding the advertising efforts while staying in the Amazon ecosystem is the DSP platform. Demand Side Platform from Amazon is a software that provides centralized media buying from multiple sources. Media buying is the process of finding the ideal location, placement, time, and audience to run the ads. It's also programmatic since the process is automated. To understand Amazon DSP better, I’ll make a comparison with the Amazon Sponsored Products ad type. With SP ads we are targeting “what” people are searching for, and with DSP we are targeting “who” is potentially interested in a certain product. In SP we are selecting keywords, competitor products, or categories to target. In DSP we are selecting “people” or audiences that fit certain criteria, behavioral, or demographics and target them on or off Amazon.

Search Engine Ads to Amazon

Search engine keywords or interest-based targeting can be used in different ways depending on the product life cycle or brand goals. It offers an opportunity to develop your website as a relevant purchase point. Will be a combination of search engine and social media posting and paid promotion. From a strategy perspective, you can use it for brand defense, targeting people that are already familiar with your brand, to direct them to your website and avoid the Amazon fees, since these people are very likely to convert. Second, you can use it to promote some blog content on your website for people that are browsing to learn more on a certain topics. For example, if you are selling sports water bottles, you can create a blog posts on the importance of water intake during training, protein shakes recipes, training programs, and the list goes on. You just need to be creative and understand the intention of certain search queries when creating the content.

Another way SEM can be used is to send traffic to the Amazon product pages on highly relevant non-branded terms. This will provide an opportunity for potential customers to review your product features and get the social proof that reviews and star ratings on Amazon offer.

Social Media Ads to Amazon

According to a survey from CreditCards.com, 72 percent of millennials say social media impacts their buying decisions. This is the most likely age group to be influenced by social media in their spending, followed by 66 percent of Gen-Z, 49 percent of Gen X and 45 percent of baby boomers. This emphasise the fact there should be no doubt that you need to establish a social media presence. But does not mean that you need to be present on all of them. If you know your target audience you’ll identify which social platform is your priority. Facebook might be the big giant but with the recent changes in privacy settings on devices the quality of traffic that you can get from Facebook has fallen significantly. Its size has become a handicap, as a platform people are using more to express their political views or read the news. On the other hand if we take Pinterest for example, 63% of users are coming to discover new products to buy or get inspired when starting a new project for home remodeling. Add to that the lower CPC and better targeting options, based on keywords and interest, and it does not take long to decide where you should put the priority. 

Tracking performance

Amazon advertising console is constantly evolving and adding new features, one of which has become widely available is “Amazon Attribution”. This allows you to create pixels for ads on other platforms and bring traffic to the Amazon product detail page or the storefront. Amazon is incentivizing this by giving credits through the Brand Referral Bonus Program. On average brands can receive 10% of sales from traffic driven to Amazon. Bonus rates may vary based on inputs such as additional shipping and gift wrapping charges. The actual bonus applied to your sales can be viewed in the weekly bonus report.