Amazon has totally transformed the way online businesses find customers. This is true not only of actually listing and selling products but also advertising them. Amazon’s PPC (pay-per-click) advertising model shares similarities with other online advertising mediums but boasts a series of unique features. These qualities make it a powerful tool once you master the basics. In this article, you will be introduced to Amazon PPC and learn how to hit the ground running.
What Is Amazon PPC?
Amazon PPC is also known as Sponsored Products. Sponsored Product ads are designed to appear in search results as sponsored items. This puts them ahead of other “organically” ranked products that would otherwise appear before them. Amazon PPC ads allow sellers to purchase an ad position at the top of Amazon product search results. Sellers pay a calculated fee every time customers click on their sponsored products.
How Does Amazon PPC Work?
Amazon PPC is based on two factors: keywords and auctions. Sellers bid amounts on the keywords they want to link to their products. The seller with the highest bid appears in the top position in product search results. The second-place seller will appear next, and so on. However, sellers only actually pay Amazon when their ads are clicked. If you have worked with Google AdWords, this design will be readily familiar to you.
Amazon PPC ads are not available for all product types. Some of the available product categories include:
- Pet supplies.
- Cameras.
- Health and personal care.
- Baby products.
- Home and kitchen.
- Shoes.
- Beauty products.
- Handmade items.
Where Do Amazon PPC Ads Appear?
There are two possible places for your sponsored products to appear: Amazon product search results and product listing pages.
Product search results have sponsored item ads interspersed among organically appearing listings. Ads can appear anywhere in these results, even on the first page. Amazon PPC ads are marked as sponsored items, but the ads themselves appear in the same format as other search results and blend extremely well into the organically displayed products. This makes them far more likely to be clicked.
Product listing pages also display Amazon PPC ads underneath titles and pictures. Set just above product descriptions, these ads show customers sponsored alternatives to products they may already be considering.
What Are the Benefits of Amazon PPC?
The benefits of using Amazon PPC are likely obvious to sellers struggling to get their products in front of customers. However, even sellers who are already experiencing success can find that Amazon PPC ads can have all sorts of important benefits.
- Seasonal campaigns can make for a powerful use of Amazon PPC ads. Different products can see a spike in sales during different seasons. This is especially true of any holiday products with keywords like Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Christmas, Hanukkah, and the like. Amazon PPC ads allow sellers to put their products front and center during peak sales times. Interested customers are already looking for these products, so making them more visible only makes sense. This is also true of end-of-season sales, when products need to be sold more quickly to make room for new inventory.
- Amazon PPC ads are a great way to boost product sales across your product line. You can use PPC ads to make your products more visible and drive sales. Running PPC ads for keywords that your products do not organically connect to often enough is another key benefit. This allows customers to more quickly find your sponsored products in their searches, improving the chances that they choose your products over alternatives that are further down in search results.
- Featuring new products is another fantastic use of Amazon PPC ads. New products are, by nature, less likely to show up earlier in search results. This is because Amazon’s organic search algorithm prioritizes items that are already selling well. This means that PPC ads create a major shortcut to putting your products at the top of customers’ searches. Using PPC ads gives your products a leg up, enabling customers to find them more easily. This eventually lets your products organically rank better in Amazon’s algorithm. Even selling products at a loss or with minimal profit can be helpful during this period, since it will help products sell faster and increase their visibility.
How Does Amazon PPC Change Organic Search Results?
Amazon PPC ads can make all the difference for your products’ organic search rankings. When sales are boosted by Amazon PPC, the sales history of your product improves and earns a higher ranking in results. Sales histories are one of the primary factors in where products rank. Organic rankings are also improved for successful PPC keywords.
How Much Does Amazon PPC Cost?
Depending on the keyword, cost per click for Amazon PPC can be anywhere from a few cents to a few dollars. The more popular the keyword, the more each click will cost. As far as advertising goes, this is generally seen as a reasonable cost. It also means that researching the best keywords for your products is vital to getting the most bang for your buck.
Conclusion
Amazon PPC ads are a potentially game-changing tool for sellers looking to improve their product sales. Using Amazon PPC ads, your products can be front and center for customers who are already interested. Amazon PPC ads blend your products almost seamlessly into search results and competing product pages, improving your click rates. Any seller using Amazon is likely to find that Sponsored Product ads boost their sales figures to new h
