10 Best Amazon PPC Optimization Tips for Higher Visibility
and Lower Costs
We’ll give you ten optimization tips across these four
main areas of a PPC campaign:
I. Structure of campaigns
II. Keyword selection
III. Product selection
IV. CPC bid
I. Amazon PPC Optimization Begins with Structuring Campaigns
Correctly
The first step when setting up Amazon sponsored products ads
is the structure of the PPC campaign itself. Sponsored products are basically
divided up into three levels:
Campaigns
Ad Groups
Products / Ads and Keywords
Campaigns: These are the top-most level in an Amazon
advertising account. A daily budget can be set for campaigns. Additionally,
campaigns can be run manually or automatically. (More on that later.)
Ad Groups: The next step entails setting up one or more ad
groups in the campaign. You’ll set a standard bid for each.
Products and Keywords: Finally, products and keywords are
added to the ad groups. Amazon will automatically create an ad for the products
– you don’t have any influence over the design. In manual campaigns, you’ll
define keywords that Amazon will show the ad for. In automatic campaigns,
Amazon determines which keywords the ad will be shown for.
When structuring an Amazon sponsored products campaign,
sellers are faced with the question of which products and which keywords they
want to include in which ad groups and campaigns. Unfortunately, there’s no
general answer to this. There isn’t one perfect structure that is ideal
for all sellers. The right structure is more dependant upon the size and
homogeneity of the seller’s selection, the seller’s strategic targets, and
other points of consideration.
Nevertheless, there are a few guidelines that you should
follow when structuring your campaigns so that your future Amazon PPC
optimizations can be executed in a clear and targeted manner.
TIP #1: STRUCTURE CAMPAIGNS CONSISTENTLY
Campaigns permit a rough structure for your ad activities.
This can be both good and bad news. Typically, a campaign structure will
provide you with a set of characteristics that follow one or more of the
characteristics below:
By product category (for example: men’s shoes, keyboards,
cameras, etc.)
By brand (for example: Nike, Adidas, Puma etc.)
By top sellers (products that pull in the most sales, e.g.
top 10)
It’s important to be consistent with whichever
organizational method you use for your campaigns. If you change your
organizational structure, it could lead to repeat ads; for example, when you
create one campaign by brand and another by category.
TIP #2: USE DESCRIPTIVE, ACCURATE NAMES FOR YOUR CAMPAIGNS
In order to better find your way around your ad account –
also in case of later analysis and optimization – we highly recommend naming
your campaigns in an accurate, meaningful way. Instead of using ‘Campaign 1’,
for example, the name ‘Belts’ would be better.
TIP 3A: PRODUCTS THAT WILL BE SEARCHED FOR WITH THE SAME
KEYWORDS SHOULD BE PUT TOGETHER INTO THE SAME AD GROUP
A set of products and a set of keywords are made for each ad
group. Because all products should appear for that keyword set, it’s important
to keep in mind that you should choose a set of products that contextually fit
those keywords. So, you should put all products into an ad group that are
suitable (to be found via search) for those keywords.
Note: If you use this method, be careful when analyzing
profitability of your Amazon ads. Even though the products in the same ad group
have similar keywords, they might have very different profit margins – which in
turn would impact the profitability of your ads. That’s why you should always
know what a
good ACoS for
your Amazon ads would be before you start any Amazon PPC
optimization.
TIP 3B: CREATE DIFFERENT AD GROUPS FOR KEYWORDS WITH
DIFFERENT LEVELS OF GENERALITY
The larger your selection of products is, the larger your
number of keywords with varying levels of specificity will be.
Example: A seller has a selection of shoes
For all shoes, the keyword ‘shoe’ is relevant
For some of the shoes, the keyword ‘men’s shoes’ is relevant
For some men’s shoes the keyword ‘men’s sneakers’ is
relevant
Now if, for example, the word ‘men’s shoes’ were placed in
all ad groups for men’s sneakers, boots, loafers, etc. then you’d easily lose
track of which ads are shown for which keyword bids.
In order to avoid this, more general similar keywords can be
included in separate ad groups (for example: ‘men’s shoes’, ‘shoes for men’).
The top-selling products, for example, can then be included in these ad groups.
If you’d like some orientation with structuring campaigns,
one possibility could be, for example:
Campaign 1: Men’s shoes for Product Category 1
Ad Group 1 (‘men’s shoes’) for general keywords of that
product category (‘shoes for men’, ‘men’s shoes’, etc.) and top sellers
Ad Group 2 (‘men’s sneakers’) for specific keywords
(‘sneakers for men’, ‘men’s tennis shoes’, ‘men’s joggers’ etc.) and
corresponding products
Ad Group 3 (‘men’s boots) for specific keywords (‘men’s
boots’, ‘hiking boots for men’) and corresponding products
II. Amazon PPC Optimization on the Keyword Level
Selecting the right keywords is extremely important for the
success of your Amazon ad campaigns. You’ll be burning through your ad budget
unnecessarily with bad keywords, because your ads will be shown to customers
who are looking for totally different products. If you’re running your boots ad
for the keyword ‘loafers’, for example, it’s extremely improbable that someone
will make a purchase. If you forget an important keyword, on the other hand,
you’ll lose out on a sale that you could’ve easily paid for. If you forget to
run your boots ad for the keyword ‘winter boots’, for example, then you’re
missing out on potential customers.
The central challenge for sellers when optimizing keyword,
therefore, is:
How do I find all relevant keywords with the least amount of
effort?
How can I be sure that my ads are actually being shown for
all relevant search queries?
How can I be sure that my ads are NOT being shown for
irrelevant search queries?
TIP #4: LET AMAZON FIND THE BEST KEYWORDS FOR YOU IN AN
AUTOMATIC CAMPAIGN, AND TRANSFER THOSE OVER INTO A MANUAL CAMPAIGN
There are two different kinds of campaigns: manual and
automatic.
Automatic campaigns: With this type, advertisers don’t
select keywords for the campaigns, only products. Amazon compares customer
search queries with the keywords that are contained in the product’s listing
and backend search terms and decides automatically for which search queries the
ad should be shown. A general CPC bid price is set per ad group for this.
Manual campaigns: With manual campaigns, advertisers
themselves select the keywords for which the ads should appear. For search
queries that contain these keywords, the ad will then be able to appear. A
keyword-specific CPC bid can be set individually by keyword in manual
campaigns.
Run automatic and manual campaigns simultaneously
Run an automatic campaign as well as a manual campaign with
the same exact products. Let the automatic campaign run for a couple days/weeks
and then evaluate which search terms have generated the most sales. Transfer
these search terms into your manual campaign.
The advantage of this strategy is that Amazon will do
keyword research for you in an automatic campaign. However, you can still set
the bid individually by each keyword and then optimize the CPC once the search
term has been entered as keywords into the manual campaign. This way, you’re
enjoying the advantages of both campaign types. So that your automatic
campaigns don’t ‘steal’ impressions from your manual campaigns, you can lower
the bids in your automatic campaign while raising the bids in your manual campaign.
Here’s how it works:
Create an automatic campaign and ad group
Create a manual campaign and an ad group
Evaluate the search terms of the automatic campaign
regularly (‘Search Term Report’ in Seller Central) and transfer the relevant
and highest-converting search terms into the keywords of your manual campaign
with a higher CPC bid
TIP #5: KEYWORDS WITHOUT IMPRESSIONS: OPTIMIZE LISTINGS AND
BE SURE THAT YOUR ADS ARE BEING SHOWN FOR ALL RELEVANT SEARCH QUERIES
Amazon likes to be sure that the ads being shown on their
site are relevant for the customer. This is why generally only ads can be shown
for keywords that are also contained in the product listing text (title,
attributes, description, search terms). According to Amazon’s own statements,
it determines itself whether an ad will actually be placed for a certain
keyword (i.e. whether it’s relevant) by checking if that keyword is actually
contained in that product’s information.
That’s why you should check whether keywords that don’t have
any impressions are contained in your product listing text. If that’s not the
case, then you should add those keywords into the listing text to make sure
that ads will be able to be run for them – thereby reaching a broader potential
customer base.
TIP #6: ELIMINATE UNWANTED SEARCH QUERIES IN ORDER TO REDUCE
COSTS
Amazon ads aren’t always shown for only those exact search
terms that you’ve bid on as a seller. Search queries can vary from the keywords
you’ve entered according to match type.
Example: A customer is looking for ‘wallet brown leather’. A
seller bids on ‘wallet’ with her product. Because ‘wallet’ is contained in the
search query, Amazon shows the ad in the customer’s search results. The
customer clicks on the ad and lands on the product listing page – only to find
that the wallet that the seller is offering is imitation (patent) leather.
That’s not what she was looking for. It’s highly unlikely that the customer
would still make a purchase, but the seller has still paid for the click.
In order to avoid this problem and prevent unnecessary costs
from occurring, there are two options:
Set keyword match types
Set negative keywords
Match types – setting keyword match types for your Amazon
PPC ads
When you’re entering in keywords for your sponsored
products, Amazon gives you three match types to choose from:
Broad: The Sponsored Product ad can be displayed if the
query includes all words that have been deposited as a keyword. The order of
words doesn’t matter. In addition, the formula considers spelling variations,
misspellings and synonyms as matches.
Phrase: The ad can appear when a search query uses the keyword(s)
entered (i.e. one or more words) in exactly the order given. Close variations
(e.g. singular / plural) are considered matches.
Exact: The ad can only appear when a search query matches exactly the keyword
given. Plural and singular forms are considered exact matches here as well.
Negative keywords – your ads won’t be shown if…
Amazon also offers negative keywords. Your ad will not
appear for user queries containing these negative keywords. These are the two
different negative match types to choose from:
Negative Exact: Your Sponsored Product ad will only be
excluded if the search query exactly matches the negative keyword you’ve
entered, or with a minor variation (for example, singular / plural).
Negative phrases: Ads will be excluded if the search query contains the
negative keyword as a part of the phrase or in whole.
Which method is better – using match type or negative
keywords?
The advantage of match types is that many irrelevant search queries can
be excluded easily. Ironically, the disadvantage is that many relevant search
queries are also excluded at the same time.
Negative keywords allow a differentiated approach, since
excluded keywords can be listed concretely. In order to draw up an accurately
targeted list of negative keywords, however, you’ll need to do some keyword
research and/or analysis of search term reports (available as an Excel export
in Seller Central). Since the list of negative keywords must be constantly
expanded and completed, the use of negative keywords is considered to be more
time-consuming.
