10 Best Amazon PPC Optimization Tips for Higher Visibility and Lower Costs

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.

Article Source: https://sellics.com/blog-amazon-ppc-optimization