If you’ve ever searched for a product on Amazon and then a few days later suddenly saw that same product cropping up all over your browser, then you’ve got a first-hand experience of Amazon Retargeting Ads.
Retargeting is the most powerful form of PPC advertising on the internet. On Facebook Ads and Google Ads, it’s not uncommon to have conversion rates 3x higher or more on retargeting.
Well guess what? The future is here.
Amazon has released a retargeting option for Sponsored Products in Seller Central that you can manage yourself. Here’s everything we’ll be covering:
What are Amazon Retargeting Ads?
Retargeted ads are shown to people who have already interacted with your products or brand in the recent past. These people have already expressed interest in you and are the most likely to convert with a little extra push.
Retargeting increases conversion rates and impressions because it allows Amazon sellers to advertise to third-party websites and apps. This way your best potential customers can see your products anywhere on the internet. Talk about win-win.
In case you were wondering, Amazon has been officially calling this feature “Remarketing” which is synonymous with the more common “Retargeting” term. They mean the same thing, just terminology differences.
Here’s a video of Michael explaining what Retargeting Ads are more in-depth:
Moving from DSP to Seller Central
Amazon has actually had ad retargeting available previously, but in a restricted form through Amazon Demand-Side Platform (DSP). Sellers could only retarget to Amazon-affiliated third-party sites like the Washington Post.
Now that Amazon has introduced retargeting for sponsored products, you can manage it yourself in Seller Central and retarget to any third-party website.
Why Remarketing is Important
With ad retargeting, you can now reach customers off of Amazon and build brand awareness more effectively. So does it really work?
Wordstream tells us we see an increase in conversion rates with an increase in ad impressions. Typically increasing impressions reduces conversion rates, but because ad retargeting shows ads to people already in your funnel, it actually gets you higher quality impressions.
Best of all, Amazon ad retargeting is cost-effective and leads to lower ACoS. It’s a great option for any seller trying to get the best return out of their PPC campaign.
If you want more tips on how to lower your ACoS check out How to Tell the Difference between a Good and Bad ACoS.
Sponsored Product Ads get even better
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Sponsored Products are the most popular ad on Amazon, with close to a 10% conversion rate.
According to Ad Age, they’re the most dominant ad on the marketplace,
Sponsored Products accounts for the majority of ad revenue, 88 percent, that Amazon makes from search-based advertising.
Offering ad retargeting for Sponsored Products only makes the ad type more powerful and essential for Amazon sellers to optimize them.That’s why we made this step-by-step guide, so you can set some up for yourself and increase your conversion rates.
Need a refresh on how Sponsored Product Ads work?
How to Set up your own Amazon Retargeting Ads
To get started, we just need to set up a Sponsored Product Ad like normal.
Step 1: Navigate to the Sponsored Products tab in Amazon Seller Central.
Step 2: Click “Create campaign” and set your campaign name budget, and duration.
Step 3: Right now you can only access Ad Retargeting through automatic campaigns, so select that.
Step 4: If your account is eligible, you should another check box that says “Remarketing” appear below the “Automatic Targeting” radio button.
The ads will link to your product detail page. How your Sponsored Product Ads appear won’t change and the CPC bids will remain the same.
Guess what? You’re done! From here Amazon will take care of the retargeting for you.
However, this is a double-edged sword. No doubt the process is simple, but it lacks several essential features to provide that extra layer of granularity and control.
What we hope to see from Amazon Retargeting in the future
Amazon’s retargeting feature is nowhere as sophisticated as Facebook and Google’s. You can do loads of optimizing and revenue boosting activities on these platforms that we’d love to see on Amazon like:
- Remarketing only campaigns
- Cold-traffic only campaigns
- Audience management
- Tiered remarketing
- (i.e. view your product 1x or 5x ->these people should have different bids)
- Segmented Remarketing
- (i.e. viewed product 24 hours ago vs 24 days ago)
- Control of remarketing placements: turn off remarketing on certain apps or websites proven to be ineffective
However, Amazon’s retargeting feature is still in beta and doesn’t offer Google and Facebook’s customization.
Amazon’s advertising has traditionally taken features from Google. Check out our post comparing Amazon PPC and Google Ads to see what else Amazon has taken from Google’s ad platform. I predict this will be the case for Amazon’s retargeting feature and it will become more like Google’s as time goes on.
Amazon’s Rising Potential
With Amazon’s retargeting option entering the mix, sellers can now harness Amazon’s huge user and data base. WIRED UK predicts Amazon’s ad business will threaten the Google/Facebook ad duopoly because Amazon has a treasure chest full of data on what customers actually buy.
Additionally, Amazon acquired Whole Foods and is now able to collect brick-and-mortar data. This is an advantage Amazon has on Google and Facebook and will translate to helping Amazon sellers advertise effectively.
How do you feel about Retargeting?
Amazon’s variety of advertising products still creates a lot of confusion because of the different capabilities for each platform.
Now that ad retargeting is available to Seller Central, Amazon has taken a great first step to normalize ad retargeting for all Amazon sellers and brands.
How do you feel about Amazon ad retargeting? Sound off in the comments below if you love it, hate it, or can’t decide until you use it yourself. If you want more great Amazon PPC content, check out our podcast the PPC Den.