Welcome back to the burrow, The Badger back again to begin educating on Amazon PPC and the 2 types of ads in Seller Central you can use to boost your conversion rates.
What is a PPC ad you ask? An Amazon PPC ad is pay-per-click advertising that allows Amazon sellers and vendors to run ads for their products on Amazon. Pay-per-click means Amazon charges the seller each time a shopper clicks on their ad. You can learn more about Amazon PPC in our 12-Point Comprehensive Guide to Amazon PPC.
Your follow up question might be: What is Seller Central? Seller Central is the interface in Amazon that sellers interact with to manage the orders they receive.
Kind of like this:
The Different Types of Sellers inside of Seller Central
Yes, there are two types of sellers on Amazon. There’s first-party sellers and third-party sellers, just like there’s the European badger and the American badger.
When you think of first-party sellers, think manufacturers and distributors. Third-party sellers are any average joe who may have some products (badger food, badger toys, etc.) they want to sell individually.
For this article, we’re going to focus on Amazon PPC ads in Seller Central. Check out our other article if you want to learn about Vendor Central ads.
Seller Central is the interface used by third-party sellers to manage their products and shipments.
Here are some facts about third-party sellers:
- Anyone can be a third-party seller, compared to the invite-only process of becoming a first-party seller.
- Third-party sellers have more control over their product’s prices.
- These sellers have the potential for higher margins because they have more control over their product.
- The sellers control listings and inventory shipments more than first-party sellers do.
- Third-party sellers have the opportunity to choose Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) to hand over shipping, customer service and returns responsibilities.
Seller Central is also the platform where third-party sellers control their ad campaigns like Sponsored Product Ads and Sponsored Brand Ads.
The Importance of Sponsored Brand Ads and Sponsored Product Ads
Sponsored Product Ads and Sponsored Brand Ads appear when customers search for a product.
Like this:
At the top of the search results, you’ll find a section of products with the Sponsored Brand ad “Sponsored by Badger Balm” with some ad copy. On the right-hand side, you’ll find another section with some more products. These ad campaigns are controlled in Seller Central by third-party sellers.[/caption]
First, let’s dive into Sponsored Brand Ads, or you can call them “Banner Ads,” just don’t call them cute. Whatever you want to call them, they’re the type of ads that appear at the top of search results showcasing one product accompanied with ad copy.
The power of Sponsored Brand Ads:
- Sponsored Brand ads can send traffic to a custom URL (company landing page, the best selling product, or a brand page).
- They allow for more customization and control of the ad.
- Sponsored Brand Ads are primarily for top-of-the-funnel customers, giving your product the opportunity to grab a customer’s attention before they precisely know what they want.
Now on to Sponsored Product Ads. At the bottom of the product page, you’ll also find Sponsored Product Ads related to the item you’re shopping for. Amazon took a page out of The Badger’s book and sneakily places ads next to the organically listed products above. Sponsored Product Ads are so subtle and such a big part of the customer experience, they hold real power in appealing to customers without them feeling heavily advertised to.
Here are reasons why Sponsored Product Ads (SPAs) are so important:
- They are the most popular type of ads on Amazon.
- Sponsored Product Ads are the most seen by customers.
- They are proven to have a high conversion rate (~10%) and increase ROI.
- Sponsored Product Ads live at almost every step on the customer’s journey.
How to Target Sponsored Brand Ads and Sponsored Product Ads
So, as an Amazon seller, you may be thinking “Badger, this is all fine and dandy, but how do I target these types of ads to showcase my products?” You’re right, knowing these types of ads don’t help you if you don’t know how to target them.
It all comes down to keywords. Each of these ads is paid placements by sellers and vendors and have made it to the big leagues because they optimized their keyword bidding.
Amazon experiences 1.3 million actions per second and is paid for each of these clicks on top of the revenue from the products they sell. Customers search keywords and click on products that, in turn, change the rankings of what products show up first.
Even though most clicks are on organic placements when setting up an ad campaign, sellers bid on what keywords customers will possibly search for to take matters into their own claws—I mean hands. The higher the bid you place on the keyword, the higher your product will rank and possibly be clicked on.
Bidding on Keywords in Seller Central
If you can find an equilibrium in the bids and your ad campaign budget you can maximize the number of clicks on your product and be given the opportunity to appear on a Sponsored Product Ad.
It might make a little more sense looking at the keyword bidding page in Seller Central:
If you look closely, you’ll see the word “manual” or “automatic” in the Targeting column. For manual ad campaigns, sellers set their own keywords. Third-party sellers can also automate their targeting to allow Amazon to automatically set keywords for their products. Not to badger brag, but my tool automates negative keyword research for you.[/caption]
I’ll give you time to soak up all this information. Visit the burrow next time to dig up some more information on the types of Ads in Vendor Central.
In case you missed it, check out my last blog post with an update on our beta.
Badger out.