How Your Customers Can Help With Advertising
Ambassador Programs
Something that I’ve seen a lot of success with indirect with consumer is really leveraging kind of Ambassador programs, getting some of your best customers your most loyal customers and honestly, if that could be an entire hour long call how that works so we’re not going to go into that long story short is having a program in place where you have an intimate relationship with some of your customers and then you can start soliciting them for high-value such as video content and I’ve seen some really really cool videos on Amazon where they are taking video testimonials from their customers and stringing them back to back to back and it’s just an amazing social proof piece. So and I’m looking at these products videos you have kind of like the infographic let’s talk about the product. You have the hey, let’s talk about the company itself. Cause some companies have some really cool names.
Embrace Who You Are
Are you made in America manufactured in America? Are you women owned? minority-owned? veteran-owned? Here’s a great place to share that story as long as it’s allowed. And then we also have kind of sharing some of these customer testimonial videos in a social proof aspect of it. So it’s not like everyone on the call, its not cut and dry. It’s not simple. It’s not like here is the one way to do it…
- Published in Uncategorized
Why You Need Videos On Your Amazon Product Page
See For Yourself
Videos are becoming more and more important, as you can see right here. I did an Amazon search for exercise equipment and right here. It shows videos related to your search so videos are constantly getting more and more– and these are just videos off the off the product pages. So it’s definitely worth having a video now that it’s even getting a whole entire row of real estate at this point.
The Payoff
Like they could put products here, but instead they put videos so these guys are getting double exposure now, so if they’re products here and here that these guys have two slots Now within Amazon, so it’s definitely worth having a video on your product page.
- Published in Uncategorized
Why You Need A+ Content
People LOVE Visuals
As far as the importance of A+ content, you know in my opinion customers do not like to read anymore and I’ll say this too, if you only have a description please at least take the time to do an HTML description because doing this to block a paragraph text. I haven’t talked to anybody, family friends or otherwise that I pulled to ask a question of do you read that and what they’ll say is that if they see a sentence they feel like it’s a joke and if they see a blurb of text they just see it and go ugh and don’t read it but people are very visual. So, you know, give them what they want through the A+ content.
How Important Is A+ Content
I think it in order of importance on a on a product detail page. The first thing is going to be your your title and your main image because that’s what people are going to see what they do a search that’s going to have them clicking into your into your listing. then its going to be the reviews. So you know I think reviews or are, have to be just as important as title and main image. So once they get to your listing though, it’s the secondary images the video, It’s the bullet points, how you how you word the bullet points to draw their attention there, but after that, it’s got to be the A+ content is what’s important.
- Published in Uncategorized
Why You Need Amazon Posts To Help Increase Amazon Sales
Amazon’s New Feature
New Amazon posts and how that could really be utilized as
part of their advertising strategy and the fact that it’s a no cost initiative.
I think it’s important for clients to understand
that. Would you mind giving an example of what posts look like for
those that don’t know and just kind of walking through where they
could expect to see it and some some general insights there.
Yeah, so this is like a normal product page on mobile this is on a mobile phone.
And if you scroll down to the bottom of almost any product page at
this point. At the very bottom there will be related posts, right here.
And this is where a user and this is all free.
It’s part of the beta program of Amazon. and this is all going to be at
the bottom of your competitors pages and your pages, and it’s sorted by
like related by date.
So how soon these people have posted but you can click on these and
interact with them and go to even a post feed that represent almost
like Instagram, it looks very very similar to Instagram and it’s an
all you have to do is just go to the product.
You just show product right here and you click on it and then that’s it.
Free Traffic To Product Page
And then each of these product pages will have these posts and
it’s really important that you start at least posting on these so
you can be on your competitor’s product page for free. That’s the
best part you can get thousands of Impressions and many hundreds of
Click through– a hundred clicks just for free just by posting on these
so it’s definitely worth especially if you’re already posting on
Instagram, you must post on Amazon posts like that,
if you’re already doing that, it’s basically one more step and you can
get that extra engagement that extra engagement to your page.
And so it makes sense.
- Published in Uncategorized
Amazon Tips and Tricks – Advertising Vol 01
01 – Big Changes in Keyword Bids Usually Means Little Valuable Data to Learn from Later
When making changes to your AdGroups Keyword bids, making small 10% or less incremental changes is usually best, in my opinion. The exception to this rule is when my ACoS (advertising cost of sales) is 20% – 30% higher than our target. That’s when I might drop the bid by more than 10% to get it to a reasonable number within the next 7 to 10 days.
I would rather make big moves down and raise slowly, than to make big jumps up and spend too much in my ad spend.
02 – Tracking Bids Weekly Simplified
One of the methods I use to track my bid adjustments from week to week is the following:
If I adjust a bid down, I use the 10% rule but adjust down to a .03 cent ending. If I adjust a bid up, again using the same 10% rule, I adjust it up to a .07 cent ending. This allows me to know the following week(s) what I previously did with the bids easily.
Example of lowering the bids:
If I have a keyword phrase that is currently at a 0.80 cent bid, getting a 17% advertising cost of sale (ACoS) and my target is 12% I would adjust the bid down to 0.73 cents.
Example of raising the bids:
Likewise, if I have a keyword phrase that is currently at a 0.80 cent bid, getting a 10% advertising cost of sale (ACoS) and my target is 12% I would adjust the bid up to 0.87 cents.
03 – Quickly Look at Campaign Level Comparison Data
One way I quickly look at Campaign level Impressions, Clicks. Spend, Sales and ACoS and compare data over time, especially when I have ten or more campaigns is utilizing Amazon’s campaign export feature.
I export the data, in two or more date ranges and quickly create a spreadsheet to look at campaign data by date to see progress.
To do this, in the Campaign Manager, All Campaign view, there is an Export button on the right side. This allows you to export this screens data to view in a CSV spreadsheet. To compare campaigns over different time frames and see how they have performed with your changes, simply do this.
Create your first date range spreadsheet:
- Set your columns for the view you need (see Tip #6 below)
- Set your time period, usually I go back first to the start date range I want to see. It is not necessary to change the “Results per page” range (bottom right of the page) to see all of your campaigns, if you have more than 10 for example, Amazon will still export all the campaigns in the next step. In this example, I set my first date range to November 2nd through November 19th.
Campaign Manager – Set Date Range
- Click “Export” at the top right of the campaign view table.
- Open this CSV file in your spreadsheet application.
- Add a column on the far left to add your date range to this sheet. You can add it where ever you like, but I like mine on the left.
- Select all the rows in this sheet and change the background color. I tend to use a light gray.
- Last step for this sheet, I freeze the top row and make it a different color from the rest. If I get fancy, I make the background black and the text bold white.
You should now have a spreadsheet with all your campaign data in this date rang, color coded with column A showing all rows with the date range, for example, 1102-1118.
You can probably guess where I am going next, ‘rinse and repeat’ with the next date range. You are correct! I repeat this process for each date range you want to see changing the background colors.
Last step, I take all the sheets, and copy paste the data into the first one, below the previous data rows.
Now that you have this master sheet, with all the date ranges nicely organized and color coded, sort by “Campaign Name”, and you should see your data campaign over campaign by date, color coded. This allows me to see my data progress in one convenient place to compare my work over time.
I then mark my changes in specific columns to show improvements and deficits so I can go work on these areas. I use this to analyze data from several dates all the time now and I have started building out more date ranges as I have gotten more used to the process. However, before trying to compare more than two dates, I would recommend doing this once or twice with two date ranges to get used to the steps.
04 – Portfolios – Quick Look at Cost of Advertising
Using Amazon’s recently added Portfolios feature is a great way to quickly, at a glance, see advertising cost of sales (ACoS) for assigned campaigns. However, use this wisely as you can only assign a campaign to one portfolio (at the time of this article).
For example, if you are selling kitchen products, you may want to group your campaigns related to small appliances into one portfolio and group kitchen utensils into another portfolio, each of which has many different campaigns and ad groups, but you find value in seeing the performance rolled up to a higher-level structure for easier reporting and bulk changes.
05 – Optimizing Campaigns using Browser Tabs
When optimizing my client’s campaigns, I always open the Campaigns/AdGroups I am working on in new tabs. To easily do this, I utilize the “Open in New Tab” keyboard feature. When clicking on a link to open, simply hold down the “COMMAND” key, then click the link on a MAC or use CTRL-T on Windows.
Useful Chrome Keyboard Shortcuts –
https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/chrome-keyboard-shortcuts
Useful Safari Keyboard Shortcuts –
https://www.cnet.com/how-to/shortcuts-for-safari-you-need-to-know/
Here are a few that work across all browsers…
https://www.groovypost.com/tips/50-universal-web-browser-hotkeys/
06 – Setting the “View” Before Working on Campaigns
As mentioned in Tip #5, I use tabs a lot to help me organize my views while optimizing campaigns. Another useful tip is to set up your “view” on the first window/tab. Then when you open subsequent tabs, they will all use the same “view settings.”
For example, when you open Seller Central and go to Advertising > Campaign Manager, with this page open, setup the date range, columns, etc. Now, when you navigate to other Campaigns/AdGroup’s those subsequent pages will follow your view structure.
07 – Utilizing the Columns View Tool
Many sellers don’t utilize the “Columns” view tool. This is a button inside the Campaign and AdGroup screens located on the right, just above the data table (next to Export). Clicking on this button allows you to add and remove valuable data columns in your table, like, Impressions, Clicks, Clickthrough rate (CTR), Cost per click (CPC), and Amazon as recently added – New-to-brand orders, % of orders new-to-brand, New-to-brand sales, and % of sales new-to-brand.
Since these last four columns are new, still in Beta, items, here is what Amazon has to say about these new additions.
New-to-brand orders
The number of first-time orders for products within the brand over a one-year lookback window.
Note: New-to-brand data isn’t available for Sponsored Products. Data is available for Sponsored Brands from November 1, 2018. If you select a start date earlier than November 1, your new-to-brand metrics will be calculated using November 1 as the start date.
Sponsored Brands new-to-brand metrics enable you to measure orders and sales of your products generated from first-time customers of your brand on Amazon. With new-to-brand metrics, you can better measure and optimize in-flight campaigns, as well as plan future marketing strategies, to drive customer acquisition and brand loyalty.
We determine if an order is new to your brand by reviewing the last 12 months of a shopper’s purchase history. If the shopper has not purchased from your brand within the 12 month look back window, the order is considered new-to-brand.
% of orders new-to-brand
The percentage of total orders that are new-to-brand orders.
Note: New-to-brand data isn’t available for Sponsored Products. Data is available for Sponsored Brands from November 1, 2018. If you select a start date earlier than November 1, your new-to-brand metrics will be calculated using November 1 as the start date.
Sponsored Brands new-to-brand metrics enable you to measure orders and sales of your products generated from first-time customers of your brand on Amazon. With new-to-brand metrics, you can better measure and optimize in-flight campaigns, as well as plan future marketing strategies, to drive customer acquisition and brand loyalty.
We determine if an order is new to your brand by reviewing the last 12 months of a shopper’s purchase history. If the shopper has not purchased from your brand within the 12 month look back window, the order is considered new-to-brand.
New-to-brand sales
The total sales (in local currency) of new-to-brand orders.
Note: New-to-brand data isn’t available for Sponsored Products. Data is available for Sponsored Brands from November 1, 2018. If you select a start date earlier than November 1, your new-to-brand metrics will be calculated using November 1 as the start date.
Sponsored Brands new-to-brand metrics enable you to measure orders and sales of your products generated from first-time customers of your brand on Amazon. With new-to-brand metrics, you can better measure and optimize in-flight campaigns, as well as plan future marketing strategies, to drive customer acquisition and brand loyalty.
We determine if an order is new to your brand by reviewing the last 12 months of a shopper’s purchase history. If the shopper has not purchased from your brand within the 12 month look back window, the order is considered new-to-brand.
% of sales new-to-brand
The percentage of total sales (in local currency) that are new-to-brand sales.
Note: New-to-brand data isn’t available for Sponsored Products. Data is available for Sponsored Brands from November 1, 2018. If you select a start date earlier than November 1, your new-to-brand metrics will be calculated using November 1 as the start date.
Sponsored Brands new-to-brand metrics enable you to measure orders and sales of your products generated from first-time customers of your brand on Amazon. With new-to-brand metrics, you can better measure and optimize in-flight campaigns, as well as plan future marketing strategies, to drive customer acquisition and brand loyalty.
We determine if an order is new to your brand by reviewing the last 12 months of a shopper’s purchase history. If the shopper has not purchased from your brand within the 12 month look back window, the order is considered new-to-brand.
08 – Sorting AdGroups to Optimize for ACoS
Sorting by spend verses ACOS allows you to see keyword terms that got Clicks with no sales as well as ones that have Sales (ACoS). This workflow adjustment allows me to optimize an AdGroup in one pass.
I like using this method as it keeps me familiar with terms that are getting clicks and costing me money, but not making any ROI. If I see a term that is getting enough clicks to worry about, I might adjust my date range to see if that is a trend I need to make adjustments for.
09 – Acceptable ACOS
I get asked all the time, what is an acceptable ACoS (advertising cost of sales) for my products. Acceptable ACoS is the most you are willing to pay after all of your cost of goods to market your products. I know this is a copout answer, but it is the truth. There is not any secret sauce here. If you are willing to spend more to attempt to get better placement in a category or have a specific goal, by doing so, then do it.
However, if you are starting out and want to build a primary advertising campaign, your ACoS target should be whatever you can afford to spend.
Lastly, don’t let anyone tell you it is impossible to get ACoS down below 10% or even less. I have client campaigns making $50,000 per month with an ACoS of less than 8% – it is possible.
“It’s also critical to look at the cost of advertising in relation to your total sales, not just sales generated by ads (as shown on the campaign performance reports), because the sales you generate through ads also improve your organic search ranking by generating greater sales, influencing conversions through new keywords, acquiring additional reviews and seller feedback ratings.”
– Steve Yates, CEO/Founder of Prime Guidance
10 – Chrome Plugins – Scope from Seller Labs
Plugin’s in Chrome, and some other browsers, can greatly improve your data research on Amazon, one of those plugin’s I recommend is Scope from Seller Labs.
Seller Labs makes an application called Scope (https://scope.sellerlabs.com/plugin) that helps simplify keyword research on page while looking at search results, Amazon product or category pages.
The Results Tab provides details on the products returned from your search results. This data includes Title, Brand, Category, Price, Rank, Estimated Sales & Revenue, Reviews, Star rating and number of sellers.
The Keywords tab provides details on your search term as well as other variations of the term. The details on this item also include search volume, and score designed to show you the competitiveness of the term.
The plugin provides data for a search result page like, search volume, CPC Bid range, and the number of results. Want a more detailed look at the results, you can download the data in a CSV file directly from the plugin.
“Scope gives you the information that you need to understand where what keywords are actually driving traffic and sales to your competitors. Whether you’re optimizing your listings or your advertising campaigns this keyword data is invaluable to making data-driven decisions for your Amazon strategy. Remember to compare keyword lists from multiple competitors so you can see which keywords are the ones you really want to focus on.”
– By Tyler Henderson, Seller Labs
Want more information on Seller Labs and other valuable tools they offer like Feedback Genius, click here to visit their site.
11 – (Bonus Tip) Don’t get caught up in the hype
Amazon advertising needs to be approached in phases. If your ACoS, advertising cost of sales, is not within 5% of your target ACoS then merely focus on getting within that spectrum.
Optimize your Auto Campaigns and Manual Campaigns terms for good ACoS. Don’t do anything else to get fancy or try new tactics. These ‘other’ strategies can make you lose focus from the ACoS goal and over time be a huge distraction.
Instead, take these ideas or other strategies and make notes to road map plans, set milestones to meet before moving to the next ‘phases.’
Don’t get me wrong. There is a lot of great things you can do like offensive and defensive advertising, driving organic terms with focused ads or BSR (Best Seller Rank) campaigns. These are all fantastic ideas and have huge impacts. However, usually to make these other tactics work, you need a good foundation with your existing Campaigns / AdGroups. If not, it is like using the “Spray and Pray” method as my friend and Prime Guidance’s CEO Steve Yates calls it. This does not allow for structure.
My focus on advertising is to collect valuable keyword data, good and bad and utilize that data to make bid choices that will have the most impact. If your “side” project corrupts that baseline data, you are not helping your efforts.
Wes Beckwith is a Sr. Consultant at Prime Guidance with more than 15 years of experience in digital marketing, driving success through SEO, vertical marketing and design. Wes has a diverse background from web advertising to Apple Engineering/Analysis, and Amazon Marketing giving him a broad perspective into Amazon’s algorithm.
- Published in Amazon Advertising