• Did you know there are now more than 300 million Amazon users worldwide? If you're not already advertising on Amazon, you could be missing out.
• Amazon makes it easy to increase the visibility of your products, outrank your competitors and reach more buyers.
• In this guide, we'll walk you through the basics of advertising on Amazon, how to get started and the must-know do's and don'ts to get the most out of your ads.

Amazon is the biggest online marketplace in the world. It boasts more than 300 million users, with 126 million Americans using Amazon Prime. If you’re not already advertising on Amazon, you could be missing out on a large chunk of sales.

While it might seem like a daunting prospect, Amazon’s advertising options make it easy to boost product visibility, beat out your competition and help you reach more buyers.

What Is Amazon Advertising and How Does It Work?

Amazon advertising works in a similar way to Google PPC advertising. You can target keywords that users type into a search engine to garner more significant placement, and thus impression share, within the search results.

As an example, when someone types in a phrase relating to a product you’re advertising (e.g. “black brogue shoes”) your product will show up in the top results. And, when 35% of Amazon shoppers click on the first result, it’s important to get your products ranking as high as possible.

What Are the Different Types of Amazon Ads?

Amazon has a variety of different ad types you can choose from depending on your campaign goals:

• Sponsored Product Ads: These ads promote your products in relevant search results and on product detail pages
• Sponsored Brand Ads: These ads show above the search results and can display a number of relevant products from your store
• Product Display Ads: These ads can be displayed on related product detail pages, customer review pages and even in merchandising emails

The ad format you choose will depend entirely on what you want to achieve with your ads. If you want to drive more traffic to a specific product, Sponsored Product Ads work best. If you want to increase brand awareness and showcase a segment of your product line, then Sponsored Brand Ads might be a better fit.

All ad formats work by allowing merchants to bid on specific keywords that relate to their products. Ultimately, this helps boost visibility in Amazon search engine results pages (SERPs) which leads to an increase in sales since searches on Amazon have far more commercial intent than searches run on Google and other platforms.

What Are the Most Effective Ways to Advertise on Amazon?

Advertising on Amazon isn’t just limited to paid ads. There are plenty of ways you can get more visibility for your product line, even if you have a limited budget. However, paid ads often generate the best results because you can laser-focus your targeting options to ensure your ads reach the right people.

Here are some of the most effective ways to advertise on Amazon:

1. Optimize your product listings
2. Run paid Amazon ad campaigns
3. Partner with influencers
4. Monitor your seller rating
5. Generate strong product ratings

1. Optimize Your Product Listings

Use SEO-focused keywords to organically boost your Amazon SERP positions and ensure you have detailed descriptions and meta data

2. Run Paid Amazon Ad Campaigns

Use one of the formats mentioned above to drive new traffic to your products

3. Partner with Influencers

Tap into a pre-built audience through a relevant influencer who can promote your products to people that already trust them

4. Monitor Your Seller Rating

Improve your rating and Amazon will elevate your position in search results to ensure more people see your products

5. Generate Strong Product Ratings

Reviews provide social proof for your products. Make sure you’re collecting reviews and displaying them on relevant product pages

How Do I Create Amazon Ads?

There are a few steps involved in getting started with Amazon ads:

1. Create a professional seller account 
2. Set your campaign budget and duration 
3. Choose the products you want to promote 
4. Choose the keywords you want to target

1. Create a Professional Seller Account

Firstly, you’ll need to make sure you have an active professional seller account. This is mandatory if you want to run ads.

2. Set Your Campaign Budget and Duration

Log in to your account and go to the Campaign Manager page. You’ll be asked to set your campaign budget and duration, so decide how much you’re willing to spend and how long you want the ads to run for.

3. Choose the Products You Want to Promote 

Choose which products you want to promote. It’s worth starting with just a couple to make sure you’re getting the results you want before you start applying what you’ve learned to other ads.

You’ll also be asked to choose an ad type and a daily budget at this point. Again, this will depend on the goal of your campaign.

4. Choose the Keywords You Want to Target

Make sure they’re related to your product so that the search intent matches what you’re selling. This will increase your chances of making a sale. For example, if you’re promoting an eco-friendly water bottle, only use words related to this term so that shoppers aren’t confused or disappointed when they land on your product page.

How Do I Create Paid Ads on Amazon?

You need to be eligible to start running paid ads on Amazon. As we mentioned before, you need to have an active professional seller account, but you must also be able to ship to all US addresses and have products in one or more of the eligible categories.

On top of this, your products must also be eligible for the Buy Box if you want to run ads to them.

The Do’s and Don’ts of Advertising on Amazon

Below are some tips and things to avoid to maximise the effectiveness and return on investment (ROI) of your Amazon ads:

Do:

• Structure your campaigns well so it’s easy to keep track of what’s working and what’s not.
• Spend time creating compelling copy and strong product images for your ads and product descriptions - getting shoppers to your product page is only the first hurdle. You then have the job of convincing them to click the buy button.
• Carry out keyword research so you know what phrases shoppers are actually using to find products like yours.
• Define your target audience to reduce ad spend and make sure you’re reaching the right people.

Don’t:

• Depend on auto-campaigns at the start, as they often need input from manual campaigns to get the targeting right.
• Overspend on high-volume keywords that you might end up not showing up for at all.
• Neglect negative keywords to eliminate phrases that aren’t related to your products.

Summary

Advertising on Amazon is crucial if you want to boost the visibility of your products and reach more potential buyers. Running paid campaigns is a great place to start, as you can really focus your targeting to make sure you’re reaching the right people.

On top of this, you have a choice of ad types that each work towards a different goal, and you can promote your products in other ways such as through influencers, via organic optimization and by improving your seller rating.

If you haven’t started advertising on Amazon yet, now’s the time to do so. Reach out to Urtasker.com, Amazon Seller Experts and full marketing agency, and schedule a free consultation today.