Everybody knows about Broad, Phrase and Exact matches but the Broad Match Modifier, or BMM, as we like to call it, is not so well known. Broad Match Modifiers are are a type of Broad Match that have better precision matching with search terms. What are Broad Match Modifiers? In Amazon's own words: "You can add broad match modifiers to indicate words that must appear in the customers' shopping queries for your ad. Add a broad match modifier by adding a plus symbol "+" before the keyword. For example, if you use the keyword "+kids shoes" with a broad match modifier, then the ad will match only the searches that contain the word "kids." The ad may match to "kids sneakers" or “running shoes for kids” but they won’t match any shopping query that doesn’t contain the word "kids," such as “sneakers” or “running shoes.” If our BMM keyword is +nike +running +shoes, then those three words MUST be present in the matching buyer query. In other words, BMM match type improves the quality of matches by ensuring that the keywords that we have so painstakingly selected by using a variety of tools such as DataDive or Helium10 are not disregarded by Amazon's broad match. Which Ad Types do they work with? BMMs work with both Sponsored Brands (SB) and Sponsored Products (SP), although they were initially created for SB ads to limit the "broadness" of the Broad Match. Broad Matches with SB ads will match "nike" to "adidas" with their broad match because Amazon thinks they are related as far a sports shopper is concerned. This behavior is not typically seen with SP campaigns but it is not completely out of question, and besides Amazon is slowly heading in the direction. Recently even Exact match campaigns have been seen to match with synonyms as you can see here. Speculation has it that in the future Amazon might do away with match types altogether and manage keywords based on AI matching of shopper purchase intent. Do you see it coming? Which is better: BMM or Exact Match? Exact match campaigns are great when you can identify highly relevant, long-tail keywords with good search volume. The problem with Exact matches is that the probability of someone typing in the exact phrase you are bidding on, in the same word sequence, and with no extra words is much lower than the probability of the someone typing a search term that is a bit out of sequence, uses a strong synonym and perhaps has additional words before, after or in-between. For example, our main Exact match keyword is vanilla scented candle with a yearly search volume of 36,760 (monthly 3060). The corresponding BMM keyword would be +vanilla +scented +candle. What search volume can this keyword attract? If you refer to the Product Opportunity Explorer for this niche you can see that there are at least 4 keywords with a total search volume of: 36,760 + 23,687+13,173 + 8,845 = 82,465 searches a year (monthly 6872). This is more than twice the amount of search volume than the Exact match version. Using a BMM is a no-brainer in this case. The most common symptom of an Exact match-only strategy is low impressions. This is disheartening for most, and might prompt you to substantially increase your bids in the hopes of winning more impressions. This then has the effect of you eventually winning clicks at much higher CPCs than if you attracted the same search term with a broad match modifier at much lower CPCs. When using BMMs on the other hand, winning impressions is generally not a problem with lower bids as Amazon seems to like the control of broader targeting. The only downside is that you might generate irrelevant searches that need to negated. For example, if your candle is not soy based you will need to negate that term proactively. When to use BMMs? At PPC Ninja, we like to use BMMs in the following situations: For both SP and SB ads Use both BMM alongside Exact match campaigns Once we harvest good keywords from SQP data we add them as BMM and Exact match both for the same reason explained above Conclusion: The main issue we are solving with BMMs is that they facilitate high quality search term matching since the terms we pick must be present in the buyer search. The other issue we resolve is that of no or low impressions with the corresponding Exact terms. Use both and dominate your ranking targets! Final thought: With Amazon rapidly adapting AI, the likelihood os a world without match types is not unthinkable. Imagine just providing Amazon with keywords and the algorithm automatically figures out how best to match that with a customer search term, through syntactical or lexical analysis. But as long as we have access to Broad Match Modifiers, we can future proof ourselves, starting now. If this post sparked your interest, leave us a comment or a question! About Us: PPC Ninja is a powerful software helping agencies and brand owners increase their advertising efficiency with cutting edge techniques such as the Bid Sufficiency model, Zero Sales Algorithm, Placements X-Ray and more. Sign up for a 14-day free trial here.

In the ever-evolving landscape of online retail, Amazon sellers are constantly seeking innovative ways to boost their sales and brand visibility. Enter TikTok, the social media phenomenon that's changing the way products are marketed and sold. It has even made Amazon sit up in it's seat. TikTok's Impact on Consumer Trends With its massive and diverse user base, TikTok has become a powerhouse in influencing consumer behavior and trends, particularly among younger audiences. This presents a unique opportunity for Amazon sellers to tap into new markets and demographics. Collaborating with Influencers Key to success on TikTok is harnessing the power of influencers. You don't need to create ANY content on your own. These individuals, often with substantial followings in niches like sports, beauty, and lifestyle, can authentically showcase your products, giving them credibility and appeal. Creating engaging content is crucial. Think unboxings, creative showcases, and testimonials that resonate with TikTok users. This approach isn't just about selling a product; it's about creating a buzz around it. How to find Influencers? To access TikTok influencers for Amazon advertising, try these steps: Use TikTok's Creator Marketplace: TikTok has its own Creator Marketplace where you can find and collaborate with verified influencers. This platform provides analytics and insights about the influencers, making it easier to choose the right fit for your brand. Research Influencers: Start by identifying influencers who align with your brand and products. Look for influencers in relevant niches (like beauty, fitness, gaming, etc.) and check their engagement rates, audience demographics, and content style. Leverage Influencer Platforms: There are several third-party platforms like Upfluence, AspireIQ, or CreatorIQ that connect brands with influencers. These platforms can help you find influencers, manage campaigns, and track performance. Direct Outreach: Sometimes, reaching out directly to influencers via their TikTok profile or linked social media accounts can be effective. Craft a personalized message that outlines your brand, the product, and the nature of the collaboration you're seeking. Trial and Learn: Start with small campaigns to test the waters. Analyze the results and learn from them to refine your strategy for larger campaigns. Remember to clearly communicate your goals and expectations with influencers and ensure that their content style and audience align with your brand values and target market. Leveraging TikTok for Amazon Sales The ultimate goal would be to drive external traffic (which Amazon loves) from TikTok to your Amazon listings. By doing so, you not only boost direct sales but also enhance your product's visibility and organic ranking on Amazon. Once your influencer posts start to do well, you can put some amount of money befind TikTok Spark Ads to amplify reach, encouraging even greater engagement and driving more potential customers to your Amazon products. Exploring TikTok Shop This is the new kid on the block and steadily gaining widespread adoption. The platform's TikTok Shop feature provides a direct avenue for sales, offering benefits like quick shop approval and attractive advertisement incentives. If you'd like to learn more about this follow Amy Wees. Sign up to her TikTok shop 101 on the 25th of January 2024. If you miss this, reach out to her directly at Amazing at Home. Conclusion: By integrating TikTok into your Amazon selling strategy, you can leverage this dynamic platform to reach new audiences, create buzz, and ultimately drive sales. Stay ahead of the curve and start exploring the potential of TikTok for your Amazon business today. If this post sparked your interest, leave us a comment or a question! About Us: PPC Ninja is a powerful software helping agencies and brand owners increase their advertising efficiency with cutting edge techniques such as the Bid Sufficiency model, Zero Sales Algorithm, Placements X-Ray and more. Sign up for a 14-day free trial here.

This is the transcript of an interview of PPC Ninja CEO, Ritu Java and Augustus Kligys & Lisett Lees of Orange Klik. To watch the full episode, click below. Before we jump into the the text transcript, please note that PPC Ninja is offering a NEW service offering manual downloads of your SQP reports and delivering these great charts and analytics to you for an unbelievable price of just $1 per ASIN per month. Contact us if you are interested in this limited time offer. And now on to the interview... Introduction Understanding Amazon's search volume data is crucial for any Amazon brand looking to optimize product pages and improve PPC campaigns. In this comprehensive guide, we delve into the nuances of the new Search Query Performance Report tool. Our guest, Ritu Java from PPC Ninja, shares invaluable tips on leveraging this tool for analyzing data on impressions, clicks, add-to-cart actions, and purchases to enhance your product pages and PPC campaigns. Accessing Essential Amazon Data The new Search Query Performance Report tool opens up a realm of possibilities for Amazon sellers. For the first time, Amazon is providing sellers with search volume data, directly relevant to their brands and products. This data is not only about the volume but also about the essence of your brand, enabling you to make more informed decisions. Who is Ritu Java? Ritu Java, the CEO of PPC Ninja, brings a wealth of experience to the table. With a background that spans over a decade, starting as an Etsy seller and evolving into a key player in the Amazon e-commerce space, Ritu's insights are grounded in extensive practical experience. What is PPC Ninja? PPC Ninja is not just a software provider for Amazon advertising. They offer a comprehensive suite of services, assisting six, seven, and eight-figure sellers with their Amazon ads, DSP, Google ads, and Walmart ads. The blend of technology and hands-on experience makes PPC Ninja a unique and valuable resource for Amazon sellers. Understanding the Search Query Performance Report The Search Query Performance Report is a relatively new addition to Amazon's Brand Analytics suite. It provides crucial data on four stages of the sales funnel: impressions, clicks, add-to-carts, and purchases. What's impressive about this report is the level of detail it offers. It provides data on total counts, brand counts, and brand share percentages, offering a comprehensive view of your brand's performance on Amazon. Using the SQP Report to Your Advantage Gap Analysis: The SQP report helps identify keywords that are not currently being advertised but are crucial based on Amazon's top 1,000 search query scores. This allows sellers to target these gaps effectively. Purchase Rate Comparison: By comparing your brand's purchase rate with the market's total purchase rate, you can gauge the strength of your keywords and strategize accordingly. Sales Contribution Analysis: Assess if your sales contribution percentage outweighs your spend contribution. This helps in identifying strong and weak keywords for your campaigns. Leveraging Data for Better Decisions The ability to download and analyze this data through tools like Google Sheets or Excel is a game-changer. It allows sellers to track trends over time, understand market dynamics, and make data-driven decisions to optimize their Amazon presence. Conclusion and Next Steps Embracing the Search Query Performance Report is a step towards making more informed, data-driven decisions for your Amazon business. Start by downloading these reports, analyze your brand's performance, and use these insights to refine your strategies. Remember, data is gold, and with the right tools and understanding, you can significantly enhance your Amazon brand's success. For those interested in further enhancing their Amazon advertising strategies, PPC Ninja offers a blend of software solutions and expert services. Whether it's bid automation, keyword discovery, or comprehensive campaign management, PPC Ninja's blend of technology and expertise is designed to turn clients into raving fans of their services. PPC Ninja is a powerful software helping agencies and brand owners increase their advertising efficiency with cutting edge techniques such as the Bid Sufficiency model, Zero Sales Algorithm, Placements X-Ray and more. Sign up for a 14-day free trial here. If this post sparked your interest, leave us a comment or a question!

Dayparting has been a hotly debated topic in the advertising industry for some time now. It’s one of the top questions we get asked about at PPC Ninja. Are we using dayparting? And how should we be using this hotly debated feature? First, let’s talk about what dayparting is. What is Day Parting? Dayparting is the practice of scheduling and optimizing ads to run during specific times of the day or days of the week. Advertisers and sellers want this feature due to known patterns of poor performance. These patterns can be certain days of the week or certain times during the day, like early morning or very late in the evening. What makes optimizing dayparting challenging is how the attribution works. A customer can add your product to their cart during a "poor-performing" time slot in the day but can wait for several days before checking out. If our ads are not serving, we can miss out on this sale entirely. The problem is we have no idea what day or time this conversion happened, so optimizing our dayparting schedule can be challenging. Let's explore the three paths PPC Ninja has identified for this feature. 1. Lowering Bids During the Worst Hours of the Day The problem with lowering bids is that each bid is tied to THREE placements. Lowering bids often, but not always, has the effect of losing the Top of Search placement in favor of Rest of Search or Product Pages. These placements may offer more impressions and more clicks, but at lower CVRs. So there is a possibility you may end up with worse performance than before. You can't control placements with bid adjustments. Making real-time bid adjustments is tricky because of attribution. You will need 2 additional pieces of information to be absolutely sure about your choice to drop bids: the average Time-to-purchase for THAT hour of the day and your historical ACoS at THAT hour of the day in order to base changes on statistically relevant data. We can also risk losing performance on some of our keywords by drastically reducing our bids, and restoring them to previous setpoints does not guarantee the return of performance. 2. Lowering Budgets During the Worst Hours of the Day With dayparting, we can automate lowering our budgets, but lowering budgets often does not stop the algorithm from going over the budget by 100% (unless you have specifically set the max allowance to 25%). But even then there is a monthly max spend allowance for adjustments that can still spend over the 25% threshold on any given day. Another challenge with this option is you can never control budget pacing. Even with lower budgets, they could still be consumed before your best hours because of higher pacing. Limiting our budgets will reduce some wasted ad spend, but as long as Amazon views our budgets as suggestions, it will never be perfect. 3. Pausing Campaigns During the Worst Hours of the Day When it comes to implementing dayparting in your advertising strategy, one approach stands out as the safest and most cautious choice—pausing campaigns during specific hours of the day. Ideally, we would want to leave our best campaigns running at all times and use rules to restrict our testing or poor-performing campaigns to only operate during the best times of the day, giving them an opportunity to increase their efficiencies and join the best performers. The primary benefit of pausing campaigns during certain dayparts is that it puts a definitive halt to any unnecessary spending. Imagine this scenario: early in the morning, after budgets reset, many advertisers experience a surge in competition, leading to higher CPCs, and cheaper CPCs in the afternoon/evening as the competition budgets are consumed. By pausing your campaigns during these competitive hours, we can potentially avoid overpaying for ads or placements. We can use rules to control the automation of which campaigns will get paused, like operating above a predetermined ACoS value. Downloading Hourly Data and Building A Heat Map Now that we understand how dayparting works, it's time to download your hourly data. In the Advertising Console, go to Measurement and Reporting. Select Sponsored Products for the Report Category. Report Type is Campaign and the most important part of this is selecting Hourly. Amazon will only allow us to download 14 days of data at a time, but up to 1 month is available. Now that we have our data it's time to build a heat map. Use this link to access our heat map template. Be sure to make your own copy by going File > Make a copy. Once that is done, follow our SOP on the instructions tab, and the output will look like this and easily allow us to analyze our data. On the bottom of the sheet, we will have 4 different tabs. We will be able to see what time of day our ad sales are happening, when we are spending the most, when our AcoS is the highest/lowest, and when we have the best conversion rate. When we stitch all of this data together we can then paint a better picture of what time we should be pausing our ads. Dayparting & PPC Ninja We are happy to announce that PPC Ninja is currently beta testing our newest feature, you guessed it, dayparting. After diving deep into the pros and cons available for this feature, we believe option 3 will deliver the most utility without potentially impacting the performance of any campaigns while giving us higher control over when we wish our ads to be delivered. If you’re interested in testing our dayparting, sign up for PPC Ninja now and be among the first to harness the power of our cutting-edge dayparting feature! You might also like this! PPC Ninja is a powerful software helping agencies and brand owners increase their advertising efficiency with cutting edge techniques such as the Bid Sufficiency model, Zero Sales Algorithm, Placements X-Ray and more. Sign up for a 14-day free trial here. If this post sparked your interest, leave us a comment or a question!

Data Abundance In 2023 Amazon PPC managers are facing a new challenge - data abundance. With tools like Brand Analytics, Helium 10, Jungle Scout, and Data Dive keyword harvesting has never been easier. But with too much data, how do we sort and determine which keywords are the most important for our products? That’s where Ritu Java’s Keyword Battlefield Strategy comes in. It allows us to launch our products, initiate the ranking process, and maintain some level of profitability. Keyword Ranking Strategies Over Time In the past, sellers were able to leverage different tactics to help rank products faster, but if you’ve been in the Amazon space for a while I’m sure you’ll recognize a lot of these tactics that are now considered black or grey hat by Amazon. But long gone are the days of giveaways, super URLs, and Search Find Buys. While some sellers still use old strategies like the keyword graduation method, which involves running an auto campaign and harvesting converting terms into exact match, this process can be time-consuming. Fortunately, with the abundance of data available to us, we can largely skip this step. Keyword Buckets First, let's define the three different keyword buckets we will use to sort our keyword master list: Goal Keywords - These keywords have a search volume of +2000, are short-tail, highly relevant, and are nearly impossible to rank for on day one. Brands that currently rank for these keywords have likely been there for some time, with large review counts. Building relevancy for these keywords can be very challenging, so we consider them out of reach for now. Stepping Stone Keywords - These are long-tail keywords with a search volume of 300-2000. They are comparatively easier to rank for. When selecting these keywords, ensure they describe your product accurately. They often contain your seed keyword, helping you build relevancy with your Goal keywords without competing directly with them. Related Keywords - This is our final bucket and the one that most sellers ignore. Related keywords are keywords that do not perfectly match your product, but are somewhat similar to your product. Amazon actually uses this internally with loose-match campaigns. Most sellers do not harvest these loose matches, but these keywords can provide help create relevancy and entryway into the Goal keywords over time. The Battlefield Imagine playing an Amazon selling board game with thousands of keywords scattered across the board, all occupied by your competitors. How can we take over space on the board or rank our new product to seize market share from established competitors? Let's dive into our strategy. The high mountain peaks represent our Goal keywords. To conquer these peaks, we must first gain control over the areas surrounding them. These smaller mountains surrounding the higher ones symbolize our stepping-stone keywords. Additionally, we have related keywords flanking the backside, allowing us to attack from all sides and ensuring no gaps in our full-funnel advertising strategy. The idea is to conquer the Stepping Stone keywords initially. By doing so, we build relevancy and history on our short-tail, high-volume Goal keywords. Let's consider the example of a garlic press, kitchen essentials, and garlic crusher. These keywords fall into our Goal keyword category based on their search volume, and realistically, there's no chance of ranking for them on day one. So how do we reach the top of these crucial keywords? We focus on long-tail keywords like "garlic press stainless steel" and "stainless steel garlic press rocker." These keywords have lower search volume, incorporate the seed keyword, and are less competitive. Smart kitchen gadgets can be classified as a related keyword. While it's not an exact match for a garlic press, it belongs to the same category, helping us build relevancy for kitchen essentials. At this point, you might be wondering about our important Goal keywords. We still need to pursue them, but with a low bid to ensure we stay profitable. Finding Keywords We start our keyword research with Amazon’s product Opportunity Explorer. This gives us a much better starting point than Helium 10’s Cerebro because Amazon is giving us your closest competitors' data. Using our garlic press example from above, when we put that into the product opportunity explorer, Amazon will give us our 3 related niches for this seed keyword. We can then drill down into the products tab where you will find a list of all the products that are ranking or getting conversions. This is where we will extract our competitor ASINs. Next, we will go to the search terms field and extract all of the search terms in that niche. Now we can take the list of ASINs over to our keyword research tool like Helium 10 or Jungle Scout knowing that we are starting our research with the right products and keywords. Campaign Setup We can then combine the keyword lists from Amazon and our keyword research tool, making one master list. We set up our keyword sorting list using search volume descending, word count, relevancy score, and checkboxes to make the sorting easier. The word count column is used to help us quickly understand where our Goal, related, and Stepping Stone keywords are. Goal keywords will typically be 2 words but make sure to pay attention to the search volume, Stepping Stones will be 3 or more, and related can be single words. Results Finally, we have our results comparing our old method and our new method. For ASINs 3 and 4 we used our old ranking strategy where we did not segment our high-volume search terms. ASINs 1 and 2 we applied our Keyword Battlefield Strategy. As you can see, the ranking results are pretty clear after 2 months. ASINs 3 and 4 are ranking for 237 keywords on page one, while ASINs 1 and 2 only ranking for 14 keywords. These results can vary and depend on your product's pricing, budget, and listing optimization. This comparison is the best we can come up with for apples-to-apples since it was tested on the same brand and niche. Small Seller's Side Note: We do get very aggressive on launches, aiming between 50%-80% ACoS, make sure you have clear launch goals. Conclusion The evolving landscape of Amazon in 2023 requires a fresh approach to keyword ranking strategies. Using this method of sorting and prioritizing keywords into strategic buckets can help us achieve better results for our Amazon ranking efforts. Using the battlefield analogy can help us illustrate our strategy's core concept. Sellers should aim to conquer the Stepping Stone Keywords first, gaining control of surrounding areas before targeting the high-volume Goal Keywords. By attacking from all sides, sellers ensure a strategic approach to keyword ranking and minimize gaps in their strategy. Ritu Java, CEO of PPC Ninja joins Sourcing Monster to talk about her Keyword Battlefield Strategy PPC Ninja is a powerful software helping agencies and brand owners increase their advertising efficiency with cutting edge techniques such as the Bid Sufficiency model, Zero Sales Algorithm, Placements X-Ray and more. Sign up for a 14-day free trial here. If this post sparked your interest, leave us a comment or a question!

Understanding VCPM Campaigns Before we get started, let's make sure we understand what VCPM is and how to use this type of ad. In Sponsored Display, Amazon offers three different bid optimization types: optimize for reach, page visits, and conversions. Depending on the bidding strategy you select, Amazon will show your ad to customers based on the stage they are at in their shopping journey. When looking at the advertising funnel, reach corresponds to brand awareness, page visits will be for consideration, and finally, conversions will be at the bottom of the funnel where customers are ready to purchase. When we look at the cost type of each ad, optimizing for page visits and conversions is click-based (CPC), while optimizing for reach is based on cost per 1000 viewable impressions (VCPM). For the rest of this article, we will refer to this bidding strategy as VCPM. When using VCPM campaigns, you will be charged when your ad is anywhere on the page; the customer does not need to click your ad or even interact with it. This is the biggest difference from all the other ad types that we're used to on Amazon. VCPM campaigns were originally a part of DPS, which is entirely based on a CPM (cost per mille/1000 impressions) model. Amazon then brought this bidding style to Sponsored Display making it available to all sellers. What is a Viewable Impression? Now, let's see what a viewable impression really means for this specific ad type. A viewable impression is when you see only half of an ad for just 1 second. That's what is counted as an impression for VCPM campaigns. Looking at the image below, this ad would be counted as an impression. VCPM Pros & Cons Now let’s just take a quick look at the pros and cons of VCMP campaigns. We’re not trying to bash DPS or VCMP campaigns, but we do want to discuss the pros and cons so that we are not fooled by data. Just looking at the pros side of things, VCPM campaigns can give us a broad upper funnel reach. These ads will be shown on and off the Amazon platform, meaning they can be seen on blogs and other websites as well as on Amazon. As this ad type follows customers around while they browse the internet, it can help us attract new-to-brand (NTB) customers, as well as create brand recognition by staying top of mind. These two concepts are part of the foundation of digital marketing, but if you're just starting out, those ad dollars might be better spent elsewhere. On the cons side of VCPM campaigns, we will have very loose targeting, think roadside billboards. Some customers may glance at our ad, but how much our ad will register is unclear depending on where it shows up. When we're paying for impressions and not clicks, on a busy page with a lot of things going on, our ad could be entirely missed. In order to really see what kind of impact this ad type has, we need very large data sets to be able to make an informed decision on how effective this targeting really is. VCPM also tends to be expensive compared to CPC types. Finally, we have cannibalization, our real topic for today. How Cannibalization Happens Let's say there is a customer who is interested in our garlic press and has visited our product detail page. Then Amazon shows them a VCPM ad right at the end of their journey when they're about to hit the buy now button. At this point, if the customer is seeing your ad anywhere on the page, even if the ad is only half showing in the bottom corner, Amazon will use what's called a last-touch attribution model. A series of ads could have driven the customer to your product detail page, but the VCPM campaign will cannibalize that sale at the very last stage of the customer journey. When sellers look at their VCPM performance, it can be easy to get excited. Looking at the image below, seeing a 3.6% ACoS with this many orders is a ridiculously good-performing campaign. Almost too good to be true. So how do VCPM campaigns perform so well if they’re designed for top-of-funnel reach and awareness? The answer is that they are stealing organic sales. Because of the last touch attribution model, these ads get all of the credit, without doing any of the work. Amazon refers to this sale as an “assisted sale” because your ad is blocking another competitor from showing up and potentially stealing a sale. This is true, but if the ad is designed for upper funnel awareness, why should the ad deserve the credit? Find Your True ACoS Here’s how you can find out if it is happening to you. Amazon has released a new metric for VCPM campaigns called click-based orders. This metric gives us clarity to see if a customer was actually interested enough in our ad to click on it. So where do we find this click-based orders metric? Go to the measurement and reporting section in the advertising console, and create a sponsored display campaigns report. Once you download and have the report open, create a filter on the viewable impressions column filtering, out 0 impressions. This filter will leave you with only VCPM campaigns. The two columns we want to compare are column T, which is showing our 14-day total orders, and column AB which shows our 14-day click-based orders. When we compare our click-based orders to our total orders, all of a sudden these numbers are nothing to get excited about. We manually calculated the numbers, and as you can see in the picture below our ACoS went from 9.6% to 337.31%. This shows only a small portion of the orders actually came from clicking our ad. UPDATE: Amazon has added click-based orders ACoS in column Y, which will show us our true click-based orders ACoS. The manual calculation above is no longer necessary. Conclusion After seeing the true results from click-based orders, we paused all VCPM campaigns for our clients. The results were immediate - for one client, pausing these campaigns reduced their TACoS from 8.5% to 4.9% without a drop in sales. This indicates that VCPM campaigns were adding to their ad spend without contributing much to their sales. Although VCMP campaigns can still be a useful method for reaching customers at the top of the funnel and building brand awareness, it's crucial to understand their potential downsides like loose targeting, high-cost potential, and most importantly the risk of cannibalizing organic sales. If you are going to use VCPM campaigns, make sure to use the Sponsored Display Campaign report and review it regularly to make better-informed decisions. Ritu Java, CEO of PPC Ninja joins Danny McMillian and the Seller Sessions podcast to talk about VCPM campaigns PPC Ninja is a powerful software helping agencies and brand owners increase their advertising efficiency with cutting edge techniques such as the Bid Sufficiency model, Zero Sales Algorithm, Placements X-Ray and more. Sign up for a 14-day free trial here. If this post sparked your interest, leave us a comment or a question!

Learn how to troubleshoot anomalies in your PPC campaigns by analyzing the data in the anomaly chart and identifying changes in bids or impressions associated with a drop in sales. This guide provides step-by-step instructions and examples to help you optimize your PPC campaign with PPC Ninja's new anomaly detection feature. Getting Started To prioritize the most actionable and impactful anomalies, we will start off by applying some filters. First, ensure that only the most recent anomaly for each keyword is shown by filtering the Keywords Most Recent Anomaly column to True. Since an anomaly may only be actionable for a short period of time after it is identified, click on the Date column to add a descending (arrow down) sort which makes the most recent anomalies appear first. Next, we will refine our ordering by adding a secondary sort. While holding down the shift key, select either the Anomaly Impact (WoW Sales) or Anomaly Impact (Total Sales Last 90 Days) column and add an ascending (arrow up) sort. The end result should look similar to the example below. We see the rows have been ordered starting with the most recent anomaly at the top, and when two anomalies appear on the same day the one with the more severe Anomaly Impact (WoW Sales) score comes first. Now we are ready to go into troubleshooting mode! Troubleshooting an Anomaly Let’s begin troubleshooting by taking a closer look at the data using the anomaly chart. We will first investigate whether or not there was a loss of sales traffic associated with our anomalous point. We can do this by plotting Sales 7 Day Avg along with either Impressions or Clicks, as shown in the chart below. From the above chart we see that an anomaly occurred on April 3, 2023 (black dashed vertical line), and that when the anomaly was flagged our Sales 7 day Avg had been steadily declining for several days. We also see a sudden drop in impressions about a week prior to the anomaly, which means we should investigate if this reduced traffic could have been brought on by a change in bids. Removing Sales 7 day Avg from the plot and adding Bids results in the chart below, where we see a large bid drop coincident with the loss of impressions. Now that we have identified a drop in bids was associated with our anomalous sales, we may choose to take action by manually adjustings the bids back to their previous values. This is as simple as following the link to the Keywords view and editing the bid value! Prior to manually adjusting bids, you may also want to verify that at the previous bid level your ACoS was still within an acceptable range. This can be done right within our charting system with the ACoS 7 Day Avg toggle, shown below. In the previous example, we saw a case where an anomaly was the result of reduced impressions and took action to increase sales traffic by manually optimizing the bids. Now let’s look at an example where an anomaly can not be explained by reduced impressions which are associated with a change in bid value. In the chart below we once again show Sales 7 Day Avg and Impressions, with a steep drop in Sales 7 Day Avg on March 27, 2023 triggering an anomaly. Similar to our first example we see that Impressions had been declining at the point the anomaly was flagged. However, unlike the first example, we note that the Sales 7 Day Avg line was flat for exactly seven days prior to the anomaly, which is an indicator that the moving average contained just a single non-zero sales day. We can visualize what this means in the chart below, where we show Sales along with Sales 7 Day Avg and have expanded the time frame to show more of this keywords long run sales characteristics. From the chart above we see that a spike in sales occurred on March 21, 2023 which was retained by the Sales 7 Day Avg signal for a week afterwards. Once the March 21st sales spike was no longer contributing to the Sales 7 Day Avg, an anomaly was triggered. While this anomaly did correctly alert us to the fact that a week had passed without this keyword generating any sales, the chart above illustrates that a zero sales week is not out of the ordinary for this keyword and therefore the anomaly could be considered a false alarm. At this point you may be wondering - but what about those declining impressions that we noted at the start of this example? Once again, we can investigate this by charting impressions along with the bid value over time, as shown below. The chart above illustrates that the bid remained constant in the days leading up the anomaly. This quick check shows that, unlike our first example, the observed variability in impressions is not associated with a change in bid value. Conclusion In summary, what constitutes ordinary performance can vary considerably from keyword to keyword, which means there could also be a variety of reasons behind the anomalies they generate. An anomaly is most actionable when it is accompanied by a loss of sales traffic which is also associated with a change in bid value, as we saw in the first troubleshooting example. Keep in mind that the anomaly detection algorithm works better when it has more data to utilize, which is why PPC Ninja currently only tracks anomalies for the profiles top 40 keywords as determined by total sales over the last 90 days. Limiting the number of keywords helps reduce the number of anomalies like the one we saw in troubleshooting example 2, however, these types of false alarms still do occur, particularly on smaller accounts or profiles in smaller markets. The best way to understand the story behind a particular anomaly is to dive in and start investigating, and with PPC Ninja’s built-in charting system, those insights are just a few clicks away. Definitions Anomaly: A point in time where a keyword's recent (7 day) average sales performance has fallen significantly below its longer term (90 day) average sales performance. Anomaly Impact: Provides a relative measure of the effect an anomaly could have on overall sales performance. Impact scores are treated as rankings, where lower values indicate a more adverse effect on sales. Anomaly Impact (WoW) Sales: Measures the impact of an anomaly according to the keywords week over week sales performance. Lower values indicate a larger drop in sales between the week that the anomaly occurred and the week prior. Anomaly Impact (Total Sales Last 90 Days): Measures the impact of an anomaly according to how successful the keyword has been over the previous 90 days. A value of 1 indicates that the anomaly occurred on the keyword with the most total sales over the last 90 days. Week over Week: Values specified as “week over week” represent the difference in the current and previous weeks performance, where current week is defined as zero to six days prior and previous week is defined as seven to thirteen days prior. Week over Week Sales: This value is calculated by first adding up sales for the current week (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 days prior to the anomaly) then adding up sales for the previous week (7 to 13 days prior to the anomaly). Subtracting the previous week total from the current week total gives the week over week sales. A negative value indicates a loss in sales since the previous week saw more sales than the current week. Week over Week Impressions: This value is calculated by first adding up impressions for the current week (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 days prior to the anomaly) then adding up impressions for the previous week (7 to 13 days prior to the anomaly). Subtracting the previous week total from the current week total gives the week over week impressions. A negative value indicates a loss in impressions since the previous week saw more impressions than the current week. Moving Average: A time series dataset where each point is calculated to be the average of a fixed number of most recent points from another time series dataset. This has the effect of “smoothing out” short-term fluctuations and highlighting longer-term trends in the original time series. Sales 7 Day Avg: The seven day moving average of a particular keywords sales time series. Sales 7 Day Avg (adj): A moving average calculated using a modified version of the keywords sales time series, where large outliers have been limited to some maximum value. In many cases this series will be identical to Sales 7 Day Avg, and it is most likely to differ from it immediately following a large spike in sales (e.g., Prime Day). Want to learn more? Checkout this video featuring Ritu Java, CEO of PPC Ninja talking about keyword management. PPC Ninja is a powerful software helping agencies and brand owners increase their advertising efficiency with cutting edge techniques such as the Bid Sufficiency model, Zero Sales Algorithm, Placements X-Ray and more. Sign up for a 14-day free trial here. If this post sparked your interest, leave us a comment or a question!

Amazon Sponsored Advertising gives sellers and vendors a competitive advantage to make their products discoverable on search results. While the Sponsored Products (SP) manual keyword targeting has been long-established and the most widely used advertising campaign type, the bid requirements to target highly searched generic keywords are undeniably expensive in most categories. These high bid requirements are the usual challenges especially for small sellers to compete with their placements either on top of search or on product pages – most of the time, resulting in high ACOS. Amazon Advertising offers comprehensive targeting options to easily reach target shoppers, and eventually convert them into customers. If you are an Amazon seller, you must know each of the PPC ads targeting, and choose the right targeting options to help you achieve your campaign goals based on your budget and target ACOS. One of the most underutilized campaign types is Category Targeting. With its broad scope, you might worry about how your campaign will be relevant within the “category-wide” competition. This blog post will be your aid to understanding the advantages of Category Targeting that will help you significantly increase your product’s discoverability and brand awareness at a low cost. How does it work? With Sponsored Product Ads Category Targeting, you can expect decent traffic coming to your product detail pages since you can advertise on the entire product categories or subcategories. In contrast to its “category-wide” reach, this sponsored targeting type will give you more control over your ad placement and optimize at low bids while making your products more visible as your target shoppers hunt through Amazon’s product detail pages and general categories. Category targeting ads appear on product detail pages of the competitors’ product listings within the targeted category. We all know how powerful it is to place sponsored ads directly on your competitors’ product pages, right? It is a strategic move to catch more sales and give more exposure to your brand, and a great opportunity for advertisers. Category ads can also be shown on search results pages, whether on top of page or rest of search, for a specific category. Category Targeting Refinement Amazon continuously improves its advertising solutions giving you an extra lever to refine your ad placements within the category. Once you have selected a category or subcategory target, you can filter the category by specific brands, price range, star ratings, and Prime shipping eligibility. Protip 1: Refinement by Specific Brands You will be given different brand options that you can target under the same category. It is important during the product launch stage to identify the competitors' brands with high traffic. Targeting their product pages significantly builds traffic to your listings in return. Protip 2: Refinement by Price Range Under the same category, refine the competitors who have the same product features as yours, with similar ratings and reviews, but with your pricing lower than theirs. This will entice your customers to proceed with their buying intent for your products. Lower pricing at the same competition levels has a notable edge on the purchasing decision of shoppers. Protip 3: Refinement by Star Ratings Likewise, target your competitor’s product who has a similar product to yours but a lower rating when compared to yours. Your good star ratings are valuable social proof and a great selling advantage over other competitors within the category. Low Bidding Strategy: Whether set as a “catch all” or with refinement, category targeting ads are intended to reach broad numbers of Amazon customers – far higher than the scope of product targeting and keyword targeting campaigns. Its main goal is to extend your product exposure and increase visibility within similar products in the general category. The broad scope of category targeting ads has a risk of having low PPC conversion rates. With this fact, it is recommended to start with a low bid and do careful bid inch-up optimizations until your campaigns have maximized the discoverability opportunities. This low bidding strategy would allow you to scale your spending allowance, keep the target profitability, and better control the ACOS. Test and Results Here is an actual test of category targeting ads under the most competitive niche in Amazon: Grocery and Gourmet. These are the three category targeting campaigns refined by brands, by prices, and the last one as “catch all” (no refinement). All campaigns are set up with very low bids (Amazon's lowest suggested bid) to start with. ● High Impressions - It is clear that category-targeting ads helped with product discoverability. Not only the impressions but the good numbers of clicks are proof that these campaigns were able to bring Amazon shoppers to visit my product detail page through my competitor brands' product listings. ● Low Conversion Rate but with Good ACOS - As expected, with the wide scope and broad reach of category targeting, maintaining good conversion rates is a challenge. However, good and sustainable ACOS was still achieved due to low advertising spend. ● Low Cost Per Click (CPC) - Considering we started at low bids, the CPC of category targeting ads is low. Even small sellers can compete with this CPC level. Here is the comparison of the CPC from sponsored category targeting vs. product targeting vs. keyword targeting: Conclusion Amazon advertising is evolving and expanding constantly. As sellers, you should maximize the advertising potential and build a sustainable campaign structure based on your budget and target ACOS. With appropriate strategies, sponsored product category targeting ads can effectively increase your products’ discoverability and win your competitors' traffic at a low cost and with good ACOS. Although there’s no exact formula to create perfect campaigns, try to understand Amazon's different targeting options, know the buying behavior of your target customers, learn from your competitors, and try to find the best campaign strategy that works for your brand. Want to learn more? Checkout this video featuring Ritu Java, CEO of PPC Ninja talking about bid optimization. PPC Ninja is a powerful software helping agencies and brand owners increase their advertising efficiency with cutting edge techniques such as the Bid Sufficiency model, Zero Sales Algorithm, Placements X-Ray and more. Sign up for a 14-day free trial here. If this post sparked your interest, leave us a comment or a question!

Auditing your Amazon PPC account is one of the most powerful business activities you need to do regularly. Why? It unlocks insights needed to gain a competitive advantage over your competition. Audits can be used to uncover performance issues, analyze your advertising strategy, and make overall better business decisions. We’re going to look at 4 different levels inside an Amazon account PPC Ninja focuses on in our audits to win at Amazon in 2023. 1. KPIs & Profitability One of the main KPIs we measure is account profitability and performance. For this, we optimize for TACoS (total advertising cost of sale). This is a great way to measure the relationship between how much you are spending on PPC and how advertising is contributing to your organic rank and overall sales. TACoS is used as a percentage and most businesses aim for between 15%-20%. Spending too little on advertising can lead to low TACoS which means lower impressions, clicks, and overall orders. If you have low TACoS, increasing your ad spend can make sure you're not missing out on any potential additional sales or ranking opportunities. If your TACoS are too high, you might be spending too much on ads. Scaling back and focusing on slower-moving longtail keywords with higher conversion rates could be a better strategy. Our software uses a data sufficiency model to optimize for these slower-moving keywords which are usually much more profitable. Taking the time to track KPIs is critical but worth it because these metrics can tell you if your advertising strategy is working and help you reach your business goals. 2. Keyword Visibility & Performance It’s common to see 5-10 keywords be responsible for 80% of sales and giving these keywords special attention is important. When we know our top keywords, we can put the majority of our budget behind these campaigns. We can then utilize placement modifiers and bidding strategies as a way of doubling down. When this data is used correctly, we can bring in more of the right kind of traffic. Every seller has dealt with the frustration of keywords not getting any impressions. This can happen regardless of how high a bid is since Amazon favors early conversion data points in the lifecycle of a campaign. We can identify these no-impression terms so they can be moved into new campaigns for a fresh start to help maintain wide ad coverage. 3. Catalog & Variation Performance Just like with keywords, catalog performance needs attention. We can look at the entire catalog and prioritize best-selling SKUs to push more traffic to the right listings. Not all variations need to be advertised and using too much budget on low-performing products could be costing your business more than just wasted clicks. 4. Ad Coverage & Contribution At PPC Ninja we recommend using a full funnel advertising strategy to take advantage of all the different ad types Amazon offers. Sponsored Products typically make up between 60%-70% of PPC sales. Our report makes it easy to see how each ad type performs and where possible advertising gaps exist. When new keywords and products are discovered through broad match or auto campaigns, you need to pull these profitable search terms into new campaigns and use all the different targeting types Amazon offers. Our graphs help display performance data by putting your different campaign types side-by-side, making it easier to see what’s working. This approach can reveal clues to performance issues so you can put a stop to wasted ad spend. Better Data, Better Performance When we put all of this together, the advanced level of data that is accessed can really set you apart from other sellers. A PPC audit can provide a road map on how to scale your business while balancing profitability. By monitoring key performance indicators, optimizing keywords and campaigns for maximum visibility, and advertising the right products, we can closely monitor account performance and keep a close eye on every aspect of our advertising strategy. Competition on Amazon isn't going anywhere and businesses that take the time to conduct an audit will continue to increase their sales and maximize their opportunity on the platform. Free Audit Brands spending over $10,000 monthly on Amazon ads that have a conversion rate above 7% can click here to get a free account audit from the PPC Ninja team. Do you have a growing brand that is not quite there yet? For a limited time, we are offering access to our totally free self-audit tool. Get your copy here. Checkout our software demo featuring Ritu Java, CEO of PPC Ninja PPC Ninja is a powerful software helping agencies and brand owners increase their advertising efficiency with cutting edge techniques such as the Bid Sufficiency model, Zero Sales Algorithm, Placements X-Ray and more. Sign up for a 14-day free trial here. If this post sparked your interest, leave us a comment or a question!

A sales funnel is a term that illustrates the shopping journey of a customer before they make a purchase. Unless it is an impulse buy, most shoppers will be exposed to an ad that creates awareness about a product, they might then compare one or more similar products to determine which one works best for them. And finally they will get very specific about their exact requirements and settle for one that checks all the boxes. Let's explore the three broad stages of the funnel Top of Funnel Imagine the shape of a funnel. It is broad at the top and narrow at the bottom, suggesting that a lot of shoppers might enter a sales funnel out of curiosity, but very few of them go further along to actually make a purchase. The top of the funnel is the awareness building phase when you can show ads that make people aware about a product or brand. These ad types include: Audience targeting through DSP and Sponsored Display ads Category targeting ads Broad match targeting for short tail keywords that shoppers might be browsing for ideas (eg. "kitchen items", "room decor") Branded keyword targeting Middle of Funnel This represents the consideration building phase where a shopper might be actively looking for products similar to yours. By showing your ads in a timely manner, you have a chance of luring shoppers away from a competitor's funnel into your own. This can be achieved through: In-market audience targeting with DSP or Sponsored Display Contextual targeting (Product Targeting) on products that are similar to yours with SP, SB, SD or SBV ads Keywords that include competitor brand names Sponsored Brands Video, Store spotlight ads Bottom of Funnel This phase represents shoppers who are checking out minute details and verifying if the product fully meets their requirements. This phase of the funnel brings them closest to a conversion. It also represents that sub-section of the target audience that perhaps already purchased from you in the past and is now looking for something new. Targeting the bottom of the funnel can be achieved through: Long tail keywords that capture specific buyer intent (eg. color, size etc.) View remarketing Purchase remarketing Branded keyword targeting What is the Full Funnel Advertising Strategy? With millions of shoppers in different stages of the funnel, some ready to buy and some ready to learn more, it is best if you constantly serve ads that meet them where they are. One of the ways to do this is to deploy every ad type that Amazon offers, setting aside budgets appropriately. Note that top of funnel ads tend to be more expensive than bottom of funnel ads, since shoppers may not be ready to buy just yet, but will click your ad out of curiosity, driving your ACoS up. Knowing this will help you bid right for every phase of the funnel. Watch this video where Norm Farrar and Ritu Java discuss the full funnel approach in a bit more depth. PPC Ninja is a powerful software helping agencies and brand owners increase their advertising efficiency with cutting edge techniques such as the Bid Sufficiency model, Zero Sales Algorithm, Placements X-Ray and more. Sign up for a 14-day free trial here. If this post sparked your interest, leave us a comment or a question!

LAST UPDATED - August 2022 If an image is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a million! If you are a Brand Registered seller on Amazon, you should be running Sponsored Brands - Video Ads. Amazon has made a bunch of updates to support video on and off their platform. Let's find out more... Why Video Ads are Great for Advertisers Videos take up 4x the space on the search results page, helping you knock out potentially 3 competitors who might have occupied that space. Further, because of how visually engaging they are, these ads have 6x the click-through-rate and a very high conversion rate. Advertisers can literally showcase their product's USPs right on the search results page, without shoppers having to even click through to your page or storefront where a video might live - a great way to pre-qualify the right target audience. What are Video Ads? Video ads (for mobile and desktop) are part of “Sponsored Brands”. While these ads are very different from the traditional headline search ads we know of, the one thing that’s common with Sponsored Brand ads is that they capture a very large portion of the real estate on the search results page. The ad shows up in the middle of the Search Results page on desktop and at about position #20 on mobile. Recently Amazon has also started showing these ads on Product Detail pages. Here are some characteristics of this type of ad: Displays in the middle of the Search Results page May lead to a product detail page or storefront (available to select accounts) Is auto playing, no clicks required Loops endlessly Is muted by default, and can be unmuted by shopper Can be no longer that 45 seconds, recommended 15-30 seconds Here is an example of a video ad on mobile devices: Setup, Reporting and Performance Metrics On the setup and reporting side, here are some additional details about this type of Ad: This is a pay-per-click (PPC) ad, as opposed to the pay per impression (CPM) model on the managed services side Supports keyword targeting with broad, phrase and exact match types Supports product targeting and category targeting Supports negative keywords and negative product targeting Has reporting on new-to-brand metrics Reports are combined with Sponsored Brands, can be pulled from the standard location and can also be scheduled on a recurring timeline. How to succeed with Video ads Everyone knows that video is huge. I am reminded of this interview by Rick Cesari titled Video persuasion on Amazon which is packed with great insights on how top sellers are using video to engage customers and drive conversions. The way to engage customers with these (mostly) top-of-funnel ads is to create really engaging and eye-catching content, that rapidly progresses from idea to idea. Ideally you want to showcase the: Product - Close-up, 360 view and usage-in-context Benefits - One or two key benefits Key features - One or two key features, if your product cannot be explained with less Since these ads run on infinite loop, don’t just focus on the opening shot but on all of it. Consider the video as a collection of mini-videos that could each stand alone. Since the ad loads at page load, by the time a buyer scrolls down to the ad, it is already in motion. Keep that in mind when you get to the creation step. This ad type has been available for almost 2 years now and is till underutilized. Refer to our comprehensive guide to creating Sponsored Brand Video Ads if you want to build video ads yourself. Additionally, Amazon now provides 2 ways to create your own video ads: Video Creative Builder (available through the DSP console as well as via your Amazon Rep Video Builder here https://advertising.amazon.com/video-builder?entityId= To Wrap Up If you are not running video ads, you are missing out! Instead of getting paralyzed by the idea of building professional, studio-quality videos, just get started with a simple template based ad that can start delivering results right away. Did this post spark your curiosity or trigger a question? Comment below or email us at support@ppcninja.com. We'd love to hear from you! Amazon PPC can be complex, but once you master it, you are going to have fun! PPC Ninja is now offering a FREE 4-week PPC Mastermind to all Amazon sellers. If your monthly ad sales are above 500 USD, we invite you to join us on this 6-week deep dive into Amazon PPC. Click here for details.

What are the Best Placements? When you run an ad on Amazon, the algorithm gets to pick where your ad will be shown based on your bids, your campaign settings and past performance. Not all placements are equal. Some are more valuable than others because of the amount of visibility or conversions they bring you. A majority of the sales on Amazon take place on page 1 and a majority of the sales on page 1 occur at the top of the search results page, above the fold. But does it mean that other placements are not worth it? Depending on your campaign targeting, you can expect very different results from each placement. It is worth exploring what your performance looks like at each placement, based on data. Watch this latest episode of the Oracles of e-Commerce with Tim Jordan and Norman Farrar. We breakdown what it takes to take advantage of and optimize these very important settings that can get your visibility to soar, profitably! Then, read the article below with all the details. Sponsored Products Placements Let's take a look at all the placements we have access to for each ad type. Sponsored Products has essentially three placements: Top of Search (Page 1, above the fold) Rest of Search (Page 1, below the fold and subsequent pages) Product Page (Ads showing in multiple carousels on Product Details Pages) Amazon allows you to place a bid multiplier of up to 900% on Top of Search and Product Placements. With this multiplier in place you basically give the algorithm permission to increase your bids in real time should there arise an opportunity to skip ahead of the line past other bidders in the auction to gain visibility at the head of the page or horizontal carousel. Pretty cool, right? But is paying extra for a click worth it? In cases where you have a high conversion rate to start with, paying extra might actually be worth it because not only do you gain more visibility, you might also get more sales with fewer clicks. Sponsored Brands Placements With Sponsored Brands, you get access to 2 placements: Top of Search Other placements (includes bottom of Search Results page, middle and bottom of Product detail pages) While the Top of Search banner ad takes up a substantial amount of real estate on the search results page the other placements are compressed versions that do not always convert as well. Fortunately Amazon allows adjusting the bids on other placements in both directions - up and down (which is not possible in the case of Sponsored Products). Again, we cannot generalize the performance of any of these placements, rather rely on the data to guide us in optimization. Adjusting Sponsored Products Placement Modifiers With Sponsored Products, Amazon provides performance data for each placement within your campaign details under the Placements tab. Based on your ACoS performance, you can decide to change the multipliers as shown below. Remember that these placement modifiers affect every keyword in the campaign and it's not a good idea to be erratic about making changes to unstable campaigns, especially the ones where your ACoS and conversion rates aren't that great over a substantial period of time. Adjusting Sponsored Brands Placement Modifiers In the case of Sponsored Brands Amazon does not readily provide performance data at the placement level via their console, although you can see this information via the Placements report. If you access your Sponsored Brands campaigns settings, you can find a toggle for Automated Bidding. This is set to on by default which basically gives the algorithm permission to increase or decrease your bids automatically. This is not a great setting for advertisers looking to get the most bang for their buck. If you wish to lower the multiplier for placements not top of search simply select Decrease by 99%. This will lower your bids by 99% effectively preventing ads from showing in these placements although you cannot completely eliminate the possibility that they do. You can also increase the placement multiplier for not top of search placements to 100% if the data indicates good performance. Adjusting placements in Bulk Making adjustments to bid multipliers via the advertising console can be quite time-consuming especially if you have to make those changes one at a time. There is faster way with PPC Ninja! Simply find high performance placements (regardless of campaign) using filters such as ACoS < 10%, Orders > 2, Conversion rate > 10%. Now you can adjust placements in bulk with the bulk operator. Easy! Sign up for a free trial of PPC Ninja here. If you don't have access to PPC Ninja then the other way to make adjustments is using bulk files! Let's walk through the steps... 1. Download your SB Placement Report Below is a screenshot of a SB Campaign Placements Report (past 60 days). Your goal is to filter out Top of Search placements and only focus on the Other Placements. You will notice a wide range of performance in the ACoS column from 0.53% all the way up to 92%. This means that this placement is not always performing poorly. Identify campaigns where Other Placements are performing worse than your acceptable targets. Find out those campaign names and keep them handy for step 3 of updating the bulk file. 2. Download your Bulk File Make sure to include performance data for SP and SB ads for the past 60 days. You will need this in the next step! 3. Make adjustments to Multipliers Navigate to the Sponsored Brands Campaigns tab and notice that most of the values in the Bid Optimization column (Column Q) would be set to Auto by default. This means that Amazon will algorithmically decide which placement to show your ads on. However, based on the performance data you observed in the previous step you can chose to turn the campaign Bid Optimization rule from Auto to Manual, and also add a Bid Multiplier (Column R) of -99%. This will decrease your bid in real time by 99% and prevent your ads from showing up in those non-performant placements. While you cannot entirely eliminate your ads from showing up in these placements you can influence it to a large extent. Next you want to navigate to the Sponsored Products Campaigns tab. This is a bit easier to work with because both the Top of Search and Product Pages placements are on separate rows with their individual performance data that can be referenced easily. All you need to do is filter on ACoS > Target ACoS to find the worst placements and lower the Percentage (Column Y). If you are already at 0% then you obviously cannot go down any further. Unfortunately SP campaigns do not allow negative percentages. In this case, it is best to evaluate the work directly with keyword/target bids for optimization. 4. Upload the Bulk File back Once you have made adjustments to the bulk file upload it back to Amazon and you are done! Did this post spark your curiosity or trigger a question? Comment below or email us at support@ppcninja.com. We'd love to hear from you! Amazon PPC can be complex, but once you master it, you are going to have fun! PPC Ninja is now offering a FREE 4-week PPC Mastermind to all Amazon sellers. If your monthly ad sales are above 10000 USD, we invite you to join us on this 4-week deep dive into Amazon PPC. Click here for details.

Amazon created Prime Day as an annual shopping event for its growing user base of Prime shoppers. The event started in 2015 and by 2019 it had expanded to a full two days and offered amazing deals on highly coveted products. Here are some of the top products that sold on Prime Day 2021. As of June 2022, Amazon is inundated with requests for Prime day lightening deals, even at elevated price points. Because of how much deal crowding that's anticipated, Amazon reps have started advising clients to drop these deals unless you have a really good product and a really great offer. Here's what to expect from Prime Day 2022: 🔥 200M+ Prime shoppers (US) hunting for deals 🔥 20+ countries participating 🔥 Prime Day is ALL about incredible deals (> 30%) 🔥 10-30% increase in traffic 🔥 50% Increase in conversion rate 🔥 2x~3x conversions compared to lead-up 🔥 Expect low conversion rates before 🔥 Mystery, anticipation and excitement build-up by Amazon 🔥 Time pressure to take advantage of deals 🔥 Increase in influencer traffic Knowing what we know about the past 6 Prime days we have developed strategies that allow us to selectively go aggressive or completely back off. Prime day is not for everyone. If you are NOT planning to run incredible deals (at least 30% or more discounts) then do yourself a favor and lower your budgets until the event is over. But if you ARE running deals then make sure you don't make these mistakes: - Limiting budgets on products with deals - Pushing low stock products - Running deals on worst performing products (Prime Day is not the time for liquidating your worst products - the algorithm just won't favor it) What have you learnt from past Prime Days? How are you planning things differently this time? Did this post spark your curiosity or trigger a question? Comment below or email us at support@ppcninja.com. We'd love to hear from you! Amazon PPC can be complex, but once you master it, you are going to have fun! PPC Ninja is now offering a FREE 4-week PPC Mastermind to all Amazon sellers. If your monthly ad sales are above 10000 USD, we invite you to join us on this 4-week deep dive into Amazon PPC. Click here for details.

I just adjusted my bids 3 days ago. Is it ok if I adjust again today? Would that be too soon? PPC is a numbers game, and you’ll need to get pretty good at it to win. In this article that I wrote for the Wild PPC Bunch, I want to focus on the idea of data sufficiency in bid optimization. But before that, let’s get aligned on some basic concepts. When it comes to making bid adjustments on an ongoing basis, there are three important factors to consider: Triggers: “What triggers should I be watching for in my data to make an adjustment?” Amounts: “Once I know which triggers to act on, by how much should I change–10%, 15%, or some other value?” Cadence: “I just made a change three days ago, and my numbers don’t look good. Is it time for another change? Is it too soon?” Most people follow the standard practice of downloading their search terms report for the past ten days. They make adjustments based on whatever data they see there. If the ACoS is high, they lower the bid by a certain percentage. They increase the bid by a certain percentage if the ACoS is low. And, if there are clicks and no sales, they lower the bid. To avoid chaotic, panic-based bid adjustments, let’s try to approach bid optimization from the perspective of Triggers, Amounts, and Cadence. Read my full article here. Watch this video to learn about PPC Ninja's Bid Sufficiency algorithm: Did this post spark your curiosity or trigger a question? Comment below or email us at support@ppcninja.com. We'd love to hear from you! Amazon PPC can be complex, but once you master it, you are going to have fun! PPC Ninja is now offering a FREE 4-week PPC Mastermind to all Amazon sellers. If your monthly ad sales are above 10000 USD, we invite you to join us on this 4-week deep dive into Amazon PPC. Click here for details.

[Updated on November 10, 2021] Did you know that Amazon provides 24 different types of reports just for advertising? Check out our latest podcast interview with Norm Farrar where we talk about 3 new ad reports that need to start leveraging today: If you are running Sponsored Ads on Amazon you're probably familiar with Amazon's ad reports. You're also aware that access to this data is not available in perpetuity. In fact these reports will typically let you go back 60 or 90 days (depending on their type). Hopefully you (or your VA) are NOT having to download these csvs manually, but rather rely on a tool like PPC Ninja that will do the downloading for you 24x7x365. Sign up for PPC Ninja's 14 day trial: https://app.ppcninja.com/signup/ In general, Sponsored Products sales are reported within a 7 Day attribution window, while Sponsored Brand sales are reported within a 14 Day attribution window. As of November 2021, Amazon provides the following types of Advertising Reports: Sponsored Products Campaigns (7 reports) Search Terms Targeting Advertised Product Campaign Budget Campaign Placement Purchased Product Performance over Time Search Term Impression Share Sponsored Brands Campaigns (5 reports) Keyword Keyword Placement Campaign Campaign Placement Search Terms Search Term Impression Share Category Benchmark Sponsored Brands Video Campaigns (4 reports) Keyword Campaign Campaign Placement Search Terms Sponsored Display (4 reports) Campaign Targeting Advertised Product Purchased Product Locate these reports by clicking on Reports in the left menu bar of your Advertising Console. Sponsored Products Reports 1. Search Term Report (60 day look back) Perhaps the most commonly downloaded report, this contains important information about search terms or competitor ASINs that led buyers to your products. While most of the fields in the report are fairly straightforward and easy to understand, such as Impressions, Spend etc. there are a few columns that are not entirely self explanatory. We'll dive in a little bit: 7 Day Total Sales : Amazon attributes sales generated from ad clicks made up to 7 days back from the selected time frame. This does NOT mean that you are getting data for only 7 days. Total Advertising Cost of Sales (ACoS): "Total" here refers to all the sales that resulted from the ad, not just the advertised SKU. Total Return on Advertising Spend (RoAS) : RoAS is just the inverse of ACoS and it tells you how much return on your investment you made. 7 Day Total Orders (#): The sum total of orders for all the SKUs that were purchased through that ad for that keyword, attributed over a 7 day look back window. Again this does NOT mean that you are only getting data for 7 days when you requested a 60 day report. 7 Day Total Units (#): Sometimes people buy more than one of a an item in an order 7 Day Conversion Rate: Ratio of the number of Orders to number of Clicks. (Note: This is NOT the number of units to number of clicks) 7 Day Advertised SKU Units (#) : Units of the advertised SKU sold and attribute 7 Day Other SKU Units (#) : Units of products not advertised in the ad group will be reported here 7 Day Advertised SKU Sales : Revenue generated by the ad for the advertised SKU 7 Day Other SKU Sales : Revenue generated by the ad for SKUs not advertised in the ad group. The sum of these last two columns should add up to the amount in the 7 Day Total Sales column. How do people use the Search Term reports? Typical use cases include: New keyword discovery: Set a filter on ACoS < Target ACoS and 7 Day Total Orders > 5 (or other threshold) to find potential keywords to discover. Then, with a bit spreadsheet work, you should be able to check them against your existing manual targets to see if they don't already exist. Alternatively, you could simply use PPC Ninja's Discover Keywords tool where we've already done the work of data download, extraction and discovery. We only present you with those keywords that do not already exist in any campaign that includes the SKU - A huge time saver! Negative Keyword Discovery: The Search Terms report can also help you find buyer search terms that are irrelevant to your product or that are bleeding you money with clicks and no sales. Again you could set up Excel formulas yourself to filter clicks and no sales to find these terms, OR you you could just use PPC Ninja's Manage Bleeding Keywords view. 2. Targeting Report (90 days) This report contains data about the performance of your targets, whether they are keywords, products, categories or brands. With a 90 day look back you can access more data than the Search Terms report. Many sellers are confused about the difference between these 2 reports. We've written a whole post explaining the differences. Here's the link: What's the difference between the Search Term Report and the Targeting Report? 3. Advertised Products Report (90 days) Advertised product reports provide insights about performance metrics for your advertised ASINs in all campaigns that received at least one impression. It will exclude data about other products that were purchased through your ad. 4. Campaign Report (18 months) This report gives you insights about the overall performance of your campaigns. 5. Placement Report (90 days) There are 4 placements that Amazon reports data on for your your sponsored Ads. These are: Top of Search Rest of Search Product Pages Remarketing off Amazon With the availability of Placement Bid Modifiers (from 0-900%) this report becomes critical in evaluating the performance placements for your ads. While you can't modify bids for Rest of Search placements (as of July 2020), you can for Top of Search and Product Pahes Read more about Placements in our other blogposts: Amazon Placement Reports How to pick the best placement for your Sponsored Product Ads PPC Ninja now provides the Campaign Placements View to help you analyze all your placement data in a single place, with the ability to make bulk changes to bid placement modifiers. 6. Purchased Products Report (60 days) The Purchased Product Reports provide performance details of ASINs that you did NOT specifically target, but a shopper purchased after clicking on your ad. This report can help you find new advertising opportunities and get insights into what shoppers are buying. 7. Performance Over Time Report A pompous title for a meaningless one-line report! This report summarizes your ad data over the selected period. What's funny is that these 5 columns still don't tell you anything about the performance of your ads. What were my sales? What was my ACoS? 8. Search Term Impression Share Report A report that tells you what percentage of the impression share for a search term went to any of your campaigns. In other words, which searches does Amazon considers you relevant for. Even if these search terms never had a click or a sale, you will know if Amazon consider you relevant. This is valuable information because you can simply ride on the leverage that Amazon is giving you. 9. Budget Report A report that tells you your budget utilization. If any of your campaigns are performing well in terms of sales and ACoS then you do not want to limit the spend on those campaigns as they are your money generators. With this report you identify campaigns with good ACoS and filer on those that had an "Average Time in Budget" less than 100%. You would ideally want to increase the budgets on these. Sponsored Brand Reports 1. Keyword Report (90 days) Perhaps the most commonly downloaded report, this contains important information about buyer search terms or related ASINs that led to your products. 2. Keyword Placement Report (90 days) This report contains data about what you are targeting, whether it is keywords, products, categories or brands. 3. Campaign Report (60 days) This report gives you insights about the overall performance of your campaigns. 4. Campaign Placement Report (90 days) A new type of report for most sellers, this is where you can find out which placements on Amazon did your products show up for and how buyers reacted to your ads in those placements. 5. Search Term Report (60 days) Perhaps the most commonly downloaded report, this contains important information about search terms or competitor ASINs that led buyers to your products. Free Excel-Based tool For a limited period of time we are offering a free excel-based tool to help you conduct a self audit using the Targeting report. To use this audit, download the past 60 days worth of data from seller central and copy-paste it into the first sheet. The tool will generate and audit and also give you recommendations on what to improve about your PPC. You can access this tool from here: PPC Ninja Mastermind 𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘯 𝘈𝘮𝘢𝘻𝘰𝘯 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 $1000 𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘥 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘢 𝘥𝘦𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘳 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘗𝘗𝘊, 𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘶𝘱 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘍𝘙𝘌𝘌 6-𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘬 𝘮𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘮: 𝘩𝘵𝘵𝘱𝘴://𝘸𝘸𝘸.𝘱𝘱𝘤𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘫𝘢.𝘤𝘰𝘮/𝘱𝘱𝘤𝘮𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥 Did this post spark your curiosity or trigger a question? Comment below or email us at support@ppcninja.com. We'd love to hear from you! Amazon PPC can be complex, but once you master it, you are going to have fun! PPC Ninja is now offering a FREE 6-week PPC Mastermind to all Amazon sellers. If your monthly ad sales are above 500 USD, we invite you to join us on this 6-week deep dive into Amazon PPC. Click here for details.

Have you tried the strategy of placing ads on your own products? Is there any merit to cannibalizing your own sales? Does it work? For those who are new to product targeting (ASIN targeting,) please refer to our introductory blogpost on Product Targeting Ads. In this post, we'll just summarize it quickly. You can create campaigns with product targeting, by picking one or more target ASINs, which could be competitor ASINs or even your own. Two ad types that can help you do this are: Sponsored Products - Manual - Product Targeting Sponsored Display - Product Targeting Both these ad types can appear on the detail page of the ASIN you are running the ad for, and serve the purpose of enticing shoppers with an alternative product when they are deep into the consideration phase of the funnel. Sponsored Products - Product Targeting Placement This type of targeting allows you to get featured in the "Sponsored Products Related to the Item" carousel located somewhere in the middle of the Product Detail Page. You'll notice a horizontal scrollbar that houses hundreds of ads. Sponsored Display - Product Targeting Placements On the other hand, this type of targeting gives you very favorable placements all over the Product Detail Page. The reason why these placements are way more powerful than Sponsored Products above is that they have no visual competition with other products. They stand alone with a chance to get substantial visibility. You can use these placements as placeholders to target your own products, effectively prevent any customers from taking them up. We ran an experiment using Amazon's Product Targeting ads on our own products to gauge if this strategy was worth it, and saw some really interesting data. We targeted a relatively high volume product and placed a product targeting ad showcasing 2 similar products from our own catalog on it, and let it run for a bit. Here are some takeaways from that experiment. Lower ACoS Since the ad was placed on a product page from a similar product in our own catalog, we knew that there was already a clear purchase intent. These shoppers were already in-market for that type of product, since they came in through a similar funnel. They were definitely not the undecided shoppers standing on the top-of-funnel causing reckless clicking and no buying. The results show a pretty good ACoS confirming our hypothesis. Now, this may NOT have been the outcome if the products we picked very significantly dissimilar to the one we were targeting. The key is to understand and capture customer purchase intent during the design of the ad, which basically means the selection of which products you pick in the adgroup. Lower Click-through-rates (CTR) We got a decent CTR of around 0.34%, which is slightly lower than typical account averages of 0.5%, but this is expected for a product ad on a detail page. The good thing is that more of our own products captured the real estate on that page and reduced the risk of competitor products luring the buyer away to unchartered territories. Stealing our own traffic? One of the positive outcomes of this experiment was that the high volume product we targeted actually helped revive sales for the 2 lower volume products in the ad. In a sense, it may seem like we stole our own traffic, but data shows that this was only a partial diversion of traffic that we could have lost anyway. This technique is similar to doing an up-sell or a down-sell in a traditional digital marketing scenario, where you always offer multiple alternatives to pick from, even if the thing that you originally offered did not entirely meet the buyer's needs. Net gain If the ACoS is within limits, product targeting ad placements on your own products can be a great strategy to profitably increase sales. We conclude with 4 reasons: Even though it may seem like you're stealing sales from your own products, you are actually capturing as many eyeballs as possible for your own catalog, rather than giving them away to a competitor. By pairing up low volume products with high volume winners, this technique can help boost traffic for products that otherwise have a hard time performing. People familiar with your brand who are already shopping from you will be more likely to purchase from one of the options you present them. So why not? This is also a great way to increase bids for competitors who might have otherwise won that spot at a lower rate. Have you tried this technique and has it worked for you? Did this post spark your curiosity or trigger a question? Comment below or email us at support@ppcninja.com. We'd love to hear from you! Amazon PPC can be complex, but once you master it, you are going to have fun! PPC Ninja is now offering a FREE 4-week PPC Mastermind to all Amazon sellers. If your monthly ad sales are above 500 USD, we invite you to join us on this 4-week deep dive into Amazon PPC. Click here for details.

Sponsored Brand Video ads have INSANELY high click through rates, almost 6 times higher than Sponsored Product ads. Moreover, they take up 4 organic listings worth of real estate on page 1 of search results! As a smart seller, you already know that video is a powerful way to get people interested in your product. Yet, creating video ad creation seems cumbersome and expensive. We're here to tell you that it does not have to be that way. You can create video ads fairly inexpensively with a little planning and a few tools yourself. In this guide we want to outline the steps to get you over to the finish line with your first video ad. Here we go... About Sponsored Brands Video Ads A type of Sponsored Brands ad, available to brand registered sellers Links directly to the product detail page Can showcase only 1 product Is a short video clip Can target Keywords, Categories and Products No creative messaging available Shows up mostly on Page 1, but slowly being rolled out on Product Detail Pages Is generally autoplaying and will loop endlessly Don't begin with black slide No pillar-boxing allowed (No black bars on any side) Needs to be 6-45 sec long (shorter the better, ideal 10-30 sec) File size should be 500 MB or smaller Dimensions need to be 1920 x 1080 File type could be MP4 or MOV file Ideal bit rate: 1200 Video Ad Styles We examined hundreds of video ads and categorized them down to styles. 1. 2D Pan and zoom Use the lifestyle photos you already created to put together a slide show with panning and zooming with an editor like Canva or Biteable. Adding in some animated text can deliver the message quite effectively and inexpensively. 2. Show and tell: Show off your product's best feature or benefit to wow the viewer, like in this knife video, the sharpness. You can use your smartphone or professional videography. The choice is yours. Both can look great. Just keep the shopper in mind when you come up with the storyboard. You don't need a ton of ideas, just one or two best ones are fine. 3. Animation This is great for depicting certain aspects of your product's features or benefits that are hard to depict through video or still photos. For example for showing multiple layers inside a mask or data transfer across devices. It could also be great for 360 videos or eye catching 3D renders. This generally requires a skilled graphics expert to build and can be somewhat expensive to produce. Tools you'll need to create a 2D Pan and Zoom ad 5-6 high quality lifestyle photos Video storyboarding app: e.g. Biteable.com, Canva.com, Promo.com Image processing app: Canva for high quality images Background removal: Lunapic, Preview app (on Mac) Bit rate adjustment: Handbrake Steps: With Canva Create a Design -> Video 2. Pick any simple template 3. Upload your photos 4. Select Transitions 5. Add text 6. Add text animations 7. Switch audio track if needed 8. Download 9. Use Handbrake to adjust bit rate to 1200 10. Upload asset to Amazon and create ad 11. Wait for approval (24 h) Steps: With Biteable Upload 6-7 photos/video clips to Biteable or pick from their gallery Pick the Product Slideshow template Create 6-7 scenes and set background to each of your photos Add captions as needed Animate captions Animate transitions Modify music as needed Download Use Handbrake to adjust bit rate to 1200 Upload asset to Amazon and create ad Wait for approval (24 h) Resources: How to use Biteable How to create a transparent background with Lunapic Link to Lunapic Best Practices Video should not rely on audio since these are muted by default The first few seconds are the most important Use fast motion to grab attention The first frame will serve as a thumbnail so pick wisely Use your existing keyword research to create as many video ads as you have Sponsored Product ads. Same video, just separate keywords Separate your ads by match type No keyword stuffing. Have no more than 10 - 20 keywords for each ad for best budget utilization Don't forget to create a category targeting ad, it's the easiest one to setup Use your competitor target ASIN list and target them Best to use long tail keywords since the min CPC is 0.25 Best match types: Phrase, Exact Avoid Broad Match, use Broad Match Modifier instead for clean data (eg. +garlic +press) If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to comment down below or email us at support@ppcninja.com! Amazon PPC can be complex, but once you master it, you are going to have fun! PPC Ninja is now offering a FREE 4-week PPC Mastermind to all Amazon sellers. If your monthly ad sales are above 500 USD, we invite you to join us on this 4-week deep dive into Amazon PPC. Click here for details.

When it comes to Amazon PPC bid optimization there are three important questions to ask: 1) What are the triggers for bid change? 2) By how much to change? 3) How often to change? 1. What are the triggers for bid change? These are "clues" in your data that alert you to the need for a bid change. For example, your ACoS was above target, your keywords did not get any impressions, your keywords received a ton of clicks but no sales etc. 2. By how much to change? Most people struggle with how much to change a bid by. This decision is almost always a function of your target ACoS. There are many formulae available to calculate the right bid to achieve your target ACoS. The simplest, most common one is Sales / Clicks x Target ACoS. If you are using a spreadsheet, you could build this formula in for quick calculations. 3. How often to change? Once you have made adjustments based on the calculations in step 2, you ideally want to wait to see if those changes made any difference to your desired outcome. Remember that each keyword moves at a different pace, so changing bids too soon or too late might be something you want to avoid. You don't want to change a bid on a slow moving keyword too frequently or right after a bid change if it does not have high search volume. You want to give the data time to accumulate. On the other hand you wouldn't want to wait endlessly on fast moving keywords if there is already enough click and conversion data to recommend a change. How often does PPC Ninja recommend bid changes? Rather than measure keyword performance on a fixed time period, PPC Ninja uses a data sufficiency model for calculating the time period for each keyword or target individually. This is because some keywords are fast movers while some keywords need more time to build some history. We use a sophisticated system to arrive at the "Pick Period" for each keyword separately. Watch this video to find out more about our bid recommendations. But doesn't PPC recommend bid changes daily? Yes, PPC Ninja recommends bid changes daily. This does not mean that you are changing the bids on the same keyword or target every day. Each day the keywords that made it to the "pick" are different. This makes it possible for you to never be behind on making adjustments as soon as they are available. Look at the Date From and Date to fields to confirm the pick period for each keyword. Did this post spark your curiosity or trigger a question? Comment below or email us at support@ppcninja.com. We'd love to hear from you! Amazon PPC can be complex, but once you master it, you are going to have fun! PPC Ninja is now offering a FREE 4-week PPC Mastermind to all Amazon sellers. If your monthly ad sales are above 500 USD, we invite you to join us on this 4-week deep dive into Amazon PPC. Click here for details.

Full Funnel Advertising You've probably heard of full funnel advertising. It is the concept of reaching audiences in different stages of the "funnel" or shopping journey, ranging from mildly curious to super interested to ready-to-buy. Amazon has been rolling out several ads types, each designed to perform best for a specific stage of the funnel. Sponsored Display ads have become a vehicle to effectively tap into top of funnel shoppers including new-to-brand audiences. Let's dive into it. CONTENTS What are Sponsored Display ads? What targeting options are available with Sponsored Display ads? Where do these ads show up? How are Sponsored Display different from Sponsored Products or Sponsored Brands? What Remarketing options are available with Sponsored Display? When should I use Amazon Audiences? Is it better to use Product Targeting or Category Targeting? How are Sponsored Display ads different from DSP? Is it better to use DSP or Sponsored Display? Does PPC Ninja support Sponsored Display Ads? Contact Us What are Sponsored Display ads? Available to Brand Registered sellers, Sponsored Display ads have quickly become a popular choice that allow advertisers the ability to target shoppers both on and off Amazon based on Amazon’s priceless 1st party behavioral data. What targeting options are available with Sponsored Display ads? Unlike keyword based targeting that you are familiar with, think of Sponsored Display as behavioral targeting.Under the hood you really have 4 different subtypes that can help you reach shoppers that have exhibited certain behaviors. Products: Shoppers who engaged with certain products Categories: Shoppers who engaged with certain categories Amazon Audiences: Shoppers who: Are “in-market” for a certain type of product Have a “lifestyle” that is associated with with certain categories Have exhibited an “interest” in certain activities or topics Have recently have had a “life event” that can be leveraged for certain types of shopping Views Remarketing: Shoppers who have engaged with: Advertised Product (Yours), or Similar Products in the past 30 days Where do these ads show up? These ads can show up both ON and OFF Amazon. Amazon knows their shoppers and can place ads on inventory they own on websites across the internet. On the Amazon platform, SD ads can be quickly located under the buy box or directly under the bullet points on a Product Detail Page. Other typical placements on Amazon include the following placements: Note that many of the on-channel placements are shared with the DSP (Demand Side Platform). How are Sponsored Display different from Sponsored Products or Sponsored Brands? Perhaps the biggest difference is that this ad type does not target user generated queries, rather it targets shopper behavior. This is great because most shoppers are not always expressing their interest in products through direct queries. Often their shopping choices are instinctual or impulse buys triggered by a recommendation or ad suggestion. This technically places Sponsored Display at the top of the shopping funnel, where there is not yet a clear purchase intent. Be prepared for lower conversion rate and hence lower ROAS as shoppers click but may not be prepared to buy right away. What Remarketing options are available with Sponsored Display? Within Sponsored Display you have the ability to either retarget or remarket. You can retarget someone who engaged with your ad in the past 30 days but did not buy, through the Views Remarketing subtype. You could also remarket to shoppers that have already purchased from you in the past 12 months via the Purchases subtype (you may not have access to this type yet). According to research, repeat buyers are 9 times more likely to buy from you than from a new or unknown brand. When should I use Amazon Audiences? Audience remarketing is great for developing top-of-funnel or new to brand audiences that may not immediately be ready for a purchase but could be pushed into the consideration phase through the Views remarketing ad type and then further down with Purchases sub type. Used in combination, these three sub types can be a powerful combination that spins up a flywheel of Awareness -> Consideration->Purchases. Is it better to use Product Targeting or Category Targeting? While Category Targeting has broad targeting that can bring in a lot of impressions, Product Targeting is more tightly targeted at specific ASINs. Used in combination they can help you get reach, by closely latching on to and "following" all the products in a category, while at the same time help you steal some really targeted customer conversions. Don’t be afraid to target neighboring categories or subcategories for the widest reach. You can go after the exact same ASINs or Categories that you already target with Sponsored Products or Sponsored Brands. How are Sponsored Display ads different from DSP? DSP (Demand Side Platform) is a programmatic media buying mechanism that is charged based on an impression based (CMP) model. These ads can get expensive and out of reach for most Amazon sellers who are focussed more on performance based marketing with tight ROAS targets. But now, through sponsored Display we have access to a lot of the Audiences (nearly 3000) that were only available to DSP users. This is an amazing opportunity to access and target upper funnel audiences at CPC rates. The two definitely have some differences. Here are a few: DSP allows much more granular control of audience targeting with And, Or, and Not logic CPM vs CPC pricing Day parting available on DSP, not on SD Placement viewability controls on DSP Geographic targeting Blacklisting/Whitelisting of websites and apps on DSP Is it better to use DSP or Sponsored Display? Since SD ads are CPC based, if you have tight ROAS goals, then we recommend that you go for Sponsored Display first. Include DSP in the mix only if you have fully utilized and maxed out all your Sponsored Ads options. DSP is great for OTT (TV) ads, off-channel video ads or even Twitch ads that can help with your Awareness building campaigns to win new audiences. Definitely use DSP in combination with SD if you have a dual focus on NTB (New to Brand) and ROAS. An agency like PPC Ninja can help you run DSP ads without any minimum spend commitments. Display Ad Types Mapped on to the Funnel If there is one ad type that can touch both top-of-funnel and bottom-of-funnel advertising, it is Sponsored Display. Here's how we mapped them on the funnel. Does PPC Ninja support Sponsored Display Ads? Yes! As of June 2021, PPC Ninja fully supports Sponsored Display Ads reporting. Use our tool to slice and dice your Sponsored Display performance data, analyze audiences to learn which ones delivered the best performance. Do all this while entirely skipping the painful step of downloading archaic csv files from Amazon. All your data is synced automatically! Here is a complete Ad type coverage for PPC Ninja software as on June 2021: Contact Us To learn more about our full funnel approach and how Sponsored Display fits in with your overall Amazon strategy reach out to our Amazon accredited ad experts at support@ppcninja.com. We are more than happy to help! Signup for a 14 Day Free trial: https://app.ppcninja.com/signup Did this post spark your curiosity or trigger a question? Comment below or email us at support@ppcninja.com. We'd love to hear from you! Amazon PPC can be complex, but once you master it, you are going to have fun! PPC Ninja is now offering a FREE 4-week PPC Mastermind to all Amazon sellers. If your monthly ad sales are above 500 USD, we invite you to join us on this 4-week deep dive into Amazon PPC. Click here for details.

If you are advertising on Amazon you've undoubtedly encountered the term "Conversion Rate". It's one of the key metrics you'd want to pay attention to as a measure of your success. But a surprisingly large number of sellers don't fully understand what this is or how to calculate it. Let's break it down for you. What is Conversion Rate? First, what is a "conversion"? This is another word for a "sale". Amazon defines Conversion Rate as "The number of sales relative to the number of clicks. Conversion rate = orders/clicks." What many get confused about is whether Conversions refer to "Units" or "Orders"? We looked at some PPC data and confirmed that the formula uses Orders, not units. As you can see above, if a keyword had 1 order from 4 clicks, the conversion rate would be 1/4 = 25% (expressed as a percentage). But what if that order contained 2 units? The conversion rate would remain the same, as it is still one order as per this definition. It's surprising that this important metric is missing from most of Amazon's reporting other than one place buried deep within Sponsored Products -> Campaign -> Adgroup -> Search Terms view. If you are Excel user then you could create a calculated column with the formula above within your advertising reports. If you are using PPC Ninja though, we provide you PPC conversion rates at the account, campaign, adgroup, keyword and campaign level. So it will save you a bunch of time. Is Unit Session Percentage the same as Organic Conversion Rate? How does your product converts on the organic side of things? Surprisingly, there is no exact equivalent of Conversion Rate on the organic side of things. The closest "proxy" to conversion rate that most people refer to is "Unit Session Percentage" and this can be extracted from your Business Reports -> By ASIN -> Detail Page Sales and Traffic view. The internal formula used by the Unit Session Percentage metric is: Unit Session Percentage = Units / Sessions ...where Sessions are the TOTAL number of unique visitors to your page within a given time period and Units are the total number of units you sold. Here's an example: Sessions = 2755 Units = 210 Unit Session Percentage = 210 / 2755 = 7.62% Notice that Unit Session Percentage is not following the Conversion rate formula on the PPC side of things (which is Orders/Clicks). While sessions might serve as a proxy for clicks that landed on a detail page and Units might not serve as a proxy for orders, as people often buy more than one unit or more than one unique product from your catalog. Units ≠ Orders. Hence, the overall conversion rate is not exactly the same as Unit Session Percentage. How to Accurately Calculate Organic Conversion Rate? Another thing to note is Organic Conversion Rate is different from Total Conversion rate. You see, Sessions includes BOTH, Organic and PPC sessions. If you accurately want to calculate your organic conversion rate, you will need to first subtract out your PPC sessions (clicks) from total sessions for the same time period. Then, divide the Total Order Items by the remaining organic Sessions. Let's do the math. Continuing with the same example from above, we found out that our PPC clicks for that product was 1106, and orders were 46. This is a PPC conversion rate of 46/1106 = 4.1%. Now for the organic side: Organic Sessions = Total Sessions - PPC Clicks [ 2755 - 1106 = 1649] Organic Orders = Total Orders - PPC Orders [109 - 46 = 63] Now, we can calculate the pure Organic Conversion Rate as follows: 63 / 1649 = 3.8% This is a lot lower than Unit Session Percentage and slightly lower than our PPC Conversion Rate of 4.1% Why should you care about Organic Conversion Rate? If your organic conversion rate is poor, sending paid traffic to your page would likely be a poor investment of money. PPC is not going to help you in this case, you've got to improve your listing first. Of course there might be strategic reasons for you to rely on PPC, such as at launch, when you don't yet have a great deal of conversion history. What is a good conversion rate? While averages can be dangerous, it helps to have some ballpark to baseline ourselves against. Amazon's average conversion rate is around 10%. If your product can better that, you are generally in a good position to go all out on PPC. Did this post spark your curiosity or trigger a question? Comment below or email us at support@ppcninja.com. We'd love to hear from you! Amazon PPC can be complex, but once you master it, you are going to have fun! PPC Ninja is now offering a FREE 4-week PPC Mastermind to all Amazon sellers. If your monthly ad sales are above 500 USD, we invite you to join us on this 4-week deep dive into Amazon PPC. Click here for details.