Amazon Sponsored Products: 9 Winning Strategies to Boost Sales

amazon advertising page on a laptop

Last updated on July 10th, 2023

Written by Mohamed Aden

There are many different ways to go about advertising on Amazon. One of the most prominent methods is using Amazon Sponsored Products to aid your marketing efforts. If you're just starting with Amazon advertising, it's good to understand what you're getting into ahead of time.

With Sponsored Products, Amazon sellers can reach more customers and increase sales. However, many sellers often struggle with using these ads effectively, leading to wasted ad spend and poor results. 

This article overviews of Amazon Sponsored Product ads and the nine best practices for making the most of this advertising program. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced seller, this article will help you optimize your Sponsored Products campaigns and boost your sales on the retail giant.

Facts About Amazon Sponsored Products

Amazon Sponsored Products is a PPC ad that displays a product ad within shopping results and product pages. They appear on mobile and desktop devices, which Amazon sellers, vendors, book authors, and Amazon PPC agencies can utilize.

screenshot of an Amazon results page emphasizing Amazon sponsored products

The ease of starting Amazon Sponsored Product ads makes it one of the most preferred ad types of Amazon sellers. It requires two simple things: a Professional Amazon seller account and a product listing to advertise. A professional Amazon seller sells more than 40 units each month, and sellers pay $39.99 for this plan.

You can also choose from other ad options, like Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Displays, and Amazon Stores. 

  • Sponsored Brands focus on raising brand awareness
  • Sponsored Display is the ad type to use to advertise in and out of Amazon. 
  • Amazon Stores is the ad showcasing your store and all your products. 

Amazon Sponsored Ads offers many types of ads for a specific purpose, but Sponsored Products is the way to go if you want to focus on individual products.

Amazon Sponsored Products Ads Strategies

You now know some crucial details about Amazon Sponsored Product ads. You must have realized that it is your best option to reach more audiences and increase your sales on the platform. With this, arm yourself with strategies to ensure you fulfill the goal of successful Sponsored Products. Check out nine suggestions below.

1. Optimize Your Product Detail Page

Select a well-optimized product listing for the best results. Amazon product detail page optimization is essential for setting up your Sponsored Products ad because, with a perfectly laid out product listing, you can ensure that the ad will reach shoppers looking for a search term you bid for.

Ensure that your listing's product title, features, and product descriptions are streamlined and have organized formatting with SEO-backed keywords to rank higher in the search results. Add captivating graphics on your product images, videos, and A+ content through Amazon Brand Registry. These details can significantly impact shoppers' decision to hit the Buy Box. 

amazon product detail page of a computer mouse on a laptop screen

2. Choose a Product to Feature

Choose your store's top product or the ones chosen for the Featured Offers for Sponsored Products. Featured offers are product listings with impressive reviews, sales history, and inventory management through FBA. There is a higher chance for a sale when customers click on Sponsored Product ads and see the product’s excellent status.

Meanwhile, you can also use the Sponsored Products feature for your mid-performing items. The Sponsored Products ads could be the boost these listings need for them to become best sellers.

When it comes to low-performing listings, it takes more than just putting them on Sponsored Products. There must be a deep dive into their optimization and product quality check. Sponsored Products ads may still help, though.

3. Decide Which Keywords Will Appear on Your Ads

Generally, Sponsored Products ads have a predetermined placement, but you still have control over the search terms they’ll appear to.

Conduct thorough keyword research and bid wisely on the keywords where you want your sponsored ads to appear. You cannot just go the easy way and bid on top-performing keywords, as the competition is tough.

Amazon has three essential keyword targeting campaigns you can choose from or implement simultaneously: exact match, broad match, and phrase match.

When you choose exact matching keywords for your manual campaigns, your Sponsored Product ads will appear when buyers search for the exact search terms you bid for. This strategy is advantageous as you'll only incur ad costs on high-converting search terms.

🧐 However, keep in mind that exact match keywords are very controlled, so your ads do not show up on related product searches that could lead to conversions.

To compensate for this, you can go for broad and phrase match keyword campaigns as a workaround for the exact match keyword issues and rank for related search terms. The downside is that you get a higher ad spend. Maintain high-quality ads to ensure your ad spend is worthwhile and for the sponsored ads to increase your sales. 

4. Optimize Your Ad Placements

Aside from keyword targeting, it would help to decide which product listing your Sponsored Products ads will appear on. You can optimize the details for your manual targeting campaign. Let’s discuss your choices and their advantages and disadvantages.

  • New competition: Position your sponsored ads on a new competition’s page with fewer reviews, feedback, and sales. Your products will appear as the better choice.
  • Bad competition: Your positive reputation, lower price, or better offers will shine when you make your Sponsored Product ads appear on a bad competition.
  • Product listing page that complements your items: Target listings that sell products your items complement. You might just get a sale after the buyer realizes the product they’ll buy is better used with what you sell.
  • Product targeting from high-ranking competitors: Go head to head with high-ranking competitors by piggybacking on the search terms they appear for. Ensure that your products and ads are more appealing for buyers to choose.

In an interview with Seller Interactive, PPC Entourage's Mike Zagare shared advice about dealing with hypercompetitive product categories.

5. Set Up Manual and Automatic Targeting Campaigns

When setting up your Amazon Sponsored Product campaign, you will be prompted to choose between automatic and manual campaigns. With automatic campaigns, Amazon targets audiences based on the keywords found on your product listing. This type of campaign is often recommended for beginners in Amazon PPC to streamline their process.

Once you start seeing the top-performing keywords, you can manually put a higher bid in them through manual campaigns. Consider combining manual targeting with automatic targeting campaigns for optimal results. It helps you catch on keywords you might have initially missed.

6. Manage Your Sponsored Ads Budget Wisely

Be wary of the average cost per click (CPC); advertising on Amazon can be expensive when done incorrectly. Implement a daily budget limit per keyword on the Amazon campaign manager. Set your keywords' maximum daily budget at a low cost to ensure that Amazon won't charge you more than your daily advertising budget allows. 

💡 A maximum daily recommendation for beginners is $10, but this can vary based on your budget.

7. Track Sponsored Products Performance

Amazon PPC experts suggest checking your campaigns after two weeks. This period allows you to collect data and determine which keywords click with your prospective customers. 

Let this process be a part of your keyword research. Complement the data you've acquired using keyword research tools with the ones from Amazon. After combining all this information, you can decide which keywords to include in your campaigns.

💡 Remember that the metrics found in your campaign manager change every hour, but the sales and ACoS data take up to 48 hours for accuracy—the spend metric updates in up to 3 days. Always note the day you launched your campaigns to track and monitor your progress effectively. If you started your campaign on the 1st of the month, you could accurately track sales and ACoS data by the 16th and ad spend on the 17th.

8. Calibrate and Make Strategic Actions

Once you've collected data from the campaign manager, it's time to make sense of the numbers. By understanding the data, you can change your campaign to improve it as you move forward. For example, if you have poor-performing keywords with low conversion or are spending more than expected, consider turning off the ad or adding terms to the negative keywords list.

Alternatively, if you see high-performing keywords with better conversion rates and a lower advertising cost of sales (ACoS), use them in effective manual targeting.

a business lady handing a document to a coworker, illustrating working with an agency

9. Work With An Amazon PPC Agency

Skip the hassle of thinking about your store's targeting strategy, monitoring a manual campaign, or determining your target shoppers. When you are partnered with an agency, they've got all the work covered. You can rely on a team of experts for these advertising solutions:

  • Optimizing your listing and sponsored ads to incorporate ranking relevant keywords.
  • Use Amazon Sponsored Brand ads, Sponsored Display Ads, Amazon Sponsored Products, and Amazon Stores to ensure you reach your target audience and increase sales.
  • Learn from Amazon advertising success stories, and get inspiration to thrive in your store to attract traffic.
  • Employ the right strategy for your store to give you the highest income and the lowest ad spend.
  • Track the numbers and adjust game plans accordingly to ensure the campaign's continuous success.
  • Conduct competitive analysis to assess the Amazon advertising strategies employed by other sellers. This ensures your Amazon ads are at par or better than your competitors.
  • Give you timely reports about the progress of your Amazon ads, sales, and business.

Sponsored Ads Assistance From Seller Interactive

In conclusion, Amazon Sponsored Products is an effective advertising approach that can help you expand your reach and generate more sales on the largest e-commerce platform. However, it is crucial to understand its features and best practices to make the most out of it.

From optimizing product listings to tracking ad performance, we hope the nine strategies we shared here help both new advertisers and experienced sellers. Navigate the complex world of Amazon ads and optimize campaigns for success!Meanwhile, if you want to work with an Amazon PPC agency, look no further than Seller Interactive. Our team can further streamline business processes and provide professional expertise, ensuring the success of your ad campaigns and your Amazon store.

Book a call with us now so that we can start a productive discussion. Talk to you soon!

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