Back to Resources

Getting traction selling on Amazon usually requires a significant advertising investment right off the bat. The problem is that bootstrapped entrepreneurs or new brands may have a limited budget set aside for marketing experiments.

While it might feel like an uphill struggle, once you better understand how flexible Amazon advertising can be, it’s possible to build brand visibility and efficiently drive sales – even with budgetary constraints. 

You don’t really have to be a cheapskate to take advantage of these tips. They’re also perfect for ANY Amazon seller trying to scale up a trending product, explore untapped keywords, or create new eCommerce pathways using social media channels. 

Cheapskate, or financially stretched online seller; in either case, by following these 4 proven approaches, you’ll be able to maximize your Amazon advertising on a shoestring budget.

1. Get Started With Micro Daily Spend Limits

If you’re confined to a small Amazon advertising budget, you can begin by implementing restrained daily spend limits on a single campaign targeting a broad search audience. This approach will curtail spend while still capturing the critical data that will help you to optimize your ad campaigns.

Once you’ve identified a baseline of profitable keywords, gradually raise your spend limit in small increments. At the same time, closely monitor the campaign for positive ROI at each level before expanding the budget. This incremental scaling helped control risk of excessive Amazon ad spend.

Partitioning tight budget caps across specific promotions or seasons also allows flexibly aligning advertising investments to business needs and revenue. Sustainable scaling comes from reinvesting returns.

2. Concentrate Your Efforts On a Single Optimized Campaign 

Rather than spreading limited funding too thin trying to master multiple complex campaigns simultaneously – focus on one. 

Double down on the available analytics to determine highest performing areas. Eliminate anything under delivering to concentrate your spend on proven keywords, ad copy and landing pages. Preventing waste this way, you can find that one campaign can drive up to 90% of conversions.

As momentum builds, you can create tightly themed ad groups around top products. This targeted approach keeps relevancy high despite budget limitations – accelerating growth.

3. Mine Your Niche by Identifying Untapped Keywords

If you’re unable to compete for expensive search terms, for now, dig a little deeper to uncover “long tail” keywords aligned to your niche with solid demand but minimal competition. By perpetually mining for these niched-down keyword gems you maximize potential on any budget.

Taking advantage of these micro-opportunities early helps rapidly rank ads and listings with limited bids. By tracking their performance, you’ll then be able to double down on the most profitable conversions to drive efficient growth.

4. Leverage External Marketing Channels 

Multi-channel marketing blends multiple distribution and marketing channels in order to attract customers and stand out in the marketplace. This might include email, direct mail, websites, social media, and live streams. 

Rather than relying solely on internal Amazon traffic, funnel potential buyers from outside of Amazon’s ecosystem. After all, with Amazon rewarding sellers for bringing off-Amazon traffic back to their marketplace, there’s no better time to broaden your marketing efforts. 

Amazon’s Brand Referral Bonus is an opportunity to earn, on average, a 10% bonus of the sales price on sales generated from sales originating OFF of Amazon.

Commissioning micro-influencer content is another great way to spotlight your Amazon products. Recent eCommerce polling indicates that the average age of both buyers and sellers is much younger than we might have realized. 

Now might be a great time to try new strategies such as live streams or influencer marketing to connect with that demographic.

Ongoing Optimization and Learning is Critical 

By taking an agile, modular approach to align Amazon advertising with carefully curated objectives, it’s possible to build an efficient foundation for visibility and sales on almost any budget.

Allocate spends based on profitable return through relentless testing, not fixed budgets. Master one campaign before expanding into more. Consistent enhancements beat bold overreach. 

Think 180 small iterative steps, not a giant leap.

The most common mistake brands make when trying to minimize Amazon ad spend is implementing changes too drastically or sporadically. 

With a limited budget, you can’t afford sweeping campaign rewrites. Instead, focus on subtle but continuous incremental optimizations leveraging the platform’s robust analytics.

Incremental Optimizations Add Up to Big Amazon Success

Here’s how: 

Tighten Your Related Product Targets as ASINS Are Added

As your catalog expands, revisit product targeting to ensure new listings get included in relevant ad groups aligned to their themes and keywords. This helps increase relevancy by making ads that are shown more closely mirror recent Amazon products that searchers may come across.

Periodically Filter for Low Performing Keywords

Set reminders to download reports and filter for keywords that are consistently falling short on key performance indicators. Do this monthly and/or quarterly. Then, assess their viability with current targeting, bids and budgets before deciding whether they warrant more aggressive optimizations or are destined to simply be excluded from your campaigns.

Keep Testing Simplified Ad Copy Variants

Resist the instinct to overload your Amazon product listing ad copy with features and functions. Instead, simplified, benefit-focused messaging will often win out. Try stripping back wording to the absolute core sales proposition while A/B testing against original versions.

Explore Untapped Placement Options 

Beyond standard search placements, explore emerging auto-targeted options like Product Display Ads, Deal Campaigns or Amazon Live depending on objectives. You can often unlock significant incremental conversions by tapping into these options with specific, more tailored messaging.

Monitor the Latest Metrics Daily Not Monthly 

Leverage campaign dashboards and alerts to gain insight into daily clicks, conversions and costs rather than just assessing retrospective monthly reporting. Rapid response and adjustments to tests based on rolling metrics prevents extended periods of underperformance.

Small, sustained investments aligned to measurable profits build the flywheel momentum over time. Patience and persistence pay off.

Amazon Advertising Next Steps

Brands often feel that achieving aggressive sales growth objectives require immediate significant ad spend. But by taking a more unconventional path, you might find a lucrative – and thrifty – path forward. 

Success doesn’t always follow big budgets. But it does favor the bold experiments. By fixating

on ROI, not nominal spends – smaller budgets can still build brands.

If you’d like a little help determining next steps, Canopy Management is here to help. We’ve been helping Amazon sellers – of all sizes – scale up their eCommerce business, often saving advertising dollars in the process. 

Want to know how Canopy Management – the fastest growing Amazon Agency in America – has consistently averaged an 84% year-after-year profit growth rate for our partners, just ask.