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As an Amazon agency, our focus is on helping sellers navigate the world of Amazon advertising. That’s because it’s no longer a question of “do Amazon ads work?” 

Yes, they absolutely do work. 

But there’s a learning curve. This post – the second of a three-part series including Amazon Sponsored Products, and Sponsored Display – is designed to allow Amazon sellers to digest this crucial facet of eCommerce in smaller, bite-sized chunks.

Amazon pay per click advertising has quickly become one of the largest “levers” that’s at the disposal of eCommerce sellers. For businesses looking to sell niche products on Amazon, it can be a challenging task to stand out in a sea of competition. This is where the value of Amazon brand management agencies comes into play. 

 As always, Canopy Management is here for you! 

Two Thousand New Amazon Sellers Every Day! 

According to Marketplace Pulse research, more than 2,000 new sellers have joined Amazon’s twenty global marketplaces every day since 2016, with over 700 of those sellers based in the U.S.

That’s why it’s become increasingly important to find a way to set yourself apart. At the same time, Amazon is doing everything in its power to make sure that brands (of all sizes) feel comfortable entrusting their image to the ecosystem. 

Yes, Amazon has a substantial share of the market, but they’re not satisfied with that. They’re constantly looking for ways to increase their footprint. Establishing ways that brands can creatively cultivate their message, design, and unique value proposition is front-and-center for Amazon right now. 

Amazon Brand Registry is an important starting point for sellers looking to level up their eCommerce business. But, once you’ve done that, it’s time to take the next step and look at how an Amazon Sponsored Ad can help you to carve out valuable real estate on Amazon’s marketplace. 

That’s why for many Amazon sellers, their online business really starts to take off when they begin to implement Sponsored Brand Ads. 

But first, a refresher . . .

What is Amazon PPC Advertising? 

Amazon Pay-per-Click (PPC) advertising is part of Amazon’s internal advertising system. Using Amazon PPC, third-party sellers, brands, and agencies bid for specific keywords, products or categories to create advertisements for their products. 

These advertisements then show up in Amazon’s search results and competitor product listings. With the pay-per-click model, the advertiser only pays Amazon when you click on the ad. If you are running Amazon PPC campaigns, you will not have to pay for impressions. When a PPC campaign is managed and optimized well, it can significantly boost the product’s visibility and sales.

Amazon PPC is not only very effective, it also allows sellers to track the sales that their ads generate in order to identify which specific ads are driving conversions. That helps you more clearly understand what segment to double down on and SAVES you Amazon advertising dollars. 

Unfortunately, Amazon PPC can also feel overwhelming in the beginning. With multiple ad types, campaign types, and strategies, it’s sometimes difficult to know where to start. 

To begin with . . .

How Does the Amazon PPC Auction Work?

The cost per click (CPC) for each Amazon PPC ad is determined in an auction. Potential advertisers (that’s you) submit bids (in dollars and cents) for the ad and the placement. Amazon then awards the highest bidder the right to the best ad position. The winner (highest bidder) pays one cent more than the next-highest bid. 

Amazon PPC Vocabulary 

(If you’re new to selling on Amazon, this first PPC Quick Start Guide that focuses on Amazon Sponsored Product Ads includes a PPC-specific vocabulary to help you get up to speed quickly)

Getting Started With Amazon Sponsored Brand Ads

We recently wrote about getting started with Amazon Sponsored Products ads. If you’re just beginning your Amazon advertising journey, that previous post is a perfect place to start. This post will take you through the next Amazon advertising campaign type: Amazon Sponsored Brand. 

Much like a Sponsored Product Ad, a Sponsored Brand Ad is cost-per-click, and may target keywords, categories, and/or products. An Amazon Sponsored Brand Ad can feature your brand logo, a custom headline, and multiple products. Sponsored Brand ads appear in prominent places within relevant shopping results and on product detail pages. The Amazon ad may appear on both desktop and mobile. and help drive discovery of your brand among customers shopping for similar products.

The assets that Sponsored Brands allow you to create are customizable, may feature product and lifestyle images, as well as video. You can direct shoppers to your Amazon Store, a new landing page, or a custom URL.

Who Can Use Sponsored Brands?

Sponsored Brands are available for professional sellers enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry, vendors, book vendors, and agencies.

What Amazon Products are NOT Eligible for Sponsored Brands

At this time, adult products, used products, refurbished products, and products in closed categories are not eligible for advertising. For a full list of permitted and prohibited categories review the creative acceptance policies for Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Products.

“New-to-Brand” Metrics

Sponsored Brand ads drive brand discovery with shoppers and help you reach new customers. Because driving first-time purchases can often cost more than driving repeat purchases, you’ll want to know what percentage of sales are coming from these efforts. ACoS or RoAS alone do not clearly measure the impact of Sponsored Brands in growing your brand audience.

With new-to-brand metrics, Amazon sellers can measure orders and sales of your products generated from first-time customers of their brand on Amazon. Using new-to-brand metrics to supplement advertising cost of sales (ACOS), or return on ad spend (ROAS) will tell you whether or not your “discovery” campaigns are working.

Sponsored Brands Advertising Formats

There are three different Amazon Sponsored Brands ad creative formats; Product Collection, Stores Spotlight, and Sponsored Brands Video.

Product Collection

Amazon’s product collection format allows you to promote multiple products from a landing page or lifestyle images of your choice. This is where you can show (and tell) browsing Amazon customers your story with ads that feature rich custom images. 

You can use custom images that represent your brand or using lifestyle imagery, to help prospective customers better understand your product. After selecting your product collection, next you’ll select a landing page and a minimum of one product to feature in your creative.

Canopy Pro Tip: 

For you KDP Authors out there, Sponsored Brands helps you put your personal brand front and center. Your ads’ landing page takes shoppers into a virtual bookstore and enables a browsing and decision-making experience with features like highlighted books, reviews, summary, and other metadata about the ASIN.

Stores Spotlight 

For an Amazon seller with brand registry, Amazon Stores allow merchants to set up an online storefront for their brands for free. By using custom layouts and pre-made templates, sellers can quickly create a website-within-a-website to spotlight your brand (and creativity). 

Now that you’ve put the time into developing your brand Store, take it to the next level with Stores Spotlight. Sponsored Brands now allow you to feature your Store to make it (much) easier for a satisfied customer to make buying from your brand a habit. You can showcase up to three Store subpages in your Sponsored Brands campaign and you can customize the headline along with the subpage image and label.

Amazon says that, “the Store must have a minimum of three subpages to be eligible, with a unique product on each subpage. The first three subpages of your Store page will be preselected for the Sponsored Brands creative, but you have the option to change which subpage you want to feature. You’ll also have the ability to enter a custom headline, select a brand logo, and change the labels and images that represent the subpages within your campaign.”

Amazon has recently added headline suggestions to Stores Spotlight. You’ll now see headline suggestions when building Store Spotlight for Sponsored Brands campaigns in the Amazon Ads console. Amazon says that “suggested headlines are generated based on the advertised products selected to show in your creative and they follow (Amazon’s) ad policy guidelines.” You can edit the suggested headlines to best match your campaign goals.

This matters because it will help you to build customized creatives for you campaigns much more quickly while promising to improve your creative approval rate

Amazon Sponsored Brand Video

If you’re like most people, video is a scroll stopper. You can’t help it. Now, Amazon has rolled out Sponsored Brands video, a new ad format that displays auto-playing video in shopping results. 

• The six to 45-second video ads are displayed in mobile and desktop
• Sponsored Brands video ads target select keywords relevant to your product 
• Once shoppers click on the video, they’re taken to the product detail page where they can learn more and purchase your product

If you’re familiar with the process of creating an Amazon video campaign, this will feel familiar. What’s changed is that Sponsored Brands video has its own ad placement and auction. This means that running a Sponsored Brands video won’t compete against your Sponsored Brands ads, or any other sponsored ads you may be running.

Canopy Pro Tip: 

Canopy Management’s Creative Services team just won (again) two gold AVA video awards for its work on our partners’ Amazon advertising campaigns. As a full-service Amazon Management Agency, Canopy has an extensive Amazon Creative Services department that includes full listing optimization, Amazon research and copy optimization, Amazon posts, as well as cutting edge photography and video.  If you’re looking for a head start, reach out to the Creative Services team to find out more!

Getting Started With Amazon Sponsored Brands

Getting started is as easy as 1, 2, 3, 4. After clicking this link: 

1. Set your campaign duration and budget
2. Create and customize your ad by adding a headline and choosing which products to feature
3. Pick which keywords to target and how much you want to bid for clicks
4. Submit your ad for review (Amazon says that it will be reviewed within 72 hours)

How Canopy Management Can Help

Amazon has been at the forefront of the eCommerce world for over two decades, providing a platform for millions of businesses to sell their products. With the rise of eCommerce, Amazon has become the go-to destination for shoppers across the world, making it a valuable advertising platform for businesses looking to reach new customers. 

Back in the early days of Amazon, Amazon PPC was just one way of launching a product. Now it’s almost impossible to find success without it. Yes, there are some that do, but they’re the exception, not the rule. Here are 10 tips to get started quickly with Amazon advertising in 2022. And as always, if you have questions about Amazon advertising, the pros at Canopy Management are here to help. 

Canopy Management is a full-service marketing agency for Amazon and Walmart sellers. Our team consists of former Amazonians, multi-million dollar sellers, and award-winning experts. When you consider the many ways that Canopy Management can help you grow your business, you’ll see why selling on Amazon is much easier “under the Canopy”:

• Strategic Growth Planning
• Listing Copywriting Optimization
• Listing Photography
• Product Videography
• Advertising Management
• Customer Service
• Demand Side Platform (Amazon DSP)
• Amazon Posts
• Full Service Management
• Amazon Review Aggregation