Warut Yompool is a San Francisco-based Customer Success Manager at Marin Software. He has experience in programmatic display, paid social, and search (SEM and SEO), working with customers in various industries across US, EMEA, and APAC regions.
This article first appeared in TotalRetail.
In an attempt to capitalize on the lucrative and competitive digital ad market, social platforms are positioning themselves as the answer for every marketer’s needs.
In the early days of social media, advertisers flocked to Facebook and Twitter because of their huge numbers of daily active users and amount of time they spent on each platform. Such metrics are no longer sufficient now that advertisers focus more on the bottom line, i.e., the return on investment that these platforms are able to yield.
For a platform to thrive in the mature, highly competitive market, it's faced with a challenge of not only getting ads in front of the intended audience, but also delivering tangible financial growth for advertisers. The attempt is to be a one-stop shop for everyone.
There are a few approaches that platforms employ to broaden their appeal to advertisers. The classic is introducing new ad formats that solicit meaningful actions from the target audience. This move is designed to attract more direct response advertisers.
With Amazon.com posing a formidable threat as the third-largest advertising platform in the U.S., Google-owned YouTube tested shopping ads that allow users to shop directly in Google Express. It provides a seamless experience similar to how Amazon users never have to leave Amazon's app between clicking an ad and purchasing a product.
YouTube also recently tested augmented reality (AR) ads with selected brands in the beauty industry, where consumers generally have an affinity for selfies and AR lenses. Earlier this year, Reddit launched cost-per-click ads, its first performance-based ad format.
Some platforms explore new territories and figure out ways to make them fit into their existing infrastructure. Facebook, which has become the staple of social advertising thanks to various ad offerings across campaign objectives and verticals, is heavily pushing one of its newest ad placements, Instagram Stories.
By presenting usage statistics—"inspire the 500 million that use Stories every day"—as well as educating advertisers and partners on how Stories ads yield great results, Facebook attempts to dispel the notion that Stories will drive up cost per acquisition as many skeptics believe.
Spotify, which has aggressively invested in podcasts, overhauled its app to feature podcasts more prominently. Its Spotify for Brands article highlights the direct response pull of podcast advertising: “A staggering 81 percent of listeners have taken action after hearing audio ads during a podcast.”
For advertisers, seeing the social platforms’ shiny new objects is definitely exciting and helps reinforce the notion that these companies are committed to investing in innovations. It's important, however, to remember that the best interests of all platforms with an ad-supported business model eventually lie on maximizing their own revenue through ad sales and hitting the targets for which they're held accountable by their investors.
Every advertiser, not unlike a platform itself, has unique business goals and achieving them should always be the highest priority. Leveraging advertising channels and platforms that are already proven to be effective and constantly testing new techniques to optimize for better performance is a great place to start.
If there's room in the budget for testing new platforms or features, researching thoroughly about them while focusing on the compatibility with your brand is a necessary step to help cut through the noise and land on the candidates that can potentially generate incremental lift at scale. When it comes to shopping for advertising partnerships, there's no such thing as one size fits all.
This is the second article of a three-part series on Amazon’s Sponsored Products ads. Be sure to check out our previous post on building the right structure.
Amazon ads use keyword targeting that surfaces results based on words and phrases that customers search with. In order to make sure your ads reach the right customers at the right time, it’s important that you understand and properly leverage the targeting methods Amazon offers.
There are two targeting options you can use when you create an Amazon Sponsored Products campaign: manual and automatic. Manual targeting lets you apply your own keywords to the campaign. Conversely, automatic targeting doesn’t require you to input any keywords—Amazon automatically collects and targets relevant keywords for the products you want to advertise, based on the information in your product detail pages.
When to Use Manual Targeting
Manual targeting is ideal for advertisers who prefer full campaign control. It allows you to set bids at the keyword level, letting you bid more competitively on keywords that perform well. If you already know what keywords your customers search with and can supply a list, this targeting option is for you. Additionally, you can use Amazon’s suggested keywords to help inform your keyword strategies.
Note: Manual targeting is available for both Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands ad types.
When to Use Automatic Targeting
Automatic targeting can be great for expanding reach beyond your existing customer base. For example, it may be perfect for an advertiser who plans to launch a product in a new category. Since you don’t have to enter keywords by yourself, it helps save time when you create a new campaign. If you’re new to the digital advertising world, this targeting option will be a great starting point for you. It also allows you to discover new keywords that generate clicks and sales.
Note: Automatic targeting is available for the Sponsored Products ad type only.
You should leverage an always-on approach of running your campaigns with both manual and automatic targeting. Be sure to select the appropriate targeting methods for your campaign goals and products. For example, run a manual targeting campaign using high-performing keywords with best-selling products, and run an automatic campaign to launch new products.
You can use both targeting methods in concert by running an automatic targeting campaign to gain insight on what keywords generate higher clicks and sales than others, and then applying those keywords to a manual campaign and setting more competitive keyword-level bids. Diversify your targeting methods and keep optimizing your campaigns based on what you learn from the performance, so that you reach as many customers as possible, as effectively as possible.
This article originally appeared in MediaPost.
Amazon is quickly becoming the third advertising pillar that will effectively disrupt the established dynamic of the Google and Facebook duopoly. This is hardly a surprise, given that Amazon’s platform serves as a homepage for internet users.
But marketers are not necessarily prepared for the intricacies involved with advertising on Amazon — in fact, a recent Digital Marketing Institute study highlighted a growing level of concern among marketing professionals. Nearly three out of four professionals surveyed said they were concerned about a digital skills shortage in the industry, and 71% are experiencing that skills gap within eCommerce marketplace selling (e.g., Amazon).
So what makes Amazon advertising so different from the methods employed with Google and Facebook ads, and how can marketers ensure they have the specific skills set to build these campaigns?
What gives Amazon an edge at capturing ad dollars is the fact that the conversion — the sale of product — occurs right there on the Amazon platform after the user clicks on the ad, while Google and Facebook only direct traffic to the advertiser’s website where the conversion later takes place. (Sidebar: Google has tried to course-correct with Shopping Actions recently.) This shortcut makes advertising on Amazon extremely attractive to many direct-response advertisers, especially those in the retail vertical.
With growing interest in Amazon advertising, marketers who are equipped to efficiently manage every aspect of ad campaigns on Amazon are in high demand. Finding the right people to hire, however, proves to be a challenging task.
Amazon advertising is still new to the market — the official learning console was launched as recently as Q4 2018. Much like Google Academy for Ads and Facebook Blueprint, the learning console offers courses of study materials about Amazon advertising and an accreditation program where marketers can take a test and earn a certification. As a result, the recruitment pool for candidates with Amazon advertising experience is very small.
To combat this industrywide skills gap, brands and agencies should groom existing digital marketing personnel to fill the role.
Amazon advertising shares a number of similarities with tried-and true digital advertising disciplines. Marketers with display advertising experience are likely to ramp up with little trouble on Amazon’s programmatic ad-buying solution, Amazon DSP, while search marketers should be able to quickly learn Amazon Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands.
For these two Amazon ad types, products need to be assigned to campaigns in addition to keywords, so those who are experienced in product feed management and in Google Shopping or Facebook Dynamic Product Ads have already acquired relevant knowledge that can be used as a base for success.
Still, there are some added layers unique to Amazon Advertising, such as Retail Readiness, in which marketers have to make sure that inventory, customer ratings and reviews are high enough for the products to get listed. This requires marketers to be trained from the ground up.
While every organization has limited time and resources to train their employees — regardless of whether they’re new hires or existing ones — making Amazon advertising a priority can pay off big time.
