A Whole Guide to Marketing Services Offered by Amazon

A range of advertising tools are available from Amazon Marketing Services (AMS) to assist brands in reaching consumers and increasing sales on the platform. A range of advertising tools are available from Amazon Marketing Services (AMS) to assist brands in reaching consumers and increasing sales on the platform. However, navigating these services can seem daunting if you’re unfamiliar with how Amazon advertising works.

In this post, I’ll provide an in-depth overview of AMS and break down each of the major advertising programs to help you understand how to leverage them for your business. By the end, you’ll have a solid grasp of what AMS offers and how to get started.

Let’s dive in!

What are Amazon Marketing Services?

Amazon Marketing Services (AMS) is Amazon’s collection of advertising and promotion services for brands, vendors, and agencies looking to promote their products on Amazon. External Link

Through AMS, advertisers can create targeted campaigns to reach customers who are already shopping on Amazon. The goal is to increase visibility and drive more sales of specific products.

Some key things to know about AMS:

• It’s Amazon’s native advertising platform built right into their marketplace ecosystem.
• AMS uses Amazon’s vast customer data and shopping habits to enable highly relevant, targeted campaigns.
• Advertisers only pay when an ad results in a sale, lead, or other desired action (like product views), so there’s no upfront cost.
• Managing campaigns is done directly through the AMS interface or sponsored brand API integrations.
• Performance is continuously optimized using machine learning as more data is collected.

So in summary, AMS gives brands direct access to Amazon’s customers and allows targeted, cost-effective promotions tailored for driving online sales.

The Major AMS Advertising Programs

Now that we understand the basics of AMS, let’s dive into the key advertising programs it offers:

Sponsored Products

Sponsored Products are simple keyword-targeted ads that appear alongside relevant search results on Amazon product pages. When someone searches for a certain item, your ad may appear in a highlighted “sponsored” box above normal search results.

If the customer then clicks your ad and buys the product, you’ll pay Amazon a commission. Sponsored Products have very low setup costs and are a great way to get immediate exposure for new or niche products.

Sponsored Brands

The Sponsored Brands program allows advertisers to showcase and promote an entire brand or product portfolio. Your company logo and short brand description appear on relevant search result pages to increase awareness.

Clicking the Sponsored Brand takes customers to your brand detail page, where all products are listed. This is useful for driving consideration of an entire brand assortment. Performance is based on traffic and actions like product views from the brand page.

Sponsored Products Display Ads

Display ads on Amazon work by targeting customers browsing specific categories or searching for related terms. Text or image ads show up in ad slots across relevant pages of the Amazon site and mobile app.

These off-site remarketing ads help reach customers already shopping in your area with dynamic, tailored creative. The goal is to encourage them to add a product to their cart before checkout. Display campaigns are based on a cost-per-click model.

Amazon DSP

The Amazon DSP (Demand Side Platform) allows targeting Amazon customers across the wider open internet, not just on Amazon properties. Through partnerships with thousands of publisher sites, you can run display ads wherever your target audience spends time online.

This expands the reach of your campaigns beyond just Amazon and brings new customers into the purchasing funnel. Reporting is integrated with AMS for a full-funnel view of performance and ROI.

How to Get Started with AMS Advertising

Now that the major AMS programs are explained, let’s cover the basics of setting up and managing a campaign:

1. Create an Amazon Advertising Account

Go to advertising.amazon.com and sign up for a free account. You’ll need to provide some business details during registration.

2. Set Up Campaigns & Ad Groups

From your AMS dashboard, select the type of campaign you want to run (like Sponsored Products) and input your targeting details, like keywords or product ASINs.

Divide targeting into logical ad groups for optimization. Give each group a name to identify it later.

3. Design Your Ads

Use the ad builder tool to create visually engaging text or image ads tailored for each ad group’s context.

4. Choose Your bid and Budget

Select between manual or automatic bidding based on your goals. Set a total budget and daily spend cap for testing and scaling your campaigns over time.

5. Launch and Monitor Performance

Your ads will go live once approved. Continuously track metrics like spend, impressions, clicks and sales in the reports. Make data-driven optimizations along the way.

It may take some testing to find the right messaging, targeting and bids. But with patience, you can start achieving strong ROI from AMS over time.

Key Things to Know About AMS Optimization

Now that you understand how to set up campaigns, here are some important factors for optimizing your Amazon marketing:

• Test multiple ad creatives: Create 3-5 text or image ads per ad group and let Amazon’s machine learning determine the best performer over time.
• Refine keywords and targeting: You likely won’t nail it on the first try. Gradually refine keywords and targeting based on what’s driving the most engaged traffic and sales.
• Optimize bids: Analyze metrics frequently to ensure bids are set properly for each ad group or target based on goal (like lowest cost-per-click vs. highest conversion rate). Use automated bidding for hands-off optimization.
• A/B test ad placements: Some placements may work better than others based on product type. Run tests to see which sponsored products or display ad placements are most effective for your campaigns.
• Cross-promote inventory: Integrate AMS with your on-site content by linking relevant products or collections to blogs/landing pages. This helps drive extra consideration and purchases.
• Analyze audience insights: Amazon provides robust customer profiling data within AMS. Leverage these insights into interests, past purchases, and on-site behaviors to sharpen targeting even further over time.
• Test new campaign types: As your business grows, try new AMS features like sponsored brands or Amazon DSP to reach more customers through awareness and consideration-stage ads.

Proper testing and analysis will allow continuous refinement of campaigns, maximizing the return from Amazon advertising.

Key Takeaways

To summarize the key points about Amazon Marketing Services:

• AMS enables highly targeted, performance-based advertising directly on Amazon through programs like Sponsored Products.
• The major advertising types are sponsored products, sponsored brands, and display ads tailored for different marketing goals.
• Setting up campaigns is straightforward once you create an account; it’s the ongoing testing, learning, and optimization that drives results.
• Data and metrics should guide the continuous refinement of keywords, creatives, bids, and targeting to fully leverage Amazon’s customer insights.
• Taking an iterative, “test-and-learn” approach with AMS through continuous experimentation will lead to stronger sales and ROI over time.

With the right strategy and ongoing optimization, AMS can become a highly powerful sales and growth channel for brands of any size selling on Amazon.

FAQs About Amazon Marketing Services

Here are some commonly asked questions about AMS:

Q: Do I need a Pro Merchant account to advertise on Amazon?

A: No, the basic Professional Selling account is sufficient to run Advertising campaigns. However, some advanced features may require a Pro Merchant account.

Q: How quickly will I start seeing sales results from campaigns?

A: Most advertisers report seeing some initial sales within 2-4 weeks as campaigns are tested and optimized. However, it may take 3 months or more of learning to achieve consistent, high performance from AMS promotions.

Q: Can I advertise products not sold directly by me on Amazon?

A: With some exceptions, you can only run ads for products you sell through your own Amazon Seller or Brand Registry account. Private label and wholesale products are generally eligible for ads.

Q: What is the average cost-per-click or conversion rate for AMS?

A: CPC, CPA, and ROI can vary significantly by product type and competition. As a benchmark, well-optimized sponsored product campaigns often see CPC under $1 and cost-per-acquisition between $10 and $50, depending on the industry. Over 10% ROAS is usually excellent performance.

Q: Can I export campaign data from AMS for further analysis?

A: Yes, you can export performance reports from AMS in CSV or JSON formats. This allows for more advanced analytics, tracking ROI against other channels, and integrating data into third-party tools.

Q: Is Amazon DSP only for running off-Amazon display ads?

A: Yes, the Amazon DSP lets you purchase ads on non-Amazon domains and apps to bring new customers into consideration and funnel them towards product detail pages.

I hope this FAQ section addresses some common questions! Let me know if any others come up.

Additional Resources on Optimizing Amazon Advertising

For those wanting to dive deeper into optimizing Amazon ads, here are some additional recommended resources:

• The Definitive Guide to Amazon Advertising (External Link): A comprehensive ebook from Anthropic with strategies, best practices and case studies. External Link
• The Amazon Advertising Podcast (External Link): Interviews and discussions on the latest tactics from industry experts. External Link
• Jupiter Digital OperationsPlaybook: Step-by-step blueprints for setting up Amazon campaigns from advertising agency Jupiter. (External Link): External Link
• Helium 10 YouTube Channel: Tons of video tutorials on exactly how to optimize keyword targeting, bid strategies and more from sellers on Amazon. (External Link): External Link
• AMS Advertising Examples by Sales on 6th (External Link): Live case studies of real Amazon ad campaigns with actual performance metrics. External Link

I hope this comprehensive guide has given you a solid understanding of Amazon Marketing Services and how to leverage them effectively. Let me know if any other questions come up!