How to Optimize Your Amazon Sponsored Product Campaigns
Published: October 22, 2018
Author: Kaitlyn Couture
The two Sponsored Product campaign types available on Amazon are Manual Targeting and Automatic Targeting. Just like a Google search campaign, a Manual Targeting campaign on Amazon allows you to target keywords and set a custom bid for each. Automatic Targeting campaigns function more like Google DSA campaigns (Dynamic Search Ads). Just like Google reads your website to dynamically target relevant searches, Amazon reads your product’s description to dynamically target shopper searches.
There are several strategies you can leverage – for both targeting types – to take your Amazon Sponsored Product Campaigns to the next level. Let’s jump in.
Add Manual Campaign Keywords as Negatives
To make sure traffic is being funneled as efficiently as possible, negate your Manual keywords from your other Manual campaigns. Negatives must be applied in a way that will ensure traffic isn’t being split between 2 different keywords, campaigns, etc. This will provide you with more transparency into the ACoS for each keyword and help you determine your bids for each. It can also improve performance to negate your keywords from the Automatic campaign. Your ad actually has a better chance of appearing on the top of the page if the top-performing keyword is serving from a Manual campaign. Automatic campaigns will rarely serve your ad in the top position. This is especially important when users are searching on mobile since there is a limited amount of space your ad can serve.
Leverage Autotargeting to Promote New Manual Keywords
Automatic campaigns can help fill in any keyword gaps that may be present in your Manual campaigns. The automatic targeting also dynamically adapts to trends and seasonality, which can help you identify new searches related to your product. To do this, pull a “Search Term” report and evaluate the search terms that should be negated from your campaigns and which keywords should be promoted to your Manual campaigns. Once a keyword is promoted to a Manual campaign, you should apply the negative keyword strategy above. The “Search Term” report can be found under the “Advertising Reports” section:
Leverage ASIN Data from Sponsored Carousel Placements
When looking through the Automatic campaign Search Term Report, you’ll notice that ASINs appear under the “Customer Search Term” column. When this occurs, it means that your ad served on the “Sponsored products related to this item” carousel, which is located under another product’s detail section. To determine what product each ASIN represents, you can paste the ASIN into the Amazon search bar. Leveraging this ASIN data will help you determine which competitor products should be housed in your Competitor Manual Keyword campaigns and give you the opportunity to neg out products that aren’t driving sales. Note that adding an ASIN as a negative or a normal keyword will not block or serve your ad. It is best to determine the product’s name and take action from there.
To determine what product each ASIN represents, you can paste the ASIN into the Amazon search bar. Leveraging this ASIN data will help you determine which competitor products should be housed in your Competitor Manual Keyword campaigns and give you the opportunity to neg out products that aren’t driving sales.
With traffic levels already beginning to rise for the holidays, it’s critical to ensure you’re making the most of your Amazon spend. Put these strategies to work ASAP to maximize their effects over the coming weeks.
