How to harness the new Amazon ad updates for maximum conversions

As an eCommerce retailer, you need to stay up-to-date on Amazon updates and features so you can remain ahead of the competition and top-of-mind for consumers. Here’s the latest news on the internet giant: 

Amazon continues to flex its marketing muscles showing that it’s not just a behemoth of retail but also one of the major digital advertising platforms. Insider Intelligence has been crunching Amazon’s impressive numbers and notes a recent boom for the online retailer. In Amazon Advertising 2020, author Nicole Perrin noted that although firmly in third place in the top tier of US digital ad sellers, the pandemic has buoyed the tech giant into an estimated 41% growth in ad sales for the year. With this momentum, lots of new releases and updates to the ads platform await marketers in 2021. 

Canada, welcome to the sponsored brands video party

You’ll be able to grab — and hold — your audience’s attention on Amazon like never before. Providing you follow a few best practices, of course. With their anticipated launch into the Canadian market complete, Amazon’s Sponsored Brand Videos will soon be enhancing your competitors’ listings, so read on to make sure your listings will stay competitive.

 

Sponsored Brands videos appear on both the desktop and mobile versions of the store. Like other types of ads, they are keyword targeted and are pay-per-click. That click takes consumers directly to a product’s page, making it a direct method for driving traffic to a product’s purchase options.

Besides the addition of video, your new ads include all the parts of a traditional Sponsored Brand ad. This means you’ll still see the product’s name, its review rating and review count, plus its price and Prime eligibility. Videos autoplay once a user has scrolled to reveal at least half of the video block. These automatically moving images grab viewers’ attention, especially those who would otherwise have kept scrolling. There’s also an ‘unmute’ icon for videos that include audio. This tells us that audio is automatically set to ‘off’ until a user clicks on the icon, so make sure your ad is engaging and understandable without sound.

With new video capabilities come great responsibility

Getting started with Amazon Video is easy.  Just choose the new ‘Video’ ad format option when building a new Sponsored Brands campaign. Like other sponsored content, Amazon moderates videos. The retailer reports that most rejections occur due to:

• Empty frames: Skip the dramatic intros and outros. The most effective videos show their products in the first couple of seconds.
• Abrupt end cuts: Don’t just chop your video when it gets to Amazon’s 45-second time limit. 
• Prohibited elements: These include Amazon branding elements and customer reviews — both of which are big red flags with the retailer.

Videos need to meet several other guidelines before getting approved by Amazon.  Creating a video from scratch that considers all of the criteria pays off — consumers are already in buy-mode when they’re browsing the eCommerce platform. Amazon makes it easy, especially for members who just have to swipe the ‘Buy it Now’ toggle to purchase a product.

Sponsored ads product release update

Amazon is a constantly shifting and evolving platform. 2021 already has its full share of Amazon updates with only a month in the books. A few of the key highlights include: 

• Sponsored Ads and Stores launch in both the Netherlands and Brazil
• The Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) joined the world in Beta form in the new year.  The secure privacy-enhanced environment promises to be a hub for all of your analytics.
• Say hello to the Manager Account. Now, advertisers worldwide have one place to view sponsored ads and Amazon DSP (Demand-side Platform) advertising with this new comprehensive dashboard.

Sponsored display audiences goes global

Sponsored Display Audiences is expanding into seven new markets. Having previously launched in the US, you can find these offerings today in the UK, Canada, Denmark, Spain, France, Italy, and the United Arab Emirates.   

What makes Sponsored Display Audiences so special? It’s the only Amazon ads that allow you to have your Amazon product ads on Amazon and other websites. 

A recent Salesforce report reminds us that 64% of shoppers use multiple channels to make a single purchase. So, Sponsored Display ads increase your presence in multiple channels making your brand and product forefront for consumers’ who are looking to buy. 

A subset of Sponsored Display Audiences is views remarketing. Also included in this international roll-out, views remarketing allows you to re-engage with audiences, both on and off Amazon, who have browsed or viewed a similar product or category in the last 30 days. Is that Google grumbling in the background?

Pro tip: Use Sponsored Display for peak season

• Keep your profit margins and ad spend ratio in mind when you set your ad budget. You want it to be a healthy percentage of the sale target. Don’t try to cut costs here — it’s important to allocate sufficient budget to your ads, especially during peak season.  
• During peak season, traffic on Amazon spikes. This tells you to invest more in on-Amazon placements than off. 
• Make sure to use dynamic bidding to help you manage budgets efficiently.
• Your Sponsored Display ads may be below the featured offer on product detail pages. Place your discounts, coupons, and offers below this placement to help with conversions.

New data reports mean better ways to analyze Amazon ad performance

Recently Amazon began offering Sponsored Display downloadable reports worldwide. Specifically, these helpful analytics are now available for their US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and UAE sites. Reports are a new feature, so you’ll only be able to access reports on product campaigns created after September 1, 2020. As more brands take advantage of the sponsorship opportunities on Amazon, these reports will offer deeper analysis of campaign performance. These reports could prove invaluable to managing and improving your campaigns on the retailer. So what will the reports include? Great question; here’s the rundown of the four components:

• Campaign report: Gives data on your Sponsored Display performance by campaign.
• Targeting report: Shows performance metrics for campaigns that receive impressions.
• Advertised product report: Analysis of individual product performances to help better adjust bidding and campaign durations based on these numbers.
• Purchased product report: Sellers will now be able to track the performance of non-advertised products purchased after consumers clicked on Sponsored Displays ads. This can help you identify new cross-selling opportunities.

Make sure you integrate these newest features into your Amazon Strategy to stay competitive. To stay up-to-date with the latest Amazon and digital marketing practises, make sure you subscribe to our newsletter, Mercury, below.