In today’s post we are going to talk about the Sponsored Display on Amazon. An advertising format which is one of those offered within the Sponsored Ads modality. And why is that? Well, because it is a format that has taken a very interesting 360º turn and that well used is a great way to increase sales on Amazon.
Let’s start with the definition of Sponsored Display, which in Amazon’s words is the Sponsored Ads format that is paid at CPC (except for a new version that is paid at CPM) and that shows ads both inside and outside Amazon. Importantly (and this is why I highlight it) the issue that the ad is displayed outside of Amazon. This is the only Sponsored Ads format that “goes outside” the marketplace (Sponsored Product and Sponsored Brands are only shown inside amazon.es) but this has been happening for a short time and that is why it has gained prominence.
What are the main objectives of using this type of format?
Obviously every customer knows what they want on Amazon and not all of them are performance oriented, but most of them are. In this case, we can say that with this format what is fundamentally pursued is:
● Reach new audiences. The fact that the ad (within its possible locations) is shown outside Amazon offers the possibility of reaching new audiences.
● Increase brand or product visibility.
● Generate traffic to the product detail page. When the user clicks on the ad, they are automatically redirected to the product detail tab.
● Improve sales performance. here it is essential to use the format in the right way, with the right products and combining it well with the other formats included in the advertising strategy.
The importance of segmentation.
This Sponsored Display format allows two ways of segmenting ads: by product or by category. Let’s briefly explain each of them.
- Product targeting: is focused on reaching shoppers who actively search for similar or complementary products and categories on Amazon. This targeting shows your ads in several locations:
- On product detail pages
- On shopping results pages
- Next to customer reviews (when you scroll down to see what people think about the particular product you are visiting).
- Audience targeting: is focused on reaching shoppers who have visited your product detail pages, similar product detail pages or any relevant category on Amazon, but have not made a purchase.
What type of Creativities does the format use?
Until just a month ago, creativity was quite limited but now it can be customized to some extent. Still the recommendation from Amazing is to combine them to give more rotation to the images and get a better impact.
There are two types of creatives available:
- Automatic: they are embedded in the detail card, so the product card must be immaculate. They include a product image (the main image), the title, the rating (the stars that appear below the title), the Prime tag and the price of the product that appears on the product detail page at the time of printing.
- Personalized creatives: recently it has become possible to use personalized creatives, but very specific guidelines must be met. Taking into account that the creative is redirected to the product detail page, there are sensitive issues such as the price that cannot be customized. The image to be included is a lifestyle image, but little else can be modified automatically.
- You can include “icons” of offers and also the Subscribe & Save icon. If the products are on sale it is perfect because these icons can help to increase the CTR up to 42% (data provided by amazon.com)
And to finish the post, we leave you 5 tips to make your sponsored display campaigns a success:
1.- Add a minimum of 10 Asins to your campaigns.
It sounds crazy but it is not. This way you will have more chances to win the bid and the product will appear on the results page. In addition, you will be able to get much more learnings thanks to the reports that the format offers so you can better adjust your strategy and you will be more likely to get your optimizations right.
2.- Make sure that your campaigns have enough budget.
The goal is to reach all relevant audiences but also that the campaigns are active throughout the day. It is a pity that a campaign that drives well runs out of budget before the end of the day, losing the possibility of sales. Therefore, adjust the bids and from those campaigns with low performance, transfer budget to those that are doing well.
3.- Combine Sponsored Display with other Sponsored Ads formats available.
We recommend that you test Sponsored Display on Amazon along with other solutions so that you can properly evaluate if the format fits your objectives and make data-driven optimization decisions. We suggest you start combining Sponsored Display with Sponsored Product by setting up both campaigns with the same segmentation and draw good conclusions.
4.- It is very important to use the campaign metrics to carry out the appropriate bid optimizations.
It is necessary and almost mandatory to actively manage bids if you want your campaigns to achieve the goals set. To do this, don’t hesitate to work with the downloadable Sponsored Display reports on Amazon. Once you have them, evaluate how your performance is going and compare it with the objective you defined when you created the campaign.
5.- Experiment and modify the segmentation of the campaigns.
Here fear does not have to be present when making decisions. There will be things that work and others that don’t, so the key is to find out what works to give it more momentum and what doesn’t “pull” and act accordingly.
If a category is underperforming, reduce the bidding but more importantly, go into the campaign and refine or adjust the targeting by adding even more specific objectives.
Don’t forget to use negative targeting, extracting Asins from brands that underperform or are less relevant to the product you are advertising.
We could talk a lot about this format but we believe that with the above you are ready to start with the activation. At Amazing we have been using this format since the beginning and we are seeing great results with our clients. The key: integrate it correctly in our advertising strategy and know how to combine it with the rest of the formats and balancing the budgets for each of them.
Somos una agencia especializada en ayudar a los vendedores en Amazon en la gestión de marketing y publicidad.
