On our last post we discussed how we have to distribute the budget for Black Friday depending on the formats we are using. We went through the strategies we have to use based on it and also some “musts” in terms of strategy, products to promote and brand protection.
For this second part, we are going to go further in other very relevant aspects that must be kept under control during the promotional period. We are going to focus, above all, on the bids differentiating by format
Bidding is key. We recommend setting bids, as long as you have enough budget, in order to reach all potential buyers. In addition, review the bids constantly, comparing them with the impressions achieved and with the average CPCs of campaigns.
Basic Implementation Tips
1. Amazon has suggested bids that are relevant to review, as well as dynamic bids in the Sponsored Product format. For those who are not very familiar, two types of bids can be adopted:
- The fixed bid, which uses the exact bid you chose when setting up the campaign.
- Dynamic bid. In this event we recommend using dynamic bidding, and especially the option of dynamic bidding – up and down. With this, we will adjust the bid in real time, at a maximum of 100%, but only when there is a high probability of conversion to sale.
2. Using product targeting can be very useful in certain specific product strategies during the event. But we recommend using it intelligently.
3. As for the segmentation by product can be done by:
- ASIN: Select specific products from the list, upload a list of ASINs that are relevant to the campaign, or target suggested products similar to the ad product.
- Category: Select a broad category that is relevant to the product being advertised and refine categories to have greater control over when and where ads appear.
In category targeting, it is important to have greater control over the appearance of these ads and if it is true that you have to know how to “play” with the different formats that Sponsored Ads offers – a good combination of them helps us achieve the desired or expected success.
Recommendations for Sponsored Products
In the case of Sponsored Products, we can be given several casuistry in the campaigns:
- The first one: If you have low impressions; that is, your product does not show the number you would like to be shown (because you are not managing to be one of those who wins the bid), what you would have to do is raise the bids. We can find that we are low on budget so, if it is the case, reduce the number of products and go with them to the fullest.
- If it turns out that active campaigns have a low or lower performance than expected, here what you have to do is either pause the campaigns to later activate them if we want to make sure that we are not going to support a campaign that could have been suitable or lower the bids to a minimum without ending them.
- For campaigns with well-performing terms, compare your bid to the average CPC.
We emphasize again that in this format it is necessary to know which products are the ideal ones to support, which we reiterate are those that have promotion, that we give the format the appropriate Budget (50% would be the average of the market as a reference) and the dynamic bid is the queen.
Recommendations for Sponsored Brand
Now let’s go with the Sponsored Brand format which is one of our favorites in Amazing. You all know that it is the format to gain consideration and awareness and that it allows us to announce 3 products at the same time and gives us the possibility to redirect traffic to our store. This last detail becomes very important in this case since in Event we can activate an adhoc tab with the products on promotion within our store and redirect the traffic right to that tab.
As in the previous case, the campaigns must be tracked continuously and accurately and here are our recommendations:
- Those campaigns with keywords that are not getting the minimum impressions you will have no choice but to raise the bids to be able to show the 3 chosen Asins.
- On the other hand, you will also find campaigns that are shown but have poor performance so you will have no choice but to either pause them or lower the bids and focus on those that are proving positive.
- And those that are pulling good, with good performance, you will have to optimize them by monitoring and comparing the average CPCs to find out if there is ground to optimize the Budget and thus be able to cover the whole day optimally.
We have not yet talked about the concordances. Our recommendation, in all possible formats, is to play with all of them – do not let anything escape you that can be positive for your performance and the achievement of your goals.
This format allows you to perform notorious and different actions that can make you differentiate yourself from the rest and that you should activate. Use both available formats – the new Sponsored Brand Video is a differentiating format, notorious, very visual and that many advertisers are not yet using. It is true that you can only include one Asin but if you use one that you have in promotion the results will arrive. Please note that the video has to be “linked” or “connected” with the promoted Asin for there to be a link between product image and included video.
And to finish with this format, two last recommendations: include at least 25 keywords when creating your campaign and review them to modify them if necessary. As for the bids, if you have doubts be clear that you must bet on the suggested and wide bid.
Recommendations for Sponsored Display
The Sponsored Display format is the format that is having the most innovation and updating. It is a perfect format to use in this type of events thanks to the great segmentation options it has and the possibility of impacting outside and inside Amazon to redirect traffic to your advertised products.
It is the format that helps us maximize conversions and among them Reach (with acronym vCPM) is one of our favorites. And don’t forget to focus on interest targeting based on Amazon Audiences!
3 basic but effective recommendations:
- Protect your promotional products with this format. If it is already difficult and expensive for the user to be in our detail page, once it is there we do not want our beloved competition to take advantage of it and “steal” our potential buyer.
- For this protection of the detail page you also have to plan with which products you are going to cover it. So use complementary products to be shown in the detail page and thus encourage cross selling.
- If you hesitate on the type of bid, start adjusting them to conversion. In events, conversion is what prevails so throw yourself without fear.
And finally, some recommendations for the long-awaited Day of the Event – which this year is Friday, November 25:
- Focus on reaching broad audiences and re-marketing to audiences who bought your product or visited detail pages.
- Keep in mind that during the event bids increase by more than 200% and in some categories much more.
- Track hourly campaigns and review budgets in those with better performance to cover the whole day and not lose any sales opportunities.
- Concentrate your efforts, if you have a reduced budget, on campaigns with products that have promotion.
- Don’t lose focus on your goals and measurement KPIs. It is typical that you have moments of “doubt” or “panic” for the bidding strategies of your competitors.
- If you have campaigns with high ACOS, switch to dynamic bidding.
If you are one of those who have left a little budget for the Lead –Out phase, take note of the following:
- Use manual product targeting campaigns.
- Activate automatic campaigns segmented by complementary and substitute products.
- Adjust your budget taking into account that CPCs in this period return to normal.
- Activate some type of promotion (discount coupon is a good option) and impact products of your competition similar to yours that had an offer in the event but that has already ended.
So, as you can see, there is homework! Go ahead with the implementation of the recommendations and if things are done well the results will come. Any questions, send us an email to hola@amazingagency.io and we will be happy to listen to you and see how we can help you with your presence on Amazon.
