Now, you don’t have to sell your products or services in the Amazon store to run ads on Amazon. They have billions of shopping, streaming and browsing signals to help you attract new customers to your small business.
Amazon recently expanded its ad offerings to businesses that don’t sell products on their platform, allowing brands a new avenue to explore when it comes to marketing opportunities. Considering the vast amount of data Amazon has on users, from their purchase history to what they’re watching on Prime Video to how they’re using Alexa, we here are Reshift Media are thrilled to be one of the first agencies invited to try their latest advertising solutions.
The ads platform, currently in beta for U.S-based brands, lets advertisers choose between a Sponsored Display campaign (which will reach audiences on Amazon, Twitch, IMDb, FireTV, Prime, and thousands of websites and apps) or a Sponsored TV campaign (which will reach viewers on Prime Video, Freevee, Twitch and other streaming TV services).
Let’s focus on Sponsored Display campaigns, which allows you to choose between three objectives: reach (CPM), page visits (CPC), or lead form ads (CPC). Here at Reshift, we have been trialing the page visits and lead form ads for our clients.
Here is what we’ve found:
AD SET UP AND OPTIONS
Targeting:
Amazon lets you to geo-target by postal/zip code, city, designated market area (DMA), and/or state. Though your targeting can be as granular as zip codes, we have found that it’s easier to consistently spend your daily budget and/or scale if you start at the city or DMA level, or are using at least 10 zip codes. You can also select target audiences. Think of this like Meta’s “interest” targeting, except these are based on browsing behaviours or purchases, or Amazon’s pre-built audience segments. These include categories/products users have browsed, shopping history, life events, streaming activity, Alexa interactions, books they’ve purchased, Prime membership status, and more.
You can choose up to 20 targets for your campaign, and Amazon recommends starting with as many as you can. While there are a lot of niche targets available, we found some of these to be too narrow, especially when combined with limited geographic targeting. For instance, if you are a clothing company, and you select “people who’ve purchased Women’s Bikini Swimsuits in the last 30 days,” the estimated potential reach is only 0-5k. However, if you choose “people who’ve purchased Swimwear in the last 180 days,” the potential reach expands to 40k-50k. In our testing, we’ve found a mix of niche targeting (50k-500k), plus a few general targets like “Affluent Shoppers” (3M-5M) helped expand reach. The default bid for each category is $1, but we’ve found effectiveness by increasing the bid for categories that most resemble our target audience.
Creative:
The ads look like display ads (though some have lead generation functionality). To build an ad, upload your brand logo, headline (max 50 characters), lifestyle image (1200×628), and choose a call-to-action button. Headlines can’t include special characters or all caps. Placements are automatically selected based on your targeting tactics and optimization. Amazon also offers free creative solution tools, such as an AI image generator and a self-serve video builder, to help you create your ads.
Lead Forms:
Much like a lead form ad on social advertising platforms such as Meta, this ad unit allows you to collect leads inline instead of directing the user to fill out a form on an external website. The current lead form options are limited to Name (you can choose between full name or first and last), Email or Phone Number (not both). You must also add a privacy policy. Leads can be downloaded from Amazon’s Lead Manager, though they also offer API integration.
Costs:
Unlike many other advertiser platforms, there is no minimum budget requirements. You can set a maximum daily budget and preferred cost type: cost per click (CPC) or cost per 1000 viewable impressions (vCPM). You set your daily budget and start/end dates. Note: there is currently no lifetime budget option.
OUR INITIAL IMPRESSIONS
Pros:
The ability for any advertiser to begin campaigns without a minimum budget requirement means you can start advertising with as little as $1 a day, making it an attractive platform for businesses of any size. Amazon’s incredible knowledge of its userbase is unparalleled, making their targeting options extremely impressive at a time when many other advertising platforms are struggling with reduced targeting capabilities. According to Amazon, they reach 89% of U.S. households on their platforms. In our initial tests, the CPC/CPMs were much lower than most social media advertising platforms, and the conversion rates were comparable.
Cons:
The advertising platform is still in beta form, and not as sophisticated as those that have been around for decades. We had to experiment with bids before we reached optimal daily spending, and the ad varieties are a bit limited. For example, we wish there were options to test more than one ad in an ad group or add some qualifying questions to the lead forms, however the Amazon Ads team is very receptive to feedback and are frequently introducing new features.
WANT TO TRY AMAZON ADS?
Amazon Ads are proving to be a powerful and cost-effective way for brands across many industries and verticals to reach prospective customers. Our initial has been so successful, we are integrating it into our proprietary Brand Amplifier software. If you would like to integrate Amazon ads into your digital marketing strategy, please contact us to learn how we can help.
