More and more traditional retailers are making the most of Amazon’s immense e-commerce store and Amazon Marketing Services (AMS) to spur their sales growth. Amazon is a gargantuan digital enterprise, which has become the kingpin in the online shopping world. Amazon boasts 8.5 million total sellers globally and 2.1 million active sellers on the site
Speaking about its influence on American households, e-marketer determined that 51.3% of U.S. households in 2019 were Amazon Prime Members and by 2021, Amazon Prime will encompass 56.9% of the households. This directly impacts the online shopping landscape as these enormous numbers of U.S. households make purchases from Amazon.
Consequently, there has been a drastic reduction in traditional brick-and-mortar shopping as online sales have soared, boosted by digital marketing services, among which AMS plays a vital role.
So if you still haven’t, it’s high time that you diversify towards electronic shopping and optimize your online selling strategy. Advertising with Amazon is just what you need to do to adequately beat the competition and boost your online sales.
What Is Amazon Marketing Service?
In 2012, Amazon Marketing Services came up with advertising tools to help businesses rise above in the highly competitive online marketplace. With Amazon marketing, sellers can create highly targeted ads that would appear on the search results page.
According to research by Bloomreach, at least 55% of customers commence their product search on Amazon, even if they have no intention of purchasing the product there. Just like search engine marketing, AMS displays your ads on relevant locations, keywords, and strategically leads shoppers with high-intent to your product listings on Amazon. In addition, you can develop your Amazon store at no extra cost and only pay whenever someone clicks on your ads.
However, with Amazon, you may only be able to sell physical products rather than services. If you are selling a service such as AT&T Internet packages, an internet service, you better opt for Google search engine and establish your own website where visitors can glean maximum information about your services.
With the help of Amazon marketing, you can pick where your ads should appear, develop targeted ads based on analytics, display product details, kick up your brand visibility via customized ads, direct traffic towards your business pages, get more return on investment (ROI), and reach 112 million of Amazon Prime members in the U.S via the platform.
The marketing platform has the potential to boost your sales and business growth if you utilize it correctly. Here are some important tips that you need to keep in mind as you employ Amazon marketing services:
- Work on Your Product Listings
Before you sell anything on Amazon, you have to complete product listing and include details for each of the products you sell on the product page. Your Amazon product listings should be detailed, informative, and accurate so as to encourage more click-through rates (CTRs).
A good product listing entails a descriptive product name with a keyword in it, high-resolution images from different angles, product descriptions with relevant search terms, regularly updated FAQ section, and reviews and ratings.
- Leverage Customer Reviews
Amazon’s customer reviews contribute the most towards a product’s or brand’s credibility. It doesn’t matter if a customer wants to purchase the product from elsewhere, they will come looking for reviews on Amazon, and if they are not available, they will go looking for on another forum.
According to the Kenshoo Research Paper on Amazon, 22% of Amazon’s shoppers would not look left or right before purchasing if they find the product they want with good reviews. So it’s important to leverage customer reviews to your advantage. They are a good way to engage with your customers and improve your product/service with their feedback. In the case of negative comments, respond to them politely and professionally, and attempt to redress the matter and improve aggrieved customer’s experience.
- Choose Ad Placements Wisely
Amazon marketing offers different types of ad formats for you to choose from to customize your campaign.
In the Headline Search Ads, your ad appears as a banner above the search results. The ads lead visitors to a particular branded page, and you can employ these types of ads for more than three products at a time.
In the Sponsored Product Ads, shoppers are directly led to a specific product page in your product listings. Here these ads appear via relevant keyword search and are seen below or above search result listings. You can choose the type of keywords to target such as broad or exact match, and determine the duration for which the ad will appear and the amount you would like to spend.
With the Product Display Ads, your ads are shown at the top of product listings, with customer reviews, or along with search results, but they are product or interest targeted ads. So you can especially use them when launching a new product or competing with another brand.
- Analyze Customer Behavior
If you constantly analyze visitors’ behavior, you may be able to determine what they want and personalize your products accordingly and present them at the top of search results. Customers who click through your product listing have the intention of purchasing something, but they would only do so if you immediately dangle what they want the most.
Analyzing their browsing activities, keeping track of the latest trends, and monitoring your analytics in real-time can go a long way in developing a powerful e-commerce business.
- Engage Your Customers
Amazon may not permit sellers to directly contact customers to market their products, but you can still engage with them through the platform. Being attentive to your customers as they ask questions, responding to their feedback, checking up on their reviews, sending emails upon purchase, and paying attention to their issues immediately could go a long way in improving customer satisfaction. This will encourage customers to return for repeat purchases from your brand’s page.
- Introduce Convenience
When customers shop online, they want to avoid inconvenience. So it’s your job to offer even more convenience than they expected so as to lure them. You can achieve it by offering generous product information optimized for voice search and search engine, a wide variety of payment and delivery choices, customized products, money-back guarantee, flexible return and exchange policy, and well-optimized mobile search avenue.
- Improve Shopping Experiences
Amazon is a marketplace where many brands and businesses sell the same product as you. As per a report by Wunderman Thompson Commerce, 45% of customers are more likely to buy from digitally innovative businesses. So you have to distinguish yourself somehow from other sellers.
There are a number of ways you can do it and it all boils down to creating a wonderful shopping experience. This will eventually invite good ratings and reviews, and that matters a lot in a customer’s shopping journey. You can even offer lower prices, customer loyalty cards, flexible delivery choices, customized products, and customized experience as they purchase from you.
- Optimize for Amazon Search Engine
If you are selling physical products online, then it is essential that you bring the Amazon search engine on board with you. Amazon search engine works like any other regular search engine but is concentrated on product shopping. The algorithm works around two important factors: Relevance and Performance.
To work well with the search engine, you need to conduct an extensive keyword search, optimize your product names and descriptions with relevant keywords, work on your important product features and images, and leverage other content marketing features such as Amazon Storefronts, Amazon Product Listing Videos, and Enhanced Brand Content (EBC),
All in All…
With everything becoming increasingly digitized, customers are increasingly relying on online shopping avenues. So it’s important that you go where your customers are, or else you will go extinct. Amazon’s e-commerce and marketing platform especially come in handy as you work as a beginner in the online shopping world. The tools are easy to operate and you can scale the budget as per your needs. You can even seek professional help from a marketing agency that will deliver a complete Amazon SEO solution for your business and boost your sales and business growth.