Amazon is a platform that is constantly developing new ad types and opportunities for sellers to connect with and promote their stores and products to customers. Sellers on Amazon know just how crucial advertising is on the platform and understand the value in learning everything about how advertising on Amazon works. Understanding Amazon advertising informs retailers and consumers about products and deeply affects organic rankings.
People typically don’t purchase the first product they click on from the organic results on Amazon. Many end up purchasing something they find in a product carousel or through another ad type. This is unique, and it can be difficult to maneuver. With so many ad options, it’s easy to lose track of which are most critical to invest in. Explore this breakdown of the different types of Amazon ads businesses can run.
Amazon Posts
Amazon Posts is a newer ad product offered only to sellers that register their brands. Amazon Posts is similar to short blog posts or social media content. It’s meant to be a platform for brands to communicate and inform customers about products. A company can upload posts as often as it pleases, but Amazon recommends posting as often as a social media page or onsite blog would post. For most companies, this may mean posting once a day, but for others it may mean posting just a few times a week.
The content should be product-centered, and it should aim to inform and aid customers in finding the right products to purchase. These ads appear in carousels of other posts of related products and on product and store pages.
Sponsored Products
Sponsored products are pay-per-click advertisements for a single product. These ads have a flat rate for each click they receive. The ad will appear in the shopping search results and on product detail pages of competing and complementary products.
This ad type helps potential new customers discover a business’s products. A consumer types in a keyword or search term to find a product. If your product is related to this term, the ad will appear in the organic search results, on the side of the page, on the top of the page, or even at the bottom of the page.
Sponsored products increase visibility of products. In general, the more visible a product is on Amazon, the more frequently it sells.
One of the benefits of PPC ads is that brands only pay for the impressions they make. Many more customers may see the ad, but the company is only charged for those that click on it, making it a very cost-effective model.
Sponsored Brands
Sponsored brands are another type of Amazon ad. It is a form of PPC advertising on the platform. Sponsored brands often appear in shopping results, and they include featured headlines, the brand logo, and multiple spaces to display products. Sponsored brands are ideal choices for companies looking to increase brand awareness and to rise in the organic rankings on Amazon. These ads increase brand visibility while exposing customers to brand messaging and multiple featured products.
With sponsored brand ads, a multitude of elements may catch the eye of the consumer. A customer may see a product they like or even just respond to the brand messaging and click into the Amazon storefront to learn more and to discover the different offerings. These ads thus create an immersive branding experience when people click into a store, mirroring the feeling of entering a brick-and-mortar store.
Sponsored Displays
Sponsored displays are unique offerings of Amazon. These ad types offer a fast-acting campaign that reaches target audiences on and off the Amazon platform. The ads in sponsored displays are simple to create, and they come with automatically generated creative, making the immense results accessible to all budgets.
This ad type comes with one of the best assets a brand can get: performance metrics. The performance metrics provided with sponsored display ads through Amazon allow companies to gain campaign insights on what is and isn’t driving successes. This free-flowing information allows for continuous changes to the campaign and ad efforts so that results reach their full potential.
For brands hoping to reach highly targeted audiences, some metrics are available to guide these efforts. Many times, brands choose to hire professional Amazon PPC management companies to handle these more in-depth analytics and to target audience decisions.
Stores
Stores are some of the largest assets Amazon provides to its sellers. Stores are a free multipage ad type that allow brands to inform and interact with their customers. Businesses can customize them to fit their brand image. This customization allows customers to enjoy an immersive experience that educates them on the brand’s values, backstory, and products.
Stores build brand awareness and increase customer brand loyalty. The templates are simple to use and often supplemented with creative content. Many companies hire professionals to create their creative pieces, but others choose to make their own.
One of the largest benefits of Amazon Stores is it provides brands with their own Amazon web addresses. This makes the URL easy to remember. It also gives companies more chances to easily advertise off Amazon by linking back to their Amazon Store pages.
Audio Ads
Audio ads appear on all the audio or screen-free experiences Amazon offers. Consumes will commonly hear audio ads while listening to the free ad-supported version of Amazon Music. These spots are typically between 10 and 30 seconds long, depending on the ad type, and ads are played between songs. It’s even possible to have ads play through Amazon devices such as Alexa-enabled devices. Music is one of the ways customers interact with Alexa the most, so integrating branded messaging into it is an unbeatable way to reach potential new customers.
One thing unique to audio ads on Amazon is that business that don’t operate Amazon stores or sell products on the platform can still invest in audio ad time. However, a minimum ad spend must be considered, and stipulations about using Amazon ad consultants are attached to this ad type.
Video Ads
Video ads on Amazon appeal through the over-the-top (OTT) platforms run by Amazon, such as Fire TV, connected TVs, Prime Video, publisher channels, and other video content on and off of the Amazon platform.
Amazon has a wide range of audiences in their video-based reaches. This type of Amazon ad helps companies better understand their potential customers through data and research provided through brand metrics during video ad campaigns. The data and information gathered through these campaigns can inform future ad campaigns by allowing brands to highly segment their audience targets.
Video ads often run concurrently with display ads and other ad types. Comprehensive campaigns are recommended when using video ads. Similar to audio ads, companies that do and do not sell products on Amazon can take advantage of this opportunity.
There are many ways to build a profitable marketing strategy on Amazon, and the platform releases more types of ads and opportunities all the time. Amazon is not very forthcoming with information about new ad types and opportunities available to sellers, especially for non-brand registered sellers, so staying on top of industry news and releases is the best way to advertise on Amazon effectively.
Logical Position can develop an effective PPC strategy that makes sense for your brand. Our team of dedicated experts works tirelessly to adjust campaigns to take advantage of everything Amazon has to offer. With our affiliation with Amazon and our hyper-granular approach to Amazon ads, we can help your company reach its full potential on the highly competitive platform. Contact us today for a free consultation.
