Amazon Advertising is developing rapidly and there are constantly new ways to advertise on the platform. In 2021, there were many exciting innovations for advertisers on Amazon, which we will present to you in this article.
Audience targeting for Sponsored Display Ads
In the beginning, it was only possible to target ASINs with Sponsored Display Ads. Since April 2021, it is now also possible to select specific target groups for targeting. This was previously only possible with the DSP (Demand-side Platform). You can select target groups in four different segments. These include "lifestyle," "interests," "life events," and "in-market factors”.
In-market targeting can be used to target users who have recently viewed, but not purchased products from your own brand or very similar products from other brands. Specific categories where users have searched for products can also be selected.
Target groups based on lifestyle or interests are defined on the basis of search and purchase behavior. Examples of interests are "cat lovers" or "wellness enthusiasts". For lifestyle target groups, specific categories such as "students" or "expectant parents" are defined. The "Life events" section covers special life events such as moving.
However, the selection options are still quite limited here. Furthermore, it is not possible to combine different properties and categories with each other. Since it is already possible to combine properties with each other with the Amazon DSP, this will probably be the next step for Sponsored Display Ads as well.
Sponsored Display Ads on Twitch
Sponsored Display Ads have been available on Twitch since July 2021. With more than 15 million daily users, Twitch is one of the biggest streaming platforms in the world. The opportunities to expand your target group in this way are therefore immense and particularly interesting for retailers who sell products from the categories of gaming, entertainment or music.
CPM Modell for Sponsored Display Ads
Since August 2021, it is possible to set "Optimizations for visible impressions" for Sponsored Display Ads. This is supposed to increase the reach of campaigns, which can be particularly useful for awareness campaigns. This setting can also be advantageous for agencies that work with fixed budgets.
Billing here is based on the cost-per-mille (CPM) principle. So you pay for 1,000 visible impressions.
Portfolios for Sponsored Display Ads
Sponsored Display campaigns can now also be organized in portfolios. This enables even better structuring and improves the overview of your campaigns. However, the change currently only applies to CPC campaigns.
Product Targeting for Sponsored Brand Video
Since Sponsored Brand Video Ads have extremely high visibility, they are great for increasing brand awareness. Since this year, it is possible to target other products with Sponsored Brand Video Ads in addition to keyword targeting. This targeting option is particularly suitable for presenting the advantages of your own product over competitors.
Sponsored Brands bid optimization for New-to-Brand customers
Amazon has introduced a new bid optimization strategy for Sponsored Brands. Currently, the bid optimization strategy for auto campaigns for Sponsored Brands is focused on maximizing sales. With the new update, it is now possible to choose increasing new customers as a goal in addition. This type of optimization increases bids in auto campaigns if the person searching has never bought from your brand before. New-to-brand optimization is currently available via the API in the US market.
Multi Marketplace Feature
The Multi Marketplace feature allows you to transfer campaigns to other marketplaces. The currencies are adapted to the respective country and all keywords are translated into the local language. This is currently only possible for auto-campaigns on Amazon. In the BidX tool, you can already transfer manual campaigns to other marketplaces.
Creative Assets
With Creative Assets, advertisers can store and reuse branded content such as logos or images. Files can be uploaded to a centrally located place and organized to be used for ads or on shopping pages.
The content can be easily retrieved, which allows a quick creation of ads. It also helps create a consistent shopping experience for customers. The feature is currently available in the US, Canada and Mexico.
Brand Metrics
Knowing how your ads are reaching new and existing customers is important for figuring out how effective your ads are in achieving your goals. Brand Metrics helps you understand whether a sale was made by an existing customer or by a new customer who bought your product for the first time last year. The statistics include the total number of purchases, the total revenue generated by new brand customers, the purchase rate of new customers, and the cost per new customer.
Targeting Overview with Top Performers
Amazon has also added a targeting overview with the "Top performers". The top performers are determined based on impressions, clicks or orders. However, the feature also works in the opposite direction by showing the least successful targets.
Budget rules
Budget rules allow advertisers to plan their campaign budgets in advance. Budget rules can be defined based on time or campaign performance. With time-based rules, you can prepare yourself for shopping events like Prime Day or push your seasonal products at the right time. The rule then increases the campaign budget by the specified percentage.
Performance-oriented rules allow you to set rules that trigger when your KPIs exceed certain limits for ACoS, Click-Through-Rate, or Conversion Rate.
ROAS Rules
It has recently become possible on Amazon to set rule-based bids that target a specific ROAS. With this feature, it is possible to set a target ROAS at the campaign level. Amazon then adjusts the bids to increase conversions up to the ROAs limit. You can also set an average bid limit that Amazon guarantees will not be exceeded by more than 25%. However, Amazon does not guarantee that they can reach the ROAS goal and will revert back to the original settings if the campaign does not reach the ROAS goal over a 21-day period. ROAS-based bidding is currently only available within Sponsored Products campaigns.
The rule can be applied to auto, keyword or product targeting campaigns, but the campaigns must run for at least 30 days and have at least 30 conversions in the last month.
Currently, this feature is being rolled out in the Advertising Console, but it is only available in a few accounts.
Amazon Attribution Integration in the Advertising Console
Customers are discovering and interacting with brands through more touchpoints than ever before. If you sell on Amazon, these touchpoints are not only directly on Amazon, but also on other channels like social media or Google.
To identify and evaluate all touchpoints in the customer journey, Amazon has introduced "Amazon Attribution." Amazon Attribution is a tool for analyzing marketing activities that take place outside of Amazon. These channels include search, social, video, display and email marketing. The tool allows advertisers to track exactly how customers interact with their brand.
Amazon Attribution was integrated into the Advertising Console this year, making it even easier to use.
Bulk operation Updates
Amazon enables you to rename ad groups and campaigns within the campaign manager directly in the bulk file. This was previously a time-consuming task that could only be done manually within individual campaigns.
The second feature Amazon is rolling out in bulk operations is the management of Sponsored Display Ads.
Summary
While last year Sponsored Brands were in the focus of Amazon, this year the Sponsored Display Ads have received many updates and new functionalities. Other features such as Brand Metrics or the Multi Marketplace feature can also be very interesting for many sellers.
There were also several new features in the BidX tool this year. Among them are the customizable dashboard, the budget automation and the scheduling function. These new features will help you to make your ads even more efficient and keep track of all important data. With the help of BidX, you can start the new year successfully and make your ads more efficient than ever before.
