2016 Q4 Amazon Virtual Summit_CPC Strategy

The 2016
Q4 Amazon Virtual Summit
H O W P R O F E S S I O N A L A M A Z O N S E L L E R S C A N P R E P A R E
F O R T H E H O L I D A Y S H O P P I N G S E A S O N

Q4 Summit Layout
Day 1
Preparing Your Product Listings For Q4 Success
Day 2
Lucrative Q4 Sponsored Product Strategies
Day 3
Creating a Winning Q4 Game Plan

Event Logistics
• Submit Questions In the Chat Box to the Right
• Session Recording Will Be Sent 8/12/16
• More Resources In the Handouts Section to the Right
• Poll Questions Throughout Presentation
Q4 Summit Event Coordinator
Nick Cotter
Marketing Operations Coordinator

OVERVIEW
• Founded in 2007
• Recognized as an Official Google Shopping Partner
• 300+ Active Retail Clients
• Top 50 fastest growing company in San Diego 4 years
CLIENTS
SOLUTIONS
• Retail-focused Paid Search (PPC)
• Google Shopping Management
• Shopping Channel Management
• Amazon Sales Acceleration
About CPC Strategy

Facebook Group:
Amazon Sales Acceleration Mastermind
Ask to Join Group
Facebook.com/groups/AmazonSalesMastermind

August 24th 11am-12pm (PST)
Register: Link in Chat Box
Ask an Expert:
What Vendors Need to
Know About A+ Content
I m p r o v i n g S e a r c h R e l e v a n c y , C u s t o m e r C o n v e r s i o n s & S a l e s

Today’s Event Speakers
Pat Petriello
Head of Marketplace Strategy
Nick Sandberg
Program Development Manager
Jeff Coleman
VP of Marketplace Channels

Poll For The Audience…
Are you currently making optimizations to your SP campaigns?
A. Yes, consistently
B. When I have the time…
C. Not currently running SP campaigns

Scaling Amazon PPC
Preparing Your Sponsored
Product Campaigns for Q4
H O W P R O F E S S I O N A L A M A Z O N S E L L E R S C A N P R E P A R E
F O R T H E H O L I D A Y S H O P P I N G S E A S O N

Agenda
• Leveraging Your Amazon Prime Day Data for the Shopping Rush
• Refining & Sculpting Your Sponsored Product Campaigns for Q4
• Optimizing Sponsored Product Campaigns with Advanced Match Types
• ROI vs. Rank-Driven Campaign Buildouts
• Sponsored Products Rule Based Bidding
• LIVE Q&A

Leveraging Your Amazon Prime Day Data
for the Shopping Rush

www.CPCStrategy.com | 619.501.6138 | contact@cpcstrategy.com
What Happened on Amazon Prime Day 2016?
The good, the bad & the ugly…

How Can We Leverage Amazon Prime Day Data for Q4?
"The online retailer announced, without giving specific figures, that its Prime Day 2016 was the “biggest ever.”
Not just in terms of other Prime Days, either, but the “biggest day in the history of Amazon.”
Tuesday’s customer orders were up by more than 60 percent worldwide, compared with last year’s Prime Day, and
up by more than 50 percent in the U.S." (Tech Crunch)
 Sellers leveraging Lightning Deals saw the greatest amount of success
 Strong sales for higher order value items & one-off purchases (such as gifts, games, etc.)
 Top selling items included TVs, toys, shoes, laptops, vacuums, & headphones
 Some sellers saw significant increases in sales even without any additional deals (due to traffic
increase)

Refining & Sculpting Your Sponsored
Product Campaigns for Q4

CPC Strategy’s Approach to Success on the Marketplace

Role of Sponsored Products in Q4
What Role Does Sponsored Products Play In A Seller’s Overall Q4 Marketplace Strategy?
 Acceleration program for newer or low-exposure ASINs
 Discoverability lever for your top Buy Box offers
 Incremental revenue driver

Sponsored Products Auction
How the Sponsored Products Auction Works:
 When a customer searches or browses Amazon for products, Amazon finds all Sponsored Products ads that
contain keywords that match the customer's search or browse page. In the case of Automatic Campaigns
where there are no keywords, product content is used to determine relevancy.
 Amazon first removes any Ads that are not currently winning the Buy Box.
 The ads are then analyzed for relevance. Ads that are determined to not be relevant are removed from the
auction. For example, a customer has searched for the term "kitchen blender." If a seller has bid on the keyword
"kitchen blender" in an ad group that contains bath towel ads, Amazon determines the bath towel ads are not
relevant and removes them from the auction.
 The remaining ads are then ranked and displayed to Amazon customers in the ad rank order. Ad rank is based
on the seller's bid and the likelihood the ad will get clicked.
*Campaigns that have been active longer have a better chance of showing ads. Click history plays an
important role in Amazon’s bidding algorithm*
Source: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/help.html/?itemID=201528470&ref_=ag_201528470_a_r0_cont_sgsearch

Automatic Vs. Manual Campaigns – Is There A Choice?
Automatic Campaigns
 We recommend sellers build out Automatic Campaigns first, to help them better understand which ASINs to run.
 Automatic campaigns are designed to drive more impressions & traffic of your products by casting a “wider net” than
Manual Campaigns.
 With Automatic campaigns, Amazon will serve your ads to all relevant customer searches based on your product
information.
Q4 Pro Tips:
Tip 1: Give All Your Products a Chance to Perform
PRO-TIP: For Automatic Campaigns, we recommend sellers start with an initial bid level of $.15 to $.25 per product.
Let the winners rise to the top and remember to let the data do the talking. Don’t try and select your top ASINs
before hand.
Tip 2: Listen to Your Search Term Data
PRO-TIP: Sellers should also keep in mind that the keywords their customers are using to search for their products
now might not be the same popular keywords in 6 months. It’s important to keep Automatic campaigns up and
running (even after you’ve built out your Manual Campaigns, Phase 2) - so you can continue to harvest new popular
search terms and other valuable data.
Tip 3: Allow Sales Metrics to Catch Up
PRO-TIP: Typically you’ll see a 48-72 hour delay in Sales metrics compared to Click and Spend metrics to catch up in
the sponsored product campaigns.

Automatic Vs. Manual Campaigns – Is There A Choice?
Manual Campaigns
 Unlike Automatic Campaigns, Manual Targeting is based on keyword(s). This is why we usually recommend sellers
start off with Automatic Campaigns before building out their manual campaigns.
 We recommend selecting a name for your Ad Group(s) that you will easily recognize, for example “bath towels” or
“phone cases”. Amazon will prompt sellers to scroll or search to select all the relevant products to include in this Ad
Group.
Q4 Pro Tips:
Tip 1: Goals Will Determine Ad Group Differentiation
PRO-TIP: Segmenting your products is just one of the ways sellers can start to dissect and optimize their advertising. This ultimately can
reduce wasted ad spend and increase the opportunity for your products to be found organically.
Tip 2: Build a Relationship Between Your Keywords & Custom Bids
PRO-TIP: It behooves sellers to have a human analysis of their products to gauge how customers are actively searching for and finding
their products in the Marketplace (for example recent seasonality or popular trends).

Example of Automatic vs. Manual Campaigns
Is it okay to keep my products in both manual & automatic campaigns, at the same time?
 Goals Will Determine Ad Group Differentiation
 Sellers can add up to 1,000 keywords per Ad
Group
 Give All Your Products a Chance to Perform
 Data Harvesting
 Actions are driven by your company’s goals
Automatic Manual

Optimizing Sponsored Product
Campaigns with Advanced Match Types

Broad Match Type
When to Use Broad Match:
 This match type offers your ad broad traffic exposure. A customer search term will match if it
contains all the keyword terms or their synonyms. The customer search term can contain
keywords or synonyms in any order.
Impact of Broad Match Types:
 Maximize volume and visibility on Amazon. Ads triggered by words in your key phrase regardless
of the order.
Q4 Pro Tips:
Tip 1: If volume is your goal, bidding up is a great way to increase traffic
PRO-TIP: You’ll want to closely monitor your budgets in preparation for increased traffic and clicks during Q4
Tip 2: If you want to remain ROI focused, bid down slightly
PRO-TIP: Use ACoS as your key metric to determine advertising efficiency

Phrase Match Type
When to Use Phrase Match:
 The customer search term must contain the exact phrase or sequence of words. It is more
restrictive than broad match and will generally result in more relevant placements for your ad.
Impact of Phrase Match Types:
 Not as restrictive as Exact Match, but can still filter out searches that might not be relevant.
Q4 Pro Tips:
Tip 1: Similar to Broad Match in that this match type will drive more volume than Exact Match and typically
more efficient than Broad Match from an ROI standpoint
Tip 2: Good way to increase visibility while still refining target audience

Exact Match Type
When to Use Exact Match:
 The customer’s search term must exactly match the keyword in order for the ad to show, and will
also match close variations of the exact term. Exact match is the most restrictive match type, but
can be more relevant to a customer’s search.
Impact of Exact Match Types:
 Less volume, but if you select your Exact Match keywords properly, higher ROI than other match
types.
Q4 Pro Tips:
Tip 1: Bid up on Exact Match Type Keywords that have proven performance in the past to take advantage of
additional traffic
Tip 2: Use historical Sponsored Products advertising data to make the most effective Exact Match keyword
selection

Negative Keywords
When to Use Negative Keywords:
 Negative keywords allow sellers to refine their target audience and improve the performance of
their Sponsored Products campaigns.
Negative Keywords:
 Negative keywords can be used with phrase & exact match types, BUT you cannot change the
match type of an existing negative keyword.
 The most common negative match type is exact.
 Used to exclude low-performing customer search terms.
 Omit terms you do not want associated with your products or brands.
Match Type Example Keyword Ads don’t show on search
Queries that contain
Excludes shoppers
search queries like
these
Doesn’t exclude
shopper search
queries like these
Negative
Phrase
Boys Shoes The complete phrase or
close variations
Boys shoes, boys
shoes 10
Shoes for boy,
boys red shoes,
shoes boys
Negative
Exact
Boys shoes The exact phrase or close
variations
Boys shoes, boy’s
shoe
Boys shoes 10
Source: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/help.html/?itemID=201851200&ref_=ag_201851200_h_r0_cont_sgsearch

Negative Keyword Example

ROI vs. Rank-Driven Campaign Buildouts

Setting Goals – Direct ROI vs. Visibility
ROI-Focused Campaigns
 Every $ spent needs to bring $X
back in revenue
 Lower volume, but higher ROI
 Focus: long-tail keywords
 Primary KPI: ACOS
Ranking-Focused Campaigns
 Goal of the campaign is to maximize
sales velocity
 Higher volume, but lower ROI
 Focus: popular keywords
 Primary KPI: Organic Ranking
Why are these competing goals?
Let’s use an example for Keyword “XYZ”
 Bid level: $1
 ACOS: 100%
 Monthly spend: $1,000
 What do I do?

ROI-Focused Strategy Rules of Thumb
 Start with Both Automatic & Manual Campaigns
 1 product per Ad Group
 Search Term data only exists at the campaign & ad group levels
 Key bids low & scale up slowly as ROI allows
 $0.10 starting point
 $0.05 - $0.10 increments per week if ROI is positive OR if bid is
too low to rank
 Harvest keywords as necessary to move into Manual campaigns

Keyword Harvesting from Auto Campaigns
 Start with Automatic Campaigns
 Only source of On-Amazon keyword performance data
 Safe way to harvest keywords at a positive ROI
 Amazon won’t give you SKU data in this report so it’s important to
limit your ad groups to 1 product each

Keyword Harvesting from Auto Campaigns
 Columns To Pay Attention To For Keyword Harvesting:
 Campaign Name (Only look at your automatics)
 Customer Search Term
 ACOS
 Orders Placed

 Manual campaigns to target key terms you know you want to rank for
 Keyword Sources
 Automatic campaigns – high-volume search terms
 Common-sense terms
 Tools like Merchant Words or AMZ Tracker to identify best variations
to rank for
 Use existing organic rank to qualify keywords to target

Using Existing Organic Rank
 If Rank > 300, SP alone probably isn’t going
to impact your ranking for that term in a
meaningful way
 However, it can move products that rank
well for the target keyword farther up the
SERP
 VAVA Voom speaker highlighted here
currently at position 45 for a key search
term

ROI Vs. Rank Driven Campaign Examples

2016 Q4 Amazon Virtual Summit_CPC Strategy

More Related Content

What's hot (20)

Similar to 2016 Q4 Amazon Virtual Summit_CPC Strategy (20)

More from Tinuiti (20)

Recently uploaded (8)

2016 Q4 Amazon Virtual Summit_CPC Strategy