Successful Amazon advertising truly is part art and part data analysis. Everyone has read the articles demonstrating the dedication and research required to create successful campaigns. Some experts say the ability to see trends, and keyword performance is an art or an instinct you just “have.” Others coach that excellent Amazon advertising performance is something you can learn, but you have to be able to “see” many different data streams all at once to become a master at it.
Some or all of this may be true, those in-depth discussions we do find incredibly exciting. However, none of that data matters if your campaigns are not set up in a well thought out, organized manner. That is the focus of this article.
We have been optimizing listings, images, and Enhanced Brand Content, now A+ in both Vendor and Seller Central, for years now. The one thing we see consistently, 90% of the time as a client comes to us for Amazon advertising optimization help is, their campaigns are not organized. Campaigns created in haste with little research or direction other than, “these terms were suggested by Amazon or a 3rd part tool,” they look good, let’s see how they perform.
We also see many clients naming their campaigns using shorthand versions of the product’s title. Then later, they optimize the title more, breaking the link between the advertising campaign and the product. Another common issue is hiring an intern or a similar person to work on advertising management. The account is restructured, renamed, and new naming conventions are implemented. That person moves on and suddenly, the campaign, ad group hierarchies makes no sense to your team.
Our advice, come up with a naming convention, create SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) documents for your company and if you have an agency like us, doing your advertising management, be sure we know to follow your outlines.
Create Campaign and Ad Group names that are easy to understand when viewing in an Excel Spreadsheet. If you are not utilizing excel spreadsheets for bulk changes, you more than likely will at some point.
Think about the scalability of your campaigns. For example, in early 2019, Amazon implemented the Dynamic Bidding System. All of a sudden, new strategies for focusing keywords phrases are possible. However, these new features are a campaign level setting, and all the ad groups in the campaign have to follow suit. This means that if you want to target different dynamic bidding tactics, for a single product or variation, you need to create multiple campaigns. Usually, as your research and product matures, your advertising strategies get more and more complex.
Not every account is the same, and there is not a cookie-cutter answer to this issue. Sit down with your team and discuss what tactics they are using in various campaigns. Do you identify your products by ASIN or SKU? Do you have product categories where it is advantageous to use names?
When creating complicated web sites, you sit down and type up the site’s navigation to know where the sub-pages get placed and try to build the layout for transparent link scalability. It is no different for Amazon advertising. Sit down and type up the campaign names with ad groups. Include details like campaign settings and focus.
When you set up your campaigns with structure and planned scalability, it is easier to manage the successes as well as the hurdles.