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PPC Optimization

Amazon Advertising Management Services

Articles, news, discussions on Amazon Advertising

Bulk Operations in Amazon Advertising – Page 2

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Getting Started with Bulk Operations in the Amazon Marketplace

To get started with bulk operations, you need to login to your Seller Central account to access Bulk Operations from the sub-menu. You need to download a bulk template file if you are starting from scratch and can request an updated bulk file with ready data by clicking the “Request Bulk File” button (including all of your campaigns, ads, performance metrics, keywords, etc.) (DeHart, 2016).

(*Note: you may also login and visit: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/bulksheet/HomePage for the same)

(a)   Empty Account: If you are starting with a new account, you can download a blank ‘Bulk Operations Template’ with instructions, comments, and details from the “Bulk operations” screen as shown in the long link below.

amazon account management, amazon advertising bulk file upload template help

The spreadsheet comprises 6 tabs including Instructions, Attribute_Definitions, Example Bulk Template, Template- Sponsored product (actual template), Template – Headline Search, and Template – Portfolio (new portfolios).

(b)   Modify existing Account Data: For existing account updates, you need to use the ‘Create & download a custom spreadsheet’ section and update:  Date range and Exclude (Terminated Campaigns, Campaign items with zero impressions), Placement data for Campaigns and Exclude. Once the selections have been made, you may click upon ‘Create a spreadsheet for download’ as shown in the figure above (it may take up to 15 minutes to create). Once Amazon creates the bulk file, a download option appears with a Download link as shown in the figure below. The downloaded spreadsheet filename comprises of the pattern: marketplace code -seller id -bulk sheet- creation epoch timestamp.xlsx and has 3 tabs, viz. Sponsored Products Campaigns, Headline Search Campaigns, and Portfolios.

In order to successfully enter data on the spreadsheet, you need to be familiar with the terminology of Amazon Bulk Operations as well as its valid values (as mentioned below).

Record, Campaign, Ad Group – Terminology and Descriptions

Long term storage fees, amazon account management, manage day to day ppc, amazon strategy for detail listings

Record ID – The uniquely assigned ID to each Campaign, Ad Group, Keyword, and Ad (i.e., advertised ASIN) within your account. This ID will be automatically assigned after upload. Do not modify once it has been assigned.

Record Type – The specified component of a campaign. All campaigns are made up of a set of individual record types: all campaigns must consist of 1 “Campaign” record type row, 1 “AdGroup” record type row, at least 1 “Ad” (i.e., advertised ASIN) record type row, and – if using manual targeting – at least 1 “Keyword” record type row.

Campaign ID – The uniquely assigned ID for a campaign. This ID will be automatically assigned after upload.

Campaign Name – The name of an existing campaign or the name of the new campaign you are creating. Maxlength: 128 characters.

Campaign Daily Budget – The daily budget set for your campaign.

Campaign Start Date – “The start date of your campaign. For Sponsored Brands, startDate cannot be updated after creation”

Campaign End Date – “The end date of your campaign. For no end date leave this field blank. For Sponsored Brands, endDate is required if a fixed budgetType is chosen.”

Ad Group – “The name of your existing Ad Group or the name of the new ad group you are creating. An Ad Group is a required placeholder field in your spreadsheet that must be filled out to successfully upload your changes & set your bid for your campaign. Existing campaigns will automatically populate this field but you will need to add a new Ad Group to any new campaigns you add to your spreadsheet.

Only one Ad Group is permitted for each campaign and should be named after your campaign name for easier tracking.

Note: This field is used only for processing bulk spreadsheets and does not show up in Campaign Manager.

For Sponsored Brands, this field is not required during campaign creation, and will be autocreated. You cannot edit ad group fields or settings for Sponsored Brands. You do not need to create an ad group row for Sponsored Brands.”

Max Bid – “The maximum you are willing to pay for a click. For manual targeted campaigns, you will set a max bid for each keyword. If you do not set a max bid for a keyword, that keyword max bid will default to the bid set at the Ad Group level. For auto targeted campaigns, the bid for your campaign is set at the Ad Group level (i.e., in the Ad Group record type row; not in the Campaign record type row).

Note: (SP) A max bid specified within the Ad Group record type row is a required field for both automatic and manual targeted campaigns.”

Keyword or Product Targeting – “Your keywords determine the pages on which your ads will be displayed. It is used in Manual Targeting campaigns only. To add multiple Keywords to a campaign, add multiple Keyword record type rows, one for each Keyword you wish to target.

“For Sponsored Brands, product targeting is not supported.”

Match Type – The Match Type relates to the keyword and can be Broad, Phrase, Exact, Negative Phrase, or Negative Exact

Campaign Status – Your Campaign Status can be enabled, paused, or archived (i.e., terminated).

Ad Group Status – Your Ad Group Status can be enabled or paused.

Status – If you are creating or updating a Keyword, this is the status of the Keyword (enabled or paused). If you are creating or updating an Ad (i.e., advertised ASIN), this is the status of the Ad (enabled or paused).

Next we will cover, Sponsored Product Only Attributes.

About PPC Optimization – Looking for someone to manage your Amazon Advertising? PPC Optimization has Amazon Consultants that provides Amazon PPC Managed Services, managing your advertising, new keyword terms, negative targeted terms, mapping good terms from automatic campaigns to manual campaigns and more. Complete Amazon PPC Management is what as do! Call us today!

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Amazon Advertising Management: Help for Negative Keywords

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Selling on Amazon may be fun for some, and tough for others. Advertising on Amazon is difficult for everyone, to say the least. Campaigns that control AdGroups, broad, phrase and exact match types, CTR, CR, ACOS and negative keyword phrases with exact and phrase match types themselves! Complex is an understatement, but you can do it! This article is designed to help you understand negative keyword terms and how to properly use them in your Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands Ad Campaigns.

How to use negative keywords effectively in Amazon Sponsored Product Campaigns

Creating efficient and cost-effective Amazon advertising is all about controlling ACOS, creatively handling your keyword phrases as well as how you are targeting items.

But we see many sellers not utilizing negative keyword search term phrases effectively or not adding them to their campaigns or ad groups at all. Correctly using negative terms is key to success on the Amazon Marketplace and good advertising campaign management. If you are looking for a list of Amazon advertising terms, click here.

How to Structure Negative Keywords in Amazon PPC Sponsored Ads

Note, Vendor Central does not allow for Ad Groups, at this time. Neither do they allow negative search terms in Auto Campaigns. If you are only selling in the Amazon Vendor Central channel, skip down to match types below.

Understanding campaign performance is greatly based on Amazon Campaign’s and AdGroups are structured. Knowing how this structure applies to negative search terms is key to proper negative keyword placement. Let’s discuss how negative keywords affect campaigns versus ad groups.

Campaigns control ad groups, all ad groups under them. This is very important to understand as we often see clients have placed negative keyword terms in the campaign level on existing campaigns. Applying negative terms at the campaign level causes these negative terms to be used by all the ad groups inside the campaign in addition to the negative terms added at the ad group level.

Campaign Based Negative Search Term Targets

In the image below, we are showing where to place negative keyword terms for them to be used at the campaign level filtering down to all ad groups inside this campaign.

amazon sponsored ads management negative keyword illustration for amazon ppc help

This tactic can be useful when the campaign and ad groups are targeting a specific product category where consumer search terms could have overlap, for example, smartphones and smartphone cases.

If you sold smartphone cases and you were targeting an iPhone product in a specific Campaign. You might want to place Samsung in the ‘Campaigns’ negative terms. This would cause all ad groups inside the campaign to use the negative term ‘samsung’.

Using this example, here is how the negative terms would apply to the ad groups inside the campaign.

selling on amazon demonstrating match types in negative keywords for ad campaigns in the amazon marketplace.
Amazon Seller Central Campaign Structure Example – One Brand Focus

In the above campaign structure, placing a negative keyword search term at the campaign level would cause that term to be ‘negated’ in all ad groups contained inside the campaign. In the image above, where all the ad groups are targeting iPhone products, adding the negative term ‘samsung’ may be a good idea. Let’s look at another example.

campaign management for amazon sponsored products and sponsored brand campaigns how to apply negative search terms in the amazon marketplace.
Amazon Seller Central Campaign Structure Example – Multiple Brand Focus

In the image above, where the client is targeting multiple brands in the Auto Campaigns ad groups, iPhone and Samsung, adding a brand name as a negative search term at the campaign level would not be a good idea. Doing so would cause the ad group ‘GalaxyN10-Case’ to not display ads for any search term containing ‘samsung’.

This would be a good time to discuss negative term match types in Amazon Sponsored Product Ad Campaigns. Your options are ‘Exact’ and ‘Phrase’ match types.

Negative Search Term Match Types – Phrase & Exact

If you skipped over the note earlier, it is important to understand, before we move on that there are some fundamental differences, at least for now, between Amazon Vendor Central and Seller Central.

For example, in vendor central, you do not have ‘Ad Groups’ only campaigns. This means if you wanted to set up the advertising structure for either of the images above, iPhone only or the multiple brand example, you would be setting up 3 campaigns, not 1 campaign and 3 ad groups.

How Amazon Search Term – Match Types Work

We will utilize the search term ‘samsung galaxy’ for this example. In the below image, we are illustrating how the three Amazon match types will match for various search terms with terms added in front, middle and behind the targeted keyword term.

keyword match types and how amazon sees broad, phrase and exact match types.
Example, Amazon Match Types

The Broad Keyword Match is just that, the broadest match type you can use. It will match the search term even if there is a word added in front, middle or behind the targeted keyword term/phrase.

Phrase Match type will match a search term/phrase if a word is added in front or behind the phrase, but not in the middle of the phrase.

Exact Match is exactly that. It will only match a search phrase if the customer types in the exact term or phrase we are targeting. Anything added in front, middle or behind the phrase will not match. Note, we do believe that if your term allows for east pluralization, for example, adding only an ‘s’ to the term to make it plural it will still match.

Ad Group Based Negative Search Term Targets

The other method for applying negative keywords to your Amazon click advertising campaigns is through your campaign ad groups. To correctly apply a keyword phrase to an ad group as a negative term, open Amazon’s Campaign Manager, choose the campaign you want to work on and select the ad group you would like to add the negative terms.

Two Common Areas We See Clients Make Mistakes

Adding terms to the Campaign level by mistake. This is a common error as the interface and navigation for campaigns and ad groups are so similar. We advise clients regularly to check their campaigns for negative terms mistakenly added at the campaign level.

Mistake number two we see often is adding negative terms as ‘phrase match’ by mistake when trying to add them as an exact match term. This can cause sweeping issues as you can imagine since the term will match for a wide variety of unintended terms adversely affecting your keyword bids.

PPC Optimization | Amazon Advertising Management

We hope you found this article helpful and it assists you in making your Amazon PPC campaigns more efficient.

If you are having trouble with your Amazon advertising, or have some questions about this article, contact our expert team of consultants today. We love helping people be more successful on Amazon.

We hope you found this article helpful and it assists you in making your Amazon PPC campaigns more efficient.

If you are having trouble with your Amazon advertising, or have some questions about this article, contact our expert team of consultants today. We love helping people be more successful on Amazon.

If you are looking for someone to look over your Amazon campaigns, and provide you with comprehensive suggestions, coaching and reports, contact us today for our one time PPC optimization service.

If you are looking for someone to take your advertising to the next level and manage the account on an ongoing base, we can handle that as well. This is a more involved service and we would like to talk to you more to see if our services are a good fit for your companies needs.

Contact our team today, we would love to talk shop with you and see if we can help your Amazon business grow.

Amazon Advertising Terms – Defined

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A detailed list of Amazon Terms used while setting up Sponsored Product Campaigns.

Amazon Advertising Terminology 

We keep hearing some of the same questions from our clients, what is a broad match verse a phrase match? What’s dynamic bidding, and how does it affect our search results page?

We added this page to assist you with your Amazon advertising efforts. Client or not, we want you to be successful, hope it helps.

– The PPC Optimization Team

Campaign Type: Sponsored Products – Terms

Settings Section:

Campaign name – A campaign name is only visible to you, so choose a name that you can easily identify and refer back to later.

Portfolio – Portfolios are a group of campaigns that can have a budget cap. Portfolios enable you to group and organize campaigns.

Start date – This is the date your campaign will start. You can set a future start date to launch your ad campaign at a later date.

End date – This is the date your campaign will end. To ensure your ads are always active so you don’t miss impressions or clicks, choose “No end date.” You can extend, shorten, or end your campaign at any time while it’s running.

Daily budget – You may spend less than your daily budget, or up to 10% more than your daily budget. This helps you to benefit from high-traffic days. At the end of the calendar month, you won’t be charged more than the daily budget you’ve set, multiplied by the number of days in that month. 

Targeting – Automatic or Manual targeting.

Automatic Targeting Campaigns:

With automatic targeting, we match your ad with keywords and products that are similar to the product in your ad. We choose keyword and product matches for you based on shopper searches related to your product information. Automatic targeting allows you to easily and quickly create a campaign. After your campaign has been running, you can view your campaign’s performance in campaign manager to monitor impressions and clicks to your ad and modify the targeting to meet your business goals.

When you choose automatic targeting, we use multiple default strategies on your behalf to match your ad to a shopper looking for your product. For example, your ad will be eligible to be shown in the search results if your ad product closely or loosely matches searches results from shoppers. Similarly, we’ll show your ad on the detail pages of products that are substitutes or complements of your ad products. After you create your campaign, you can view these different targeting strategies (i.e., close match, loose match, substitutes and complements) in campaign manager and make changes to meet your campaign objectives. For example, you can increase your bid for one tactic versus another to meet your objectives

Manual Targeting Campaigns:

For more advanced advertisers who have targeting experience, manual targeting helps you to specifically target keywords and products. You can choose different match types for keywords, and choose categories, products, brands or features related to your product.

Campaign Bidding Strategy Section – Choose how you want to pay for clicks on your ads.

Dynamic bids – down only – We’ll lower your bids in real time when your ad may be less likely to convert to a sale. Any campaigns created before January 2019 used this setting.

Dynamic bids – up and down – We’ll raise your bids (by a maximum of 100%) in real time when your ad may be more likely to convert to a sale, and lower your bids when less likely to convert to a sale

Fixed bids – We’ll use your exact bid and any manual adjustments you set, and won’t change your bids based on likelihood of a sale.

Adjust bids by placement (replaces Bid+) – Apply different bids by placement by entering a percentage increase to your default bid. These adjustments will apply on all bids in the campaign. Based on your bidding strategy, your bids can change further.

Top of search (first page) – 

Product Pages –

 

About this Section:

This section covers Amazon terms as they show up in creating a Sponsored Product Campaign.

Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display Ads are in the sections below.

Did we miss something? Let us know, thanks!

– Contact Us

Further Information on This Section:

Areas like, Dynamic Bidding, Top of Search or Product Page targeting can get more complicated. Here are some links we have found to be helpful on these areas.

Understanding Amazon Dynamic Bids – by Sellozo

Amazon Dynamic Bidding & Bid Adjustments – by Viral Launch

Ultimate Guide to Dynamic Bidding Strategies – by Sellics

Create an Ad Group Section:

An ad group is a group of ads sharing the same set of keywords and products. Consider grouping products that fall within the same category and price point range. You can edit your campaign after launch to create additional ad groups in campaign manager.

Each Sponsored Products campaign can have one or more ad groups. The first ad group is created when you create a campaign.

You can add more ad groups to the campaign after you’ve saved it. Whether using auto-targeting or manual targeting, we recommend creating ad groups with products that are in the same category. This helps optimize your bidding strategy, relevancy, and targeting.

In auto-targeted campaigns, you can apply a single bid to the whole ad group. In manual-targeted campaigns, you can select a common group of targets to all the products within the ad group.

The essential elements of an ad group are:

  • Ad group name: Assign an ad group name that is descriptive and meaningful to you. Ad group names must be unique within a campaign but you can use the same ad group name in different campaigns. Your ad group name will be used for Seller Central display purposes and will not be visible to customers.
  • Products: Select the products from your inventory to include in your ad group. Each of the products that you select will be displayed as an ad.
  • Keywords and bids apply to all products within an ad group, so we recommend choosing products that are closely related to each other. When creating an ad group with manual targeting, we recommend you add as many similar products to the ad group as you can. More products in your ad group increases the likelihood of receiving ad impressions because the products share the same keywords in your ad group.
  • You can add new products to an existing ad group at any time. To add products, select the ad group and go to the Products tab. Click Add products, and you will see your list of eligible products to add to the ad group. You can add 1,000 products to an ad group at a time.
  • Targeting: You can use Amazon’s suggested keywords, your own keywords, negative keywords, or target by product.

Ad group name – Only visible when managing your ads.

Amazon AdGroups

Understanding that AdGroups live inside Campaigns and are subject to the campaign settings is crucial to your advertising success.

Example, if you want a broad match AdGroup to use dynamic down only bidding, while the exact match AdGroup to use dynamic up and down, these two AdGroups would need to be in separate campaigns.

Get to know what settings are at the campaign level and which ones are at the ad group level.

Products Section

Products – Add products that you want to promote in this campaign.

Search By – Product Name, ASIN or SKU

Add All on this Page – Adds all the ‘visible’ items in the current search. If you are displaying for example, 50 or 300 items this text link will add the 50 visible items to your targeting list.

Add Item – Add the individual item, single, not a whole variation group.

Add Variation – Adds all the items in the variation. You may need to click ‘Add’ again to get the main item for the displayed group or child of the variation.

If Targeting an Amazon Automatic Campaign, the next section will display the following items. Scroll down to see the Manual Campaign options.

Automatic Targeting – Automatic Targeting uses keywords and products to help your ads appear in search and detail pages.

Set default bid – Default bid applies to all clicks unless you set a different bid for a keyword. Based on the bidding strategy and the placement increase you choose, your bids might change.

Set bids by targeting group – Targeting groups use multiple strategies to match your ads to shoppers looking for your products.

Targeting Groups – You can choose different bids for groups of search terms and products matched with the product in your ad.

Suggested Bid – Suggested bids are calculated daily based on past bidding activity for ads similar to yours to predict bids that are more likely to win.

Bid – The maximum amount you will pay for a click when this target triggers your ad.

Close match – We’ll show your ad to shoppers who use search terms closely related to your products. If your product is “Doppler 400-count Cotton Sheets,” we’ll show an ad when shoppers use search terms like “cotton sheets” and “400-count sheets.”

Loose match – We’ll show your ad to shoppers who use search terms loosely related to your products. If your product is Doppler 400-count Cotton Sheets, we’ll show an ad when shoppers use search terms like “bed sheets” and “queen-sized cotton sheets.”

Substitutes – We’ll show your ad to shoppers who use detail pages of products similar to yours. If your product is “Doppler 400-count Cotton Sheets,” we’ll show an ad on detail pages that include “300-count Cotton sheets” and “queen 400-count Sheets.”

Complements – We’ll show your ad to shoppers who view the detail pages of products that complement your product. If your product is “Doppler 400-count Cotton sheets,” we’ll show an ad on detail pages that include “queen comforter” and “feather pillows.”

If Targeting an Amazon Manual Campaign, the next section will display the following items.

Keyword Targeting or Product Targeting (Scroll Down) Section:

Keyword targeting – Use this strategy when you know the search terms that customers use to search products similar to yours.

 

More Details: Keyword targeting allows you to choose keywords to show your products in customer searches and detail pages. Use this strategy when you know the search terms that shoppers use to search products similar to yours.

For example, if your ad product is a phone case, you may choose the keyword “phone case.” When a shopper searches for a product with the search term “phone case,” your ad is eligible to show in search results and detail pages.

Suggested (Suggested Keywords) – Suggested keywords are generated based on the products you’re advertising. It’s up to you to add the keywords you want. You can edit keywords and bids after you add them.

Match Type – Keyword match types allow you to fine-tune which customer searches trigger your ads.

Broad: Contains all the keywords in any order and includes plurals, variations and related keywords.

Phrase: Contains the exact phrase or sequence of keywords.

Exact: Exactly matches the keyword or sequence of keywords

Enter Keywords – Search or enter keywords manually. Amazon will show suggested terms based on what you enter.

Upload File – Upload a CSV, TSV, XLSX file to add keyword terms.

Product Targeting Section:

Product targeting – Use this strategy to help shoppers find your product when browsing detail pages and categories or searching products on Amazon.

More Details: Product targeting allows you to choose specific products, categories, brands, or other product features that are similar to the product in your ad. Use this strategy to help shoppers find your product when browsing detail pages and categories, or when searching products on Amazon. You can target categories and products individually or target a combination of categories and brands in the same campaign.

To help you get started, we provide targeting recommendations under the “Suggested” tab in the Product targeting section. To prevent unwanted impressions, you can specify a negative list of brands and ASINs that the ad will not be matched to.

For example, if the product in your ad is a “Brand A” shoe for women, you can choose to target the category “women’s running shoes” for all search results and detail pages relevant to this category. You can also choose to target the brand “Brand B” because it’s a brand similar to “Brand A”, or you can target price points, star reviews, or variations of similar products.

If using the Product Targeting Option, the below additional fields will show up.

Category Tab: In the categories tab, you can target suggested categories that are based on relevance to your ad product. You can also search by category, or you can browse categories listed below the search field. You can also refine categories by brand, price range, review star ratings, and Prime shipping eligibility.

Products Tab: In the products tab, you can target suggested individual products that are similar to the product in your ad. You can also search for specific products in the search field.

Categories – Categories are products that are grouped by similarities, like women’s running shoes.

Individual Products – Target individual products that are similar to products in your ad.

Refining your Category: This is a powerful targeting strategy. You can target competitive products based on:

Brand – Select target competitive sellers by brand names.

Price Range – Select target competitive sellers by price range, min and max.

Review star ratings – Select target competitive sellers by star rating – configured by a slider 0 – 5 stars

Shipping – Select target competitive sellers by shipping type, All, Prime eligible or Not Prime eligible.

Products targeted – The total number of products your AdGroup will target based on the configured items in the refinement section.

Optional Negative Product Targeting:

Negative product targeting prevents your ads from displaying when a shopper’s search matches your negative product selections. This helps exclude irrelevant searches, reducing your advertising cost.

Exclude Brands – An advanced strategy that prevents your ads from displaying in specific search results or detail pages. Tip: Lower your bid for specific brands instead of excluding.

Exclude Products – An advanced strategy that prevents your ads from displaying in specific search results or detail pages. Tip: Lower your bid for specific brands instead of excluding.

Learn More

This section is where you can add your ASIN’s or SKU’s to the list of items you are advertising.

If you find it difficult to add items through this section, you can always add them later by editing the AdGroup.

Advertising Tips #1:

Create separate AdGroups for different targeting match types. Example, create a Broad, Phrase, and Exact AdGroups separating your terms. This will allow the match types to stand on their own, and you can get more granularly focused on the performance of the terms.

Looking for more help? Contact PPC Optimization today for a FREE Consultation. We will take a close look at your current advertising efforts, your goals, and give you valuable feedback to immediately improve your Amazon advertising.

Optional Negative Keywords

Negative Keywords – Negative keywords prevent your ads from displaying when a shopper’s search terms match your negative keywords. You can exclude irrelevant searches, reducing your advertising cost.

Negative Keyword Match Type – Negative keywords can be used with phrase and exact match types to prevent ads from being displayed.

Phrase: Contains the exact phrase or sequence of keywords.

Exact: Exactly matches the keyword or sequence of keywords.

You may add up to 1000 negative keywords.

Learn More

Negative keyword terms are an essential way to optimize your Amazon advertising efforts.

Here you can negative exact match a term you don’t want to advertise for, allowing it to target only broad or phrase match. Alternatively, you can negative phrase match a word or phrase, allowing it to negate a keyword term or phrase on a broader scale.

Additional Information

Amazon will optimize your ad – You’ve chosen to let us show the most relevant products from your landing page in your ad, which means that the products that show may be different from what you originally selected.

Tip: Check your headline – Don’t write about specific products in your headline. Keep the message general so shoppers understand your ad no matter which products show.

Campaign name – A campaign name is only visible to you, so choose a name that you can easily identify and refer back to later.

Start date – This is the date your campaign will start. You can set a future start date to launch your ad campaign at a later date.

End date – This is the date your campaign will end. To ensure your ads are always active so you don’t miss impressions or clicks, choose “No end date.” You can extend, shorten, or end your campaign at any time while it’s running.

Daily budget – You may spend less than your daily budget, or up to 10% more than your daily budget. This helps you to benefit from high-traffic days. At the end of the calendar month, you won’t be charged more than the daily budget you’ve set, multiplied by the number of days in that month. 

Campaign bidding strategy – Choose how you want to pay for clicks on your ads.

Adjust bids by placement (replaces Bid+) – Apply different bids by placement by entering a percentage increase to your default bid. These adjustments will apply on all bids in the campaign. Based on your bidding strategy, your bids can change further.

Ad group name:

Only visible when managing your ads.

Automatic Targeting:

Automatic Targeting uses keywords and products to help your ads appear in search and detail pages.

Default Bid: The maximum amount you will pay for a click when this target triggers your ad.

Suggested Bid: Suggested bids are calculated daily based on past bidding activity for ads similar to yours to predict bids that are more likely to win.

Bid: The maximum amount you will pay for a click when this target triggers your ad.

Amazon Auto Campaign – Targeting Terms

Close Match – We’ll show your ad to shoppers who use search terms closely related to your products. If your product is “Doppler 400-count Cotton Sheets,” we’ll show an ad when shoppers use search terms like “cotton sheets” and “400-count sheets.”

Loose Match – We’ll show your ad to shoppers who use search terms closely related to your products. If your product is “Doppler 400-count Cotton Sheets,” we’ll show an ad when shoppers use search terms like “cotton sheets” and “400-count sheets.”

Substitutes – We’ll show your ad to shoppers who use search terms closely related to your products. If your product is “Doppler 400-count Cotton Sheets,” we’ll show an ad when shoppers use search terms like “cotton sheets” and “400-count sheets.”

Complements – We’ll show your ad to shoppers who view the detail pages of products that complement your product. If your product is “Doppler 400-count Cotton sheets,” we’ll show an ad on detail pages that include “queen comforter” and “feather pillows.”

Learn More

Additional advertising details we felt would be helpful.

Would you like help with your Amazon advertising campaigns? From basic optimization for better ACOS, less spending, and more sales to more advanced strategies like offensive and defensive Brand advertising or targeting specific terms to boost your Sales Rank (BSR). Our team at PPC Optimization can take the advertising stress off your team, allowing you to focus on the areas you are confident in (and have more fun at).

Amazon Advertising | Best Practices for Campaign Setup – Post #1

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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.