Targeting Different Audiences in Amazon
Within Amazon’s advertising console there are set frameworks that brands work within to establish their presence. Variables such as keyword match type and campaign type indicate how and where Amazon deploys an advertisement, and a brand building out its advertising portfolio should be conscious of utilizing these factors to maximize reach. But there is another relevant variable available, one that isn't defined by Amazon’s settings but can help position an ad portfolio for growth: target audience.
By defining the types of keywords and products each campaign is bidding on, a brand has the chance to establish a strategy focused on targeting sales from the category as a whole, from competitor listings and their own brand name.
Category
This grouping is the most commonly used and often the most competitive.
It’s by bidding on category terms that products can find the largest volumes of impressions. But of course, a brand selling rice would target a term like “organic rice”, driving the bid price up. The highest impression keywords in a category are often the most expensive, but keywords in this bucket can cover a whole range of specificity. Understanding that a longtail keyword will get less traffic but for smaller brands, they will have a better chance for conversion than terms as broad and competitive as “organic rice”.
Beyond the ultimate goal of growing impressions and sales, category keywords can also be informative in terms of how customers see your brand. Consider that these keywords reflect the words shoppers use to search for and buy any given product. Category campaigns then act both as sales drivers and market research.
Competitor
Campaigns aimed at competitors’ keywords and ASINs are long shots. If a shopper is so far in a brand’s funnel that they are searching them by name, then the likelihood of catching (and then converting) their attention is low. Understand that the ACoS for these campaigns will be less impressive, but there is an inherent incremental value to those few sales that come directly from competitor listings.
Well-established competitors will have expensive keywords to bid on. Be smart about what you are bidding on because targeting a household name brand could both burn through your budget and show even worse conversion than others in that space. Come up with a list of comparable brands both in terms of product offerings and target demographic. That same rice seller might be targeting competing rice brands, but they might also bid on quinoa or couscous listings. Sellers who don’t have the budget to compete with their largest category players will have to be smarter about identifying and capitalizing on competitor campaigns.
Brand
Branded campaigns can be controversial in the advertising world. By bidding on your own brand name and ASINs, there is a sense that you may as well be paying money to convert what would otherwise be organic sales.
It is important to defend your brand name and your search results. Keep in mind that any space where competitors can inject their products into your customers’ line of sight is an opportunity to lose sales. It’s why branded campaigns are considered a defense.
As a perk, these keywords and ASINs will have less expensive bids and can be a good opportunity for cross-promotion. Bid on your own listings with a new offering to get less established products in front of an audience who already likes your brand enough to search for it by name.
There may be an inclination for new-to-Amazon brands who are worried about margins to forgo these ads on the assumption that competitors won’t know to target your ASINs. Unfortunately, even if competitors aren’t actively searching out your product then Amazon is. All sponsored locations must be filled and if a competitor is bidding on the category, Amazon’s algorithms will fill your search results with those listings rather than leave the space blank.
If the idea behind Amazon’s campaign types (sponsored products, sponsored brands, sponsored display campaigns) is to cover as much of the marketplace as possible, then the idea behind targeting these audience buckets is to reach as many relevant shoppers as possible. By creating a portfolio centered on targeting all three groups, the hope is to solidify your base of brand-loyal consumers while searching out incremental sales in and around the category.
For each of these buckets, the campaign ACoS will be different, because each is looking for customers at different stages of the purchase funnel. Too often brands look at their ACoS as a single overarching number when the real value is to break it out by target group. A brand whose competitor and category ACoS are rising isn't necessarily failing, but taking initiative to improve reach while branded campaigns remain efficient as a base.
By establishing your advertising portfolio with a campaign structure in mind you will be in a better position to scale, to understand the logic behind what is performing and, more importantly, why.