Spring brings new things. Badgers don’t hibernate, but I feel well rested and ready to provide readers with new ways to optimize their Amazon PPC campaigns. It starts with some account spring cleaning.
Adjust Your Advertising to the Data to Get Ahead This Season
To put this post into context, I’m going to refer to the Amazon PPC stats that are leading us into the new season. Last week, I posted the February 2018 statistics we collected from our users. Compared to the holidays, the majority of Amazon sellers saw a high number of impressions and clicks, but a low number of sales. This could be attributed to a lot of things like shopping trends, the way your product pages are set up, what niche you’re in, or how you’re advertising.
In this instance, the way sellers are advertising isn’t the problem given the high visibility. But, something is causing shoppers not to convert. Leading up to March, our stats show there was a large sales drop off since the holidays and according to Similar Web, Amazon saw fewer visitors in the last two months. This shows that fewer conversions could be attributed to less shopping. However, you still don’t want to give shoppers another reason to not buy from you. You want to be sure to have your product pages optimized, your ad groups organized, your target ACoS figured out, and your brand trust high to avoid the dip in sales.
This starts with some spring cleaning inside your Ad Badger account.
Clean Up Product Descriptions to Reflect the Season
In my post about holiday ad campaigns, I mentioned experimenting with campaigns and product descriptions unique to the holiday season. If your product descriptions are catered to the holidays or the winter, you should definitely change them as shoppers are searching differently as the seasons change.
We’re in spring now. It’s time to clean up product descriptions and bidding.
Your Keyword Bidding Shouldn’t Be the Same in Spring as it Was in Winter
For example, bidding lower on certain keywords like “swimsuits” or “ice packs” because they have a lower search volume during the winter months and bidding more aggressively on keywords like “sweaters” because it’ll be more competitive.
If you haven’t changed your holiday campaigns back by now, stop what you’re doing, and lower the bids on winter-specific keywords.
Lastly, the holidays have been over for months so you should know which keywords are low converting and draining your ad spend and turn them into negative keywords.
Organize Ad Groups and Campaign Names to Avoid Clutter
It’s always good to organize ad groups every once in a while and save time down the road. A good rule of thumb is to create names so you don’t have to click on a campaign to find information.
For Ad Groups, it makes sense to group similar products with similar keywords together. Try entering the Name of the Product Category – Product Name – Keyword Match Type
Example: Tech – BT Devices – Exact
For campaign names, make it easy on yourself by having the Product Name – Product Category – Campaign Type – TACoS
Example: BT Keyboard – M – 22%
Cleaning up your ad groups can allow for quicker analysis in the future.
Freshen Up Your Campaign Structure
Both automatic and manual campaigns have their strengths and weaknesses but using both types of campaign structures for your Sponsored Product Ads on Amazon is the best method to creating winning campaigns and getting the most out of your keywords.
Here’s a quick infographic highlighting the differences between auto and manual campaigns.
Here’s my full post on auto and manual campaigns here.
Tame Your ACoS in the Spring to Take Control of Your Account
If you’ve been experiencing a high or lower ACoS than you want, there are many steps you can take to get it where you want to be.
First, let’s discuss what makes a good ACoS. There are no set rules for ACoS. You could want a high ACoS if you want to bid more aggressively to get ad space or increase visibility to get rid of a product in your inventory. You could want a low ACoS if your budget isn’t that much. It all depends what the seller’s goals are. A good spring cleaning project is deciding on your TACoS and adjusting accordingly.
Typically, sellers want a low ACoS to maximize their profit. The ACoS for the beginning of the year has been high, specifically in February where it averaged 36% per user, per day. This means that on average, our users spent $.36 for every $1 of sales.
On our platform, users set their TACoS and we bid accordingly. We base our bidding on your TACoS and your product’s conversion rate to give you the best control possible. The high ACoS in February could be a result of our users not adjusting their TACoS based on the trends or a variety of other things. The bottom line is: You can control your ACoS.
If you’re an Ad Badger user, you don’t have to worry about overbidding or underbidding, but if you’re not, then check out how to optimize your bidding to reach your TACoS.
To summarize: Let’s say our average order value is $19 at a 10% conversion rate, and your Target ACoS (TACoS) was 30%, so 0.3.
The formula would be: $19 X (.10/1)/.3 = $.57
Meaning, you would bid 57 cents every time to reach your 30% target ACoS.
Here’s the full video:
Clean Up Those Bad Reviews
Good reviews help your ad ranking, and bad reviews hurt it. Chris McCabe wrote a guest post for us discussing bad reviews and how to combat them. He suggested ways to look for abusive competitor behavior.
Things like:
- A cluster of bad reviews over a short amount of time
- Mass upvoting of your negative reviews
- Reviews that offer no real details
If you’re suspicious someone is sabotaging your review section, then try to make a solid report to Amazon with the information they can verify with screenshots or links.
Other Things You Could Be Doing to Increase Conversions Besides Advertising
There are other things you could be doing to keep your seller account successful throughout the season.
You should always be trying to collect good reviews. This increases your ad ranking and brand trust. To ensure good reviews, revise your customer service process and be careful not to understock, be Prime eligible, have accurate product descriptions and a competitive price.
Lastly, experiment with different tactics to see what works. This could include changing your copywriting, adding better images, or venturing into enhanced brand and A+ content. The Amazon world is yours, you just have to take it.
