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Examining the rise of Amazon advertising
21st February 2018
Amazon’s influence has grown dramatically in recent years and they are quickly becoming a search engine in their own right. Consumers can search for any product and get more specific results than with Google. It’s giving advertising opportunities for brands, which is changing the dynamic of the advertising industry.
What are Amazon ads?
There have been major advancements in Amazon’s ad platform. Now it’s much easier to bid on Amazon and it recently launched a self-serve platform, that lets brand access audience matching. Amazon’s ads are similar to how Google search works. Results appear in Amazon search when a user types in a keyword and some of the results are paid, sponsored ads. Advertisers can pay Amazon for these prime positions by bidding on keywords for higher visibility. So, as you can see, Amazon’s ad platform functions in a similar way to Google AdWords.
Getting started with Amazon ads
First of all, you have to create a seller or vendor account to use Amazon advertising. Once you’ve set up your account and logged in, you’ll be able to start building your ad campaigns. There are different types of Amazon ads that have unique functions. Sponsored ads direct shoppers to the product when they click on your product ad, and they are keyword targeted. You can also use headline banner search ads, which appear at the top of the search listing. The landing page can be customised to showcase your brand and these ads are cost-per-click. Finally, there are product display ads, which are strictly product targeted, as opposed to keyword-targeted. They serve as a way of driving shoppers to the detail page of the product and they always appear at the bottom or at the right of search results.
Amazon vs Google
For the majority of people, online shopping starts at Amazon. With this in mind, Google could potentially lose market share in product searches. For the first time, Amazon has disrupted Google’s domination on search. However, Google still has the upper hand in regards to flexibility. A brand can only advertise on Amazon if it’s selling a product. This is not the case on Google, as marketers can run all kinds of campaigns.
There’s no question that Amazon has come along way with its advertising. Once it does a better job of monetizing its ad platform, they might see even more success in the future.
