2016 Q4 Amazon Virtual Summit_CPC Strategy

PowerPoint Presentation

The 2016 Q4 Amazon Virtual Summit

HOW PROFESSIONAL AMAZON SELLERS CAN PREPARE FOR THE HOLIDAY SHOPPING SEASON

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Q4 Summit LayoutDay 1 Preparing Your Product Listings For Q4 Success

Day 2 Lucrative Q4 Sponsored Product Strategies

Day 3 Creating a Winning Q4 Game Plan

Event Logistics

Submit Questions In the Chat Box to the RightSession Recording Will Be Sent 8/12/16 More Resources In the Handouts Section to the RightPoll Questions Throughout Presentation

Q4 Summit Event CoordinatorNick CotterMarketing Operations Coordinator

OVERVIEW

Founded in 2007Recognized as an Official Google Shopping Partner300+ Active Retail ClientsTop 50 fastest growing company in San Diego 4 years

CLIENTSSOLUTIONS

Retail-focused Paid Search (PPC)Google Shopping ManagementShopping Channel ManagementAmazon Sales Acceleration

About CPC Strategy

Facebook Group:Amazon Sales Acceleration Mastermind

Ask to Join Group

Facebook.com/groups/AmazonSalesMastermind

August 24th 11am-12pm (PST)Register: Link in Chat Box

Ask an Expert: What Vendors Need to Know About A+ Content

Improving Search Relevancy, Customer Conversions & Sales

Todays Event Speakers

Pat PetrielloHead of Marketplace StrategyNick SandbergProgram Development ManagerJeff ColemanVP of Marketplace Channels

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Poll For The Audience

Are you currently making optimizations to your SP campaigns?

Yes, consistentlyWhen I have the timeNot currently running SP campaigns

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Scaling Amazon PPC Preparing Your Sponsored Product Campaigns for Q4

HOW PROFESSIONAL AMAZON SELLERS CAN PREPARE FOR THE HOLIDAY SHOPPING SEASON

Agenda

Leveraging Your Amazon Prime Day Data for the Shopping Rush Refining & Sculpting Your Sponsored Product Campaigns for Q4 Optimizing Sponsored Product Campaigns with Advanced Match Types ROI vs. Rank-Driven Campaign Buildouts Sponsored Products Rule Based Bidding LIVE Q&A

Leveraging Your Amazon Prime Day Data for the Shopping Rush

www.CPCStrategy.com | 619.501.6138 | [email protected]

What Happened on Amazon Prime Day 2016?

The good, the bad & the ugly

The Good:Amazon Prime Day 2016 increased customer orders more than 60 percent worldwide.Amazon Prime Day was named the biggest day ever for Amazon devices globally.Top selling items included TVs, toys, shoes, laptops, vacuums, & headphones.Amazons week of deals leading up to & on Prime Day saw the largest boost in sales.Some sellers saw significant increases in sales even without any additional deals (due to traffic increase).This year, Amazon introduced a stronger arrangement of deals at more attractive discounts.Amazon was much more selective and calculated with their Lightning Deal and featured deal selections.Sellers leveraging Lightning Deals saw the greatest amount of success.Strong sales for higher order value items & one-off purchases (such as gifts, games, etc.)

The Bad:Amazon sellers did not have the ability to submit their own Lightning Deals / Deals of the Day. (invitation only)The Amazon Promotions Team overbooked their Vendor Lightning Deals. This lead to a second revision process.The Lightning Deal overbooking lead to last minute cancellations for Sellers who were previously approved for Lightning Deal participationSome Prime Day Deals were cancelled without sending the Seller a notification email.For the most part, heavily focused FBM (Fulfillment by Merchant) Sellers saw very little lift.12


How Can We Leverage Amazon Prime Day Data for Q4?

"The online retailer announced, without giving specific figures, that its Prime Day 2016 was the biggest ever. Not just in terms of other Prime Days, either, but the biggest day in the history of Amazon.

Tuesdays customer orders were up by more than 60 percent worldwide, compared with last years Prime Day, and up by more than 50 percent in the U.S." (Tech Crunch)

Sellers leveraging Lightning Deals saw the greatest amount of successStrong sales for higher order value items & one-off purchases (such as gifts, games, etc.)Top selling items included TVs, toys, shoes, laptops, vacuums, & headphonesSome sellers saw significant increases in sales even without any additional deals (due to traffic increase)

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Refining & Sculpting Your Sponsored Product Campaigns for Q4


CPC Strategys Approach to Success on the Marketplace

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Role of Sponsored Products in Q4

What Role Does Sponsored Products Play In A Sellers Overall Q4 Marketplace Strategy?

Acceleration program for newer or low-exposure ASINsDiscoverability lever for your top Buy Box offersIncremental revenue driver

Sponsored Products AuctionHow the Sponsored Products Auction Works:

When a customer searches or browses Amazon for products, Amazon finds all Sponsored Products ads that contain keywords that match the customer's search or browse page. In the case of Automatic Campaigns where there are no keywords, product content is used to determine relevancy.

Amazon first removes any Ads that are not currently winning the Buy Box.

The ads are then analyzed for relevance. Ads that are determined to not be relevant are removed from the auction. For example, a customer has searched for the term "kitchen blender." If a seller has bid on the keyword "kitchen blender" in an ad group that contains bath towel ads, Amazon determines the bath towel ads are not relevant and removes them from the auction.

The remaining ads are then ranked and displayed to Amazon customers in the ad rank order. Ad rank is based on the seller's bid and the likelihood the ad will get clicked.

*Campaigns that have been active longer have a better chance of showing ads. Click history plays an important role in Amazons bidding algorithm*Source: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/help.html/?itemID=201528470&ref_=ag_201528470_a_r0_cont_sgsearch


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Automatic Vs. Manual Campaigns Is There A Choice?Automatic Campaigns

We recommend sellers build out Automatic Campaigns first, to help them better understand which ASINs to run.Automatic campaigns are designed to drive more impressions & traffic of your products by casting a wider net than Manual Campaigns.With Automatic campaigns, Amazon will serve your ads to all relevant customer searches based on your product information.

Q4 Pro Tips:

Tip 1: Give All Your Products a Chance to Perform

PRO-TIP: For Automatic Campaigns, we recommend sellers start with an initial bid level of $.15 to $.25 per product. Let the winners rise to the top and remember to let the data do the talking. Dont try and select your top ASINs before hand.

Tip 2: Listen to Your Search Term Data

PRO-TIP: Sellers should also keep in mind that the keywords their customers are using to search for their products now might not be the same popular keywords in 6 months. Its important to keep Automatic campaigns up and running (even after youve built out your Manual Campaigns, Phase 2) - so you can continue to harvest new popular search terms and other valuable data.

Tip 3: Allow Sales Metrics to Catch Up

PRO-TIP: Typically youll see a 48-72 hour delay in Sales metrics compared to Click and Spend metrics to catch up in the sponsored product campaigns.

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Automatic Vs. Manual Campaigns Is There A Choice?Manual Campaigns

Unlike Automatic Campaigns, Manual Targeting is based on keyword(s). This is why we usually recommend sellers start off with Automatic Campaigns before building out their manual campaigns.

We recommend selecting a name for your Ad Group(s) that you will easily recognize, for example bath towels or phone cases. Amazon will prompt sellers to scroll or search to select all the relevant products to include in this Ad Group.

Q4 Pro Tips:

Tip 1: Goals Will Determine Ad Group Differentiation

PRO-TIP: Segmenting your products is just one of the ways sellers can start to dissect and optimize their advertising. This ultimately can reduce wasted ad spend and increase the opportunity for your products to be found organically.

Tip 2: Build a Relationship Between Your Keywords & Custom Bids

PRO-TIP: It behooves sellers to have a human analysis of their products to gauge how customers are actively searching for and finding their products in the Marketplace (for example recent seasonality or popular trends).

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Example of Automatic vs. Manual Campaigns

Is it okay to keep my products in both manual & automatic campaigns, at the same time?Goals Will Determine Ad Group Differentiation Sellers can add up to 1,000 keywords per Ad Group

Give All Your Products a Chance to PerformData HarvestingActions are driven by your companys goals

AutomaticManual

Optimizing Sponsored Product Campaigns with Advanced Match Types


Broad Match TypeWhen to Use Broad Match:

This match type offers your ad broad traffic exposure. A customer search term will match if itcontains all the keyword terms or their synonyms. The customer search term can contain keywords or synonyms in any order.

Impact of Broad Match Types:

Maximize volume and visibility on Amazon. Ads triggered by words in your key phrase regardless of the order.

Q4 Pro Tips:

Tip 1: If volume is your goal, bidding up is a great way to increase traffic

PRO-TIP: Youll want to closely monitor your budgets in preparation for increased traffic and clicks during Q4

Tip 2: If you want to remain ROI focused, bid down slightly

PRO-TIP: Use ACoS as your key metric to determine advertising efficiency

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Phrase Match TypeWhen to Use Phrase Match:

The customer search term must contain the exact phrase or sequence of words. It is morerestrictive than broad match and will generally result in more relevant placements for your ad.

Impact of Phrase Match Types:

Not as restrictive as Exact Match, but can still filter out searches that might not be relevant.

Q4 Pro Tips:

Tip 1: Similar to Broad Match in that this match type will drive more volume than Exact Match and typically more efficient than Broad Match from an ROI standpoint

Tip 2: Good way to increase visibility while still refining target audience

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Exact Match TypeWhen to Use Exact Match:

The customers search term must exactly match the keyword in order for the ad to show, and willalso match close variations of the exact term. Exact match is the most restrictive match type, butcan be more relevant to a customers search.

Impact of Exact Match Types:

Less volume, but if you select your Exact Match keywords properly, higher ROI than other match types.

Q4 Pro Tips:

Tip 1: Bid up on Exact Match Type Keywords that have proven performance in the past to take advantage of additional traffic

Tip 2: Use historical Sponsored Products advertising data to make the most effective Exact Match keyword selection

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Negative KeywordsWhen to Use Negative Keywords:

Negative keywords allow sellers to refine their target audience and improve the performance of their Sponsored Products campaigns.

Negative Keywords:

Negative keywords can be used with phrase & exact match types, BUT you cannot change the match type of an existing negative keyword.The most common negative match type is exact.Used to exclude low-performing customer search terms.Omit terms you do not want associated with your products or brands.Match TypeExample KeywordAds dont show on search Queries that containExcludes shoppers search queries like theseDoesnt exclude shopper search queries like theseNegative PhraseBoys ShoesThe complete phrase or close variationsBoys shoes, boys shoes 10Shoes for boy, boys red shoes, shoes boysNegative ExactBoys shoesThe exact phrase or close variationsBoys shoes, boys shoeBoys shoes 10

Source: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/help.html/?itemID=201851200&ref_=ag_201851200_h_r0_cont_sgsearch

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Negative Keyword Example

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ROI vs. Rank-Driven Campaign Buildouts


Setting Goals Direct ROI vs. VisibilityROI-Focused CampaignsEvery $ spent needs to bring $X back in revenueLower volume, but higher ROIFocus: long-tail keywordsPrimary KPI: ACOS

Ranking-Focused CampaignsGoal of the campaign is to maximize sales velocityHigher volume, but lower ROIFocus: popular keywordsPrimary KPI: Organic Ranking

Why are these competing goals?

Lets use an example for Keyword XYZBid level: $1ACOS: 100%Monthly spend: $1,000What do I do?

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ROI-Focused Strategy Rules of ThumbStart with Both Automatic & Manual Campaigns1 product per Ad GroupSearch Term data only exists at the campaign & ad group levelsKey bids low & scale up slowly as ROI allows$0.10 starting point$0.05 - $0.10 increments per week if ROI is positive OR if bid is too low to rankHarvest keywords as necessary to move into Manual campaigns

Other factors that influence discoverabilityBuyability factors influence conversion rate on paid traffic29


Keyword Harvesting from Auto Campaigns

Start with Automatic CampaignsOnly source of On-Amazon keyword performance dataSafe way to harvest keywords at a positive ROIAmazon wont give you SKU data in this report so its important to limit your ad groups to 1 product each



Keyword Harvesting from Auto CampaignsColumns To Pay Attention To For Keyword Harvesting:Campaign Name (Only look at your automatics)Customer Search TermACOSOrders Placed



Ranking-Focused CampaignsManual campaigns to target key terms you know you want to rank forKeyword SourcesAutomatic campaigns high-volume search termsCommon-sense termsTools like Merchant Words or AMZ Tracker to identify best variations to rank forUse existing organic rank to qualify keywords to target



Ranking-Focused CampaignsUsing Existing Organic Rank

If Rank > 300, SP alone probably isnt going to impact your ranking for that term in a meaningful way

However, it can move products that rank well for the target keyword farther up the SERP

VAVA Voom speaker highlighted here currently at position 45 for a key search term



ROI Vs. Rank Driven Campaign Examples

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Sponsored Products Rule Based Bidding


Sponsored Products Rule Based BiddingWhen does rule based bidding make sense?Too many products, keywords, adgroups, and campaigns to manage effectively within Campaign ManagerA more scientific and consistent approach to adjusting bids that you can refine and perfect over time

Overcome limitations of Campaign Manager:

Campaign Manager lookback is limited (YTD, MTD, WTD, etc)Bids get averaged across these time periods (data is untrue)Ideally you judge performance since the last time you made a change

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Would you like to schedule an evaluation of your Amazon strategy?

Yes, Please.No, Thank You.


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Questions for the Experts?

Submit your questions in the chat box on the right www.CPCStrategy.com | 619.501.6138 | [email protected]

cpcstrategy.com/amazon-evaluationSchedule A Free 60 min. Audit

2016 Q4 Amazon Virtual Summit_CPC Strategy

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Transcript of 2016 Q4 Amazon Virtual Summit_CPC Strategy