Getting Started Guide

Introduction

This guide will help you understand the basics

of Sponsored Products including: how to get

started, how to track campaign performance,

advanced features, and frequently asked

questions.

Getting Started

1 Registering for Sponsored Products

2 Goal setting and key terms

Creating a Campaign

3 Name your Campaign

4 Determine a Daily Budget

5 Set a Start and (optional) End Date

6 Select a Targeting Type

7 Name your Ad Group

8 Set a Default Bid

9 Add Keywords

Track your Campaigns

10 Basic metrics

11 Advertising reports

12 Optimizing your campaigns

Advanced Features

13 Bulk Operations

14 Negative Keywords

15 Keyword Match Types

16 Bid+

Frequently Asked Questions

17 Frequently Asked Questions

Getting Started

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Registering for Sponsored Products

First, sign in to Seller Central, then visit the Campaign Manager section of the Advertising tab.1

2Next, ensure your default payment information is correct then select “Create Ad Campaign.” You will not

be charged until your ads receive a click.

Goal Setting & Key Terms

Goal Setting

Before you start building campaigns, it is important to know what business goals you want to

accomplish with your campaigns. Your business goals could be to drive sales of a new product, to

generate reviews, to improve sales of your low performing SKUs, to clear inventory, or to advertise

your entire catalog to drive more traffic to your products.

Key Terms

Campaign Manager is the control panel that enables you to manage your ads, set your advertising

spend and analyze the performance and return on investment for each of your campaigns.

Campaign is a framework for managing your ads so that you can accomplish your desired business

goals. The essential elements of a campaign include campaign name, start date, daily budget and ad

groups.

Ad Group is a collection of ads within a campaign that share a group of related keywords. Ad groups

allow you to further segment a campaign. A campaign is made up of one or more ad groups.

Ads are products you select to be advertised in your ad groups. An ad group is made up of one or

more ads.

Keywords are words used to target your ads to potential customers. You may select the keywords

you’d like to target using manual targeting or let Amazon select the keywords using automatic

targeting.

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Creating a Campaign

Create a Campaign – Name your Campaign

Create a Campaign Name

A campaign is a way to group your

ads under a common advertising

budget and dates. A campaign

consists of one or more ad groups,

which contain different ads and

keywords.

How to Segment

For example, you might create a

campaign for a specific line of products

(e.g. women's watches), for a specific

season (e.g. summer), for a special

event or holiday (e.g. Halloween), or

any other framework that helps you

manage your ads.

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Create a Campaign – Determine an Average Daily Budget

Set an Average Daily Budget

The daily budget is the average daily

amount you are willing to spend on

each campaign over a calendar

month. You can change your budget

at any time.

For example, if you set your daily

budget to $100, Amazon.com will

deliver up to $3,100 worth of clicks in

that calendar month, assuming you

start your campaign on the first day of

a 31-day month.

Your daily budget should be

determined based on how many

products you are advertising. For

example, a campaign with 100

products and a $1/day budget will

likely not receive significant traffic to

all the products.

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Create a Campaign – Set a Start and (optional) End Date

Setting a Campaign Time Frame

You may select the start and end date

for when you would like this campaign

to run.

The start date is generally the same

day the campaign is set up, but can be

set up for a date in the future for

holiday or other seasonal campaigns.

The end date is optional and we

recommend setting it to “No end date”.

If you do decide to set an end date,

we recommend at least two weeks

from the start date to ensure you gain

significant enough data to evaluate

campaign performance.

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Create a Campaign – Select a Targeting TypeAutomatic Targeting

Automatic targeting is the easiest way

to launch with Sponsored Products.

Campaigns with automatic targeting

are designed to generate more search

traffic to your ads because Amazon

targets your ads to all possible

relevant customer searches based on

your product information. Once your

campaign is running, you can view

which customer searches resulted in

ad impressions and clicks.

Manual Targeting

Campaigns with manual targeting use

keywords you specifically select to

display your ads. Amazon matches

the keywords contained in your Ad

Group to the search terms that

customers are using on Amazon.com.

You can choose from the list of

recommended keywords, add your

own keywords, or use a combination

of the two.

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Create an Ad Group – Name your Ad Group

Create an Ad Group

Campaigns are made up of one or

more ad groups. With manual

targeting, ad groups are used to group

together similar SKUs you want to

advertise that share the same set of

keywords and same maximum default

bid. With automatic targeting, ad

groups are used to group SKUs that

share the same maximum bid.

Name your Ad Group

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.

You may also leave the ad group as

“Ad Group 1” if you do not want to

further segment your campaign.

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Create an Ad Group – Set a Default Bid

Set a Default Bid

How much you bid depends on your

business goals for a particular

product. Your default bid should be

the maximum amount you are willing

to pay when someone clicks your ad.

This will apply to all clicks for this ad

group.

Winning Bids by Category

To help you understand the market

rate for clicks, we provide winning

cost-per-click bid by category in Seller

Central. You may hover over the

question mark next to Default bid or

search help for winning cost-per-click

bids by category to view these bids.

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Create an Ad Group – Adding Keywords *for Manual Targeting Campaigns only*

What are Keywords

Your keywords (word combinations

and phrases) determine the pages on

which your ads will be displayed.

Keyword targeting is essential to ad

performance. Amazon matches the

keywords contained in your ad group

to the search terms that customers are

searching for on Amazon.com. The

SKUs you list in the ad group can be

displayed as ads to the customer when

Amazon matches your keywords to the

customer's search terms.

Product Strategies

The keywords you choose must be

relevant to the products in your ad

group. Make sure that the keywords

reference product detail page

metadata. If Amazon determines that a

keyword is not relevant, then your ads

will not receive impressions when

customers search for that keyword.

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Track your Campaigns

Basic Metrics

Metrics Definitions

● Impressions: the number of times your ad was displayed.

● Clicks: the number of times your ad was clicked by Amazon shoppers.

● Spend: the total click charges accrued for your campaign, ad group, or ad.

● Sales: the total product sales generated within one week of clicks on your ads.

● ACoS: Advertising Cost of Sale – the percentage of attributed sales spent on advertising.

ACoS = Total Spend ÷ Total Sales

● Cost per Click: also known as CPC, the amount you are charged for a click on your ad.

● Click Through Rate: also known as CTR, the number of click-throughs as a percentage of

ad impressions.

● Conversion: the number of sales transactions generated as a percentage of ad clicks.

Where to Find Metrics

You can view the most basic metrics for each campaign, ad group, and ad in the Campaign

Manager, Campaign Details, and Ad Group Settings pages respectively. You can also customize the

time frame of the metrics (i.e. Week to date, Last week, Month to date, Lifetime, etc.).

Additional metrics are tracked in Advertising Reports. Advertising Reports can be found under

Reports >> Advertising Reports in Seller Central.

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Advertising Reports

The table below outlines what information each of the advertising reports contains.

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Report Name How to use the report? What metrics does the report track?

Performance Over Time See a summary of your clicks and

spend over a specified time period

Clicks, average CPC, and total spend in specified

timeframe

Performance by SKU See SKU-level click and impression

data summarized for all campaigns

Clicks, impressions, click through rate (CTR), total

spend, and average CPC for each SKU (ad)

Search Term Report See which customer searches triggered

your ads for the past 60 days

Actual search terms entered by customers that

generated at least 1 click on your ad, and impression,

click and conversion data for your ads

Estimated Page 1 Bid Report Compare your current keyword bids to

Amazon’s estimated page 1 bids for the

same keyword

Your maximum bid and the estimated page 1 bid for all

your active keywords in manual targeted campaigns

Other ASIN Report View details on the Other ASINs

purchased after a customer clicked on

your ad

Attributed sales of ASINs other than the advertised

ASIN the customer clicked on, and the keywords, ads,

ad groups, and campaigns that triggered such sales

Campaign Performance Report View comprehensive performance

history of your advertising campaigns

for the past 60 days

Clicks, impressions, click through rate (CTR), total

spend, average CPC of each SKU (ad), attributed

order units, attributed sales, and conversion for each

campaign, including results for each ad group, SKU,

and keyword

Optimizing your Campaigns

Adjust keywords

● Use the Search Term Report to identify high performing customer search terms and consider

adding these search terms as exact match and adjusting your bids to increase impressions.

● Look at SKUs with fewer than 5 keywords in manual targeting campaigns and consider

adding more keywords to your ad group.

Adjust bids

● Compare your current keyword bid to the estimated page 1 bid and your actual cost-per-click

to set your bidding strategy.

● Identify low impression keywords and consider increasing your maximum bid.

Add ads

● Use the other ASINs report to identify the other ASINs sold and review which ads (advertised

ASINs) and keywords were attributed to the sale.

● Consider creating new ads for these other ASINs and associated keywords.

Adjust daily budget

● For high performing campaigns that tend to go out of budget, consider increasing your daily

budget to avoid potential loss of sales.

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Advanced Features

Bulk Operations

Add New Campaigns, Ad Groups, Ads (Products), or Keywords

If you have a large number of campaigns, keywords or ads you would like to advertise, bulk

operations is the most efficient way to do so. Use the Sponsored Products Bulk Template to get

started or edit/add to the Bulk File with your existing campaign information.

Edit Existing Campaigns

Instead of updating your keyword bids or advertised products one-by-one in Campaign Manager,

you can download a .csv or .xlsx file of your campaign information, make changes in the file, and

then upload the file. You may upload only the lines with changes, or upload the full file.

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Negative Keywords Exclude low-performing customer search terms

The best way to identify negative keywords is

through the Customer Search Term Report. Look at

the data in this report to determine which customer

search terms have received significant traffic but not

performed well.

• Example: if a customer search term has

significant clicks but is not meeting your

advertising goals, you may use exact negative

keywords for that customer search term.

Refine your targeting to exclude less relevant

terms or terms you do not want associated with

your products or brands

You may use negative keywords to keep your ads

from displaying to less relevant customer search

terms or terms that you do not want associated with

your brand.

• Example: if you sell high-end running shoes, you

may not want your ad shown when the customer

search term includes “cheap”, so you may use a

phrase negative keyword.

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Keyword Match Types

Broad Match

This match type offers your ad broad traffic exposure.

A customer search term will match if it contains all the

keyword terms or their synonyms. The customer

search term can contain keywords or synonyms in any

order.

Phrase Match

The customer search term must contain the exact

phrase or sequence of words. It is more restrictive

than broad match and will generally result in more

relevant placements for your ad.

Exact Match

The customer’s search term must exactly match the

keyword in order for the ad to show, and will also

match close variations of the exact term. Exact match

is the most restrictive match type, but can be more

relevant to a customer’s search.

Note: You can’t change the match type of an existing keyword, but you can add multiple match types for one keyword.

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Bid+

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PlacementBid+ is only available for the top of customer

search results, no other placements will have

bids raised as a result of Bid+ being turned

on. Over time, Amazon may expand this

setting to include additional placements.

ActivationSelect a manually targeted campaign, and

then go to Campaign Settings. Then, check

the Bid+ checkbox.

CostWhen Bid+ is turned on, Amazon may

increase the maximum CPC bid by up to 50%

for all your ads that are eligible to appear in

the top of search placement only.

PerformanceYou can measure the impact of Bid+ in

Campaign Manager and in your advertising

reports. Compare a campaign’s click and

sales performance by observing results with

Bid+ turned off and then turned on. The

Performance Over Time Report and the

Campaign Performance Report can be used

to evaluate performance and return on

investment.

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Bid+ can help show your ads in the top of search results

Bid+ is a setting in Campaign Manager that can help increase the

opportunity for your eligible ads to show in the top of search results –

including the first row. When Bid+ is turned on, Amazon may increase

the maximum bid by up to 50% for your ads that are eligible to appear

in this placement.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How much should I bid?

A: You should bid as much as you are willing to pay for a click. As a new advertiser, you may wish to bid $0.25

or $0.50 for your keywords. Sponsored Products provides the estimated page 1 bid for manual targeted

campaigns within Campaign Manager to provide guidance on a competitive bid. To help increase impression

volume, you may want to increase your bids.

Q: Is there a minimum bid?

A: Yes, our minimum bid is $0.02, although we recommend bidding higher depending on your comfort and the

performance of the keyword.

Q: If there is a search term my ASIN is weak on, can using Sponsored Products help my ranking for

that particular term?

A: Sponsored Products provides the opportunity for your ad to show up on page 1 of the search results for any

relevant product. Also, anecdotally, some merchants have reported that sales driven by Sponsored Products

have contributed to natural search ranking improvements.

Q: What is a good value for Advertising Cost of Sale (ACoS)?

A: We know approaches to advertising vary across businesses, products and seasons, so we don’t make any

recommendations about managing to a specific ACoS value. Instead, we provide you with ACoS and other

helpful measurements so that you can see if Sponsored Products is meeting your advertising goals.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Q: If you create two campaigns (an automatic and manual for the same product) will you be bidding the

cost up for yourself?

A: No, you will never compete against yourself as long as you’re using the same Seller Central account.

Q: Can I flip my automatic targeted campaign to a manual targeted campaign and vice versa?

A: There is no automated way of doing so, but you may use the learnings from your automatic targeted

campaign to create a new manual targeted campaign.

Q: Why can I not receive impressions if you are not in the buy box?

A: You do have to be winning the buy box for your ad to be displayed. We want to avoid sending customers to

a product detail page if another seller is winning the buy box so they don’t potentially gain a sale from your

advertisement.

Q: Does Amazon have a way for us to see the most relevant search terms for our types of products?

A: Sponsored Products provides “suggested keywords” when you are setting up a manually targeted

campaign, which is a great way to see relevant search terms for your products. However, we do not provide

insight into volume of keyword searches at this time.

Q: How long does it take to update the sales information in the visual report?

A: We use a 7-day sales attribution window in the Campaign Manager UI, so sales may update for up to seven

days after the customer clicked on the ad.

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