Amazon Budgeting & Amazon Advertising Tips with the Customer Journey Principle
As entrepreneurs, Amazon sellers should be well-versed in tried and true marketing strategies like the Customer Journey. The Customer Journey Principle helps you to market to prospective customers at different points in their decision-making process.
In this Amazon Advertising Tips guide, we’ll take a look at:
- The Stages of the Customer Journey…
- Amazon Advertising Tip #1: Budgeting Advertising During The “Needs Awareness” & “Search and Discovery” Stages.
- Amazon Advertising Tip #2: Advertising in the “Evaluating Alternatives” Stage.
- Amazon Advertising Tip #3: Budgeting Ads for the “Purchase Decision” Stage.
- Amazon Advertising Tip #4: Efficiently Budgeting for the “Post-Purchase” Stage.
- Final Thoughts
The Stages of the Customer Journey…
- Needs Awareness
- Search & Discovery
- Consideration & Evaluation of Alternatives
- Purchase Decision
- Post Purchase
In today’s blog, we’ll be discussing Amazon advertising tips and budgeting tips for pivotal points in the Customer Journey.
Amazon Advertising Tip #1:
Budgeting Advertising During The “Needs Awareness” & “Search and Discovery” Stages.
During these stages, your goal is to raise the awareness of online shoppers to the existence of a problem that they may or may not know pertains to them.
Ad Spend is used to target relevant audiences (sometimes wider), and then to drive traffic to a solution. This solution consists of a product or line of products that solve the stated problem.
Allocate 20% to 25% of your total ad spend budget to target relevant audiences in these stages. It’s important to determine a clear budget to ensure your ad spend isn’t used on audiences without a history of interest in your products.
Begin identifying targets that statistically have proven themselves as revenue generators and use them to create Awareness/Discovery campaigns. These campaigns will later ‘feed’ the different campaigns that address the other stages of the Customer Journey.
Always remember to set a clear Target ACoS specific to this stage. Because the purpose of this stage is generating awareness, the ACoS can be higher (you may operate at a loss in order to get massive exposure. The average range usually falls between 50% to 60%.
Keep in mind…
- During the Search and Discover Stage, you should make every effort to avoid high cost-per-click keywords that quickly eat into your overall ad budget. Focus should be on going after longtail keywords that are discovery-based, to determine what works best.
- Be sure to track your Cost per 1,000 Impressions. The maximum number of Impressions and Reach will be generated by Rest of Search, Product Detail Pages and Retargeting Ads.
- Tracking your New to Brand Orders Percentage will permit you to have a clear idea of how many new orders are a result of your ad spend during the Search and Discovery Stage.
Amazon Advertising Tip #2:
Advertising in the “Evaluating Alternatives” Stage.
The entire purpose of this stage of the Customer Journey is getting your ad in front of prospective customers who are now considering your products. You’ll want to use 25% to 40% of your total ad spend budget in this stage to spotlight the advantages that your products have over those of your competitors. Also, set a Target ACoS of no more than 60%.
Identify ASINs, search terms, and categories that have generated 3 to 10 orders with a moderate to low ACoS and use them to create ads (Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsor Display) to ‘cast a wide net’.
Include Category targeting campaigns and use refinements to only target based on your competitive advantages. The goal is to highlight advantages such as a lower price point, high star ratings, or a large number of positive reviews.
Keep in mind…
- Content should differentiate your products from your competitors, while building stronger relationships with a more relevant group of potential buyers.
- Content should focus on as many of the pain points potential buyers experience as possible, and then proceed to highlight the practical benefits of your products.
- Convey to potential purchasers if your price point is higher (versus your competitors’), why it’s justified by the benefits it brings to the buyer.
- Optimize for a break even or better ACoS.
Amazon Advertising Tip #3:
Budgeting Ads for the “Purchase Decision” Stage.
During the Purchase Decision Stage, the emphasis should be on the keywords and ASINs that are highly relevant to what your potential buyer desires.
First, review your sales data to isolate keywords and ASINs that have generated 10 or more profitable orders – you’ll want to bid aggressively on them during this Stage of the Customer Journey, using a higher portion of your ad spend budget.
Don’t be afraid to really push those bid prices – these are the targets statistically shown to deliver sales within your desired ACoS. Knowing your MAX CPC can help you to know where the “line in the sand” is as far as how high to bid.
Keep in mind…
- Your click through rate percentage will generally be higher because you are focusing on relevant audiences.
- Expect Impressions to be lower because there are a limited amount of keyword and placement volume because you are going after the very Top of Search with your ads.
- In certain situations, for example, where there is strong competition for a keyword, having a high cost-per-click may be unavoidable.
Amazon Advertising Tip #4:
Efficiently Budgeting for the “Post-Purchase” Stage.
The customers of the highest value are the customers who come back for more. This stage of the Journey is all about keeping your customers returning to purchase from your brand and reducing the likelihood that they will ‘stray’ to purchase from your competitors.
This is where having Brand Registry and using a variety of Amazon advertising formats becomes key. By mixing Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display, you can effectively protect your brand from your competitors attempting to target your brand (and steal your customers).
Final Thoughts
For sellers wishing to further explore tested, proven Amazon ad strategies, the Entourage Amazon Ads Playbook Series is available as a free resource. It contains step-by-step instructions for creating the same campaigns Entourage Management Services use to manage millions of dollars in Amazon ad spend.
Mike Zagare is a serial entrepreneur, a recovering physical therapist, and the founder of PPC Entourage. In 2015 he was able to successfully grow his ecommerce business with the power of Amazon Ads but found it difficult to navigate through data and spreadsheets. PPC Entourage was then born to help automate amazon ad optimization and creation. Since that time, Mike has helped thousands of sellers with their Amazon Ads through the company’s tools, educational resources, playbooks series and guest appearances.