Amazon Marketing Services (AMS) is a suite of advertising tools designed to help businesses promote their products on the world’s biggest eCommerce platform. AMS provides brands with a range of ad formats that reach millions of potential customers.
In our comprehensive guide, we’ll outline how you can leverage AMS to capture potential customers on Amazon and drastically increase your overall revenue. We’ll also share the different ad formats available and how much AMS costs.
Table of Contents
- What Are Amazon Marketing Services (AMS)?
- How Does Amazon Marketing Services Work?
- Different Formats of Ads Available on AMS
- Key Features of Amazon Marketing Service
- Essential Benefits of Using Amazon Marketing Service
- Amazon SEO Strategies To Implement
- 4 Best Practices for Optimizing AMS
- How Much Does Amazon Marketing Service Cost?
- Should You Work With an Amazon Marketing Agency?
- Amazon Marketing Services Takeaways
- Amazon Marketing Services FAQs
What Are Amazon Marketing Services (AMS)?
Amazon marketing is like a self-contained subset of common digital marketing tactics. Amazon Marketing Services are the tools that brands can use to promote their products for the specific keywords their customers might be searching for within the Amazon marketplace.
On top of targeting keywords, sellers can also target potential customers based on related products, specific product types, categories, and more. This enables businesses to create custom audiences that exist solely in the Amazon environment.
Amazon’s net sales revenue in 2023 reached $575 billion. It caters to millions of customers in 100+ countries, making it a global eCommerce leader that attracts thousands of brands and independent sellers. Amazon digital media marketing through AMS will help your products stand out in this highly competitive marketplace.
Taking advantage of platform-specific advertising and strategic AMS places your products and business in front of valuable potential consumers. This boosts visibility, eCommerce transactions, and overall revenue.
How Does Amazon Marketing Services Work?
AMS provides advertisers with tools to create, manage, and optimize pay-per-click (PPC) ads that appear directly on Amazon’s platform. These ads present your product to your target audience on search results. You can also target individual product detail pages: an ad for your product can also be displayed before customers complete purchases from your competitor, thus influencing their buying decisions.
You can choose keywords or target audiences based on shopping behaviors, demographics, and interest categories. Ads are then shown to customers who are most likely to be interested in your offerings, click your ads, and complete a purchase.
AMS tools also enable you to manage your ad campaigns and adjust your budgets and bids. You can analyze performance metrics like impressions, clicks, and sales, and then use this data to optimize your strategies.
Different Formats of Ads Available on AMS
AMS offers a variety of ad formats to help brands promote their products on the platform. Here are the primary formats available:
1. Sponsored Products
Sponsored products are one of the most popular and effective advertising formats on Amazon. It allows sellers and vendors to promote individual product listings directly at the top of the search results page and individual product listings, helping boost visibility and sales.
To get the best results, choose products that are likely to convert — those with competitive pricing, many verified positive reviews, and optimized product pages. Make sure your listings have descriptive titles, clear images, and relevant bullet points. Test different items and categories with A/B testing to find what works best.
Sponsored products let you target customers based on the keywords they look up or their previous browsing and shopping behavior. You can also set your own budget and bids to control your ad spend.
2. Sponsored Brands
Sponsored brands allow businesses to feature their brand’s logo, custom headline, and up to three product listings in a prominent position on Amazon’s search results pages. This ad format is available for registered brand owners who are in good standing with Amazon.
You can choose from the following ad formats:
- Product collection: It displays your logo, headline, and up to three products linking to a custom landing page or Amazon storefront.
- Store spotlight: This highlights different pages on your Amazon store to promote various categories or product lines.
- Video: A highly engaging ad that auto-plays in search results and showcases product features.
Sponsored brand ads are perfect for building brand recognition and increasing visibility for multiple products in one ad. You can drive traffic for a product page, a custom landing page, or your Amazon store.
3. Sponsored Display
The previous two ad formats appear based on shoppers’ keyword searches. In contrast, sponsored display ads are centered on customer behavior. Customers are targeted if they have previously viewed or purchased a product in the same category or if they are currently browsing within a relevant category.
Sponsored display ads also appear on Amazon-owned and operated sites like IMDb, Twitch, and third-party destinations. Placements are selected based on your targeting tactics and budget.
Furthermore, sponsored display is also available for businesses that don’t sell on the platform, so you don’t need an Amazon seller account to create a campaign. This feature is only available in the US, Canada, the UK, Spain, France, Italy, and Germany.
4. Video ads
Amazon video ads appear on search result pages, product listings, and across Amazon’s ecosystem, including Amazon Prime, Fire TV, and Twitch. You can engage specific audiences with compelling visual content.
There are six types of Amazon video ads:
- Streaming TV: These ads appear on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Freevee, Twitch, Fire TV, and other Amazon-affiliated third-party publishers.
- Online video ads: These in-stream (before, during, and after video content) and out-stream (between text and images) ads appear on Amazon-affiliated sites, including IMDb, Twitch, and third-party publishers.
- Sponsored brands video: These video ads showcase product features and appear in the middle of search results or in product listings as part of sponsored brand ads.
- Sponsored display video: These ads appear across Amazon’s video platforms and third-party apps and sites.
- Sponsored TV: Connect with viewers as they watch content on Amazon’s streaming services and third-party services like Crackle and Bloomberg.
- Amazon Live: Educate and engage your audience through shoppable live streams.
Make sure to follow Amazon’s video guidelines to ensure your ads are accepted and provide a seamless viewing experience for potential customers.
5. Amazon DSP
Amazon DSP (Demand-Side Platform) allows brands to buy and programmatically manage ads to reach audiences where they spend their time. A DSP provides centralized media buying from different sources, and your brand can purchase display, video, and audio ads using Amazon DSP.
You can create your own ads or use Amazon’s eCommerce creative templates to create ads that will appear on Amazon stores, Amazon-owned sites and streaming platforms, and third-party publishers. Target audiences on mobile, desktop, or streaming devices to engage them across all touchpoints and various stages of the customer journey.
There are two primary options for Amazon DSP:
- Self-service: You are in full control of your campaigns, including audience targeting, and the platforms your ads will appear.
- Managed service: This is for companies that want access to Amazon DSP inventory and consultation services. It requires a minimum spend of $50,000.
Key Features of Amazon Marketing Service
The following AMS features enable you to promote your products and reach your target audiences effectively:
1. Keyword Targeting
Keyword-targeting campaigns increase ad impressions, clicks, and conversions. Amazon recommends including at least 25 keywords in ad campaigns and ad groups, ideally more to reach the broadest possible audiences.
The following keyword match types will help you control where your ads appear on Amazon:
- Broad match: Your ad will appear for searches that include your keyword in any order and for related terms. This provides the widest reach but the least precision.
- Phrase match: Your ad will appear when search terms include the exact sequence of your target keyword, with words before or after. This refines targeting while providing flexibility.
- Exact match: Your ad will only appear when the shopper looks up the exact phrase.
Sponsored products also offer automatic targeting options, where Amazon’s algorithm automatically matches your product to relevant keywords and product categories. Note that you won’t be able to change the keywords once the campaign starts.
Negative keyword match types prevent your ads from appearing on irrelevant searches. This is an important element of your keyword strategy as it eliminates the risk of ad clicks that don't lead to conversions.
Regularly check ad impressions and performance to see which keywords generate the most clicks. You can remove your lowest-performing keywords and increase your bids on the phrases that lead to sales.
2. Keyword Bidding
Keyword bidding is a central feature for ad campaigns on Amazon. In this auction-based model, ads are ranked and shown to shoppers based on your bid and relevance to their search. A bid is the maximum amount you’re willing to pay for each ad click.
Amazon offers the following bid types:
- Suggested bid: The platform’s recommended bid is based on recent winning bids similar to your keywords and products.
- Custom bid: You can set your own bids for each target keyword.
- Default bid: For sponsored product campaigns, you can link multiple target keywords to one bid.
There are also three bidding strategies for sponsored products on AMS:
- Dynamic bids - down only: Amazon decreases bids when ads are less likely to turn into a sale. This is the best option if you want to control spending and maximize your existing bids.
- Dynamic bids - up and down: Amazon increases and decreases bids as needed. The ceiling for bid increase is 50% and the floor for decrease is 100%.
- Fixed bids (default): Amazon will not adjust your bid throughout your campaign.
If you don’t get the clicks you want, you can increase the bid amount so your ad is shown to more customers. Closely monitor ad performance to adjust your bid strategies and amounts as needed.
3. Audience Targeting
Through precise, data-driven targeting, you can ensure your ads appear in front of potential customers based on their previous searches, product views, or purchase history.
Custom-built sponsored display audiences include:
- In-market: These shoppers are actively looking for products similar to yours. They are in the buying process, so they are highly likely to convert.
- Lifestyle: Target users based on broad lifestyle choices, like home improvement, luxury shopping, or fitness.
- Interests: These prospective customers are segmented based on their interests (e.g., US history, event planning, etc.), drawn from items that they frequently browse or purchase.
- Life events: You can drive brand awareness and push products relevant to life moments. For example, ads for household items are pushed to those planning a wedding.
You can also retarget customers who have already interacted with your brand or products but have yet to convert. They may have viewed product listings or added products to carts but abandoned them.
4. Budget Rules
Amazon Ads Campaign Manager has a budget rules feature that enables you to optimize your budget and bids. It automatically adjusts your spending during a specific timeframe or when your campaign meets specific goals. It prevents wasteful spending on underperforming campaigns and maximizes ROI.
AMS offers two types of budget rules:
- Schedule-based: You can set specific dates to increase your budget and target key shopping events like Prime Day, Black Friday, Christmas, Halloween, etc. Increasing your budget by 50% on these dates can boost your ads to capture millions of shoppers on the platform.
- Performance-based: You can also increase your campaign budget once you reach a certain threshold. For example, you can set your spending to increase by 10% when a campaign’s conversion rate hits 5%.
5. Detailed Reporting
AMS has a comprehensive reporting feature that provides in-depth insights into your campaign performance. You can track universal metrics like ad impressions, clicks, click-through rate (CTR), conversions, and return on ad spend (ROAS), giving a clear picture of how ads engage audiences.
These reports also include the following Amazon-specific data:
- Advertising cost of sale (ACOS): The percentage of ad spend relative to sales.
- Subscribe & Save metrics: This Amazon feature enables customers to schedule recurring deliveries for items they frequently use. These metrics provide insights into customer retention and recurring revenue.
Reports can be customized for specific goals (brand awareness, sales, traffic) and you can schedule regular updates to closely monitor ad performance.
Essential Benefits of Using Amazon Marketing Service
Millions of potential customers browse Amazon daily, so effectively marketing your offerings is critical to your success on the platform. Leveraging AMS brings the following benefits to your brand’s storefront:
- Targeted advertising: Robust targeting options ensure your ads reach relevant customers who are more likely to complete a purchase.
- Visibility: AMS enables you to showcase your products in prime positions, increasing visibility and driving traffic.
- Higher sales: Higher visibility and precise targeting lead to more conversions and sales, helping drive revenue.
- Cost-efficiency: The CPC model ensures you will only pay when someone clicks your ad. This reduces wasted spending and optimizes budget efficiency.
- Flexibility: You can easily adjust budgets, bids, and targeting options in real time, so you can continuously improve performance and maximize ROI.
- Comprehensive analytics: Detailed reporting tools provide critical insights into campaign performance, so you can refine your strategies and get better results.
Amazon SEO Strategies To Implement
Search engine optimization (SEO) is not restricted to Google, despite being commonly associated with the world’s biggest search engine. SEO is simply the process of optimizing web pages to rank higher in search engine result pages (SERPs). These can include Google, Bing, Yahoo!, and even Amazon.
Other than the PPC ad model, Amazon SEO is crucial to capturing consumers and increasing purchases. This is the process of optimizing product listings to improve visibility in search results, ultimately leading to higher revenue.
To improve product listing visibility on Amazon, brands need to beat what’s called the A9 algorithm, or the process that determines the order that products will rank based on the keyword phrases that users search for.
The A9 algorithm analyzes the following elements when determining search rankings:
1. Product Sales & Conversion Rate
This one is simple: the better your product sells on Amazon, the higher its listing will rank. A high conversion rate shows that customers are finding the product relevant to their needs and are purchasing it.
The more consistent and higher the sales, the more favorably the algorithm views the listing. You can increase conversions by offering sales, deals, incentives, and competitive pricing.
2. Reviews
Listings with ratings of 4 stars or more generally rank well as they reflect consistent customer satisfaction. Positive and detailed testimonials demonstrate the item’s reliability and foster trust with other shoppers.
The volume of reviews also plays a role in ranking — products with more reviews tend to be viewed as more credible by shoppers and Amazon alike.
3. Questions
Amazon shoppers have the option to ask questions about your products. Although other consumers can answer these on the forum, brands directly providing guidance adds a layer of credibility and improves Amazon SEO performance.
4. Product Listing
A well-structured and complete product listing ensures customers have all the information they need before purchasing. Plus, it helps Amazon understand exactly what your product is and categorize it more accurately in listings.
Critical elements to optimize in your Amazon product listings include:
- Keyword placement: Your primary keyword should be integrated throughout your product listing, including the title, bullet points, and description. Ensure they appear naturally within the text while emphasizing what makes your product stand out.
- Bullet points: Concisely summarize key product features and include relevant keywords that potential buyers might search for. Use simple, clear language to explain how your product addresses your customers’ problems.
- Product description: Elaborate on your bullet points and explain how each feature benefits customers. Use persuasive language to describe how it will solve customers’ problems. End with a convincing call-to-action (CTA) to encourage customers to purchase.
- Images: Use high-resolution photos (at least 1000x1000 pixels) that show the product from different angles, close-ups of important features, and while in use. You can also use videos to demonstrate how the product works.
The success of your Amazon ads is directly correlated with your Amazon SEO.
“These campaigns are very much tied to the Amazon marketplace search engine ranking performance of a specific product,” says Brent Nau, former Director of Operations at Thrive Internet Marketing Agency. “Sales velocity and clicks improve a product’s ranking and visibility in the marketplace. Amazon Ad campaigns help kickstart and support that process.”
4 Best Practices for Optimizing AMS
To maximize what AMS can do for your brand and your product listings, follow these best practices:
- Frontload keywords in your product titles
- Keep campaigns focused
- Don’t rely on automated campaigns
- Combine Amazon SEO and sponsored ads
1. Frontload Keywords in Your Product Titles
“Prioritize the first 60 characters of the product title,” says Nau. “If you are able to create a product title that not only clearly communicates the product you are selling, but can incorporate your top target keyword, it will help greatly in your Amazon SEO efforts.”
Craft a title that is easy to read and includes key features like brand, model, size, color, or material. A well-structured title should help customers and the A9 algorithm understand the product at a glance.
2. Keep Campaigns Focused
Don’t put all your eggs in one ad campaign or one product listing. Streamline your strategies and define SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) objectives to guide your decisions for a campaign.
Honing in on well-defined goals (boosting brand awareness, driving traffic, or increasing sales by specific percentages within a set timeline) will ensure your ads and listings reach the most relevant audiences and drive higher conversion rates. Focused campaigns also simplify performance tracking, enabling quicker adjustments to improve effectiveness.
3. Don’t Rely on Automated Campaigns
Amazon offers automated PPC ad campaigns, which are quicker to set up and launch. However, we recommend taking the time to create each campaign individually. This will allow you to customize every aspect of your campaign to your specific needs and ensure a better success rate.
Luckily, plenty of marketing firms like Thrive Internet Marketing Agency can set up expert digital ads on Amazon.
4. Combine Amazon SEO and Sponsored Ads
With complicated search engine optimization tactics and paid ads on the table, how can brands determine which marketing initiatives they should prioritize first?
Thrive Internet Marketing Agency recommends the best of both worlds: investing in proper Amazon SEO — particularly keyword optimization — and coupling that with Amazon-sponsored advertisements.
“This amount of control gives the seller the power to work towards generating their ideal ROI on their advertising campaigns while solidifying a product's place within the organic search results of the marketplace,” says Brent Nau.
How Much Does Amazon Marketing Service Cost?
AMS costs vary depending on the goals of the business. Expenses are dependent on the number of ongoing campaigns and the cumulative daily budget of each one at any given time. Here’s a breakdown of key cost components:
- Sponsored products: CPC ranges from $0.2 to $3 per click, depending on the category and competition. In 2022, the median CPC for Sponsored Products was $0.98.
- Sponsored brands: CPC is from $0.5 to $6 or higher, as they target broader audiences.
- Sponsored display ads: CPC is similar to Sponsored Products but can multiply with advanced targeting.
- Amazon DSP: This is a cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM) model, with costs for self-service campaigns ranging from $2 to $10 or higher. Managed service requires a minimum spend of $50,000.
Sponsored products and sponsored brands typically have a minimum daily budget of $1. High-demand product categories like electronics and beauty have higher CPCs due to competition. Ads appearing in premium positions also have higher costs.
Thrive Internet Marketing Agency recommends that brands budget at least $20 per day per individual campaign to allow for the best chances of success.
Should You Work With an Amazon Marketing Agency?
Partnering with an Amazon marketing agency enables your brand to focus on your core business, and marketing experts do what they do best: optimize your campaigns and increase eCommerce conversions.
Amazon SEO and paid ads are complicated. Brands that attempt to manage campaigns themselves can run into a lot of undue stress and inefficiency, particularly if they have a robust online shop.
When you partner with an AMS company, digital marketing experts take over creating, launching, managing, and optimizing all of your campaigns. Meanwhile, you can focus on fulfillment, customer service, other marketing efforts, and more, leading to long-term growth and success.
Amazon Marketing Services Takeaways
With flexible budget options, advanced targeting, and a variety of ad formats, AMS is suitable for businesses of all sizes and varying long-term goals. The suite of advertising tools enables you to optimize ad campaigns and maximize your spending.
Partner with the top Amazon marketing agencies to leverage AMS effectively and enhance your presence and profitability in a highly competitive marketplace.
Amazon Marketing Services FAQs
1. How to qualify for Amazon marketing services?
To utilize Amazon marketing services' features, you must have the following: Seller Central, Vendor Central, Advantage Central, or Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). Agencies representing an Amazon merchant can also obtain access to AMS.
2. How to measure the success and effectiveness of AMS campaigns?
To measure the effectiveness of AMS campaigns, track metrics like impressions, click-through rate, conversion rate, return on ad spend, and advertising cost of sales. Regularly analyzing this data ensures your AMS campaigns are driving results.
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