Why You Need to Advertise Your Listings on Amazon

Amazon is a fantastic platform to sell on with millions of shoppers looking for products every day. When shoppers type in the search bar what they’re looking for, Amazon presents them with search results that Amazon thinks best represents what they’re looking for and gives Amazon the best chance of a sale.

Just like a Google search, these results can be many pages long. Customers generally don’t have the patience to wade through pages of results so if you want your product seen you need to be on the first page of search results, preferably visible before shoppers have to scroll down, and ideally be the first listing shown giving you maximum exposure. Where you appear on these search results is called your search ranking.

Amazon has a complex algorithm that decides what your ranking is for any particular search term (keyword). Originally Amazon determined your ranking by a combination of having the right keywords in your listing, how well your listing converted to a sale and whether your seller account is in good standing with Amazon. This is a simplified view of Amazon’s algorithm but you get the gist of it. Your position allocated from this algorithm is called an Organic Search Ranking because your position is not a result of advertising but purely on the merits of your listing.

As you can imagine competition for top spots is fierce and it didn’t take Amazon long to realize it could monetize these top positions through advertising. An advertised listing can be identified by the word “Sponsored” just under the image. If that word is missing, it is an organic result i.e. the seller didn’t have to pay for it to appear there.

Sponsored Product ads soon started pushing Organic listings down the page and taking the prime positions on searches.

Amazon then further developed its range of advertisements with a new type of ad called a Sponsored Brand ad. This ad is a banner ad that runs right across the top of the search screen effectively taking out the entire top row of search results!

This squeezed Sponsored Product ads down the page and pushed Organic listings even further down.

Amazon has since introduced another variation of Sponsored Brand ads called a Sponsored Brand Video. This plays a video much like a tv commercial and it appears under the first or second row of search results and again it extends right across the screen effectively taking out another row of products.

So when a shopper types in a search term, their search results page can have:

• A single banner Sponsored Brand ad taking the entire first row of results
• A row or two of Sponsored Product ads (which may have some Organic listings showing if Amazon rates them highly enough)
• A Sponsored Brand Video ad taking another row of results
• the remaining Sponsored Product ads and Organic Listings which then roll onto the following pages

As you've no doubt figured out, the Organic ranked listing is under considerable pressure these days and can struggle to get a decent billing unless Amazon's algorithm rates it very highly. This has led to a shift in sales away from purely Organic listings to listings running ads.

Amazon is currently up to 15 different ad variations which can extend out to around 35 depending on the product being sold, and you need to run multiple campaigns within each variation. Then you need to do all this for each and every one of your listings! And then you need to be constantly managing your ad spend to ensure your ads are optimized and not losing you money.

So if you aren't advertising (and doing it in a sophisticated manner) you are either leaving a lot of money on the table or burning a lot of money, and giving your competitors a free run to take sales from you.

Amazon even allows your competitors to run ads all over your listing page which if you don't have a defensive strategy for, means your competitors are stealing your customers right out from under your nose!

Are your sellers advertising your products on Amazon?

Are they covering all the advertising bases?

How much money are you losing on non-optimized ad campaigns?

Having an expert selling partner who can manage all your advertising needs is imperative for success on today's Amazon marketplace. Contact us if you'd like to learn more about how to easily increase your sales on Amazon or if you are interested in our FREE LISTING AUDIT showing you how your listing's currently performing on Amazon.