Amazon PPC Agency Secrets: 2 Hidden Problems With Amazon PPC Management Services

 

What Is Amazon PPC (And Why Does It Matter)?

 

Amazon PPC (pay-per-click) is a marketplace where advertisers can pay for placement inside Amazon’s search results. For most ad types, Amazon sellers bid on keywords in the hopes that their products will be displayed when a user searches for those terms.

Therefore, all things being equal, the highest bidder should win. But, this is the root of the first Amazon PPC Agency problem.

The highest bidder does not necessarily win…

 

Unlike other paid ads platforms (Google Ads, social media ads, etc.) Amazon doesn’t just care about clicks.

Why?

Because, unlike other platforms, paid ads are not the main source of revenue for Amazon.

Amazon also gets paid when any products sell on Amazon. 

Now, that may sound stupidly obvious, but this fact has really deep implications when you manage Amazon PPC campaigns. You see all those FBA fulfillment fees and those FBA referral fees. All those fees (the ones that you hate to pay) only get charged when you sell a product. 

In fact, Amazon actually makes more money from fees than from PPC alone.

This means that ultimately, Amazon wants the same thing you do.  Amazon wants you to make a sale! When you make a sale, Amazon gets to charge you fees. 

So one metric that Amazon really cares about is your conversion rate – meaning, how many shoppers you turn into buyers.

 

 

Brands that have higher conversion rates actually win more traffic on Amazon:

• • More organic traffic

• • More PPC traffic

And the reason?

 

 

Amazon gleefully sends more traffic to high-converting listings because those listings ultimately make more money for Amazon.

• • More money from PPC

• • More money from Fees

This means that good PPC management will naturally involve more than focusing only on Paid Ads.

Let me show you what I mean…

 

The Amazon PPC Management Agency

Amazon ad agencies help brands create and manage effective and profitable Amazon advertising.

Depending on the business model of the Amazon agency, they may offer more or fewer services. Some amazon PPC management agencies also provide Amazon account management and Amazon marketing services, while others focus only on specific aspects of Amazon, such as Amazon PPC services.

And, full-service Amazon account management agencies do all the above.

However, all PPC services cover the basics.

 

The Amazon advertising agencies’ essentials:

• • Research for relevant keywords

• • Creating Sponsored Ads Campaigns

• • PPC analytics

• • Adjusting ad spend

• • Optimizing to lower advertising cost

• • Eliminating wasted ad spend

• • Crafting campaigns to build brand awareness

• • Boosting sales with proper bidding

 

The First Problem

 

Looking only at paid ads, and solely at the data that flows from paid ads, avoids one of the biggest factors in overall Amazon success.

As we just saw, Amazon cares about so much more than just PPC. They want those fees too!

That means that your overall success on Amazon ultimately means you must focus not only on PPC but also on sales conversions as well.

That’s why…

 

A Good PPC Management Company Will Look Here

 

While most Amazon PPC management agencies can get the basics done (the basics listed above) a good PPC management company will look beyond PPC advertising and focus on what it takes to get all of your Amazon assets working together to meet your overall business goals.

This means that a good Amazon PPC management service should also be able to identify areas where improvements can be made to maximize conversions and ROI from any angle.

It’s a reality that Amazon Ads PPC campaigns are constantly changing. This can be because of market forces or those ever-changing Amazon policies.

A good PPC management service will have its finger on the pulse of the latest trends in Amazon advertising and be proactive about making adjustments to PPC advertising based on policy changes.

They should also have extensive knowledge of all of the different types of Amazon advertising available, such as:

• • Sponsored Products ads

• • Sponsored Brands ads

• • Sponsored Display ads

• • Amazon DSP ads

• • Video ads

 

Furthermore, any Amazon PPC management service worth its salt should understand how these various ad formats work together to create an effective overall campaign management strategy.

Finally, they should be current with any new features or updates released by Amazon so they can keep their clients’ ad campaigns competitive (and out of the penalty box).

This level of service goes well beyond simply managing your paid ads campaigns.

A good PPC management agency should also be able to guide your Amazon SEO efforts with advanced PPC tactics that can help you rank better organically for great keywords (which increases ad efficiency and lowers the cost needed to acquire a customer).

That level of knowledge and consultation will get you to good, but to really hit home runs, you need more…

 

Top Amazon PPC Agencies Do More

 

The best Amazon PPC agency would need to go beyond simply managing ad campaigns. The best Amazon PPC agency would need to be a done-for-you service that both develops and implements an Amazon-specific marketing strategy to scale your brand using every available tool on the platform.

This is why the best PPC agency is really a hybrid service. The Hybrid is a beautiful blend of the best that PPC management agencies have to offer and the best Amazon marketing agencies have to offer.

This hybrid approach requires not only specialized PPC knowledge but an in-depth and holistic understanding of the entire Amazon marketplace.

The Hybrid Approach

• • Driving sales conversions with fresh creatives

• • Front-facing listing optimization for better SEO ranking

• • Customized marketing strategy for disruptive advertising

• • Organic ranking optimization for the right keywords

• • Active PPC managers monitoring of both bids and data

• • Brand Registry marketing initiatives that boost conversions

• • Amazon sellers account health management to keep ads running

 

This comprehensive understanding allows the Hybrid Amazon Agency to develop strategies and craft marketing creatives that drive more sales and increase ROI.

Hybrid PPC management agencies will work proactively for your brand on both PPC management activities and Organic Attraction activities to improve overall sales growth, brand exposure, and sales conversions.

 

Hybrid Account Management activities include:

• • Adjusting front-facing copy to organically rank for great keywords

• • Creating new image stacks that turn shoppers into buyers

• • Creating great A+ content that captures “below-the-fold” sales

• • Launching Amazon Posts to cast a wider net of brand exposure for free

• • Optimizing Amazon Storefronts to give brands a “safe place” to send traffic

• • Using Brand Registry benefits to A/B test creatives for constant conversion improvements

In other words, top Amazon PPC agencies don’t just focus on PPC!

 

What Are the Challenges Of Choosing an Amazon PPC Management Agency?

 

Because Amazon PPC has become a very popular ‘add-on’ for Digital marketing agencies, choosing the right Amazon PPC management agency can be a confusing task.

All of the digital marketing agency noise makes it difficult to know which service is best for your brand and budget.

Adding to the difficulty is assessing a potential agency’s Amazon-specific expertise.

This is where the next problem comes in…

 

The Second Problem

 

Digital marketing agencies that have expanded their “omnichannel” offerings to include Amazon PPC Management bring with them a pay structure that is the de facto standard in the off-Amazon world (ie. Google ads and social media ads management). These Digital marketing agencies often charge a base rate of $5,000 to $7,500 per month, and between 5% to 8% of the ad spend.

Agencies that rely on this percentage-of-ad-spend structure fail to take the whole of Amazon optimization into account. Specifically, they ignore many of the non-PPC factors that influence Amazon paid ads (those mentioned earlier).
Because of this lack of understanding, Digital agencies operating as Amazon PPC Agencies find themselves relying on paid clicks to rank for keywords that could otherwise enjoy ranking via proper Organic Attraction.

This means that PPC-only agencies either unwittingly (or sometimes intentionally) keep feeding monthly PPC budgets to inefficient and expensive keywords. This added expense increases the contractual monthly payouts to the agency (which, again, are based on the percentage of ad spend).

 

What Are the Benefits of Choosing a Good PPC Management Agency?

 

Choosing a good Amazon PPC management agency offers numerous benefits for brands looking to optimize their ad spend and grow Amazon sales.
A good agency will have an in-depth understanding of the whole Amazon ecosystem. This includes all the tools available in the Amazon marketplace. Plus, they will know how best to utilize those tools for maximum efficiency and growth.

They will also use paid ads data to identify profitable opportunities and develop PPC strategies to drive more sales and increase ROI.

Finally, they will be able to monitor advertising campaigns closely and make adjustments as needed in order to maximize performance.

 

Choosing the Right Agency Partner for Your Amazon Business

 

When selecting an Amazon PPC management agency, it’s important to assess your brand’s needs and objectives first.

Once you have identified your goals, you can begin researching the various solutions available and finding the right agency partner for your business.

It’s also important to evaluate any potential agencies based on their experience in using all available Amazon data to identify profitable opportunities and develop creative strategies that drive more sales and increase ROI.

If you are looking to stop wasting time and money on unprofitable Amazon ads you will want the best hybrid between an Amazon advertising agency and an Amazon marketing agency.

How can our Amazon PPC Agency help your brand?

Ecom Optimization is not a sprawling digital marketing agency that builds omnichannel presence. Ecom Optimization is not a group of generalists who work on any ecommerce platform.

Instead, we focus intensely (some would say ‘fanatically’) on only one marketplace – the world’s largest marketplace, Amazon.

The team at Ecom Optimization has been in the trenches making Amazon work since 2015. And we are more than just an Amazon PPC Agency, we are a team of fanatics that make up the best hybrid Amazon marketing agency around.

This means…

We know how to optimize your brand’s presence so that Amazon’s A10 search engine will list you alongside big brands (even without blowing through PPC budgets).

Plus, we know what it takes to get shoppers clicking onto your listing without wasting time or money on bad ad spend.  In fact, experience has taught us how to use PPC as a tool to help you increase revenue beyond sole reliance on advertising campaigns.

 

Sure, we do the Amazon advertising essentials…

• • Deep data dive into profitable keywords

• • Mine existing paid ads data for new opportunities

• • Monitoring and adjusting PPC bids to keep ACOS low and margins high

• • Creating strategic Paid Ads campaigns that move the brand to the front of the line

But we also…

 

Scale brands with advanced Amazon marketing and SEO to gain organic attraction for high-value phrases so you can avoid wasted ad spend.

How do we do it?

 

We start with alignment.

We take the time to understand what makes your brand unique. We make the effort to figure out what you need from Amazon to make it an economically viable part of your e-commerce business activities. 

From there we build a unique strategy to launch and manage your Amazon PPC campaigns. 

Our team of experienced professionals utilizes data-driven analysis and insights to identify profitable opportunities to drive more sales. We continually monitor, manage, and optimize PPC campaigns for maximum efficiency and make adjustments as needed in order to maximize economic benefits.

Case Study Results Of Our 10,000-Campaign Amazon PPC Agency

The team at Ecom Optimization has successfully managed 10,000+ Amazon PPC campaigns for our clients using our Hybrid approach. The results have been a steady flow of marked increases in revenue and improved ROI.

For example, one of our Hybrid Amazon PPC agency clients was able to enjoy a brand new $100,000-a-month sales channel within just a few months after implementing our strategies.

Additionally, we have also seen significant increases by going beyond PPC management and diving into on-page SEO and conversions with A/B testing of new creatives for better conversions.

Finally, we have also helped brands launch successful Amazon Brand Registry-based marketing initiatives that result in increased visibility and more sales for our clients.

Final Thoughts

As the world’s largest eCommerce platform, the potential for success with Amazon PPC is enormous – but only if managed correctly by taking into account the big picture.

The right partner can make all the difference when it comes to driving sales and increasing ROI from your campaigns.

 

Reach out for your Free Amazon Strategy Session