Whenever you start working with a strategy, it is important to know what to avoid, such as mistakes in Amazon Ads. You can have the best techniques to advertise and sell your products on this platform, but if you do something wrong, all your efforts will be lost.
The digital world evolves over the years, which is why it is always innovating. And the most famous American e-commerce company of all is no exception. That is why there are constant updates on its platform in order to provide a better shopping experience for its customers.
But to make the most of this platform you need to structure a good strategy and most importantly know all the mistakes in Amazon Ads that you should avoid. This will help you reach all your consumers much more effectively.
The 8 Amazon Ads mistakes to avoid
Some people believe that it is enough to have a good plan to get your brand known and promote your products. But the truth is that you need to go further, be aware of the best tactics to apply, but also know the mistakes in Amazon Ads to avoid:
1.- Thinks that Amazon is run like Google
One of the most common mistakes people who use Amazon Ads often make is that they tend to program it as if it were Google paid ads. Certainly, the terminology and general principles are very similar, however, the ads on this e-commerce platform are structured differently.
In fact, the types of matching, although labeled as in Google, have very different definitions. In the case of the Internet giant, these are close variations of the keyword, related searches and other relevant ones. And keywords do not necessarily have to be in a user’s search.
Whereas for Amazon sponsored products, generic matching refers to the customer’s search term. It must contain all keyword terms or similar variants. And the words can be in any order and contain additional words.
2.- Does not work with ASIN codes.
Keep in mind that campaign structure is essential in order to expand your ads. And other mistakes that are made in Amazon Ads are that many do not work with the Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN).
For this reason, it is important that when you create product group campaigns you use one ASIN per ad group. Because there is no breakdown in the reports showing which search term converted to which product. But you can see the performance of each search term.
If you have multiple related ASINs in the same ad group, there are likely to be high-performing keywords. And at the same time, low-performing keywords will appear to have acceptable performance.
3.- Bypass the structure of your ads
Another of the big mistakes in Amazon Ads that newbies make is that they think that because they are paid campaigns they don’t need structure. The reality is that any campaign requires a well-planned strategy to be successful.
A good way to structure your ads without all the complications is to keep two key goals in mind:
- Promote profitable sales: consider that sellers who focus on profitability make sure they don’t overspend to make the sale profitable.
- Improve organic placement: it works to drive keyword sales to increase organic placement, and this is one of the best ways to position your listing for sales.
The best thing you can do to effectively structure your ads is to work with only one goal at a time. Because one is not compatible with the other, so you have to work them separately so you can see results.
4.- Make changes and reduce the advertising budget.
People who have worked with ad campaigns on Google or Facebook know that there is a learning phase. And although each platform works differently, don’t forget this point when you start running your ads on Amazon.
Typically there is 7-14 days of lead time before significant changes are made. And this is also where the traditional learning phase enters, through which a campaign starts running with optimized potential.
It should be noted that Amazon Ads reports have a 48-hour delay to most reports. Why is it important to keep this information in mind? Because by knowing this lag you can make the necessary changes to your campaigns.
Also, it is known that in general, manual campaigns on Amazon can take 30 days to mature. Therefore, if you have keywords in a campaign that are not getting any impressions, you should perform the following steps:
- Check if the keyword is relevant to the product.
- Assign a month to the campaign so that it can optimize and start showing all keywords in a specific ad group.
5.- Do not do exhaustive keyword research
Among the mistakes in Amazon Ads is one that is clearly related to keywords, as some people do not check them. Think that if you work with a lot of keywords without analyzing them properly, this can affect your budget and you will lose a large amount of sales.
This is why it is so important to use the correct number of keywords. And the beauty of running ads on Amazon is that you can test which end-of-channel keywords are converting for your product.
We recommend that you test at least 50-500 keywords per ad group. But it is imperative to run tests and it is a mistake to assume that exact or broad is the best solution.
Keep in mind that different products work better with different media. So what you need to do is test all types of matches before you make the decision to increase the size of your ads.
6.- Skip your inventory management
As in any campaign, conversions are one of the goals to be achieved, and in the case of Amazon Ads it is no exception. Therefore, keep in mind that the organic ranking and effectiveness of your campaigns depend largely on the management of your inventory.
A good example, when a specific product is completely sold out, all possible conversion events are stopped. And this in turn opens the door for competitors to win back sales and market share.
What happens if you run out of stock on Amazon? Simple, your ads will stop running automatically. This will cause the loss of any improvement in organic search ranking gained through advertising.
So, if you realize in time that you are running out of inventory, we recommend that you reduce your ad spend. This way, you are slowing down your sales and can prevent them from running out before your supply reaches Amazon.
7.- Wasting Amazon’s resources.
For some people, Amazon is a new world they need to explore, so you should avoid getting started on your campaigns without knowing it. Don’t make the mistake that many people fall into by not taking advantage of all the resources offered by the platform itself.
Amazon has a wide variety of resources available so you can stay up to date. For example, there is the Learning Console, it’s a course and test that gives you the ability to get certified by Amazon to publish ads.
These courses are detailed and are responsible for analyzing a lot of details and definitions that you will need to publish ads on this platform. And it also offers tips for optimizing your advertising for both Amazon Ads and for posting ads in Seller Central.
