How to win the advertising battle on Amazon: Search and display strategies to jump-start 2023 sales

Many brands are entering the year with flat—or declining—budgets. You can’t assume what you did last year will work this year, and your average order value and conversion rates could decline from 2022 as consumers continue to be more money-conscious, said Ken Magner, strategist, marketplace search at Tinuiti, in a recent webinar. With these challenges in mind, now’s the time to take stock of your Amazon search and display ad strategies.

Balance keywords with product targeting:

• Identify low-performing keywords and plug them into the right marketplace data software to find high-volume keywords with lower competition.
• Avoid cost-per-click (CPC) battles and keyword bidding by prioritizing lower competition in keywords.

Branded keywords such as “North Face” and “Nike” have high search volume on Amazon, but “North Face” has lower competition so marketers are less likely to get into a CPC battle. For “Nike,” the better approach would be product targeting: finding what products are showing for that term and piggybacking off it.

Use Amazon’s new features, such as sponsored brand video and storefront, for results:

• Rank at the top of search results pages.
• Drive users to a brand store page versus a performance-designed product.
• Introduce consumers to your wider catalog versus a single product.
• Get consumers to “follow” your brand.

“Do you want a consumer to be brand loyal or product loyal?” Magner asked. “If I’m in the market for apparel, Under Armour is going to be my initial go-to. It doesn't matter which piece of apparel. For that reason, having a sponsored brand video on the top that is more focused on your brand versus a very specific product [is going to be a better tactic].”

Align your display advertising goals with the right key performance indicators:

• Growth: Increase new-to-brand orders and acquisition through increased upper-funnel retargeting.
• Efficiency: Focus on return on advertising spend through lower-funnel consumers who have expressed product interest.
• Retention: Prioritize subscribe-and-save subscriptions to drive increased lifetime value.

Why we care: We predict US digital ad spending will reach $278.59 billion this year, $5 billion lower than our original projections. “This is going to be a year of switching for consumers,” said Joe Elmquist, strategist, marketplace programmatic at Tinuiti. “How are you going to build your brand with consumers who are already product loyal?”

Watch the full webinar.

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