As lockdown brought shopping online and restrictions remain in place on the high street, consumers are preferring to make their purchases from the comfort of their own home; and this change in consumer behaviour will only accelerate in the coming months.

With over 62% of UK customers starting their product search on Amazon, there is a huge opportunity for retailers and brands to prosper as part of the shift to online spending.

What will make this year even more exciting for Amazon is the development and maturation of their advertising platform. During Q4 last year, Amazon Ads saw a growth of 39% YoY, which has continued to accelerate throughout 2020; revenue is predicted to reach at least $64 billion this Q4. With Amazon Advertising an increasingly popular channel, the competition between brands is on the rise, so a well thought out and concise strategy is necessary to succeed.

To help our clients make the most of Amazon in the run-up to Christmas, NMPi by Incubeta has developed a tool to monitor product performance in the SERP so that you’re fully prepared for the holiday season. Learn more about what our tool can do – and five advanced tips for Amazon in Q4 – below.

Check Out Your Competition

Around 75% of customers start their shopping journey using the Amazon search box. Where a consumer doesn’t have any brand loyalty, they will head straight to Amazon to explore the platform’s vast and diverse product selection.

The first row on the results page is especially lucrative, as over a third of Amazon customers click on these products. Getting your advertising strategy in shape should, therefore, be a huge priority. However, you’ll be appearing alongside a whole page of competing products, so it’s essential to keep an eye on your competitors and consider their strategy along with your own:

• How do your products compare to the competition?
• Where do you rank on the results page?
• Is your product well reviewed?
• Are you price competitive?

These questions will help you identify where you are (and aren’t) competitive; ensuring you’re not wasting ad spend on keywords where you’re unable to compete.

Push Price & Review Competitive Products

Now that you’re aware of your direct competition, Amazon Market Monitor identifies what products you should be advertising. There’s little, if any, point driving traffic to a poorly reviewed product as this will only lead to wasted ad spend and a poor conversion rate.

Over 96% of Amazon consumers said price is the most important factor in their purchasing decisions, with reviews being a close second. The products to focus on, then, should either have better reviews (number and rating) than your competitors, or be more price competitive.

Regardless of how much you love your products, it’s important to prioritise customer interaction rather than branding. This is particularly important on Amazon, where brand has even less influence.

As we move into Q4, and closer to Christmas, it’s important to consider consumer behaviour and increased intent to purchase. You should be focusing your strategy on high potential products, deals and top performers. Using our Market Monitor we can easily deduce where our products will perform well with advertising and where it’s not worth our time and spend.

Identify Keyword Gaps

Deciding what products to advertise is only half the battle; it’s important that you also have an effective target keyword strategy in place to compliment your chosen products. The majority of advertisers will often focus their attention on high volume search terms, competing for those top-end customers. However, it’s important to remember that there are just as many customers searching for longer tailed, lower volume keywords that are still relevant to your product.

Researching product keywords to target leads to a higher (and cheaper) click conversion rates, allowing you to bypass competitors whilst they fight over top volume keywords. With an effective balance of aggressive advertising on lower volume keywords and a more conservative approach to higher volume keywords, additional revenue can be generated at an efficient ACoS.

Maintain Top Positions On Key Search Terms

Now that you have an efficient targeting strategy in place and have identified your keywords, it’s crucial to maintain your dominant position on the SERP. As previously mentioned, over a third of customers click through the first row of products on the search results page. As these are mostly made up of sponsored ads, a competitor can easily increase their bid and knock you down the page; stealing all your valued customers in the process. By regularly monitoring your campaigns, product performance and search results, you can identify when your product gets pushed back by competitors and act accordingly.

We are able to automate this process and implement position metrics into performance data and reports, therefore making position tracking far easier and efficient.

Maximise Share Of Voice Across Keywords

Brands should consider advertising multiple products across their keyword targets to raise brand awareness and improve performance across their portfolio as a whole. The more space you take up, the more noticeable you are, and the Amazon SERP is no different. By maximising your share of voice through the number of your products that appear on the SERP you can increase your presence, expand brand awareness and capture more customers.

Maximising your share of voice across keywords is an effective strategy to use in Amazon advertising. With sponsored ads being placed at the top, middle and bottom of the search results page, you can bid on any of your products, and ensure that your brand is in front of the consumer at any given time. This gives the user less chance to click through a competitors ad meaning they are more likely to purchase yours.

Once again, we have utilised our Market Monitor tool to calculate this new, competitive metric and implement this into our performance data and reports.

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Moving into Q4, it’s important that advertisers are familiar with Amazon Ads, and recognise the increasingly high levels of competition associated with the platform. With sponsored results appearing in nearly every search, the platform is expanding and business growth can be driven to new levels. With the help of our Market Monitor, we can level out our Amazon Ads activity, and in turn, sidestep the competition and boost sales. For a limited time only, to celebrate the release of the new tool, we are offering free audits of your Amazon activity or an analysis of your wider market, to help people realise their Amazon potential – fill in the form today for your free audit.