Mandeep Kaur: The Current State of Amazon PPC

Transcript: The Current State of Amazon PPC

[auto-generated transcript]

Welcome to ppc.zone, August, 2022. I'm your host, Jyll Saskin Gales. And I created this event to elevate new perspectives and insights in our industry. 

Well, next up in the zone, this speaker is a full time e-commerce business owner who uses the Amazon FBA model. Now she's going to share her perspective with us on the current state of Amazon PPC. This speaker wears many hats in her business, including product developer and marketing specialist, but she takes great pride in managing her PPC portfolio.

You may know her from her vakye-packed TikTok and Instagram content. Please welcome Mandeep Kaur.

Hello. And Corey, that was a great segue. And I just wanted to say that was not actually planned. So, welcome everybody. My name is Mandeep Kaur, and we are gonna discuss a little bit about Amazon's PPC and preparation I am doing currently for Q4. As Jyll had mentioned, I do my own PPC for a couple of different reasons.

I actually enjoy the analytics and the data that I collect. And I really just enjoy it. It's learning so much about how we are targeting our customers and the innovative ways Amazon is doing. It is something I'm just really interested in. So a little bit about me. I am a full time eCommerce seller. I come from a corporate background, but I decided to start an Amazon FBA business and like many people who start their own business, you end up bootstrapping and learning every aspect of the business. And I took a really deep dive on PPC, which I feel is one of my specialties. Now, the Amazon FBA model.

What a lot of people may not understand about Amazon is that Amazon does not hold all the inventory and sell all of these products. A lot of the products that are available on Amazon are actually made available via small businesses, such as myself. So it's called the fulfilled by Amazon model, which allows me to send in my inventory to Amazon and Amazon picks and packs the orders.

And sends them to the customer. I guess the comparison would be eBay, but with eBay, I, or with Amazon, I don't have to store any of the inventory. Amazon takes a charge of that, obviously for a fee now, Q4 prep, just to highlight what exactly is a sponsored and what does that look like?

I'm sure a majority of the people here are Amazon buyers and the two images here I have of the garlic press, the one on the left, where it just says sponsored. That means that is. That is what a sponsored campaign would look like where the seller of that product is running some sort of targeted ad for that keyword to display their product in front of customers.

Now, the one on the right is what we have organic ranking, meaning it's converted highly on that keyword and Amazon awards us. By not having to pay, to have advertising. And that is always the end goal of any sort of campaign that we launch is we want that organic traffic, cuz that is when us, Amazon sellers really do see profitability in our business.

So to understand where we are going at Amazon PPC in regards to Q4, it's really important to understand what the purpose of their campaigns are. And. It, it is really to boost visibility and exposure, increase product sales and make sure we've optimised SEO. So we can get that organic exposure and all the traffic that Amazon does provide us.

And there's a couple of strategies. I actually used last year and will continue to use this year, but it's one of the things I also, when I consult with brands we talk about how we can leverage their listing or their product to give it more of a Q4 feel. So for example, here's an example of a product that is just a coffee mug, but having that Christmas oriented backdrop in the photo does signal a higher propensity or a higher intention to want to buy this product. Making changes to your photos are the last image to make it that holiday feel. I feel like has created a higher level of conversion on Amazon. 

Video ads, video ads for Q4, just like video ads for my overall Amazon outreach, I find perform very well. Video ads tend to have a lower cost per click, but the visibility you get on Amazon with video ads, it's usually shown midway in the keyword search result. And because it is interactive and it is moving. I feel like the eyes tend to gravitate toward that video end. So it does make sense to run continuous video ads throughout Q4.

And if not be a little more aggressive on maybe broader keywords because I do think video ads perform really well. Tip number two is high budgets. Don't always make a lot of sense. I am not for the theory that you have to be the first product on the first page of that keyword. You do wanna be on the first page, but you don't necessarily have to be the first product shown.

And the reason I say that is Amazon is now staggering, a lot of their ads on the first page. And I feel like when we put too high of a budget to be in that optimal spot, you tend to run out of budget cuz Q4 PPC tends to be higher compared to the other quarters. So actually coming in with a mid or lower budget, we'll still have you have your product gain visibility.

And it'll be a lower cost per click in ad spend. Because at the end of the day, Amazon will show your product versus an organic spot  if other people have run out of their budget. So rather than having this aggressive strategy, let's try to have our product shown around noon by having that lower budget, because other sellers in that niche for that keyword will have probably run out of their budget.

Adding value with a bundle. Now I know this isn't per se, a PPC strategy, but I think it does tie in with Q4 and conversions is adding some sort of small gift with every purchase. Now, some of these gifts can be, you know, about 50 to 75 cents, not much for the product, but it does give another level of satisfaction to the customer that helps with conversions that helps with your organic ranking. And that really is the purpose of any PPC campaign. So for example, if you're selling makeup brushes, adding a makeup brush bag that will add more value to the product will help your conversions in comparison to other makeup brushes that might be available during Q4. And that is all I have for today.

I hope I stayed under time, but if you do have any additional questions about Amazon PPC and just the state of selling on Amazon, feel free to connect with me on TikTok or Instagram.

Thank you, Mandeep for sharing your unique perspective and insights with us in the zone. If you'd like to connect with Mandeep, you can find her on TikTok at @mandeepamazonfba or on Instagram at @mandeepkamazonfba.

To learn more about ppc.zone and our speakers, or apply to speak at an upcoming event. Visit ppc.zone. I'm your host, Jyll Saskin Gales. You can find me on Twitter at @jyllsaskingales. I look forward to seeing you next time in the zone.