We’re facing a new reality of ecommerce. Omnichannel advertising is a necessity for sellers looking to maintain or grow their presence in any marketplace. There are many benefits to the practice — everything from saving you time and effort to multiplying your influence in your industry. However, if you want to succeed with a cross-marketplace strategy, you need to understand the channels inside and out. Luckily, we’re making it easy for you with deep dives into every major marketplace.  Today, we’re starting with the king of ecommerce: Amazon. As the #1 online marketplace, it’s critical to know what makes it work and how to make it work for you. Let’s get started.

Advertisement Auction Style

When securing your ad placement on Amazon Ads, the marketplace uses a second-price bid model. This style has become increasingly more popular than the outdated first-price bid model. First price is when the auction goes to the highest bidder. Whatever they bid is the amount they pay. That means if you bid $5, you pay $5, regardless of whether the second-place seller bid $4.90 or $2.

Second-price model is fairer to sellers, as it tends to save them money compared to a first-price model. The auction placement still goes to the highest bidder, but they only need to pay the price of the second-place bid. Returning to our previous example, if you bid $5, you would pay $4.90 or $2, depending on the second-place bidder. Either way, saving $0.10 or $3, adds up over hundreds of placements during a campaign.

Amazon Ads Search Results Placements

If you want to convert on Amazon Ads, you need to be found. The best place to be seen is in the search results. Not only is this the main avenue consumers find the products they want to purchase, it is a fantastic opportunity to prove the value of your catalog. When consumers are searching on a marketplace, they have a problem that they are looking to solve. If, in that search, they find a product that fulfills their needs, they are likely to buy it.

Since product placement in search is so critical to seller success, it is important to note that Amazon ads supports organic and paid presence in search results. If you have strong organic listings that rank well and optimized ads with winning bids, you can have both organic and paid search results appear on Amazon.

This is great for growing your business as it doubles your performance. You get twice as much real estate in search results, twice as many opportunities to be seen, and twice as many opportunities to convert. So be sure to plan your strategies and budget accordingly to take advantage of both listing styles.

Device Targeting

As more shoppers use various hardware to complete their purchases, many sellers find it beneficial to target consumers based on the device they use. However, Amazon lacks any device targeting. That means you cannot set ads to be shown only on certain devices, such as mobile or desktop.

Amazon Ad Match Types

Another detail that keeps Amazon at the top of the heap is its ability to support multiple match types:

  • Broad Match
  • Phrase Match
  • Exact Match
  • Auto

With multiple match types, you can tailor your keyword strategy to fit your needs. If you have the time to fine-tune your keywords and tailor them to your audience, focus on exact matches, and win with hyper specificity. If you are unable to devote as many resources, choose broad matches or let Amazon handle it with auto. The Amazon ads system will find relevant search results based on a few guiding keyphrases.

Targeting Options

Amazon has multiple targeting options, which allows you to run various tactics across the funnel. Their opportunities include:

  • Keyword Targeting
  • Category Targeting
  • Product Description Page Targeting
  • Audience Targeting

Amazon lets you serve ads based on different criteria, like the category a shopper is viewing, or according to the audience.

Going even further, Amazon lets you target based on competitor. This is invaluable to help you maintain market share and even take some away from your biggest competition.

The Amazon Ads Approval Process

Lastly, Amazon approves new ads and updates to existing ads immediately. This saves you time from waiting to see if your new strategies work and lets you adjust your strategies accordingly faster. These capabilities ensure you’re always growing your business and performing your best.

Keep your education going with the other marketplaces featured in our deep dive series:

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