In a recent InternetRetailing webinar, Search, social & now ecommerce? Why Amazon should be part of your advertising strategy, we heard from Oren Stern, general manager, ecommerce solutions at Kenshoo and Artur Margaryan, associate account director EMEA at OMD. Here’s a bulletpoint overview of the event.
Oren Stern, general manager, ecommerce solutions at Kenshoo opened the webinar with a poll.
Poll: are you currently using Amazon Marketing Services? No, and we have no plans to: 8; No, but it is something we should consider: 44; yes, but it’s early days: 16; yes, and we are spending a substantial sum: 16.
• Online advertising is the new storefront: a new shopping experience for consumers. “It’s exciting but difficult for advertisers to navigate”.
• Rich experiences, discovering new products can happen at any time. Very social experience.
• Product discovery across new channels. Moved from product listings and search ads to more native and more engaging ads. Experience across platforms such as Facebook now more engaging and visual.
• Finding an idea for a birthday present or home improvements is at your fingertips at any oint.
• Voice activated platforms available across all stages of the consumer journey. Alexa, Cortana, and more.
• Ecommerce provides perfect channel for engagement. Engaging consumers at port of purchase and throughout the purchase cycle. “You no longer need to guess what the consumer wants, they literally tell you and you only need to worry about effectively engaging with them.”
The Amazon Opportunity
• Amazon: content company and retail powerhouse. Amazon facts: digital ad revenue through Amazon will be $1.65bn in 2017 – and $3.19bn in 2019 (eMarketer). Powered by customer data. Boosts sales and drives revenue.
• Amazon Marketing Services.
Ad types: sponsored ads, headline search ads, product display ads.
Customers use different search terms on Amazon.
Important to know that Amazon Marketing Services only promotes ads and products it expects to be profitable: conversion-focused so if product doesn’t perform well it won’t show. Pricing and whether in stock are both important.
New place for product research.
Search ads more likely to drive sales because shoppers come in in a shopping mode.
Opportunity for advertisers: Amazon: 183m monthly unique visitors
Q&A: Artur Magaryan, of OMD Media
Q&A on OMD’s experience with Amazon
• Margaryan discussed how Amazon fitted into its clients’ marketing mix and how the objectives on Amazon were different to other platforms.
• Is it really necessary? This sounds like the conversation some brands would be having some years ago when discussing benefits of paid search vs SEO. The answer is definitely yes: there are no sufficient stats yet out there to provide a representation of the incrementally of AMS on Amazon but in six months time we’ll see figures coming through with proof that it’s working. Works for our clients – as technology solutions develop title to brands/strategy search engine. Six months in so far.
Poll 2
What is your biggest challenge on Amazon Marketing Services: limited insights make reporting difficult: 24%; creation and maangement of campaigns: 38%; difficult to optimise budgets: 10%; getting information on specific products. 17 getting information on specific products; 10% other.
Best practices:
• Keywords: focus on the product – which to promote, understand that from the data, don’t guess.
• Bidding on keywords: Start now, capture shoppers ahead of Black Friday
• Budgets: pay attention to continuously adjusting budgets especially at the Christmas time of year.
• Stern ended with an overview of what Kenshoo does and its ecommerce solution.
The webinar was followed by a Q&A session. To see the webinar, slides and hear the Q&A session in full, visit the Kenshoo webinar page here.