Optimization for Amazon Product Ads

In heading into the busy season of retailing, I will be narrowing focus back down to specific comparison engine tactics and discussion. The goal of these posts is to identify key features of each engine to be aware of, and how these features should be taken advantage of.

The first CSE on the list is Amazon Product Ads. As has been mentioned before, Product Ads is the CPC equivalent to Amazon’s commission and shopping cart based format. This knowledge is key because the Product Ads network must make some key alterations to fit into the existing Amazon format.

Product Listings

When submitting listings to Amazon Product Ads, UPC is even more important here than some other channels (a UPC focused post is coming in the the near future, but an old post is at The Future of Shopping Comparison and The Problem with UPC).

The reason UPC is monumental here, is that Product Ads only goes by product title and UPC to list products. So Amazon is sorting through the products being submitted, and trying to match them up appropriately. Without an ASIN, as served up by the Seller Central focused system, product ads will look to UPC and product title as a guide. If a merchant is selling without UPC, then product title is used exclusively, and this is not based on an exact match. This means completely different products can be paired together under a product page for another completely different product. For example, if a merchant is selling several different kinds of ‘black polarized sunglasses’, then all of these could be grouped together, and the only way the consumer can see they are different glasses is to click on each link…driving up CPC costs greatly.

The take away, either come with UPC or make sure product titles are significantly different.

Key Features

Amazon Product Ads allows bidding on the category level. Make sure to use this feature to gain additional exposure. Also, keep an eye on which categories receive bids. Product Ads will place items in categories which are not being assigned by a merchant. For example, toy jewelry can easily be placed in the real jewelry category by Amazon based on its own internal algorithms. Make sure to check this and keep bids at zero for categories which don’t match up to inventory.

Lastly, Amazon features great support for their programs. A merchant can submit written tickets, or request a phone call. There are still some canned answers here and there, but overall this is one of the best support systems in the industry for technical and listing issues, so be sure to use it.

Hope this helps some companies in handling Product Ads, and I am looking forward to talking about the next CSE, Shopping.com.

October 5th, 2008