Amazon Prime Day 2020 won’t take place in July this year

• Posted by Dominic
• On June 3, 2020

Amazon’s biggest selling day will be postponed until September this year due to the impact of coronavirus. In 2019, the Global Amazon Prime Day sales reached an estimated 7.16 billion U.S. dollars (+41% Year-over-Year). This Promotional event is attractive both to consumers and sellers/vendors alike. Consumers can grab deals on different products (as long as […]

Should you spend money on marketing during COVID-19?!

• Posted by Dominic
• On April 5, 2020

There is no doubt that the coronavirus COVID-19 is already having a negative impact on most of the industries. Marketing is one of them, with around 70% of businesses cutting their advertising spend or stopping marketing activities altogether. Be it that you represent a small, local business, or a global one, you [we] have to […]

The complexity of marketing

• Posted by Dominic
• On March 28, 2020

Did you like the above?! Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section. You might also like to read about: What Is ROAS (Return On Ad Spend)? What Is ACoS (Advertising Cost Of Sale)?

What is ROAS (Return On Ad Spend)?

• Posted by Dominic
• On February 26, 2020

ROAS is the acronym for Return On Ad Spend and it is a metric that shows the efficiency of a marketing campaign. It’s usually used in the digital environment (e.g. ecommerce), but could potentially be used with traditional advertising also as long as you have the cost and the revenue influenced by your campaign (s). […]

What is ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sale)?

• Posted by Dominic
• On January 23, 2020

ACoS is the acronym for Advertising Cost of Sale and it is a metric used by Amazon in their Amazon PPC/AMS ads. If you haven’t run Amazon Advertising campaigns before, you might have not heard about this metric until now and may be more accustomed with something like ROAS. In simple terms, ACoS tells us […]

Black Friday Month is here, but it’s not necessarily a good thing

• Posted by Dominic
• On November 13, 2019

Almost every big brand has started with some sort of Pre-Black Friday promotion (including Argos, Currys, Walmart, Amazon, etc.) starting the 1st of November. Last year, we were being amused by Amazon’s Black Friday week and were [sarcastically] forecasting a Black Friday month for the future. Well, it’s official: it is happening. Here are some […]

Can you still sell on Amazon without investing in Amazon PPC?!

• Posted by Dominic
• On November 10, 2019

It’s been clear for some time now that the growing competition on Amazon is continually making it more and more difficult for sellers to sell and be profitable at the same time. Smartly taking advantage of their own platform is none other than Amazon: by investing in their advertising services and giving the ad placements […]

Costs to run display campaigns on Amazon: A look into AMG’s not so known fees to manage your campaigns

• Posted by Dominic
• On August 5, 2019

Did you think that the entire budget that you are paying to Amazon for your display campaigns is going towards delivering your ads?! Well… you’re in for a big surprise. I encourage you to take a sit when reading the below.   No matter if you have just started using AMG / display advertising or […]

ESS: the secret platform that will make you change the way you manage display campaigns on Amazon

• Posted by Dominic
• On August 5, 2019

This article is for anyone that strives to learn more about Amazon Advertising. Mostly though, it is for vendors/sellers with internal capabilities, resources and skills to manage their own display campaigns. It is also for the advertising agencies that want to do more than Amazon PPC  / AMS. The below gives an insight into what […]

An insight into what is AMG (Amazon Marketing Group). Should you include it in your Marketing Plans?

• Posted by Dominic
• On July 25, 2019

Most commonly known as AMG, the Amazon Marketing Group represents the advertising group inside of Amazon responsible for their display and search advertising solutions. As a side note, while Amazon has renamed this group to Amazon Advertising, most people still call it AMG and it will take a considerable amount of time until everyone will […]

12 ad copy guidelines that you need to know to get your AMS/Amazon PPC ads approved

• Posted by Dominic
• On June 18, 2019

Sponsored Brands Ads (formerly known as Headline Search) and Product Display Ads go through a manual approval process once you submit them. There are usually two aspects that the Amazon team is looking at: the landing page (e.g. does it have at least 3 ASINs?!), and the creative that you have used. We will next […]

Manual vs automatic targeting campaigns in Amazon PPC and AMS

• Posted by Dominic
• On June 7, 2019

We’ve been discussing in the last two weeks about how to make the most out of automatic and manual campaigns. We saw how automatic campaigns have improved in the last months and how manual campaigns can be used to influence more sales on Amazon. As everyone likes side by side comparisons (well… almost everyone; if […]

How to use Manual targeting and keyword targeting in Amazon PPC or AMS ads

• Posted by Dominic
• On May 31, 2019

Manual targeting is a setting that allows you to target different customer searches, categories of products, products, and brands on Amazon. In other words, it allows you to control when and, to some degree, where your ads will appear on Amazon. In the next article we’ll focus on keyword targeting. You might also find interesting […]

How to use Automatic targeting in Amazon PPC or AMS ads

• Posted by Dominic
• On May 23, 2019

Automatic targeting is a setting that allows Amazon to target keywords and/or products that are similar to the product in your ad. While automatic targeting is recognised to be more of a strategy to use at the beginning of your advertising activity on Amazon (i.e. to get keywords), we’ll look below at how to use […]

How to name your Amazon Advertising campaigns (AMS/ Amazon PPC)?

• Posted by Dominic
• On May 20, 2019

In line with the new campaign naming notification that Amazon launched recently, let’s look at some key insights about naming your AMS / Amazon PPC ads. While I cannot say that there is a best way to name our Amazon Advertising Campaigns, I discovered that there are a couple of items that, when we include […]

Little things matter: Amazon’s new campaign naming notification is exactly what we need

• Posted by Dominic
• On May 18, 2019

Amazon has added a new feature that lets us know if we have used a campaign name before in our Advertising account. The notification says this: One of your campaigns already uses this name. Please try another.  See below how it looks like and also try it for yourself in your own account. I’ve seen […]

Why should you launch your own Amazon Stores?!

• Posted by Dominic
• On May 14, 2019

Amazon Brand Stores are not a new or an old subject. If you don’t have one created, it’s time to get one. If you have one created, then well done. Now take a step forward and use it to its full potential. Amazon Brand Stores can be an amazing tool to build brand awareness, consideration […]

Should you use Product targeting and Category targeting with Sponsored products ads?

• Posted by Dominic
• On February 27, 2019

In Q4 2018, Amazon launched a Product targeting feature for Sponsored products ads. This enables us to target specific products and/or product categories on Amazon. While everyone has been making a big fuss about how great this feature is, we silently tested it and analysed it. The results are now in and they are more […]

The most valuable reports from the Amazon Advertising Console (AMS)

• Posted by Dominic
• On February 5, 2019

The reports from the Amazon advertising console have seen many changes in the last months. Some may say these are real improvements, others that they were launched prematurely and unfinished. I incline towards the latter. Below, I summarised each report that’s currently available. I included some details and suggestions about which one can bring the […]

Be careful when using the New Placement bid adjustments for Sponsored products

• Posted by Dominic
• On January 9, 2019

Amazon launched a couple of new features in their Advertising Console lately. On top of the Dynamic bidding features, and the new placements for Sponsored products Ads, they also enabled Placement bid adjustments that allow us to increase our bids depending on what placement we want to get (on top search or on product detail […]

Dynamic Bidding strategies for Sponsored Products in the Amazon Advertising Console (AMS)

• Posted by Dominic
• On January 9, 2019

Amazon added a new feature to Sponsored products ads called Dynamic bidding (or simply Bidding). This allows the system to optimise your bids based on how likely your targeting (i.e. keyword, product or category) is to convert sales.     In summary, here are the 3 features that Dynamic bidding enables us to do: Dynamic […]

Key benefits of Portfolios in the Amazon Advertising Console

• Posted by Dominic
• On December 18, 2018

I’ve started using Portfolios (the new feature in Amazon advertising console – AMS) just last week and it is a very useful update from the Amazon team. See below how to use Portfolios to simplify your day to day campaign management. Portfolios were just launched in the Amazon advertising console (above screenshot is from a […]

The Black Friday and Cyber Monday that we know are dying

• Posted by Dominic
• On December 3, 2018

Amazon announced last week that Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2018 have [once again] generated the most amount of sales in the company’s history. While they haven’t provided us with exact numbers, this is no surprise for you either, right?!    “Black Friday and Cyber Monday continue to break records on Amazon year over year, […]

Fashion and beauty products that you can buy on Amazon for Black Friday

• Posted by Dominic
• On November 21, 2018

Are you longing for a beautiful dress?! Maybe beauty things and something to spoil you, but you only saw high prices? Now might be the right time for you, as Black Friday is here. Here are some suggestions of products with highest discounts. 1.Shoes Amazon’s site makes it easy to find price promotions on shoes […]

Tech products that you can you buy on Amazon.co.uk for Black Friday

• Posted by Dominic
• On November 21, 2018

Dear reader, no matter if you are a seller, and advertiser, or simply a shopper, Black Friday is the perfect period to buy something that you planned for or simply go with the flow and get a bargain. This year, Amazon has decided to transform Black Friday 2018 into Black Week 2018 – while this […]

The Amazon Advertising Holiday Guide for 2018

• Posted by Dominic
• On November 7, 2018

It’s that time of the year again when the shopping behaviour goes crazy and the sellers go fanatical. For most sellers Q4 and the Christmas holiday season is the highest period of the year with Black Friday and Cyber Monday breaking sales’ records year after year. While I’m curious to see if it will also […]

New placement for Sponsored Products Ads

• Posted by Dominic
• On October 26, 2018

Continuing to improve their advertising platforms, Amazon is now testing a new placement for their Sponsored Products Ads. This comes right after they introduced the new Sponsored Brands placements and shows that the giant retailer is investing resources in bringing their advertising platforms to a new level. The new placement for Sponsored Products ads was […]

Headline Search Ads are now called Sponsored Brands in AMS Amazon Advertising

• Posted by Dominic
• On September 14, 2018

Amazon continues to make changes to their Advertising platform. From renaming AMS, AMG, AAP to a generic brand name, Amazon Advertising, to now renaming the Headline Search Ads to Sponsored Brands. The name isn’t the only change. Amazon has seriously improved the AMS platform in the last months by adding date range reporting, improvement looks […]

Amazon renamed AMS, AMG, and AAP to Amazon Advertising

• Posted by Dominic
• On September 10, 2018

Amazon just announced the uncover of their new name for all their marketing solutions: Amazon Advertising. This will replace the other brands in their portfolio: Amazon Marketing Services (AMS), Amazon Marketing Group (AMG) and Amazon Advertising Platform (AAP). Working towards creating a unified platform for their customers, Amazon has decided to rename their marketing brands […]

Relevancy or relevance score in AMS Amazon marketing campaigns

• Posted by Dominic
• On August 14, 2018

Relevancy (or “relevance” in correct English) is a ranking factor given by Amazon to your AMS (Amazon Marketing Services) campaigns. Based on this, your ads may or may not appear for the keywords that you are bidding for. What is the relevance score in Amazon marketing ads? The definition of the relevancy/relevance score is a […]

Run campaign as quickly as possible or spread campaign evenly – which feature to choose in AMS campaigns

• Posted by Dominic
• On July 4, 2018

You may have used the run campaign as quickly as possible feature in the past already in your AMS campaigns. You may now be surprised to find out that Amazon has deprecated this feature for unknown reasons. The change happened a couple of weeks ago with no news from Amazon and it may affect any […]

When is Amazon Prime Day 2018 and how to prepare your AMS campaigns for it

• Posted by Dominic
• On June 4, 2018

Amazon has just announced that Prime Day will start on the 16th of July at noon. This year Amazon is celebrating its 23rd anniversary with another full day of discounts for millions of products: Prime Day 2018. On Prime day 2017, Amazon has seen an increase in sales of 60% compared to the previous year. […]

The complete guide on how to optimise AMS campaigns – Best practices

• Posted by Dominic
• On May 12, 2018

Below is a simple, but complete guide with best practices in managing AMS campaigns. The strategies that you will find here include the expertise that I’ve gathered along the years in working with AMS. These steps can be split in two: those to do before launching the campaigns; and those to do after launching the […]

How to optimise your AMS campaigns for the Easter Sale Season

• Posted by Dominic
• On March 20, 2018

The Easter Sale Season is here, so we put together a couple of strategies to help you optimise your AMS campaigns. As this is a promotional event promoted by Amazon via many channels (Social Media, TV, etc.), we encourage you to follow these strategies to convert customers on the world’s third-largest retailer.     I. […]

The New recommended budget feature in AMS

• Posted by Dominic
• On March 12, 2018

Since its beginnings, AMS has had issues showing which campaigns are out of budget daily. In an attempt to improve this, Amazon has introduced a new function into the AMS platform: the recommended budget feature. Here are a couple of the things you should know about it. 1. The new feature highlights all the AMS campaigns […]

AMS or AMG – which Amazon marketing platform to use?

• Posted by Dominic
• On February 20, 2018

There’s been a lot of talk regarding what are the best type of ads to use from Amazon: AMS or AMG (AAP). We believe that everything depends on your objectives, so here is the information you need to know before taking a decision. Amazon Marketing Services: AMS The Amazon Marketing Services are paid digital advertising […]

Sales attribution model in AMS explained

• Posted by Dominic
• On January 5, 2018

The sales attribution model in AMS is determining how credit for sales and conversions is assigned to the ads. It is a Click-based model, meaning that a sale will be attributed to a campaign only if the customer clicked on it before the purchase was made. To understand the sales attribution model in AMS better, […]

Halo sales in AMS campaigns explained

• Posted by Dominic
• On January 5, 2018

The concept of halo sales in AMS means that the estimated total sales that you are seeing in your campaigns, are sales that the ads have influenced across all your brand products, not only the ones that you are promoting. This concept is crucial to understand when analysing the performances of your AMS campaigns. AMS […]

AMS reporting tool has been updated to allow a date range view

• Posted by Dominic
• On January 3, 2018

Everyone working with AMS knows the limitations of the reporting side on this advertising platform. You can (could) only download the lifetime reports containing the data of all the campaigns since the moment they’ve started, until the date you have downloaded the reports. Amazon has just improved the AMS reporting tool, by giving users the […]

A new look for Headline Search Ads (Sponsored Brands)

• Posted by Dominic
• On December 10, 2017

It was time for Amazon to revitalise the look and feel of the Headline Search Ads and they are currently in the process of doing it. You might have noticed it already: the featured products in the ad, now include not only the picture and part of the title of the products, but also the […]

Sponsored Products Ads now allow bids of 1,000 EUR or Pounds on AMS

• Posted by Dominic
• On December 5, 2017

Just as the title of this article says, you can now bid up to 1,000 Euro or Pounds on AMS with your Sponsored Products Ads. The change was made in the last two weeks and it applies to all keywords’ match types (i.e. broad, phrase, and exact). This hasn’t yet been implemented in Headline Search […]

Top 10 tips to prepare your AMS campaigns for Q4 and the winter sales

• Posted by Dominic
• On October 28, 2017

The highest trafficked and most profitable quarter for sellers is by far the last one of the year (Q4: October, November and December). As Q4 is full of promotional events (Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, Boxing Day), most people will be looking to buy presents for themselves and for their close ones. Here are some marketing […]

More isn’t always better: the optimal number of products to promote in an AMS campaign

• Posted by Dominic
• On July 21, 2017

There are differences in the number of products that you can advertise in AMS, depending on the type of campaign that you have chosen. Headline Search and Sponsored Products Campaigns were created so they allow you to promote multiple products, while Product Display campaigns can only be used to promote a single product at a […]

Frequency Capping in AMS campaigns

• Posted by Dominic
• On July 5, 2017

What is Frequency Capping? Frequency capping is the restriction applied by AMS regarding the maximum number of times a unique user will be served a particular ad. In AMS, the frequency capping is applied in an interval of a day. This means that if a user will see your ad 3 times in an interval […]

The best keywords’ strategies for AMS campaigns

• Posted by Dominic
• On June 18, 2017

AMS targeting is mostly based on keywords, thus a good research on keywords is mandatory in every stage of the life-cycle of a campaign. Firstly, prior to starting any campaign (HS and/or SP, as PD ads cannot be targeted by keywords), you should understand who your audience is, your market, and what keywords and key-phrases […]

How to build a good keywords’ list for AMS

• Posted by Dominic
• On June 13, 2017

One of the most important factors that will influence the success of your Amazon Marketing Services campaigns is the list of keywords that you are targeting in each one of your ads. There are different ways to build a good keywords’ database. See below a few strategies that are specific to AMS. If you discover […]

Who approves Headline Search and Product Display Ads?!

• Posted by Dominic
• On June 12, 2017

One of the most stressful activity that you will face with AMS, is getting Headline search and Product display ads approved. If Sponsored Products ads are approved automatically by the system as soon as you launch them, these other two go through a review process where an Amazon team manually approves/disapproves them.   Most of […]

Creating AMS ads with products that are only available for Pre-orders

• Posted by Dominic
• On June 12, 2017

If you change the format of the title of this article into a question, you’ll surprisingly find that the answer is YES: you can launch AMS ads with products that are only available for Pre-orders. As you may already know, all three types of AMS campaigns (HSA, SPA, PDA) have different requirements when it comes […]

What happens with your campaigns when AMS is updated by Amazon

• Posted by Dominic
• On June 12, 2017

Amazon improves the AMS platform quite frequently. They have the bad habit of not letting their customers know about this though, and no matter how much you will try to get an answer from them, the safest and maybe the quickest ways of finding answers to how the platform works, is to test it yourself […]

How to create Product Display Ads (PDA) on AMS

• Posted by Dominic
• On June 11, 2017

Step 1 – Choose a targeting method Product – if you select this targeting method, you will be able to manually select what product pages to target (for example, you may want to target your competitors’ products). You can also decide to target your own products – do this if you are promoting a complimentary […]

How to create Headline Search Ads (HSA) on AMS

• Posted by Dominic
• On June 11, 2017

In this article we will look at the five steps involved in creating a Headline Search Ad (now called Sponsored Brands). Keep in mind that you cannot jump over these steps, so you’ll need to do everything in order. The system won’t show you the next step unless you have completed the previous one. Step […]

How to create Sponsored Products Ads (SPA) on AMS

• Posted by Dominic
• On June 11, 2017

In this article we will look at the five steps involved in creating Sponsored Products Ads. Keep in mind that you cannot jump over these steps, so you’ll need to do everything in order. The system won’t show you the next step unless you have completed the previous one. Step 1 – Choose products to […]

The differences between vendors and sellers on Amazon

• Posted by Dominic
• On June 9, 2017

The services offered by Amazon differ from one client to another. Depending on the amount of money that you are investing and on the number of products that you are selling on their platform, you may be catalogued as either a vendor or as a seller (commonly known as “the marketplace” as well). If you […]

The marketing platforms and placements that Amazon offers

• Posted by Dominic
• On June 8, 2017

There are 2 different marketing groups inside Amazon (to be precise, there are 3 of them, but AMS and AMG, even if different, they are part of the same group) and each one of these has its own specifics: different groups of people, different prices and different pricing plans, different types of ads and different […]