If a strategic and focused Amazon strategy is the key to increased, sustainable growth for brands, Amazon Marketing Services (AMS) is the fast lane to success. Much like Google, the real estate for organic listings is shrinking, and paid ads are increasing in their above-the-fold presence. With a wide variety of ad and targeting options – and surely more to come – AMS is growing more complex by the day. For this reason, it’s increasingly more valuable to understand how the platform differs from other paid search engines and how to gain the best possible real estate for your brand on Amazon. The primary goal of any advertising strategy is to maximize the return on investment and drive revenue. On this webinar, we talk through the best strategies to attain the best possible return on ad spend. Many advertising campaigns fall short from a foundational failure to structure them in a way that clearly reveals what’s working, what isn’t, and why. This webinar will dive into the best practices, with proven results, for brands with extensive catalogs to structure AMS campaigns.

2. • Full-service Amazon agency, taking a proactive, strategic approach focused
foremost on sales acceleration
• Clients include Fortune 50 companies, mid-sized organizations, and startups
• Brands ranging from grocery, personal care, home improvement, home &
kitchen, gifts & novelties, electronics, apparel, accessories, furniture, books,
and more
• Team includes strategists, designers, writers, and advertising specialists
focused exclusively on Amazon
• Managed more than $900 million in Amazon revenue
About Marketplace Strategy
marketplacestrategy.com

3. • Session recording & slides will be
sent out as a follow up
• Submit questions to our strategists
using the question window
• Any unanswered questions will be
answered via direct email
• Email me for any additional resources
or questions following the webinar
dina@marketplacestrategy.com
Housekeeping
marketplacestrategy.com

4. Today’s Speakers
Ben LeMaster
Amazon Strategist,
Marketplace Strategy
ben@marketplacestrategy.com
Curtis Rummel
Lead Client Strategist,
Marketplace Strategy
curtis@marketplacestrategy.com
marketplacestrategy.com

5. 1. Brief AMS History
2. Ad Type Overview
3. Reporting & Analytics
4. 5 Best Practices
5. 5 Actionable Tactics
6. The Future of AMS
Agenda
marketplacestrategy.com

6. Brief AMS History

7. Brief AMS History
marketplacestrategy.com
2017 2018
June July August September October November December January
Broad
Match for
HSAs
Stores
Rollout
AMS in
Canada
Stores
Insights
February
Account-
Wide Reports
SPA Bulk
Operations
SPA Right Rail
Deprecation

8. Ad Type Overview

9. Ad Type Overview
marketplacestrategy.com

10. AMS Ad Type Overview
Headline Search
Ads
Sponsored Product
Ads
marketplacestrategy.com
(AAP)
Product Display
Ads

11. AMS Ad Type Overview
Ad Type Funnel Cost-Per-Click Supply Brand Visibility ROAS
Headline Search Top Medium Low High Medium
Sponsored Product Middle Low High Medium High
Product Display Bottom High Medium Medium Low
marketplacestrategy.com

12. AMS Reporting & Analytics

13. Sponsored Product Ads:
● Search Term
● Keyword
● Advertised Product
● Placement
● Performance Over Time
Headline Search Ads:
● Keyword
Product Display Ads:
● Individual Campaign Download
REPORTS BY AD TYPE
marketplacestrategy.com

14. SEARCH TERM REPORT
● Find long-tail queries from broad
and phrase match keywords to fuel
exact match targeting
● Inform HSA and PDA keyword and
product targeting
● Identify negative keywords to
reduce unqualified clicks and
control keyword overlap
SPA Advertising Reports
marketplacestrategy.com

15. marketplacestrategy.com
SPA Advertising Reports
KEYWORD REPORT
● Less actionable version of the search term report
● Gauge high level campaign health
● Compliments Advertised Product Report
● Utilize to quickly identify low CTR and low CR areas for improvement

16. marketplacestrategy.com
ADVERTISED PRODUCT REPORT
● Gauge high level product performance
● Provides a measure of ad relevance
● Effective in comparing product
overlap and performance within and
across campaigns
● Pinpoint opportunities for further
product and campaign segmentation
SPA Advertising Reports

17. marketplacestrategy.com
SPA Advertising Reports
PLACEMENT REPORT
● Currently only provides “Other on Amazon” and “Top of Search on Amazon”
● Enhances bid and budget analysis
● Understand which placements are driving impressions, clicks and conversions
● Identifying ‘banner blindness’ and other actionable placement trends

18. marketplacestrategy.com
PERFORMANCE OVER TIME REPORT
● Gauge insight into ongoing competition
levels and potential need for
bid/budget increases
● Identify trends in specific days of the
week and weeks in the month
● Focus budgets on time frames that
have proven a stronger RoAS
SPA Advertising Reports

19. marketplacestrategy.com
HSA Advertising Reports
KEYWORD REPORT
● Speaks to overall campaign health and potential low-relevancy targeting
(keywords with low CTRs after 1,000 impressions will be paused)
● Currently the only source of keyword data for Headline Search Ads
● Focus campaigns on Exact and Phrase match to gain most actionable data
from this report

20. marketplacestrategy.com
INDIVIDUAL CAMPAIGN DOWNLOAD
● For most actionable data, use 1-to-1
product targeting
● Uncheck ‘Expand targeting’ box
PDA Advertising Reports

21. AMS Best Practices

22. AMS Best Practice #1
marketplacestrategy.com
CAMPAIGN NAMING CONVENTIONS
Utilize structured and consistent campaign naming conventions across
the account, allowing for:
● Easier campaign searchability
● Stronger reporting
● More efficient analysis
Structure: Ad Type_Category_SubCategory_Description_ASIN
Example: SPA Auto_Tuna_EVOO_12 Pack Pouch_B00RJEU3L6

23. AMS Best Practice #2
marketplacestrategy.com
CONSISTENT REPORT DOWNLOADS
Create a reminder to download the Search Term Advertising Report, at a
minimum, for each month.
AMS only allows users to see back 60 days so downloading reports each
month locks in your access to historical data.

24. AMS Best Practice #3
marketplacestrategy.com
INDIVIDUAL ASIN TARGETING
Only target one ASIN per campaign for the most accurate product data.
For SPAs and HSAs, this method
allows advertisers to match specific
search term and keyword data to the
exact ASIN. And for PDAs, this allows
ASIN-to-ASIN performance data.

25. AMS Best Practice #4
SPA
HSA
PDA
marketplacestrategy.com
BUDGET ALLOCATION
As a beginning point, it is best
to build out campaigns using a
70% / 20% / 10% budget
allocation for optimal placement
coverage and ROAS. Depending
on brand goals and category,
adjust accordingly.

26. AMS Best Practice #5
marketplacestrategy.com
NEGATIVE KEYWORDS
Utilize negative keywords to eliminate high spend, low conversion
searches queries.
While evaluating reports, consistently document search terms that aren’t
hitting ACOS targets and add as negative keywords.

27. Actionable AMS Tactics

28. Actionable AMS Tactic #1
marketplacestrategy.com
ORGANIC PRIORITIZATION
Drive increased and long-term
RoAS by prioritizing budgets
based on organic visibility and
Amazon’s Choice.
Prioritize campaigns containing
ASINs that have the largest
potential for organic sales value
(high search volume + potential
for top organic positions)

29. marketplacestrategy.com
Actionable AMS Tactic #2
FBT BOX MANIPULATION
Gain increased recommendation engine sales by targeting complimentary
ASINs via Product Display Ads to capture the Frequently Bought Together Box.
Utilize the Premium Amazon Retail Analytics (PARA) Market Basket Analysis to
identify additional product combinations.

30. marketplacestrategy.com
Actionable AMS Tactic #3
DAILY/WEEKLY/MONTHLY BUDGET
ALLOCATION
Identify trends in the SPA Performance
Over Time Report and HSA Individual
Campaign Download to fluctuate bids
and budgets for specific time frames.
Utilize PARA to define customer time
zone trends and leverage day-parting to
optimize for increased sales and RoAS.

31. marketplacestrategy.com
Actionable AMS Tactic #4
ONGOING A/B TESTING
Build Testing Plan:
● Define hypothesis, key performance indicators and duration
● Only test one element at a time!
● Implement tests across similar ASINs for more data
● Did it work? Implement or Ignore
TESTING VARIABLES
SPA 1. Product-to-Keyword Match
HSA 1. Ad Copy 2. Image-Left 3. Images-Right 4. Landing Page
PDA 1. Ad Copy 2. Logo/Image 3. Product Title

32. marketplacestrategy.com
Actionable AMS Tactic #5
INCREASE AMS FOR THE HOLIDAYS
Increase AMS budgets and bids during
holiday and other peak time periods.
Create new campaigns with customized
holiday language, ad copy and imagery.
Target relevant promotions when possible.
Monitor budgets closer to ensure
campaign continuity.

33. The Future of AMS

34. The Future of AMS
marketplacestrategy.com
COMING SOON
● Extended Ad Network for Retargeting Beta starts May 18th
● B2B specific targeting supposed to launch in late Q3

35. The Future of AMS
marketplacestrategy.com
MPS PREDICTIONS
● Additional ad placements and improved control
● Ability to target ASINs in “Sponsored Products Related to this item” outside
of SPA Automatic campaigns
● Ability to target customers via other methods (geographic, time of day, etc.)
● AMS being rolled out to PrimeNow/Fresh

36. Thanks!
Questions?
marketplacestrategy.com
Curtis Rummel
curtis@marketplacestrategy.com
Ben LeMaster
ben@marketplacestrategy.com