This document provides an overview of Amazon advertising and strategies for optimizing Amazon product listings. It discusses the importance of having a data-driven strategy for each product (ASIN) that establishes goals for key metrics like traffic, conversion rate, and profit. The document outlines a framework for categorizing products into "Head, Torso, Tail" based on their performance. It also covers best practices for product listings like optimizing titles, images, and content. Additional topics include why advertising is required, how different Amazon ad types work, and common pitfalls to avoid when optimizing campaigns.

1. Amazon Advertising
Simplicity Wins As Complexity Increases

2. Jeff Cohen
I am your guide, not a guru.
Ecommerce since 2007
Amazon since 2013

3. ● 55,000 Licensed Users
○ Serving 1P Sellers, 3P Sellers, Brands and Agencies
● $753M in Attributable Advertising Sales
● $120M in Annual Advertising Spend Managed through Ignite
● 1M+ Emails Sent Daily via Feedback Genius
● $13B in Gross Sales Facilitated by Seller Labs Products
Who Is Seller Labs

4. What We Won’t Cover
• Basics of PPC
• Terminology
• Campaign Set up
https://www.sellerlabs.com/offers/ppc_course_lesson_1/

5. What We Will Cover
• Strategy and setting goals
• Get Retail Ready
• Are ads required
• How Amazon ads work
• Data driven decisions
• Common pitfalls
•

6. Strategy
You need to use the same data-drive strategy to achieve your goals
Every ASIN has to perform at an established velocity and performance.
Your catalog is divided into three parts and you MUST manage based
on established ASIN strategy.
So, where do you start?

7. Start With Strategy

8. Reaching Your Goals
How am I going to take <Current Sales> to <Goal> in one year with my
current catalog?
• Analyze the data
• Interpret the data
• Establish strategy
• Work backwards from your goal

9. • Located in Business Reports
• This report is going to be the
foundation for establishing goals
and strategy
• Sessions (traffic to your ASIN)
• Sessions percentage (sales
conversion)
• Buy Box % and Sales
• DOES NOT REPORT PROFIT
Detail Page Sales & Traffic
by Child Item Report
Business Reports

10. Business Reports

11. Sessions:
minimum of 1K per
month
(97MM unique
visitors to Amazon
and you’re fighting for
traffic).
Session
Conversion:
minimum 10%;
30% is good;
less than 10% is BAD.
Profit:
You MUST establish a
profit range 10-50%.
Buy Box (resellers): Establish a floor for BB share.
ASIN Strategy

12. 1,000 Sessions @
10% conversion =
100 units per
month
100 units per
month
x $29.99 ASP
$2,999/month
$35,988/year
20 ASINs x
$35,988/year
$719,760 in
annual GMS
ASIN Strategy Example

13. • Sessions – Increase sponsored products, update keywords/search,
off-Amazon advertising
• Session Conversion – Fix detail page, images, bullets, title, product
reviews, adjust pricing, run promotions
• Buy Box – Adjust pricing, run promotions, FBA, stop selling
• Profit – Stop selling when you can no longer maintain profit range
All ASINS are not created equal.
Not Meeting Goals

14. HEAD
TORSO
TAIL
Head, Torso & Tail

15. HEAD SELECTION = TOP 20%
• Most important ASINs in your catalog
• 80/20 Rule - Pareto Principle
• Generating 80% of your sales
• High velocity ASINs
• Profit can vary – 10% - 50%
• High competition
• Never run out of stock
• Never get suspended
• This is your goal for every ASIN
Head Selection

16. TORSO SELECTION
• The middle of your catalog ~70%
• This is where you start making adjustments
• Business can sustain stock outs, ASIN suspensions
• Slower velocity
• Profit range tends to be consistent
• ASINs can either improve with making adjustments or
• ASINs are ending life-cycle and heading to tail
Torso Selection

17. THE TAIL
• The bottom 30% of your catalog
• Why are you selling?
• Tail section is C.R.A.P. (Can’t Realize Any Profit) ASINs
• Must eliminate CRAP as these ASINs have run through its
lifecycle
• It’s time to stop selling!
Tail Selection

18. Establishing Your Strategy
This strategy can be used for wholesalers, arbitrage, and private label.
The strategy is a starting place. It doesn’t have to be the same.
You just need a strategy!

19. 1,000 SESSIONS
or
500 SESSIONS
10% SESSION
CONVERSION
or
50% SESSION
CONVERSION
10% PROFIT
or
30% PROFIT
Where do you start?

20. Some Advice...
Stop thinking of your business as a business that is going from
$12MM to $40MM.
Start thinking of your business as a $40MM business that is
underperforming and you need to make changes immediately.

21. It’s All About The Data!
Every ASIN needs its own STRATEGY.
1. Account Health - The basics
2. Sessions - Traffic is key to success
3. Sales Conversion - >10%
4. Buy Box % - Products won’t sell without BB
5. Profit - A business can’t grow without cash
6. Sponsored Products & Brand - Always on Advertising
7. ACoS - How much is it going to cost to sell the product?
8. RoAS - What’s the return on ad spend?

22. Flywheel
of
Success
DATA

23. Biggest
Opportunity
Conversion Problem

24. Retail Ready

25. 90% of purchases start
with search.

26. Nearly two-thirds of all product
clicks come from the first page of
search results on Amazon.

27. Retail
Ready
Title&Description
Ratings &
Reviews
Photos
Inventory
Buybox

28. Enhanced03
● A+ Content
● Video
● Comparison charts
Images02
● Hero
● Package
● Infographics
● Lifestyle
Copy01
● Title
● Description
● Bullets
● Backend Keywords
A Complete Product Page

29. Copy

30. Brand
● Bose
● Apple
● Sony
Use
Case
● running
● gaming
● web
Product
Attribute
● noise canceling
● bluetooth
● foldable
Demographic
● kid
● toddler
● male
Keyword Strategies

31. Best Practices
1. Identify your objective (launch, organic, steal market share)
2. 250 bytes for keywords, 150 characters for the title
3. Consider synonyms, spelling variations, abbreviations, and alternative names
4. Exclude ASIN, brand name or other brands
5. Skip “stop words”: a, an, and, by, for, of, the, because, with
6. Avoid subjective/temporary terms: best, prime day, new, cheapest
7. ABT - Always be testing
8. Check Keywords - ensure your keywords are indexed

32. Bring Content to Life
1. How it's brewed? iced, french press, instant
2. What flavor? Vanilla, caramel
3. Where is it grown? French, Colombian
4. How much caffeine? extra strong, high caffeine

33. Expand and Contract
Use everything you have to capture volume. Break free from the pack.

34. Build a Title
Brand
Need State or
Functional Benefit
Variant Flavor Size
Brand Sub-Brand
Flavor
Variant
Category
Product
Format
Size/
Weight
Brand Sub-Brand
Product Type/
Category/
Keyword
Size/
Count
Pack Size/
Weight Volume
Brand Sub-Brand
Fragrance
Type
Product
Type
Size

35. Q&A Insights & Integration
Customers want:
- Visual comparison
- Measurements
- Appealing image

36. Images Sell

37. Images 2020

38. Images 2020

39. Enhanced

40. A+ Content

41. Video

42. Comparison

43. Mobile Matters

44. Reviews - Getting Your First Review
• Early Reviewer / Vine Program
• Promote via your own list
• Discounts / Promotion (beware!)
Pro Tip: Set up an email auto responder to message
clients and provide additional customer service.

45. Let’s Review

46. Compelling Titles

47. Compelling Images

48. A+ Content

49. A Complete Listing

50. Traffic Triggers

52. Advertising is required!

53. Guess which are the
sponsored ads.
Is this good? Is it bad?
It doesn’t matter.
It is the way it is, and if you
want to play, you have to pay.
Advertising is required!

54. Seller Central Amazon DSPVendor Central
Sponsored Ads Sponsored Ads
Sponsored Brands
Product Display
Sponsored Brands
Display
Pixel Retargeting
Remarketing
Advertising Availability

55. The perennial classic, the
go-to-ad for most PPC
advertisers. Super rich in terms
of options and strategies but
not your only option so don’t
limit yourself.
Sponsored Products Ads

56. Formerly known as Headline
Search Ads, SBAs require
Amazon Brand Registry.
If you own your brand, being
able to offer SBAs in your ad
mix is reason enough to
register your brand (but you
should do it anyway for
protection and perks). Don’t
sleep on SBAs as the
placement is great and the
competition is substantially
less than for SPAs.
Sponsored Brands Ads

57. PDAs can cross categories and
get your products in front of
new buyers who might not have
found you otherwise.
Amazon nails it: “What makes
these ads unique is that they
displayed based on relevant
products, product categories, or
audience interests. Product
Display Ads show within
product detail pages to surface
either complementary or
competing products.”
Product Display Ads

58. Home Page
Search
Product Page
Add to Cart
Check Out
Thank You
How Amazon Ads Work

59. Home Page
Search
Product Page
How Amazon Ads Work

60. Add to Cart
Check Out
Thank You
How Amazon Ads Work

61. Benefit of the Doubt

62. Set Goals
Know Your Numbers

63. Advertising Cost of Sale
ACoS = Ad Spend ÷ Ad Sales

64. Determine Your Target ACoS
Determine your business goal.
Are you willing to spend a lot or a little?
Passive or Active?
Know what your “break-even” is for your product.
How much can you spend on ads and still be profitable?

65. Determine Your Target Advertising Cost of Sale
If profit margin for a product is 30% after fees + overhead + other
costs,
Break even for that campaign is 30% ACoS.
Thus, if your ACoS is less than 30%, you see profit.

66. Advertising Cost of Sale ACOP
= Ad Spend ÷ Total Sales
$300 Ad Spend / $3,000 Sales
= 10% ACoS

67. ASIN Level - ACoS
Account Level - ACOP
Know Your Goal
Sales Efficiency
Brand Awareness
Know Your Numbers

68. Biggest
Opportunity
Traffic Problem

69. Let’s See This Work

70. Business Reports

71. What We Found
276 Advertised ASIN's in this report
(Of 361 offerings in Business Report)
Roughly 3/4 of catalog advertised (76%)
3% of Customer Search Terms were ASINs in this period (Very healthy)

72. What We Found
1511 Unique Targets (Keywords)
87% of Spend went to Keyword targets (not auto targets)... yet 76% of
clicks
Potentially $1100 in wasted spend (really not bad at all!)
$225 in ASIN targets with $0 sales

73. 3 Sales in 30 Days
4% Conversion Rate
Follow The Data

74. Focus On The Right Problem

75. Focus On The Right Problem

76. 3 Sales in 30 Days
25 Sales in 30 Days
11% Conversion Rate
Follow The Data

77. Under Funded

78. Over Funded

79. Missed Opportunities

80. Develop Optimization Plan

81. 1. Standardize
2. Synchronize
3. Succeed

82. Adjustment Types
• Bid Adjustments
• Keyword Transfers
• Negatives
• Budget
• Review Suggestions

83. Common Pitfalls

84. Using Non-Relevant Keywords

85. Checking a Campaign Too Often

86. Keeping Bids Too Low

87. Master the Basics

88. Other Traffic Triggers

89. Traffic
• Coupons
• Deals
• B2B Ads
• External Traffic
• ASIN Targeting
• Product Targeting
• Retargeting
• Bid Controls

90. 20% off - 3 Months
www.sellerlabs.com/smart