There are a variety of ad formats and tools available for advertisers to elevate their brands through Amazon, whether they’re selling on Amazon or not. It’s critical that advertisers take advantage of these capabilities to the fullest in order to capitalize on the vast opportunity that exists on Amazon, including its pool of more than 150 million loyal Prime users. Below, are a few additional placements that can help reinforce your brand’s story:
AMAZON DSP (Demand-side-platform)
Display ads offer another opportunity that is a branding touchpoint in itself, while also driving to other branded experiences or elements. Display can reach consumers higher in the funnel through ad formats like video, which introduces shoppers to your brand and encourages them to engage with your product detail pages. This can be done effectively using various audience and segmentation options.
Audience targeting available through Amazon display and video presents an opportunity to tailor the content of your ad based on where the customer is in their journey. Some of the audiences available include people who have viewed similar products on Amazon, people who have viewed any of your brand products, and lifestyle-related audiences (people who historically have shown interest in a given category). Brands can also load their CRM data and continue to engage with known shoppers as they browse Amazon.com and Amazon’s owned sites.
For CRM audiences, advertisers are responsible for grouping customers together if they want to create multiple segments. Having a variety of custom audiences allows for more targeted brand messaging. For example, purchasers who recently bought from an advertiser for the first time might respond well to creative that includes several lifestyle elements to reinforce their recognition and understanding of the advertiser’s brand. For purchasers who have placed multiple orders, but haven’t visited an advertiser’s site recently, more promotional creative might incentivize those users to re-engage with the advertiser’s brand. Number of purchases, recency of purchase, category of purchase, and coupon usage behavior are just some of the attributes that can inform you on how to tailor your creative.
With or without custom-segmented audiences, advertisers can leverage Amazon’s audience overlap report to find audiences with attributes or behaviors similar to the audiences that have been created. This is incredibly valuable, because it provides a pool of Amazon users who share attributes with your current customers.
There’s a lot of flexibility in the type of imagery that can be used in display, so advertisers can leverage creative from other Amazon brand touchpoints to reinforce their brand personality, even when shoppers aren’t necessarily searching for a product they sell. Brand imagery can even be combined with direct calls to action to combine awareness building with the potential for a purchase.
AMAZON LIVE
Amazon Live allows brands to engage with customers in real time via interactive livestreams. Each video highlights a collection of products with links to the featured products directly below the video stream. From the Amazon Live video, users can follow your brand, participate in live chats, share your video with others, or click to visit your product detail pages.
Amazon Live creates a unique opportunity for brands to educate and speak to consumers. The video itself can be shot in a location that conveys the brand’s lifestyle. For example, a tool company can shoot while renovating a room, as pictured above. These filming decisions immediately convey brand image to the consumer. Additionally, through live video, products can be highlighted to their full potential, showcasing important features or how-to demonstrations more fully than what’s available through stores or A+ Content. Finally, there is the opportunity to engage directly with potential customers. The person who is live on camera can interact with viewers who are chatting or reacting to the video, allowing for direct brand-to-person connection. Once the livestream is over, many performance metrics are available, including live views, product clicks, and total sales of products sold to viewers of your livestream.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Take advantage of formats that mix branding with direct response to craft your brand story while creating the opportunity for a product purchase.
• Use audience targeting on Amazon DSP to create unique brand messaging for customers depending on where they are in the purchasing journey.
Want to learn more? Check out Merkle’s comprehensive Amazon Playbook, Elevating Your Brand on Amazon here.
