5 Product Targeting Campaigns You Need NOW!
Table of Contents
Before I dive right into this, let’s take a quick step back and ask:
What are “Product Targeting Campaigns”?
Amazon advertising Campaigns are sponsored product advertisements under the Amazon Sponsored Product side of advertising, where you can make use of category and ASIN targeting.
When you target specific products, you show up on the product detail page right under the listing of the individual product you are targeting, and a few other places too!
So why is targeting sponsored products so important?!
Well think of it this way – do you know when bodybuilders do a pose-down, where they stand next to each other and flex? That’s basically what you are doing.
Someone somehow ended up on a product page, and you are trying to flex your products and say:
“Hey! My product is better!”
So now that we have the bases covered, what are 5 Amazon advertising product targeting campaigns you need to have right NOW?
- Product and keyword targeting based on refined categories
- Product and keyword targeting based on suggestions
- Product and keyword targeting based on new products
- Product and keyword targeting based on adjacent categories
- Product and keyword targeting yourself
Product Targeting Based on Refined Categories
What is it?
This type of product targeting campaign allows you to target all products within any category or sub category or even sub sub-sub category (you know how Amazon works). It is very useful because not only does it capture a ton of products, it can also capture new products you did not know were out yet (stealing sales from the newbies).
Now here is the fun part: They can be refined.
Refining basically means adding filters, to only target certain products that meet the criteria.
The 3 filters/refinements you can apply are:
- Price
- Rating (ex: stars or less)
- Brand
The beauty in these category targeting refinements is that you can target products in the category that you will have a clear advantage against. Any individual product with a lower review star rating and a higher price would be a great fit.
Benefits of this campaign:
Category targeting with refinement is an incredible way to launch multiple campaigns, targeting many products where you have the upper hand. This ad campaign saves you a lot of time.
Product Targeting Based on Suggestions
Another great Amazon sponsored product targeting campaign to launch is one based on Amazon suggestions. Rarely do we rely on Amazon’s suggestions, but in this case, it would be a smart idea to do it.
Why you may ask?
Because the Amazon algorithm detects products you may not be able to detect and find. Mind you, this is not going to be an Amazon campaign targeting top selling, high traffic products. But if you get enough low traffic, well-converting product targets, the sales add up.
It is clear that Amazon shows a long list of products that may very well be worth targeting. You’ve essentially just used Amazon to do your research for you. Good job!
Benefits of this campaign:
Amazon’s suggestions are one of the best places to discover products to target otherwise you would not be able to find. This Amazon campaign helps you with discovery.
Product Targeting New Products on Amazon
Remember when you first started selling on Amazon, and you would look at your automatic campaigns and see these “bleeder” ASINs that you cannot even negative out? Remember how they would spend so much money, and not generate any sales? And when you would click to see what the product was, it was a well-established product with many reviews? Well that is going to be you now.
This product targeting campaign is the most evil of all.
Whether you believe it or not, every single day, new products that compete with the products you are selling launch on Amazon. And while you may think that that is bad for you, it is actually an opportunity for you to target those competitors. Having even 10 reviews puts you at a big advantage over those products with 0 reviews, and as a result, you are a lot more inclined to make easy sales on those products.
So how do we find them? Manual targeting research.
You can use Helium 10 Black Box to make quick work of specific ASIN targeting, filter results, and find products.
Let’s talk about a few more places you can search for those new products:
The first place I would look at is Amazon’s new releases: https://www.amazon.com/gp/new-releases
Although some of the products are not really new releases, it is definitely a good start.
The second place I would look is Amazon Launchpad (a program that helps new sellers with new product).
Again, a lot of products are not really new, so a little digging is required.
The third place I would look is my competitor’s storefront. Having a list of all your competitor’s storefronts in excel is a good idea, and routinely checking for their new releases can help with finding these new products.
The fourth way I use to I look for new products on Amazon is through the Amazon suggested ASINs when I run a manual campaign. In many instances, Amazon makes suggestions on new products only its algorithm can detect.
The fifth way I use to look for new products on Amazon is by searching the keyword, and then clicking sort by “newest arrivals.” This will immediately find you brand new products that just launched on Amazon that is being indexed for that keyword.
The final way I would look for new products is by looking at all the products running product targeting ads under my own listing and my competitor’s listing. So many beginner sellers will run a simple automatic campaign, which will target my own listing and my competitors listing (usually you have to scroll deep in the product display ads to find them), and simply expose themselves to my evil campaign.
Benefits of this campaign:
New products on Amazon are easy targets and allow you to get easy wins off of 0 review products. This campaign makes you easy money.
Product Targeting Based on Adjacent Categories
Another very under-utilized product targeting ad campaign is adjacent categories.
So what are adjacent categories?
Well let’s assume you are selling shoes. Your adjacent categories would be: Socks, shoe polish, shoe moisturizer, shoe deodorizer etc and the list goes on.
Targeting adjacent categories can have a few benefits:
- Sponsored Brand ad exposure: more eyes on your product
- Lower CPC: Many times, your adjacent categories can have lower cost per clicks for ads
- Additional sales: it can also lead to more sales captured by targeting similar demographics
Besides the obvious method of tedious research in an attempt to find adjacent categories, there are 2 ways I like to go about it.
- Pinterest: A really great way to search for adjacent categories is to look for your product category, and then look at suggested pins under your competitors products. That will in many cases show you what your target demographic are looking for besides your product
- Yasiv: An Amazon product visualization tool that links your product to a ton of adjacent products where buyers who have bought in your category have also bought in those other categories (currently offline but they will be back soon)
Benefits of this campaign:
When targeting adjacent categories, you can get a ton of brand awareness, and for much cheaper since you are targeting categories that do not directly compete with you. This campaign saves you money and builds brand awareness.
Product Targeting Your Own Products
So, are you buying Bullet Proof, or are you buying Bullet Proof?
This strategy only applies to sellers with multiple products in the same category, but it is incredibly effective in up-selling products, and protecting your product detail page real estate.
By bidding on your own ASINs, you can very easily up-sell a new product you recently launched, by piggy backing on your existing high-traffic and successful products.
Not only that, but for every one of your own products you get to show up under your product detail page, that is one less competitor’s product showing up that you have successfully blocked.
Benefits of this campaign:
Protecting your own listings is an absolute must. Not only do you prevent your competitors from taking your sales, but you also piggy back off of your current success to up-sell other products. This campaign protects you from competitors and brings you sales on new products.
Final Notes
Product targeting ad campaigns are a must in today’s Amazon ad landscape. Make sure you take advantage of all the different strategies because every profitable sale counts!
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