Amazon, a name almost synonymous with online commerce, is now opening its doors to lead-generating industries.

It offers the opportunity to leverage unprecedented audience targeting capabilities.

Currently, the platform offers display-only advertising campaigns – but even with this limitation, it offers businesses significant opportunities to engage with potential customers.

In this article, we want to explore the process of setting up advertising on Amazon, how unique they are in today’s privacy-focused digital environment, and how they are transforming advertising strategies across different channels.

Please note that Amazon’s non-endemic advertising channel is still in beta. We plan to keep this article updated as new features and information become available.

Understanding Amazon’s non-endemic ads

Amazon’s non-endemic advertising allows businesses that don’t sell directly on Amazon, such as: B. Advertisers can specifically target Amazon’s user base for lead generation. The advertising channel currently supports the following sectors:

• Travel.
• Automobile.
• Local services.
• Restaurants.
• Education.

Advertisers set their bid levels at the audience level and combine them with creative assets at the campaign level. They ensure that the bids do not exceed half of their daily budget.

Target groups work on an “or” basis and thus enable greater reach.

Screenshot from Amazon, January 2024

For example, if you’re targeting Amazon audience to non-Amazon sellers, select “Users who use Amazon Garage” and “Mazda car lovers.”

You bid for each audience, and your campaign can target both groups – not just users who fit into both categories.

We only recommend adding multiple audiences to a single ad group if you’re comfortable with everyone seeing the same ad. Otherwise, splitting it into different ad groups might be more effective.

Amazon also offers a market share preview of your audience, which provides a total number and not a forecast based on your set budget.

This metric is particularly useful because it provides a clearer picture of the potential market you can reach.

Screenshot from IMDB, January 2024

These advertisements appear not only on Amazon, but also across the entire third-party network, including platforms such as Twitch and IMDB.

Advertisers can choose between cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-1000-impressions (vCPM) payment models.

In our experience, CPC is suitable for those seeking actual engagement, while vCPM may be better for those focused on brand visibility.

Currently, location targeting on Amazon is somewhat limited, but you can still target individuals, cities, states, or entire countries with this service, which is currently exclusive to the US market.

It is critical to go through and complete Amazon’s mandatory verification process to protect both advertisers and consumers.

Why this channel is fascinating

For brands that traditionally focus on Google or paid social lead generation, Amazon’s approach might seem unconventional.

The core of Amazon’s advertising strength is its audience. At a time when data protection is paramount, Amazon has developed innovations to make targeting robust yet data protection compliant.

Amazon’s platform provides detailed insights into audience behavior without targeting specific individuals, but instead focusing on detailed group characteristics.

These can be based on product views, interactions with Amazon technologies or subsidiaries (like Whole Foods), and purchasing patterns.

Google Ads and Meta Ads can mislabel some sectors, and brands may have an easier time on Amazon.

For example, advertisers that mention “no credit required” are sometimes mislabeled as financial services, which can be a problem in the automotive sector.

Even for local services where boundaries are blurred, such as legal or healthcare services, Amazon’s product-centric approach may find it easier to target appropriate audiences than Google’s or Meta’s idea-centric approach.

Amazon ads should be viewed as part of an incremental advertising strategy.

If you’re allocating some of your budget to experiential campaigns, it’s worth exploring Amazon’s advertising platform, especially if you want to balance your spend on visual content campaigns and aim for a more strategic focus.

Setting up Amazon campaigns

The first crucial step in setting up an Amazon campaign is completing the verification process.

Once this is done, the rest of the steps are relatively easy. Registration should be done using your company’s official business name.

When you set up an account for a customer, make sure they provide payment information in a timely manner. Without this information the campaign cannot start.

The focus of campaign preparation is on selecting your target audience and creating your ads. For the creative component, you can use Shutterstock images or upload your own.

However, please note the limited editing options on the platform. Part of your ad creation involves creating text similar to a Google Display headline, limited to 90 characters.

After you’ve prepared your creative assets, you can select your audiences either manually or through search. Note that if your bid is more than 50% of your daily budget, you won’t be able to add them to your campaign or receive audience size predictions.

Campaigns can be tailored to leads (the only conversion event currently available), views or clicks, with the choice influencing whether you choose CPC or vCPM.

Why Non-Amazon Sellers Should Consider Amazon Ads

Amazon has built one of the most robust audience pools available.

Although campaigns are currently limited to display formats, they offer significant opportunities to reach specific, sometimes hard-to-reach, audience segments.

The most promising opportunities lie in the automotive sector, particularly with the integration of Amazon Garage and local services that can leverage Amazon’s insights into product purchasing patterns.

Given Amazon’s extremely competitive auction prices and robust audience targeting, Amazon’s non-endemic ad is a no-brainer for stretching testing budgets.

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Featured image: vijay0401/Shutterstock