Prepare for Amazon Domination:

How to Leverage Intent-Based Strategy to Supercharge Business Growth

Amazon has broken through the Google/ This guide will show you how to build a
Meta digital duopoly because consumers data-driven, customer-focused Amazon
go straight to the Amazon search bar strategy that:
to research and buy new products. And
the ecommerce giant is investing heavily ✓ Leverages audience insights and search
in expanding the platform’s marketing signals to stop cannibalization and
capabilities across the funnel. power stronger performance on Amazon

✓ Takes full advantage of Amazon’s first-

But the majority of brands are taking a
party data to drive full-funnel success
less than optimal approach to the platform
that drives both revenue and overall
by focusing on product rather than the
business growth
customer and missing the chance to build
brand awareness in the upper funnel. That ✓ Unlocks the full benefits of new features
kind of campaign strategy wastes budget like DSP and builds stronger DTC
and fails to maximize Amazon’s capacity to relationships to make conversion more
drive growth for your business. effective and efficient in the long term

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 Table of Contents

Evaluate the Opportunity: Amazon As Digital’s New Power Player

3

Get The Advantage: The Intent-Based Approach to Amazon Paid Media

7
Campaign Build: Learn from common mistakes 8
Search Intent: Shift focus from product to audience 10
CASE STUDY | KidKraft: Restructure campaign build to outmaneuver the competition 12

Seize the Day: The Amazon Flywheel

13
Earned Media: Optimize with your customer front-of-mind 14
Owned Media: Create a high-quality brand experience 17
Paid Media: Make sure your campaigns are set up for success 19
CASE STUDY | FIVE STAR: Convert brick-and-mortar retail success to Amazon 23

Step On The Gas: DSP and Full-Funnel Integration

24
DSP: Leverage Amazon’s first-party data to drive growth 25
Peak Periods: Start now to drive significant business growth 30

Take Amazon to the Next Level: Getting Started

32

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EVALUATE THE OPPORTUNITY:

Amazon As According to eMarketer, there was a 53%

jump in net digital ad revenues on the
As a result, Amazon’s ad business
is actually catching up with the two

Digital’s New platform between 2019 and 2020, followed

by a 56% jump between 2020 and 2021.
heavyweights of digital marketing,
Facebook and Google. While Google’s

Power Player That’s a massive gain, fueled by brand

hunger for new opportunities to connect with
share of digital ad revenue has been
falling year over year and Facebook’s
customers online and Amazon’s significant share has essentially remained flat,
The acceleration of ecommerce over the investment in more advanced marketing tools Amazon has grown its share of the pie
last two years has affected every part of and solutions. every year since 2019.
the digital marketing world. But nowhere
has that been clearer than on Amazon: its
US Net Digital Ad Revenue Share, by Company, 2019-2023
rapid growth as an ad platform against the % of total digital ad spending
big players like Google and Meta is truly
stratospheric.

Source: eMarketer

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 E VA LUAT E T H E O P P O R T U N I T Y: A M A Z O N A S D I G I TA L’ S N E W P OW E R P L AY E R

One crucial differentiator that Amazon Consumer Satisfaction

separates Amazon from the
competition is the way its ad business
was built. While Facebook started
as a social network and grew into a
marketing platform and Google was
once just a search engine, Amazon was
always built for commerce. 90% 95% 99%
As Amazon expanded its marketing
offering, they’ve built from the bottom
of the funnel up: users on Amazon
Customer Relevance of Assortment of
generally have higher purchase intent, service search results products
and the ecommerce platform itself is
the product of years of investment in
Source: Feedvisor
best-in-class UX and optimizations
geared toward making the purchase
experience seamless and user-friendly.
That’s another major opportunity for brands Behavior Report pointed to customer
considering investing in Amazon advertising: service, relevance of search results, and
you can reap the rewards of Amazon’s assortment of products as the top drivers of
much-discussed customer obsession and Amazon customer satisfaction, all of which
leverage those strengths for your business. mean your potential customers will have a
Feedvisor’s 2021 Amazon Consumer great experience on the platform.

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 E VA LUAT E T H E O P P O R T U N I T Y: A M A Z O N A S D I G I TA L’ S N E W P OW E R P L AY E R

When we talk about the necessity of a

seamless customer experience, nobody Top 3 destinations where consumers Top 3 destinations where consumers go
does it better than Amazon. But one of the START THEIR SEARCH for new products when READY TO BUY a product
more persistent myths is that consumers
are just using Amazon at the very end of
the customer journey. 62% 71%

In fact, consumers use Amazon across

18% 10%
the entire funnel to research purchase
decisions, as well as actually make the
purchase. In fact, Feedvisor found that a 10% 7%
whopping 62% of consumers start their
search for new products on Amazon, vs.
just 18% on Google. Source: Feedvisor

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 E VA LUAT E T H E O P P O R T U N I T Y: A M A Z O N A S D I G I TA L’ S N E W P OW E R P L AY E R

In the end, three truths should convince

every marketer to at least consider
allocating more budget and expanding
their Amazon strategy:

1 Your customer is there: if your

brand isn't, you’re opening the
door for the competition.

2 Performance plateaus are

happening on other channels:
stop the bleeding by diversifying
All of this high-intent consumer We know that people are going to your marketing strategy.
behavior on the platform means Amazon first. We know that they are
3 Establishing your brand presence
Amazon has an absolute treasure there much earlier in the purchase
on Amazon is just the beginning:
trove of first-party data that your journey than we might have assumed
Amazon has significantly expanded
business can access through its in the past. If your brand isn’t present,
their advertising options, so
advertising offerings, which now you’re missing out on a massive
there’s a lot more you can do to
extend beyond just Amazon itself opportunity to drive awareness,
supercharge growth, even if you’re
to the open web with the launch of revenue, and business growth.
on the platform already.
Amazon DSP.

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GET THE ADVANTAGE:

The Intent-Based
Approach to
Amazon Paid
Media
If your brand is already advertising on
Amazon, you’re probably making some
extremely common mistakes. But don’t
worry: they can be fixed!

The biggest (and most common) error
marketers make is taking a product-first
approach to your Amazon strategy, instead
of zeroing in on consumer behavior and
intent as the major drivers. That means your
campaigns aren’t as efficient and effective
as they could be.
To get the most value out of your
investment, you need to leverage audience
insights and search signals to maximize
opportunities, stay agile, and drive
incremental growth. That will not only help
your brand stop cannibalization and get
better results from your Amazon investment,
but also unlock the full power of the cross-
channel Amazon flywheel.

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 G E T T H E A DVA N TAG E : T H E I N T E N T- B A S E D A P P R OAC H TO A M A Z O N PA I D M E D I A

Mistake #1: All-To-All Build Structure

In this example, we can see three different products, all of which fall in the sneaker category. The
Campaign Build: Learn from top is the Air Monarch, your dad’s favorite shoe for yardwork. The middle is the Jordan 1, one of the
common mistakes hottest sneakers on the planet. At the bottom is a basic athletic workhorse, the Pegasus. In the All-To-
There are two basic campaign structures All build, you’re bidding on all of the keywords with all of the products.
many brands have in place that will
never result in unlocking the full potential
performance gains your brand is capable of
driving on Amazon. “Sneaker”
($4 ROAS)
($2.50 ROAS)

Mistake #1: All-To-All Build Structure

We call the first one the All-To-All, and it’s
“Nike Shoe”
the most basic way to set up campaigns. You ($3 ROAS)
($1.50 ROAS)
bid against all possible keywords with all of
your products in the same campaign, and
you likely see wildly different results. This
setup technically does match search terms “Shoes for Dad”
($1 ROAS)
($2 ROAS)
with relevant products, but you’re basically
throwing the kitchen sink at every possible
target; some of them will stick, some of them
will fail, but campaign efficiency is probably
the biggest loser. You’ll also miss out on a lot of insights from able to pivot those learnings to improve
performance data because you won’t be your campaign performance by optimizing
able to tell which products are performing the best possible product against the best
against which keywords, so you won’t be keyword.

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 G E T T H E A DVA N TAG E : T H E I N T E N T- B A S E D A P P R OAC H TO A M A Z O N PA I D M E D I A

Mistake #2: Product-Based Build Structure

Mistake #2: Product-Based Build Structure
The next most common mistake is a product-
You can see we’re working with the same three products here, and the goal in a Product-Based Build
based build structure, and it shouldn’t be
Structure is basically to push all of your products against all their relevant terms.
a surprise that so many brands take this
approach. Why? It’s actually how Amazon
teaches marketers to build campaigns. It’s
“Sneaker” - ($1.50 ROAS)
definitely better than the All-To-All build, but
it still doesn’t maximize the potential of the “Nike Shoe” - ($2.50 ROAS) ($3 ROAS)
platform. “Shoes for Dad” - ($6 ROAS)

The Product-Based Build Structure involves “Sneaker” - ($5 ROAS)

building keyword universes around “Nike Shoe” - ($4 ROAS) ($3.50 ROAS)
individual products and applying bids based “Shoes for Dad” - ($1 ROAS)
on how well each keyword performs for
each product. “Sneaker” - ($1 ROAS)

“Nike Shoe” - ($3 ROAS) ($2.50 ROAS)

In a product-based build, your bidding and
category strategy gets messy quick. You “Shoes for Dad” - ($2.5 ROAS)

probably have a lot of similar products

that run on similar keywords, and you’ll
start competing with yourself on your own
keywords and cannibalizing results. If you It also doesn’t give you full clarity into how optimizing your campaigns. Instead you’re
need to bid down on certain terms, you have specific products are performing against left to fight against the current because you
to make changes across many different specific terms, nor can you generate don’t have access to granular insights into
campaigns, which makes it hard to stay agile complex performance breakdowns by what products shoppers actually want to find
and difficult to control. category to figure out how to continue for a particular term.

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 G E T T H E A DVA N TAG E : T H E I N T E N T- B A S E D A P P R OAC H TO A M A Z O N PA I D M E D I A

Search Intent: Shift focus

from product to audience The Solution: Keyword-Based Build Structure
In this example, the term “sneaker” is performing at a $2.50 ROAS. We would isolate that term and test
We recommend doing things a little
our three shoes against it. Once we find out that the Jordan 1 is the best performer against that term
differently; we’re not interested in going
via statistical relevancy, we’re only going to show the Jordan 1 in the results, and the entire campaign
against the current, we want to harness the
goes from $2.50 to $7 ROAS.
current and let it power performance gains.
If one pair of shoes is selling more against
a keyword, why go against the current and
($1 ROAS)
try to sell a different pair? Why not try to find “Sneaker”
($7 ROAS)
a different opportunity for that product so it ($2.50 ROAS)
aligns with what consumers actually want? ($0.50 ROAS)

We call this the Keyword-Based Build,

($1 ROAS)
and the good news is that most of your
“Nike Shoe”
competitors are still using the two less ($2 ROAS)
($4 ROAS)
effective campaign builds, which means ($6 ROAS)
you’ve got an opportunity to gain a significant
advantage and capture serious market share ($8 ROAS)
on Amazon. “Shoes for Dad”
($1 ROAS)
($5 ROAS)
The Keyword-Based Build starts with ($4 ROAS)
analyzing the search terms and dividing them
into categories and subcategories based
on how people are looking for products and Instead of saying “we need to sell these product that will go with the flow and perform
what they’re looking for, then testing out specific products” and trying to force it the best. That’s better for your business and
which products perform best against each of to work regardless of consumer intent or better for the consumer.
these categories. interest, we leverage the data to identify the

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 G E T T H E A DVA N TAG E : T H E I N T E N T- B A S E D A P P R OAC H TO A M A Z O N PA I D M E D I A

We apply that process across as many Intent-Based Approach vs. Product-Based Approach
subcategories as people are converting Intent Product
on your brand terms. In our sneaker
Clear idea of which products perform best against each Competing against your own products leads to impression
example, we’d also test against terms like
segment cannibalization
“red sneaker,” or “red sneaker for dad,”
or “Christmas gift” if they were driving
conversions, then utilizing a super clear Granular performance data enables better reporting, insights, Likely to see different performance on similar keywords in
naming structure and labeling campaigns
and agility across trends, seasonality, or product changes different campaigns, which makes it difficult to generate clear
insights
as brand, non-brand, and competitor to
keep things organized and allow for easy Ensure you’re serving your very best products against each Can’t guarantee you’re surfacing your best product for each
segmentation. And this structure allows us relevant search term search term
to be flexible: if a product goes out of stock,
we sub in the second-highest performer; if
More control over keywords and bids because there are no To update bids on the same keyword or keyword category, you
you’re introducing a new product, we have repeat keywords across campaigns need to apply changes across many different campaigns.
a testing system in place.

The key to success is getting as granular months, you should have a giant web of SHIFT FOCUS FROM A PRODUCT-
as possible: we build out many campaigns categories, sub-categories, and sub-sub-
because we keep testing against categories categories. Once we determine a winner for BASED STRUCTURE TO AN
and attributes with the goal of surfacing each, we only run with that product, so we’re INTENT-BASED APPROACH
exactly what someone is looking for on never competing against ourselves.
every converting term. Within the first two POWERED BY SEARCH SIGNALS

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 CASE STUDY The Brand The Challenge
KidKraft is an established premium KidKraft tasked Wpromote with helping to raise brand
children’s toy company with a 50- awareness and drive revenue across channels. Amazon
year history on a mission to inspire was not a priority, but Wpromote’s experts realized there
imaginative and creative play in was an opportunity to better account for search intent,
Restructure children. stop cannibalization, and account for seasonal demand.

campaign build to
outmaneuver the The Solution
competition ✓ Change the structure of KidKraft’s Amazon campaigns to drive higher efficiency and look beyond
their traditional timelines
✓ Help KidKraft be more nimble and ensure that the products customers find from the brand
throughout the year would change based on seasonal demand
✓ Shift focus from product-based decisions to keyword-based decisions driven by both customer
segments and search signals
✓ Unlock higher spend and more advanced KPIs to make decisions based on new customer
acquisition targets instead of solely driven by ROAS and product goals

The Results

4x spend +22% +72% +346%

on Amazon, driven by orders ad attributable new-to-brand orders
nearly 10:1 return YoY sales YoY in December YoY

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SEIZE THE DAY:

The Amazon
Flywheel
Consumers are going straight to Amazon
to discover new products, research
purchase decisions, and buy. If your
brand is gong to maximize ROI and long-
term growth on the platform, you need to
put your best foot forward and use all of
Amazon’s available tools.

Enter the Amazon flywheel: paid, earned, and
owned media on Amazon are connected, and
a winning strategy should make sure they’re
all working together. It’s essential to optimize
across all three of these areas to generate
the best possible results.
Most brands focus on paid media to the
exclusion of other priorities, but that’s a
mistake. Let’s look at best practices across all
three before turning to Wpromote’s approach
to full-funnel DSP campaigns.

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Earned Media: Optimize with Remember: even if your focus is on paid,
your customer front-of-mind there’s a relevancy engine on Amazon,
so your ads are only going to work if your
detail page copy is aligned with your paid
One of the most important assets you have
messaging. Most brands don’t include
on Amazon are your product detail pages
enough content on PDPs and often ignore
(PDPs). You need to create high-quality,
opportunities to cross-sell or connect a
engaging content for your PDPs that’s
specific product to the brand story.
optimized for organic search and aligned
with paid ad copy and creative to boost
To compete on nonbranded terms in the
conversion rates and ensure your customers
auction and organically, your listings need
get the best possible brand experience
to be optimized to be competitive in the
that’s both relevant to them and seamless
marketplace and position your brand as
across interactions.
trustworthy and attractive to consumers.
Key levers include getting more reviews,
making sure products are in stock, and
adding more high-quality content to the
page, including copy, video, or other helpful
information like sizing charts. That’s called
A+ content.
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S E I Z E T H E DAY: T H EWAHMEARZEOW
NEFALY
RWEH
NEOW
EL
Your PDPs need to reflect your brand, just like your
website does. For many potential new customers,
they’ll be meeting your brand for the first time on that
page. At minimum, you should:
✓ Lean on the value props that are most important
to your customer in your messaging: What makes
your product stand out from the rest of the pack?
Does your product have features your competition
is missing? Are you more eco-friendly? Made in the
USA? Hand-crafted?
✓ Optimize your title and all copy for success:
Remember that your title is literally your ad copy.
Unless you have a very established brand, lead with
the product description. Make sure you convey the
most important details in the first 50 characters
because titles are truncated on the SERP.
✓ Make the most of your images: According to
Amazon’s guidelines, the first picture should only
be a high-quality image of the product on a white
background. Luckily, you can use the rest of the
images to make your product stand out. Include
infographics, lifestyle images, sizing/comparison
charts, and key value propositions to really grab
attention and stop the scroll. The goal here is to
convey as much pertinent information as possible to
the customer to influence the buying decision.
14
 S E I Z E T H E DAY: T H E A M A Z O N F LY W H E E L

Building the Perfect

Product Details Page (PDP)
Product Title:

✓ Describe the product

✓ Integrate target keywords
✓ Include valuable
information that can help
in the decision-making
process

Images: OPPORTUNITY:
✓ Include different angles and Don’t let customers get
views of the product distracted by competitor ads
on your PDPs. You can bid on
✓ Show how to use it these placements and keep
consumers focused on your
✓ Products must fill at least 85% of
brand and products instead of
the image
opportunistic competitors.
✓ Main image has white
background

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 S E I Z E T H E DAY: T H E A M A Z O N F LY W H E E L

Building the Perfect

Product Details Page (PDP)
Precise, informative introduction,
ideally 100 words or less
OPPORTUNITY:
Tell a powerful brand story, build excitement
around your product, and create a better shopping
experience for your customers by incorporating A+
Content.

Scannable headers, concise

Multiple images of a product, including paragraphs
lifestyle images

List of product features and competitive Clear and attractive list or bullet
differentiators points explaining benefits

Rely on larger image modules to incorporate

your brand’s fonts and color schemes Showcase other products that are
part of your brand/catalog

Include 360° product views and comparison

chart for similar products

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 S E I Z E T H E DAY: T H E A M A Z O N F LY W H E E L

Owned Media: Create

a high-quality brand
experience

Remember that people aren't just going

to Amazon to buy; 62% of consumers go
there to start their search for the right
product.

That means Amazon is also about

discovery, and your owned media on
Amazon needs to make a strong first
impression on people who are just
looking and might be unfamiliar with your
brand or product.

That’s where your brand store can KidKraft

make a real impact. The best thing about

your brand’s Amazon storefront is that it’s your catalog they might be unfamiliar with.
extremely customizable, so you can build As a key part of the Amazon flywheel, you
an experience that is fully aligned with your should revisit your brand store and keep
brand’s look and feel, as well as optimized improving it according to new performance
according to your specific product priorities, insights and trends. In fact, according to
seasonality, categories, and more. The Amazon’s data, stores updated within the
brand store is also a great place to last 90 days see 35% higher attributed
introduce shoppers to additional products in sales per visitor.

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 S E I Z E T H E DAY: T H E A M A Z O N F LY W H E E L

There are a couple of steps you can take to level up your brand store:

› Let data take the wheel: Combine your existing › Tell your brand story: Start by creating an “About Us” page
audience insights and market research with Amazon- to educate potential customers about your brand and make
specific insights into target demographics and industry- the case for their business. Utilize your market research
specific best practices to figure out what to prioritize to highlight what makes your products different from your
on your homepage, how to organize your categories competitors, especially those on Amazon itself that may be
and products, and more. If you already have an Amazon offering something similar at a lower price point.
store, you can look at existing performance and
behavioral data like click-through rates to figure out › Simplify the experience: Be careful not to go overboard
what’s working and what’s not and make adjustments. with the amount of bells and whistles you add to your brand
store. Remember why it exists and what shoppers want
› Establish your distinct visual style: Make sure from the experience: they want browsing to be seamless
your brand’s visual style is consistent, arresting, and and navigation intuitive and clear. Keep on the lookout
engaging across the entire store (and your product for potential pain points or dropoffs, and monitor your
detail pages). Utilize eye- catching modules and get brand page console for new opportunities to optimize the
clear guidelines in place for colors, fonts, buttons, experience.
images, and more. Remember that larger images and
fonts are easier to read when customers are browsing › Leverage video assets and lifestyle imagery: Illustrate
on mobile devices, and don’t forget to encourage the product quality and highlight features by incorporating
customer to convert by using a call-to-action button like video into your brand store. Consider repurposing Instagram
“Shop Now.” content to build a shoppable feed of lifestyle images.

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 S E I Z E T H E DAY: T H E A M A Z O N F LY W H E E L

Factors That Influence Amazon's Rank Algorithm

Paid Media: Make sure your
campaigns are set up for
success

When you combine an intent-based, hyper-

targeted approach to your Amazon paid
media with best-in-class earned and owned
tactics, you have a strong foundation for
scalable growth on the platform.better for
your business and better for the consumer.

Because you’re feeding Amazon’s rank

algorithm the right information, your
products will be more competitive for your
target search terms in the auction.

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 S E I Z E T H E DAY: T H E A M A Z O N F LY W H E E L

AMAZON PAID MEDIA BASIC AD TYPES

It’s important to note that it takes some time

to set up the new build and run the necessary
tests to get to full functionality and impact. Sponsored Products
We look to get some short- term wins on the Targeting: Keyword, category, brand or ASIN
board by focusing on: Visibility: Search results & detail pages

✓ Brand SERP coverage: Ensure customers see your brand when

they search for it. Own top-of-page ads on branded terms.
✓ Cleaning up legacy campaigns: Implement negatives in the
current campaign to immediately save funds. Sponsored Brands Ads
✓ Branded PDP plays: Kick competitors off your PDPs so Targeting: Keyword
potential customers aren’t lured away by display ads featuring Visibility: Top of search
someone else’s products.

But don’t forget to set the right long-term

expectations around the full campaign
restructure, because that is where you’ll really
start to chart significant business impact once
Sponsored Display Ads
it’s up and running. Targeting: Product or interest
Visibility: Related product detail pages

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 S E I Z E T H E DAY: T H E A M A Z O N F LY W H E E L

Your Amazon Sponsored Ad Checklist

☐ Make sure your product is in stock: Amazon is all ☐ Think creatively about creative: Feel free
about momentum. If you’re having inventory issues, to recycle and revise copy, content, images,
you aren’t going to be able to capitalize on interest and video from other channels like social for
and you’ll slow your brand growth potential. Sponsored Brand and Sponsored Display Ads.
Bonus: you’ll keep your brand messaging
☐ Look to the ratings: 3.5+ stars and 15 ratings are
consistent across channels without a lot of
Amazon’s suggested “retail readiness” minimum
extra effort.
for advertising, but that’s not enough to realistically
compete and win nonbrand keyword targets. ☐ Eyeball the competition: Look to your
Identify your best-reviewed products that can direct and indirect competitors across your
compete on generic nonbrand terms and start with target terms and pay particular attention to
those. As consumers click on those products, you their prices, ratings, and reviews. Are there
can introduce them to other offerings. opportunities to go after certain search terms
where your product has the advantage.
☐ Pick your champion: Identify the products in your
catalog that feature easy-to-grasp, high-impact
value propositions and start there. If parent ASINs
have multiple children, lead advertising with the
cheapest ASIN.

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 S E I Z E T H E DAY: T H E A M A Z O N F LY W H E E L

It’s also extremely important to focus on

the right KPIs when it comes to evaluating Focusing on the Right KPIs
your integrated performance on Amazon.
Many marketers are very concerned about
ad-attributed return on ad spend (ROAS) or Ordered Revenue TACoS or Total ROAS
advertising cost of sale (ACoS), and optimize
Reveals the size and speed of Shows the impact of spend on
their ads solely based on those metrics.
account growth the overall business, not just the
Amazon Ad performance

ROAS is definitely important to assess

efficiency, but the goal of your Amazon
marketing is to grow your business both
on and off Amazon. That’s not what
ROAS measures; in fact, a high ROAS can
sometimes indicate that you aren’t investing Marketshare New-to-Brand
enough in non-brand or upper-funnel tactics.
Understand the size of the pie and Know how many conversions are
the size of your slice coming from first-time buyers to
We recommend taking a more holistic look
utilize customer lifetime value
at performance and focusing on KPIs that
when analyzing Non-brand and
are assessing business growth.
Competitor performance

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 CASE STUDY The Client The Challenge
FIVE STAR provides durable, Wpromote needed to convert FIVE STAR’s success from
innovative school supplies to brick-and-mortar retail stores to Amazon in a limited
empower students who strive amount of time when back-to-school went virtual
to succeed both socially and in 2020, while driving organic category growth and

Convert brick- academically. surpassing sales numbers YoY.

and-mortar retail
success to Amazon The Solution
✓ Utilize a Sponsored Products campaign structure to test hundreds of products against thousands
of targeted keywords, then optimize the best products for individual auctions
✓ Deploy Sponsored Products targeting to stay top-of-mind on Prime decision pages

✓ Use Sponsored Brands ads to display FIVE STAR in key placements and rank high on search
engine results pages so the brand would be top of mind higher in the funnel
✓ Make continuous optimizations across products quickly and at scale through the campaign run
times using bulksheets, Amazon’s format for bulk operations
✓ Measure shopping activity and sales performance of non- Amazon social media campaigns on
FIVE STAR’s Amazon business using Amazon Attribution

The Results

+73% -31% +26%

operational efficiency Cost-Per-Clicks Conversion rates
on Amazon YoY YoY YoY

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STEP ON THE GAS:

Full-Funnel
Integration
Climbing the Amazon Ladder
With DSP
Once you have dedicated Sponsored
Product, Sponsored Brand, and Sponsored
Display strategies in place that are fully
funded, you’re ready to start creating
more demand. It’s important to start from
the bottom of the funnel if you want your
Amazon strategy to be as effective as
possible.

Think about it this way: if you own a

restaurant, you need to have the kitchen
ready and running before you invite
customers in to eat. Otherwise, you’ll be
driving awareness in the upper funnel without
the tools in place to capture that attention
and convert it into revenue. That’s just bad
business.

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 S T E P O N T H E G A S : F U L L- F U N N E L I N T E G R AT I O N W I T H D S P

DSP: Leverage Amazon’s To put it in simple terms: Sponsored Ads on

first-party data to drive Amazon are the ads you’ve seen inside of
stores for particular products. DSP ads are
growth
the ones you see outside that are trying to
get you into the store, but DSP ads can be
We’ve talked about how consumers are using
targeted to a particular audience.
Amazon for a lot more than just the final
step in the purchase journey. But Amazon
has also been investing heavily in its own Amazon DSP: Expand Across the Web
upper-funnel offerings to advertisers and
adding new tools and capabilities to the Automated buying and placement of display, video, and OTT ad space across
Amazon-owned sites and apps, and leading publisher sites across the web
platform to entice brands to bring their upper-
funnel marketing dollars into the Amazon
ecosystem.

Amazon DSP, or demand-side platform, is

the crown jewel of these new developments,
and it’s designed to give advertisers the full
benefit of Amazon’s vast trove of first- party
consumer data. DSP ads reach consumers
via display, video, and over-the-top (OTT)
television content across Amazon-owned
sites and apps as well as other leading
publishers across the web.

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 S T E P O N T H E G A S : F U L L- F U N N E L I N T E G R AT I O N W I T H D S P

DSP has a wide range of audience targeting

Go Further By Leveraging Amazon's First-Party Data capabilities, ranging from narrow retargeting of
people in customized cohorts to broad affinity-
based audiences based on shopping behavior.
Your goal is to use a variety of DSP audiences
to make Venn diagrams that pinpoint the best
possible target according to considerations
particular to a given campaign, product, or
consumer cohort.

When we talk about moving up the funnel,

retargeting is often where brands start testing into
DSP because they are serving ads to high-intent
consumers who are familiar with the brand and
products. If you’re focused on direct response
opportunities, this is a great way to get your feet
wet. Consider the opportunity by asking:

✓ Have you activated remarketing for views?

✓ Have you remarketed to past purchasers?

✓ Have you started remarketing to customers

who have viewed or purchased your
competitor’s products?

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 S T E P O N T H E G A S : F U L L- F U N N E L I N T E G R AT I O N W I T H D S P

DSP Ad Type Details

DISPLAY VIDEO OTT VIDEO

DSP Creative Best Practices

✓ Static Image/Banners ✓ In-Stream & Out-Stream ✓ In-Stream ✓ Start by testing responsive and dynamic
✓ Types: ✓ Duration: 6s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 60s, or ✓ Duration: 15s or 30s creative for your top products, and
120s continue to improve and try out new
• Custom ✓ Non-clickable
✓ Link to Amazon PDP, Store, or versions across these formats.
• DEA (Dynamic eCommerce) Client Website ✓ Location (on FireTV):
• REC (Responsive eCommerce) ✓ Location: • IMDb TV ✓ Try including custom imagery and
✓ Link to Amazon PDP, Store, or • Desktop • Twitch customer reviews to help your creative
Client Website
• Tablet • Amazon Publisher Services stand out and resonate with your target
✓ Location: On & Off Amazon broadcaster and network apps audience.
• Mobile Web
✓ Sizes (top recommended): • Live Sports Apps
• Mobile App ✓ Stick to the 5 highest volume creative
• 300x250 • News App
✓ Audio-Off: user initiated sizes: 300x250, 160x600, 300x600,
• 300x600
728x90, and 970x250.
• 160x600
• 970x250 ✓ If you’re particularly interested in a
• 728x90 specific placement on Amazon.com
like the large 970x250 placement on
product pages, consider weighting
Contextual and in-market audiences offer a much more likely to see high ROAS with these your creative or splitting line items to
scalable way to drive high-purchase-intent campaigns. maximize your impressions.
Amazon customers to your PDPs and gain
visibility on Amazon.com with active shoppers. For best results, we recommend considering
Amazon’s first-party purchaser data makes pairing these tactics with a scaled Sponsored
this kind of targeting especially valuable Ads search and product targeting strategy. That
when compared with other similar offerings combination can drive significantly expanded
from different marketing channels, so you’re reach, visibility, and traffic to your products.

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 S T E P O N T H E G A S : F U L L- F U N N E L I N T E G R AT I O N W I T H D S P

Let’s go back to our shoe

example to understand how
this works. If we’re marketing a
high-end running shoe, we might
consider targeting people above
a certain income level who are
also running enthusiasts. When
launching a product, like a new
model of winter boot, we might
consider marketing to people
who are in-market for boots,
come from a snowy climate, and
have previously purchased from
your brand.

That sweet spot audience that hits all
three can be served ads more focused on
the lower funnel and goaled specifically
against purchase because we don’t just
know they’re someplace cold, we know
they’re high-intent: they’re in-market to
buy and have purchased from your brand
in the past.
Once you’ve filled your low-to-mid
funnel with more targeted Amazon DSP
audiences and tactics, you can consider
expanding your targeting to include lifestyle
audiences, growing your reach even more
with the Amazon Publisher Network, and
testing streaming TV and video activation
for brand awareness.

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 S T E P O N T H E G A S : F U L L- F U N N E L I N T E G R AT I O N W I T H D S P

Are you ready for DSP?

✓ Are your lower-funnel tactics maximized and fully funded?
Make sure your Sponsored Products and Sponsored
Brands for brand, non-brand, and product/category
targeting have been scaled up to their full spend potential.

✓ Have you activated or tested Sponsored Display?

Sponsored Display is a gradual step toward DSP display
advertising but is less risky because campaigns are still
CPC-based.

✓ Do you have available budget? You need to have access to

enough budget without taking away from Sponsored Ads
performance spend. We recommend a minimum of $15k
per month.

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 S T E P O N T H E G A S : F U L L- F U N N E L I N T E G R AT I O N W I T H D S P

Peak Periods: Start now to

drive significant business
growth
Full-Funnel Strategy
You need to get a head start on peak
shopping periods and lay the groundwork
in advance to get the most out of your
Amazon investment across the funnel.

Prime Day is likely to be sometime in

July, which makes this the perfect time
to set up your intent-based paid media
strategy on Amazon, optimize your PDPs,
and build your brand store out, then start
pivoting into DSP so you’ll have primed
(pun intended) audiences and are ready
to retarget them in the lower funnel when
purchase intent is high.

Start that campaign build restructuring

process now to position yourself for full
funnel success across key shopping periods
like Prime Day, Back to School, and, of
course, the holidays. It’s crucial to get your
brand into the consideration set for your
target audiences well in advance of Q4.

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 S T E P O N T H E G A S : F U L L- F U N N E L I N T E G R AT I O N W I T H D S P

Find Your Fit: What’s Your Amazon Strategy?

Small Budget Medium Budget Large Budget Amazon is a major player in your
customer’s purchase journey
New Brand Identify hyper-targeted opportunities Determine a healthy mix of investment Fully fund search for a leadership position
across the funnel (and now, with
to acquire new customers that closely for hyper- targeted opportunities and on core category terms with strong SOV
match your product differentiation more general targets to gain visibility in and impression share. Adopt an automated DSP, across the web). Marketers
and have the best chance of driving a the category at a solid ROAS. Leverage approach to scaling new keywords and need to start thinking about the
maximum ROAS. We recommend testing research-based strategies that help product targets. platform like they think about
Sponsored Brand Video for your top collect data and can be used to craft Google: if you’re not there, you’re
keywords when possible. a successful launch strategy for new Establish a budget for full-funnel DSP just leaving the door open to the
Sponsored ad types and tactics. activation, ~25-50% of budget depending
competition. And if you’re only
Leverage keyword and competitive on search funding and awareness
research tools to inform category Consider layering in remarketing and opportunity. Focus efforts on generating doing the minimum to establish
opportunity and Sponsored targeting some mid-funnel audience targeting via brand awareness and recognition, driving your presence, you’re missing
strategy. DSP to drive engagement and brand engagement through CTAs, and establishing opportunities to drive business
recognition in your category. product differentiation. growth.

The truth is that performance

Established Allocate budget to brand search
Brand placements that encourage high-priority
product purchases to drive brand growth
and organic momentum. Use impression
share metrics to determine a minimum
budget for brand search protection.
Implement a cross-sell and up-sell
targeting strategy to defend your brand
and grow inner- brand shopping for new
and existing customers if budget allows.
Make sure brand search and cross-sell/ Maximize funding for SOV/impression share plateaus are happening on
up-sell strategies receive appropriate dominance on core search (both branded other platforms while Amazon
funding. Brand search impression share and nonbranded) and an aggressive product
continues to grow. Diversifying
should be >90% and product pages targeting strategy for both competitor
should have the main Sponsored ad conquesting and cross-sell and up-sell. your conversion points and
placements covered. marketing strategy is the
Establish a budget for full-funnel DSP healthiest thing you can do for
Identify the biggest opportunities for activation, ~25-50% of budget depending
your overall strategy, and Amazon
category and product growth, then on search funding and awareness
allocate budget to the highest-impact opportunity. Focus efforts on generating is the closest thing out there to a
tactics with Sponsored placements to category demand, building brand sure bet right now.
acquire new customers. awareness, and prioritizing your highest-
opportunity categories, products, and
audiences.

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 TAKE AMAZON TO THE NEXT LEVEL:

Getting Started

To get the most out of Amazon, you need to make sure your conversion engine is
working effectively and efficiently, then move up the funnel until you’ve built a full-
funnel machine that is fueling serious business growth.

Here’s how to get started:

✓ Embrace Amazon as a full-funnel opportunity ✓ Fully fund your sponsored ad campaigns

✓ Establish a strong branded strategy ✓ Work your way up the funnel with DSP

✓ Adopt an intent-first approach for sponsored ads

GOOD LUCK!

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READY TO THINK LIKE
A CHALLENGER?
Wpromote is an award-winning digital marketing agency with eight offices across the United States.  866.977.6668
Named the Leader in the Forrester Performance Marketing Wave, Wpromote helps brands Think Like
 sales@wpromote.com
A Challenger to drive transformational growth. Challenger clients include leading brands such as
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