Amazon PPC Advertising Series, part 2: Automatic Sponsored Product Campaigns

In part one of our series, we discussed the power of Amazon PPC marketing. With this post,  we dive into Automatic Sponsored Product Campaigns.

Auto Campaigns

What is an auto campaign? These run broadly based on your Product Detail Page (PDP) category and keywords.

As mentioned in our Amazon Retail Readiness series (see part one), PDP copy (title, bullets, product description, and backend search terms) are VITAL for conversion, but also make a significant impact on how your product is displayed through Auto Campaigns.

An example would be if you have sparse copy/keywords on your PDP (such as "protein powder"), then your Auto Campaign will only show for “protein powder” related searches.

However, if your PDP copy is rich — protein powder, recovery, muscle building, bcaa’s, etc. — you’re going to show up for more relevant customer searches.

The goal of Automatic Campaigns is for you to use Amazon’s A9 algorithm to tell you which keywords or ASINs are actually good ones to bid on, rather than shooting from the hip.  

We see so many sellers say, “I sell protein, let’s bid on the keyword protein.” So they bid on the keyword “protein” only to spend hundreds of dollars on clicks that lead to NO conversion.

The better path is to use the data to see which keywords are the best to bid on.

Where do Automatic Campaigns show? They are displayed in searches, and they have the same Ad Format as Sponsored Product Manual Campaigns (see below).

They are also displayed on Product Detail Pages, similar to Sponsored Display and Product Targeting Manual Campaigns.

Finally, they are also displayed beneath the fold of Product Detail Pages.

Keyword and ASIN Data

Since Auto Campaigns are displayed in various areas on Amazon, you get two types of data from an Automatic Campaign: Keyword and ASIN data.

In other words, if your Auto Campaign displays for the keyword “protein” and you get the conversion, you have a better understanding that that keyword may be a good one for you to add to your manual campaign.

Or, you could convert on a competitor’s ASIN, which would then be a great ASIN for you to bid on in your Sponsored Display Campaign.

Automatic Campaigns help you discover which these insights (best keywords and ASINs to bid on). However, what’s the rule of thumb for choosing which ones? Generally, we recommend a minimum of two conversions on a given keyword and ASIN to add to our Manual or Sponsored Display Campaign.

It's good to see a little consistency, but it all depends on the budget you have. Use the Search Term Report within your Automatic Campaign to find your converting keywords and ASINs.

Automatic Campaigns also help you discover which keywords and ASINs are NOT good to bid on.

Generally, if we see a keyword or ASIN has 10-15 clicks and no conversion, we add that as a negative KW or ASIN within our Automatic Campaign. We do this to mitigate wasted spend and help the campaign focus on finding converting data.

Once again, you’re going to use the Search Term Report within your Auto Campaign to find your non-converters.

Launching Your First Automatic Campaign

PRO TIP: Only launch Automatic Campaigns at the Product Level. However, if you have a closely related variation of the original product, you can add that too.

Why? You want to get the best data possible when you’re harvesting converting keyword data at the Product Level. Having different products added to one campaign will skew the data.

For example, combining pre-workout and protein in the same campaign isn’t good, because these products are completely different.

When creating Auto Campaigns, Amazon automatically gives you four targeting options (see below).

This is good for your products since it gives you four options to increase or decrease your bid. You’re going to start with “Close Match” being your highest bid.

Amazon describes this as, “We'll show your ad to shoppers who use search terms closely related to your products.”

Your second highest bid will be “Complements”, for which Amazon says, “We'll show your ad to shoppers who view the detail pages of products that complement your product.”

Your third highest bid will be “Substitutes” — “We'll show your ad to shoppers who view the detail pages of products similar to yours.”

Finally, “Loose Match” will be your lowest bid, as it says, “We'll show your ad to shoppers who use search terms loosely related to your products.”

Note, you can pause the various targeting options if one does poorly over time, but we always recommend you try all four to discover areas of opportunity to harvest converting keyword and ASIN data you may not have thought of.

How long should you run Automatic Campaigns? "Always" is the answer if you have the budget. There are always new search queries that come up and you want to be on the cutting edge.

We recommend doing keyword harvests (negative and positive) at least once a month to add your best converting data to your Manual Campaigns, enabling you to control the bid on the keyword or ASIN level.

PRO TIP: Always start your bid high when launching your Auto Campaigns in order to get the top shelf placements, as mentioned in the last blog. Bid aggressively to get traffic and, most importantly, data.

You never know what keyword or ASIN will be the one that could drive an additional 10 orders a day for you.