How to get started with Amazon Ads with tips from seller, Mandeep Kaur
Mandeep Kaur has been an Amazon seller since 2018. She currently sells and advertises her products in the US and Canada, and loves to share many of her tips for selling and advertising across her social media channels.
Mandeep Kaur shares how she navigates advertising with Amazon, her strategy for selecting products for ads, and how she set up her first campaign in less than 15 minutes.
Getting started
Knowing how to take the first step with advertising can be a challenge. Let’s learn how Mandeep Kaur first started advertising with Amazon.
What were the biggest challenges preventing you from getting started with Amazon Ads?
Understanding the language around advertising was a challenge at first. I proactively invested in learning what impressions, click-through rate (CTR), and advertising cost of sales (ACOS) included. I recommend this help page on Performance Metrics as a resource.
How did you select the ASINs to include in your first Sponsored Products campaign?
You should make advertising part of your product launches and maintenance. When I’m launching a new campaign now, I still like starting with smaller budget campaigns to identify some keywords and see what is performing well for my products. This test-and-learn approach allows me to see the specific keywords that are helping my products gain visibility and sales.
Follow a similar approach and start with one ASIN in a campaign at a time. This will allow you to first collect the data and then identify which pivots you want to make based on where you are getting your sales.
What is your advice for sellers who are considering registering for Amazon Ads?
Do it and learn the process. It’s one of the biggest ways that you can help drive return-on-investment (ROI) for your business. Advertising with Sponsored Products can help get your products in front of potential customers who may not know you and can help lead to additional sales.
Early days
When you first start advertising, it can take time to learn the best campaign settings and strategy for your business. Mandeep Kaur shares her advice on how to be patient and learn with ads.
What are your top 3 tips for advertisers who are just getting started?
Start small, don’t be afraid, and look at ads as an investment for your business.
How did you learn to choose the right campaign settings (budget, bid, targeting) to gain traction with your campaigns?
Amazon Ads is like a pilot landing a plane. You should first know all the basics like the language, types of available ad campaigns, and the purpose behind your decision to advertise. Define the goal that you are hoping to achieve. Then, try 2-3 campaigns to see what works.
When launching a new product, you might need to spend more time on your campaign setup in the beginning. You will want to closely monitor your campaign when it first launches to identify any opportunities to make immediate improvements – specifically, updating the keywords selected, extending the budget in the beginning, or optimizing the bids.
How much time did it take you to set up your first Sponsored Products campaign?
In less than 15 minutes. I knew which keywords I wanted to use based on my keyword research. If you don’t know how to do keyword research, you can start with an automatic-targeting campaign. An automatic-targeting campaign will help you harvest keywords that you can later use for a manual targeting campaign. To learn more, I recommend Chapter 3 of the guide, A simple guide to effective targeting with Sponsored Products.
Finding your stride
Once you have launched a few campaigns you could explore new campaign strategies or diversify which advertising products you use to advertise with Amazon Ads.
How has Amazon Ads helped you build a brand? Was there anything you needed to learn or figure out specific to using Amazon?
I feel like Amazon Ads is really encouraging sellers to invest in building a brand around our businesses and products. Without spending thousands of dollars, I’ve been able to use Amazon Posts and Brand Stores to build an online presence for my brand. I also am very happy with Sponsored Brands where I can showcase multiple products to the same customer within one ad placement.
Is there anything that we haven't covered that you'd like to share about your experience with Amazon Ads?
Take a step to learn the fundamentals, build on those and as you grow your brand and scale your ads.