If you are an eCommerce business, it’s hard to ignore the power of Amazon. Not only is Amazon one of the top shopping destinations, it has become a leading search engine for product-related information.
Similar to AdWords, being visible on Amazon and connecting with consumers can be highly profitable. And like other paid search platforms, your keyword strategy in Amazon can either help your business soar or flop.
When setting up Amazon Sponsored Product listings, campaign and ad group structures should be set up to house the various types of searches people use when searching a product, which is why I suggest starting with keyword research.
Searching for Search Terms
If you don’t have an existing Amazon seller account, there are other resources that you can use to find search terms that buyers are using. (If you need help setting up an Amazon account for selling, you should get started!)
One place to start is to use Amazon autosuggest; and just like Google the drop down will help you find long tail, product-related terms to add to your list. It’s easy to quickly grow your list once you start looking through these suggested terms.
And while you are at it, use Google’s auto suggest and related searches.
Don’t miss out on AdWords Keyword Planner. Since you can use this tool to find new keyword and multiply existing lists, it’s a go-to for my keyword research process.
Search Term Generality
You’ll want to structure campaigns into tightly themed keyword groupings. The more products you sell, the more you will have to divide the vast searches that will trigger your ads.
For example, a seller of phone cases could have a number of levels of keywords:
- iPhone case
- iPhone 6 case
- wood iPhone 6 case
- best iPhone case
By structuring campaigns based on levels of search generality, it’s easier to track which keywords are showing up for which searches, and then map and refine campaigns using negative keywords and bid adjustments.
Negative Keywords
Like other paid search platforms, negative keywords will control what searches trigger your ads, and will keep your campaigns healthy. The more targeted the group of keywords, the easier it will be to keep the negative keywords organized and updated. Once your campaigns have been running for a little while, you’ll be able to regularly review this useful data to add negative keywords, as well as identify additional keywords that your prior research may not have produced.
In the iPhone case example, a negative keyword strategy could include:
- Keyword: iPhone case
- Negative keyword: cheap phone case
- Keyword: iPhone 6 case
- Negative keyword: iPhone 5
- Keyword: wood iPhone 6 case
- Negative keyword: plastic
As your campaigns run, reviewing and refining keywords should be a regular task on your list, and will help you to target the right terms to the right buyers.
How do you refine and review keywords for your Amazon accounts? What tools do you use? We’d love to hear your tips and tricks in the comments!
