Amazon. The leader in product searches aptly named for the world’s largest rain forest. Both giants are strong, mighty forces in our world. While you may never make it to South America to see its beauty (although, let me tell you, it is worth the trip based on the small section I visited), you can barely make it a week (for some people, a day) without visiting Amazon.com. And, if you are already selling your products on Amazon, it’s worth taking the next step to promote them through the Amazon Seller Central platform. It might seem overwhelming, but I’m going to break it down for you step-by-step to help you get started.
Getting Started With Amazon Seller Central: Step by Step
- First, from the home screen, select Advertising, then Campaign Manager, which is your advertising “home base.”
- Click the yellow “Create Campaign” button.
- Next, name your campaign, then set your daily budget and start dates. Decide on automatic or manual targeting. Personally, I prefer manual targeting since I don’t want any search engines deciding for me how my clients’ products should be featured.
- After that, create your ad group by naming it according to the products you’d like to promote. Select those products from your available products and note that your items must be in the buy box. The buy box means you’re the listed seller on Amazon in the area where someone clicks “Add to Cart.” Sometimes, there are multiple sellers for the same product and you might not be the featured one. Here is a helpful post on how to win the buy box.
- You can then scroll down to enter your bid. Id’ recommend that you start low and you can always increase later. Enter in keywords by broad, exact and phrase match using the match type dropdown box to the right, then click “add these keywords.” You can only add one match type at a time.
- If you want more than one match type in your ad group, remember this trick: build your keyword list, then copy it before adding the keywords. Then, simply paste them again in the keyword box, change the match type and add again. To get keyword ideas, you can start with the suggested keywords that Amazon provides. You can read this post for more ideas on how to expand your keyword listings for Amazon.
- Finally, click “Save and Finish”. You are all set!
To add more ad groups, go into the Campaign, then click on the yellow “Create ad group” button. Repeat and repeat as needed.
Additional Tips for Amazon Seller Central
Campaigns are usually live within an hour and you can start seeing results within 48 hours. The reports feature is a little hidden. You can find it on the right side of the toolbar on the Campaign page.
You can also customize the columns you see on the Campaign screen by selecting the Column icon and selecting/deselecting based on your preferences. Right next to that, you can change your date settings.
One metric that might be new-ish to you is Advertising cost of sales (ACoS). This number is very important as it looks at the percentage of your sales versus your cost. For example, if you spend $10 to sell $50 in product, your ACoS will be 20%. Only you know your profit margins to know the right numbers for your products. At first, you may accept an ACoS outside of your preferred margins to get more sales and get your sales rank higher which will help your product ad positioning down the road.
Looking for some more guidance? Read Amazon’s FAQs.
Go try it for yourself and see how easy it is to get started! Comment below to let us know how you made out as we can’t wait to hear about your increased sales and revenue!
*Please note that not all products can be promoted. These include adult products, used products, refurbished products, and products in closed categories.
