Guide for Amazon Advertising Platform (AAP)

When researching online, you’ll find plenty of guides for Facebook advertising, YouTube advertising, and even Instagram advertising. Yet, there’s not too much information available for Amazon advertising. Does this mean that you shouldn’t invest in the platform? Well, don’t be so hasty!

What’s Amazon Advertising Platform?

Often shortened to AAP, this platform is a demand-side tool for advertisers who want video and display ads on the world’s most popular marketplace. As a programmable platform, businesses can purchase ad space on IMDb and all other third-party websites owned by Amazon.

For example, let’s say that you sell winter gloves on Amazon. Every year, you sell lots of gloves because, well, why wouldn’t you? The gloves are high-quality, available in bright colors, and they help people to keep their fingers warm when playing in the snow. However, you want to launch an advertising campaign to sell even more gloves.

On the one hand, you could create an Amazon ad so that your listing appears at the top of search results as a sponsored listing. In fact, you probably already have campaigns of this nature. However, AAP offers an opportunity to target people elsewhere on the internet. If somebody clicks onto your listing without purchasing, you can reach out to them with an ad on IMDb after they see an actor in a TV show and try to work out what else they’ve seen him in (we’ve all been there!).

While on the website, they see your amazing gloves again and, if all goes to plan, can’t resist clicking through and placing an order. Not all placements will lead to a sale, but it gets your product back into the mind of consumers.

As well as retargeting campaigns, you can also launch standard campaigns to find people who could be tempted into buying some gloves. Of course, we’re focusing on our example in this guide, but you don’t need to sell gloves to use AAP.

Interestingly, targeting optimization is even more important on AAP compared to other platforms because you’ll pay for each impression. Therefore, you need to ensure that your ad is always in front of the right people. If not, there’s no chance of the individual converting (but you still pay for the impression!).

AAP vs AMS

Let’s clear up some confusion; you might say that you already advertise on this platform using Amazon Marketing Services (AMS). If this is the case, you may have noticed that you can only advertise on Amazon using this platform. The reason you might think about adding AAP to your campaign is that this opens the door to third-party websites also owned by Amazon.

Is the investment worthwhile for this one differentiation? In our opinion, it’s worth testing AAP because Amazon owns dozens of subsidiaries. We’ve discovered IMDb, but this also includes:

• Audible
• CreateSpace
• Ring
• Goodreads
• Twitch
• Whole Foods Market

It’s no secret that Amazon shoppers also visit other websites, and they’re likely to visit other Amazon websites. Consequently, you can use AAP to target your audience as they traverse other areas of the internet rather than just on the Amazon platform itself. While AMS uses a PPC program and focuses on conversions, the CPM program on AAP focuses on impressions instead.

Ad Types on AAP

If you want to advertise with AAP, what ad types can you expect to run?

Mobile Banner Ads

If you want to reach out to people on third-party mobile apps, this is the way to go. As well as iOS apps, your ads could also appear on Android and Kindle Fire devices. If you’re to use this option, you’ll need to meet Amazon’s requirements for the ad. For example, you cannot use a distracting background and you’ll need to keep text to a minimum.

Furthermore, Amazon requires that all text is larger than 16pt so that all those on mobile devices can read your ad properly. Furthermore, you need to make your ad clearly distinguishable from the rest of the website and you can do this with a high contrast background or a non-white border.

Finally, you should add your name and logo to the ad — this is good advertising practice anyway.

Web Display Ads

Available for both mobile and desktop, this second option is what you expect from a website ad. When the page loads for the user, your ad will appear somewhere on the page whether this is at the top, to the side, or within the text. Once again, Amazon sets out some requirements that all advertisers should meet.

Mobile Interstitial Ads

As a slightly more intrusive option, you can target your audience with full-screen ads. As you’ve probably guessed from the name, these ads appear on mobile devices. As before, this includes iOS, Android, and Fire devices. If you don’t like the full-screen option, you can also select a medium-rectangle ad. Either way, you need to add all the critical information in the safe zone.

If you haven’t seen this phrase used before, it’s the area that Amazon has chosen for text. With all your information contained within this zone, all users will see it clearly rather than missing the information and not clicking through. Instead of seeing this as a restriction, take the help from Amazon and encourage clicks.

When launching campaigns of this nature, we recommend including a CTA in this zone. Generally speaking, the safe zone attracts the attention of the users, so it makes sense to include the CTA here. Although you don’t need a border, you will need to fill the background because Amazon dislikes white spaces.

What’s more, Amazon will also tell you to include their logo to let the user know that your ad comes through Amazon. Alternatively, make sure the user is aware of the Amazon connection in the text. When designing your ad, remember that the user will need to click on the small ‘x’ to close the ad and this appears in the top right-hand corner.

Benefits of Advertising on the AAP

Finally, why should you consider investing your money in this area? With so many ad campaigns already running, here’s why you should consider adding one more!

Increase Exposure

Primarily, advertisers tend to love the AAP because they can reach customers on multiple platforms, websites, and devices. As we’ve seen, you can choose between three different ad types while appearing on various websites and devices. Rather than just advertising your Amazon products on the platform itself, you can reach out to new audiences on Goodreads, IMDb, and other Amazon subsidiary websites.

In addition to finding new audiences, you can reconnect with people who have visited your product page but failed to convert. Suddenly, they’re browsing the internet and see your brilliant product again. Get this strategy right and you’ll encourage conversions where you thought the sale was previously lost.

Connect with Customers

As a by-product of increasing exposure, you also build closer relationships with customers. After identifying prospective leads, create a message that resonates with them and encourages them to become loyal customers. Naturally, you’ll need to adjust the message based on where the lead is in the sales funnel. However, this allows for even more personalization. Now, you’re meeting people at the top, middle, and bottom of the funnel with the content they need to get over the line.

The basic sales funnel tends to look as follows:

• Awareness
• Consideration
• Evaluation
• Purchase

While those at the top of the funnel are just discovering their problem, those further down are learning about your brand, considering their options, and deciding where to spend their money.

When using AAP, you can target people at each of the four stages. What’s more, you’ll change the message of each so that it resonates with their position.

Measurement and Analysis

Finally, AAP also has advanced measurement and analytics features. In truth, this is a necessity for any ad platform because you need to analyze the performance of all campaigns. If you can’t check performance, you might as well not invest at all because you don’t know what’s working…and what isn’t.

Over time, check on the performance of your campaigns and ensure that they’re hitting the right note. If not, think about how you can adjust targeting, bidding, budgeting, and other features to improve results. In some situations, it might be a case of overhauling the creatives and messaging, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

Summary

When many experienced advertisers hear about AAP, they assume that AMS has been renamed or that they’re essentially the same platform. As we’ve seen, some very important differences exist between them. If you want to boost brand recognition and awareness, AAP is the better option. On the other hand, those seeking conversions should stick with AMS.

Of course, nobody is forcing you to use one or the other; feel free to use both in your marketing strategy. Do whatever you need to do to create a winning marketing strategy!