Amazon Display Ads: Best Practices and Examples

Often, marketers use the term banner ads instead of display ads. While a banner ad is a type of display ad, it refers to just one size of display ad. For your marketing campaign to be successful, it’s best to use a range of ads in different sizes. 

With regards to Amazon display ads, it can be categorized into three types: website display ads on desktop and mobile; mobile app and banner Amazon display ads; and display interstitials. These ads are available in a wide range of formats, sizes, shapes, and types. In fact, there are 17 formats in total. 

Website display ads offer the most different ad sizes (seven in total). Mobile app and banner Amazon display ads have only four formats (three of these are banner ads), while mobile interstitials can be either full-screen image or medium rectangle. As banner ads are so common, your audience might ignore them. For this reason, you might have better results using a more dynamic ad format, like a rich media ad that uses dynamic elements. 

How Does Amazon Display Ads Work?

Amazon Sponsored Display Ads used to be called Product Display Ads. It’s a unique remarketing tool offered by Amazon that you can use to display your ad to people who’ve viewed your product before (or a similar product using keywords relevant to your product). Instead of using keywords to get the attention, with Sponsored Display Ads, you’ll use the audience demographics of Amazon. As these people have recently looked at your product or something similar or even perhaps only browsed the product category, the chance that they’ll purchase from you is higher.  

How are Display Ads Measured?

Display ads are most of the time measured using غير مجاز مي باشدt per impression (CPM) or غير مجاز مي باشدt per click (CPC). غير مجاز مي باشدt per impressions is how much you pay every time 1,000 people see your display ad. If you want to split-test your content, this approach is a fast and غير مجاز مي باشدt-effective way to do that. 

With غير مجاز مي باشدt per click, you’ll pay an amount per click that your ad gets. According to data gathered by Jungle Scout, you can pay anything from $0.05 to $10 per click. 

What Advantages Does It Offer?

Not only are they measurable, but it’s also easier to reach the right audience. With the help of targeting options, you can segment your audiences based on interests. This can help you to set yourself apart from competitors. 

Since 2003, Amazon has refined their methods for data analysis. So, by using Amazon display ads, you’ll be able to take advantage of some of the best data intelligence – data that focuses not on what people search or like, but what they actually buy. Amazon knows their audience so well that they can influence and predict shopping behavior. 

5 Key Elements of Amazon Display Ads

Logo

The goal of advertising is bigger than merely getting more people to buy your product. It’s also to boost brand awareness. For this reason, your ads should always include your brand logo. This way it will be easier for your target audience to connect your brand with specific types of products and it can also make your product appear more credible. 

Headline

Most of the time, the headline is the first element that your audience will notice. In fact, sometimes they might not even read past your headline. This is why it’s so important that you use a powerful headline. It’s best to use simple language and start the sentence with an active verb. Depending on your product and branding, you can even try to include humor. 

Images

Here, you have two main choices: lifestyle shots or product images. Product images work best if you want to encourage more people to consider your product. If your objective is to increase awareness about your product, a lifestyle image that shows how your product can be used in everyday situations is the better approach. 

Copy

You’ll use your copy to substantiate your headline. Most often, this part of your ad will focus on listing the unique product features. Just like your headline, it’s best to keep the language straightforward. 

Call to action

What do you want your customers to do next? What will happen if they click on a link? You will use your call to action (CTA) to guide them through the customer journey. 

Tips for Creating Effective Display Ads

Stick to a simple design

Your product should be the star of the ad. It should be easy for your audience to spot your product straight away. For this reason, it’s best that you keep the number of other objects to a minimum. In fact, Amazon advises that you include no more than four objects in your ad for an optimal click-through rate. 

Keep your message short

Just like your ad shouldn’t include too many elements, it’s also better to keep the words to a minimum. In short, your goal should be to communicate your product’s value proposition in as few words as possible. To help ensure that your message is as clear as possible, it’s also good practice to vary the length or your sentences. 

Include contrast

Firstly, there should be a strong contrast between your background color and the foreground. This will make it easier for potential customers to identify your product. Secondly, for better results, make the primary object larger than the other objects. According to Amazon, you can make the main object as much as four times larger than the second biggest object. This applies to the size of your font too. The most important sentences should be written in a bigger font. 

Experiment

After you’ve created your Amazon ad, your work is not quite done yet. It’s key that you also complete A/B testing. In a nutshell, it’s when you compare two versions of the ad against each other to figure out which one gets better results. However, to get the most reliable results, you should change only one element between your two ads. In other words, all the other elements should be exactly the same. You can, for example, test different headlines, background colors and call-to-action buttons. In case of the latter, you can use it to check if different phrases, shapes, or colors get different results. 

You can also use it to check if your audience resonates better with a lifestyle image or a product image. Product photos show the specific product from different angles in its best light. On the other hand, a lifestyle photo tells a story by focusing on showing how your product can be used. Generally, product-only photos are a bit boring, while lifestyle photos allow you more creative room.

Examples of Effective Amazon Display Ads

1. Arlo

Top Amazon Marketing Agencies for Display Ads

Thrive is one of the top marketing agencies if you need help with advertising your products on Amazon. Across Google, Facebook and Clutch, they boast more than 180 five-star reviews. Their efforts have also bagged them awards and recognition from Forbes, The Manifest, Clutch, and yours truly. 

With regards to Amazon Product Display Ads specifically, they can also help you with external options and get your advertising campaigns set up with the help of YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram. Their team of PPC advertising experts will also help you to create a marketing budget that will use your available resources for external and internal advertising options optimally. Plus, to help you maximize your marketing budget, they’ll also help you with sales impact analysis so that you can figure out where exactly your leads are coming from so that you can adapt your marketing spend accordingly. 

2. JumpFly

JumpFly was founded nearly 20 years ago by two childhood friends. During this time, they’ve helped small and enterprise clients to identify smart Amazon marketing opportunities. They use a six-step process to help their clients increase their Amazon revenue. In fact, part of their process is to challenge their clients when they see there’s little or no change after a period of growth. Clearly this approach works, because in some cases they have managed to grow their clients’ revenue by more than 1000%. 

3. Ernst Media

Based in Washington, Ernst Media is a boutique digital marketing agency with more than 15 years of experience behind their name. With regards to Amazon marketing specifically, their team of certified experts can help you with creating and implementing a strategy to grow your online business. They also have experience in driving results across virtually every PPC channel, including Amazon. As part of their PPC management for Amazon Ads, their services include daily bid management and monitoring, audit logs, and weekly performance reporting. 

Wrapping Things Up

Whether it’s by means of SEO or a display ad, you’ll have to invest in some type of Amazon marketing. Online data shows that brands are seeing higher returns with Amazon advertising initiatives. In fact, according to Feedvisor, 51% of brands that used Amazon advertising enjoyed a return of up to seven times, while 39% of brands saw returns of between four and six times. 

It works. It might take some effort and resources, but in a competitive landscape (which the marketplace definitely is), you can’t rely on your product listing alone.