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Q&A Tuesday –
Today’s topic comes to us from Dan in the facebook group. This is a great place for early or beginning stage questions.
If you’re a more advanced seller, we are about to kick off the 10k facebook group, a group for those who are doing a minimum of $100k/year.
If you’re working at a level where you’re doing $10-20 thousand a month, but you still feel like you’re in need of some fine tuning, it may be worth exploring my mentoring.
Today’s topic comes from Dan, centered around manual and auto campaigns
“Hi all, I am about to begin PPC on my listing for my first product. The product is about to be launched, and I would be greatly for any comments/suggestions on the below strategy I currently have set up for PPC:
1) Manual Campaign containing literally 1 exact match keyword: for the niche I am targeting. I have this set to a small budget of 3 pounds a day. To simply see if it will convert right off the bat. This is a more expensive keyword, so I’m not expecting enough volume with your budget but its still worth it because the product is so relevant for this keyword. I will add exact match keywords that I learn from the other 2 campaigns to this manual campaign to start targeting the best keywords.
2) Auto Campaign based on a bidding strategy for new campaigns. I am using Amazon’s auto keywords and bidding at the suggested bid + 10%. This will help ensure I gain impressions and gives a better chance of people finding the product at the top of the page. The budget is set to 15 pounds a day.
3) Auto Campaign based on a bidding strategy for new campaigns. I am using Amazon’s auto keywords and bidding at the suggested bid – 50%. I will be bidding less and paying less per click. However, this will probably drive down impressions and limit the amount of people who will actually see the product. This strategy should be good at targeting some specific longer tail keywords that my competition may not be targeting. The budget is set to £9 a day.
I will leave the campaigns for at least 5 days before making any amendments to the strategy based on the data the campaigns will provide.
I have a list of negative keywords for the auto campaigns, which I will add to based on keywords which are not converting from the auto campaigns.
- The total PPC budget for launch is £27, is this aggressive enough?
- Does anyone have any suggestions to amend the strategy?”
Manual Campaign Containing Literally 1 Exact Match Keyword
I think that’s good, but possibly a bit premature if it’s a new launch for a new product.
The sweet spot is usually 3-5 keywords, and I wouldn’t target just one to start with. One is a bit minimalist
I would test 4-5, maybe even up to 20 keywords.
One basic principle that is extremely important: the PPC based on keywords is a flipside of a listing constructed around those same keywords.
- Before you can do that, it is important to have a clear process, in which you decide on the winnable keywords that define a niche.
Amazon Ads Budget
Be wary of big analysis and small actions. It’s incredibly important on Amazon to be bold.
Good ranking means it’s visible and gets you clicks, but it doesn’t guarantee success. However, by not having a good ranking, it does guarantee failure
￡3 per day probably isn’t enough unless you’re in a tiny market. Instead, I would budget 20lbs per day
A budget for Amazon is not the same as Google AdWords or Facebook Ads budget.
- On Amazon, you’ll often put a budget of ￡50 per day, and you probably won’t spend that full budget.
- With Google AdWords or Facebook Ads, if you set up a certain budget, you will spend that much per day
Be more aggressive, otherwise, you are guaranteeing failure.
Amazon’s Auto Keywords and Bidding at the Suggested Bid + 10%
Dan’s strategy here is quite reasonable.
I would say that if you’re below the suggested bid, you are risking giving advertising space to your competition.
When you start off, I think you should bid as high as you can afford to steal as much market share as you can.
Using Amazon’s Auto Keywords and Bidding at the Suggested Bid – 50%.
Why do you want fewer people to see your product? We’re trying to launch into an aggressive marketplace.
There’s no point in ordering a product, and then being cheap when it comes to the launch because you are guaranteeing failure
The amazon space differs from what most of us experience in everyday life. Amazon is a profoundly competitive market. Therefore, it is not any kind of business strategy to be mediocre.
You shouldn’t be doing anything, when you launch, that does anything but increase your visibility and increase the likelihood of clicking on your listing. You want to make sure:
- Photos look amazing
- Price is good
- Good reviews
If you want feedback on your launch strategy, I offer that as a service
Things we cover:
- Review your market data
- Double check the competitive landscape
- Talk about differentiation and design
- Current launch plans
- Layout a basic checklist to get your first product launched
If you would like some free help, please check out the facebook group
General Launch Tips
- You need to get a plan
Once you articulate your plans, then you can improve on them.
If you don’t write them down and make them clear, you will be in reactive mode.
- What you get from marketing
Your first $400 or so spent on marketing is spent on learning, and not on getting sales.
You want to make sure your approach is simple so you can draw conclusions.
If it’s overly complex, that will be a waste of time and money because you won’t be able to use the insights from it.
- Getting Advice is Critical
It is important to get advice from those who have gone before you to make sure you’re on the right track for two reasons.
- You need to make sure it’s a good plan. If not, it could be a waste of money spent in marketing and the product itself
- You must have faith in the plan you make.
- Be willing to test that plan against reality.
Adjust your plan, but wait until after a particular period. And when you do, only change one thing at a time.
If you’ve gotten the niche research right, then your launch should be pretty simple, and aggressive.
For a strategic magic bullet, the star principle. Covered in episode 303.
Behind this tactical question lies an important lesson about your mindset.
This all boils down to emotional intelligence.
If you have the courage to be simple, then you’ll get wisdom from the marketplace, because the marketplace will tell you.
If you’ve gotten the niche research right, then your launch should be pretty simple, and aggressive.
For more information on a strategic magic bullet, we covered the star principle, in episode 303.
If you want to check out the facebook group, go here.
If you want to work with me to make sure your launch plan is in good shape, go to amazingfba.com/rare
Watch Amazon Ads Basics, & How NOT to get Amazon Reviews
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