How can Amazon fit into your small business marketing goals?

Your customers are probably on Amazon. Is your business on Amazon? Amazon is a powerful platform for ecommerce, but that isn’t its only function in the advertising world. Crosby Digital Marketing works with small businesses to develop ecommerce and digital marketing strategies to engage, educate, and sell to your customers. We would love to talk through a strategy that works best for your business. Amazon might not be on your radar, but it is quickly becoming the fastest growing advertising platform. 

Should I Advertise on Amazon, Facebook, or Google?

The answer is yes. If you have the budget to support it, advertise on all 3 platforms. Amazon, Facebook, and Google each offer an important step in the customer journey, and following them through every step will increase your brand awareness. Most importantly, you increase the chance of someone buying your products by simply being everywhere they are.

What is the customer journey and why should you care?

The customer’s journey is technically every experience or interaction a customer has with your company. But if you think more broadly, the customer journey is actually every experience or interaction with your company and every other company being considered. When you take a more holistic look into the customer journey, you start to learn more about your competition. Why did a customer buy my product over my competitor, or vice versa? Why does my competitor consistently rank higher than me? Why is our pricing so different? By looking at what your competition is doing, you will be able to optimize your brand, products, and overall marketing strategy.

Where do Amazon, Facebook, and Google fit into the customer journey?

1. Customers go to Amazon when they intend to buy something. There is a level of search and education involved on Amazon, but the customer’s intent is to shop once they open the Amazon app or website.
2. Facebook provides massive reach and brand awareness. It allows you to educate customers about your products, showcase your knowledge, and embed your brand in your customer’s brain.
3. Google is still the clear “winner” of the search space. People go to Google to research products and companies. If your company is not at the top of page one, you’re missing out on potential sales.

By looking at the customer journey of awareness to education to sale, it becomes clear that a comprehensive campaign is required to be effective at ecommerce, or really any type of online advertising efforts. Using various ad types on different platforms will provide the opportunity to build your brand with the customer while moving alongside them during their journey. 

Amazon Ads for Small Businesses

Amazon offers a range of ad products to promote your products and services. 

Sponsored product ads appear in search results. These are great for ecommerce companies because you only pay per click. Typically a person is on Amazon when they are ready to buy, so you are paying for the most relevant click for your product. These can work for sellers, vendors, and ebook authors. These also can increase product visibility and promote any kind of discounts or specials you’re running for your product. 

Sponsored Brand Ads appear on Amazon product pages or within the landing page of a store. This type of ad can really help with brand awareness on Amazon. Ecommerce brands are really trying to compete against more established brands, so a big struggle is just trying to build up name recognition and attention. 

Amazon Store Fronts allow companies to create their own online stores where all of their products are displayed. A lot can be done with messaging and branding for these storefronts. These are not technically an Amazon Ad product, but customers are often directed here from Amazon Ads. Amazon Handmade is another similar program that Amazon has for very small businesses. 

Ok, but what if your business doesn’t focus on ecommerce?

You do not need to sell something on Amazon to utilize Amazon Ads. There are two very important mediums that can direct traffic to your website instead of the Amazon platform. 

Display ads are similar to Google’s display ad functionality. These are visual ads that appear throughout Amazon. These also show up on other websites owned by Amazon and Amazon apps like Kindle. And just like Google, you are harnessing powerful data with these ads. Amazon has the purchasing data of millions of people all around the world.

Video ads are also a powerful tool on Amazon’s ad platform. Amazon users consume video via Kindle, Amazon Prime, and Amazon Fire. So this platform is widely seen. Video ads are very effective and watched. You will have the attention of your targeted audience. 

It may sound like the cards are stacked against you with so much competition and time required to setup an effective campaign. Just remember that there are people who love working with small businesses to help build effective strategies and implement ad campaigns like the one mentioned above. If you are looking to grow your ecommerce business on Amazon, or if you need help setting up a strategy to build awareness, educate, and sell to your customers, Crosby Digital Marketing is ready for the challenge.