Amazon marketing is a critical factor for the success of your business
Utilizing Amazon advertising allows you to gain an edge over the competition through calculated targeting to ensure your products are visible to the demographics searching for your product.
Secondly, advertising on Amazon makes your product and brand stand out to buyers in a marketplace full of hungry sellers.
As you set up your ad campaigns you will need to decide whether to go with Amazon’s Automatic Targeting vs Manual Targeting. Your entire ad campaign will be contingent on the targeting option you decide on.
The reality is that there are pros and cons to both options.
Here’s a table that breaks it down:
This blog will provide you with the knowledge to ensure you make the best decision for your business as you begin to advertise your products on Amazon.
Amazon Ads: Automatic Targeting
Automatic Targeting enables Amazon to decide when and where to display your ad. This is automatically calculated based on the keywords that Amazon identifies from the title, description, and other sections of your product listing.
Who should use Automated Campaigns?
Automatic targeting campaigns are beneficial for PPC beginners.
The reasons for this are that they are easy to set up, and you won’t need to do any research on keyword bidding as Amazon will choose based on the keywords they identify from your product’s listing.
If you are new to Amazon PPC, Auto Campaigns can give you a start on which keywords to use, and what bidding strategy to implement. And if you have too many products or categories, auto campaigns can help you do the keyword research or discovery but with a bit of ad spend.
Why you may lose ad spend with Amazon Auto Campaigns?
Amazon Auto campaigns are not initially optimized for high growth and profitability but for finding relevant keywords. With auto campaigns, you have no control over your bids, which means you will bid equally for high, low, and even zero converting keywords.
This will ultimately raise your ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sale) as you will be wasting ad spend on keywords that won’t convert.
For context, the lower your ACoS, the more profit you make.
How to use Auto Campaigns?
Once you run auto campaigns, you can discover which keywords and ASINs you should target for better optimization, sales, and profit. Most Amazon sellers use auto-campaigns in the initial stages for keyword discovery, then use the high-performing keywords in the manual campaigns for better control and bidding strategy.
Nevertheless, Amazon is a marketplace where all kinds of brands can hit and exceed sales targets if the accounts are consistently being monitored and optimized. And that is done efficiently with manual campaigns.
Amazon Ads: Manual Targeting
Manual Targeting is when Amazon sellers determine their own keywords and bid rates for their ad campaigns. Manual campaigns have a more specific target audience since each keyword is decided manually and input by the seller.
Who should use Manual Campaigns?
Manual Targeting Ad Campaigns are best for Amazon sellers who understand paid advertising or may have a better understanding of their high-converting keywords. They also require a lot of time and effort to be done effectively.
To understand and be successful in Manual Campaigns, you should be a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) expert who can analyze and optimize campaigns regularly.
When should you use Manual Campaigns?
When you know about your keywords and competitors, manual campaigns are likely to have a more desirable Advertising Cost of Sales (ACoS) and control over your bidding strategy.
Moreover, if the advertiser deeply understands the product and purchase behavior through experience, ad spend and bidding strategy are used better.
Manual campaigns are also useful for seasonal products or trends, as high-converting keywords are always changing. Manual Targeting requires an in-depth strategy to ensure you are constantly in the loop on seasonal trends.
When you should not use Manual Campaigns?
Many business owners are not Amazon Pay-Per-Click Advertising experts. While Amazon sellers can become experts in understanding their own business, it can become overwhelming to constantly micromanage and harvest new keywords to ensure your ads are optimized.
If you have a larger catalog or a wide range of products and don’t know what to focus on, manual targeting can be counterproductive. Moreover, if you already do not have the resources, time, and expertise, auto campaigns can get you started quickly.
Optimizing all aspects of multiple product ad campaigns regularly means compromising precious time as a business owner.
Nevertheless, if you have the time and expertise to utilize Amazon’s Manual Targeting Campaigns for your brand, all the power to you. However, you may want to see how Amazon’s manual targeting stacks up against Trellis.
Amazon Automatic vs Manual Targeting: which is better?
Automatic Targeting is an easy way to set up your Amazon Ads and find new keywords. However, your profit margin and ACoS are at high risk if you go ahead with Automatic Targeting Ad Campaigns.
But it is also not as simple as coming up with words that are relevant to your product and brand. There is a process behind manual targeting that is research/data-driven and time-consuming.
Even though it’s not easy to keep up with every detail of your Amazon Advertising strategy, you can use both automated and manual campaigns together for greater success.
Trellis: Best of Both the Worlds
Our advertising automation platform can help you boost demand and make the most of your advertising spending by adjusting your ads every day based on data-driven insights.
This is what our clients say:
