How to Drive Customer Acquisition on Amazon: Expert Strategies

If you're in charge of an online business and ready to go all in, instead of just jumping in without a plan, it would be better to have some valuable secrets about Amazon Pay Per Click (PPC). These secrets can turn clicks into sales and convert your browsing visitors into new, loyal customers. 

Getting people's attention is vital for online business success, and Amazon PPC is a superhero for this. It helps bring the right people to your product pages and boosts sales. But here's the thing: to use Amazon PPC effectively, you need a good plan and a deep understanding of how it works. 

In this guide, we’ll discuss the details of Amazon PPC and some best strategies for you to learn how to drive customer acquisition on Amazon. 

Advanced Strategies for Driving Effective Customer Acquisition 

While customer retention remains crucial for sustainable growth, new customer acquisition is equally essential. Here are a few customer acquisition strategies that can help you expand your customer base as well as enhance customer loyalty. 

1. Keyword Optimization

Ensure your product listings are optimized with relevant keywords, high-quality images, detailed descriptions, and compelling copy. Use tools to conduct keyword research and optimize your listings for better visibility and brand awareness. This acquisition strategy of optimizing keywords (Amazon Search Engine Optimization) is also crucial for maximizing the effectiveness of Amazon PPC campaigns. Here are some techniques you might want to know: 

• Use Long-Tail Keywords: Targeting specific, longer phrases can yield higher conversion rates as they capture more qualified leads. 

• Leverage Keyword Match Types: Strategically utilize broad, phrase, and exact match types to balance precision and reach a wider audience with your marketing efforts.

2. Bid Management

How much are you willing to pay for a click on your ads? Effective bid management is essential for achieving optimal ROI from Amazon PPC campaigns. Some bidding strategies include: 

• Leverage Automated Bidding: Use Amazon's dynamic bidding options, such as Dynamic Bids—Down Only or Dynamic Bids—Up and Down, to adjust bids based on the likelihood of conversion.  

You can also use atom11’s real bid calculator to determine the true bid of a keyword. The tool factors in the placement modifier and provides precise bid calculations that help you set competitive bids without overspending. It enables data-driven decisions that enhance ad placement for maximum visibility and profitability.

• Use retail-aware data: Implement Amazon PPC software like atom11 to access retail signals like inventory, competition, and PPC cannibalization. For instance, bid up when your competitor increases pricing for better conversions and sales.   

• Optimize bids based on performance: Use simple automated rules to raise and lower bids based on keyword performance. You can use atom11 bid optimiser feature to increase or decrease bid basis keyword performance.

3. Ad Creative Optimization

It’s human nature to click or enquire about an ad that either comes across as clever, intriguing, or has the exact product the potential customer is looking for. Compelling ad creatives and quality content can significantly impact Click-Through Rates (CTR) and conversion rates. Some techniques that will help you optimize your ads include: 

• A/B Testing: Experiment with ad copy, images, and calls-to-action to identify the most effective combinations that actually work. 

• Ad Placement: Analyze performance metrics to determine which Amazon ad placement generates the highest returns, whether on search results or product detail pages.  

• Automated Repricing: Implement automated repricing tools to dynamically adjust your product prices based on competitor prices, demand, and other factors. This ensures your prices remain competitive and maximizes your chances of winning the Buy Box.  

• Inventory Management: Use inventory management software to automate inventory replenishment, forecasting, and order management. This helps prevent stockouts, optimize inventory levels, and ensure timely order fulfilment, improving customer experience and customer satisfaction.

• Review Management: Reviews directly affect future conversions. One bad review can make potential and current customers question their decision to buy your product. Use automated review management tools to monitor and manage customer reviews effectively. Encourage happy customers to leave positive reviews and promptly address negative feedback to maintain a good reputation and credibility.  

• Social Proof and Influencer Marketing: Showcase customer testimonials, user-generated content, and influencer endorsements on your product listings. Identify relevant influencers in your niche and collaborate with them to promote your products to your target market.

• Data Analytics and Insights: Perform Amazon data analysis for doing market research, identifying customer behaviors, studying market trends, and updating your marketing strategies and the customer acquisition process. Track key metrics such as conversion rates, customer acquisition costs, and CLTV (customer lifetime value). Also, gain insights into competitor performance to refine your strategies and optimize your campaigns for better results.

  
  

Understanding Amazon PPC

Amazon PPC is performance advertising where sellers pay only when a shopper clicks on their ad. These ads appear throughout the customer journey: on Amazon search results, product detail pages, and other relevant locations. Amazon PPC has a few types: 

1. Sponsored Products

Sponsored Products showcases individual product listings and appears on Amazon search results and product detail pages. These ads are keyword-targeted, meaning sellers bid on specific keywords to trigger their ads when shoppers search for those terms. They typically feature the product image, title, price, and a short ad copy. 

2. Sponsored Brands 

Sponsored Brands (formerly known as Headline Search Ads) allow sellers to promote their brand and multiple products simultaneously. These ads appear at the top of search results and can feature a custom headline, brand logo, and multiple products. They are ideal for increasing brand visibility and driving organic traffic to a custom landing page or Amazon Storefront. 

3. Sponsored Display Ads

Sponsored Display ads target shoppers both on and off Amazon. These ads can appear on product detail pages, on the Amazon home page, and across the web on third-party sites and apps through Amazon DSP (Demand-Side Platform). Targeting options include interests, shopping behavior, and retargeting, allowing sellers to reach shoppers who have shown interest in similar products. 

4. Video Ads

Video Ads allow sellers to showcase their products through engaging video content. These ads can appear before, during, or after relevant videos on Amazon, capturing shoppers' attention and driving consideration. They offer an immersive way to showcase product features, benefits, and use cases. 

Each type of Amazon PPC campaign serves different purposes and can be used strategically based on sellers' goals, target audience, and budget. Experimenting with various campaign types and optimizing performance based on data analysis can help sellers maximize their advertising ROI on Amazon. Here are a few aspects to look into when implementing Amazon PPC campaigns.

Keywords and Targeting

Amazon PPC relies heavily on keywords. Sellers bid on relevant keywords that shoppers might use when searching for products. Targeting options allow sellers to refine their audience based on demographics, interests, and shopping behavior. This helps ensure that the ads reach the right customers. 

Budgeting and Bidding

Sellers set daily campaign budgets to control spending. Bidding involves specifying the maximum amount you're willing to pay for a click on your ad. Bids, along with relevance and other factors, determine whether your ad will appear in search results. 

Optimization and Performance Tracking

Regular monitoring and optimization are essential for successful Amazon PPC campaigns. Sellers should analyze keyword performance, adjust bids, refine targeting, and optimize ad creatives to improve ROI. Amazon provides various metrics like CTR, conversion rate, and Cost Per Click (CPC) to track campaign performance. 

So, what can help you get ahead of the game? Here are some things you can do as a part of your lead generation or customer acquisition efforts:

• Conduct thorough keyword research to identify relevant and high-performing keywords. 

• Continuously monitor and adjust bids to ensure competitive placement. 

• Optimize product listings for conversions to maximize the effectiveness of PPC traffic. 

• Test different ad creatives, targeting options, and campaign settings to find what works best. 

• Regularly analyze campaign performance and adjust strategies accordingly. By understanding and effectively leveraging Amazon PPC, sellers can increase visibility, drive traffic to their listings, and ultimately boost direct sales on the platform.

  
  

Measuring Amazon Campaign Success and Iterating

Continuous monitoring and optimization are essential to keeping your Amazon PPC campaigns effective and yielding the desired results. But which metrics should you track? Don’t worry, we will tell you exactly what metrics you should be monitoring. The key performance metrics to track include: 

ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sales): Calculate the ratio of ad spend to sales revenue to gauge campaign profitability. 

Trying to reduce your ACoS? Here’s an ad strategy that can lower your ACoS by 15%.

CTR (Click-Through Rate): Measure the percentage of users who click on your ads relative to the number of impressions. 

Conversion Rate: Assess the proportion of ad clicks that result in actual sales or other desired actions, such as sign-ups or downloads. 

Iterating on your campaigns based on data-driven insights, adjusting bids, keywords, and ad creatives to refine targeting can maximize your campaign results.

Conclusion

Customer acquisition is a never-ending process for Amazon stores. While sellers can use organic social media marketing strategies to drive customers, implementing advanced customer acquisition tactics on Amazon can help them drive conversions and sales in the Amazon marketplace. 

However, to implement these strategies, you need the right retail-aware PPC optimization software, such as atom11. atom11 can help you automate ad operations like bid optimization, search term harvesting, dayparting and more. It also saves you time downloading multiple reports and analyzing them. 

atom11 combines retail data with advertising to help you run more efficient ads. From thorough data analytics, providing quick insights into the root causes of sales fluctuations, competitor analysis, optimizing and automating ads, to helping with effective product listing, atom 11 has got you covered!.

Want to learn more? Book a call with atom11 today. 

FAQs

How to increase customer acquisition?

Sellers can boost customer acquisition and sales by diversifying their acquisition channels. They can utilize SEO and content marketing (creating relevant content for each stage of the customer acquisition funnel), email marketing (launching targeted email campaigns to attract qualified leads), and referral programs. They can also showcase reviews on customer service, testimonials by satisfied customers, and case studies using Amazon ads to acquire new customers.

What are the best customer acquisition strategies?

The most effective customer acquisition methods can help sellers gain new customers and maximize ROI. Here are a few great ways:

• Creating a long-term content marketing strategy to gain customers while reducing marketing costs.

• Leveraging affiliate marketing to promote their product via social media influencers, vloggers, or website owners.

• Offering free trials or samples of products

• Building email lists of prospects and sharing the latest product updates, newsletters, and promotions.

  
  

What are the steps in customer acquisition?

The steps in customer acquisition include:

• Define your target audience: Conduct market research, identify your ideal customers, and create detailed personas to inform your marketing strategies.

• Choose your acquisition channels: Consider the most effective options to reach your target audience, such as paid advertising, content marketing, and social media, and build a unique strategy for each channel.

• Attract and nurture leads: Promote your product to generate awareness. Once you attract leads, let your marketing team nurture them with valuable content, personalized communication, etc., to increase the likelihood of conversion.

• Optimize user experience: Make your products easily accessible and improve customer service to help users take the desired action.

• Monitor and improve strategies: Review and refine your customer acquisition strategies to maximize ROI.

  
  

What are the three parts of the customer acquisition cycle?

The three main parts of the customer acquisition funnel are:

• Awareness: Sellers use different marketing channels to promote products so potential customers become aware of the brand and their offerings.

• Consideration: This stage involves potential customers researching and evaluating products to compare options and make an informed decision.

• Conversion: At this stage, prospects take action like signing up or making a purchase and become actual customers by making a purchase.

• Retention: This stage involves building and maintaining strong customer relationships by offering them post-purchase support, personalized offers, and excellent service.

  
  

How to calculate Customer Lifetime Value (CAC)?

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is a metric that helps businesses measure how much it costs to acquire a new customer. This includes all the expenses related to marketing, sales, and other customer acquisition efforts.

Here’s the simple formula for calculating CAC:

CAC = Total Marketing and Sales Cost/ No. of new customers acquired.