Every business has the goal to achieve brand recognition with its target audience. This objective is built into the foundation of every marketing strategy and should always be at the forefront of every marketing team’s mind.
Measuring the success of a broad goal like this involves gauging consumer awareness, understanding their search patterns, and finally, seeing that consumers are searching your brand to find your products.
To many companies, the targeted goal may seem achieved. The work is done, and consumers now have a level of brand recognition that no longer requires as much investment to keep those consumers coming back. This is where we, as an advertising agency, see things go wrong.
The moment a brand falls into this line of thinking is the moment competition can capitalize on its success. So as a business owner, you need to realize, “I need to advertise on my branded searches, so my competition does not take away those shoppers.”
We see this becoming an even bigger problem for the Amazon marketplace as Amazon continues to roll out more tools like the Brand Analysis Report and product targeting and brand targeting for all campaign types. The opportunities for competition to easily advertise on your brand have grown exponentially. To combat this, we take five necessary steps to defend a brand’s position on Amazon and keep shoppers returning to that brand.
1. Feel Out the Environment
With any client JumpFly takes on, we conduct in-depth market research to get a lay of the land. We look at a brand’s organic ranking, current search frequency rank, and how many branded searches are currently being earned. This allows us to set a baseline for what is ‘normal.’ We then take a look at the competition. What products or brands may also be using your branded terms for paid placements? We take note and then develop our strategy.
2. Ad Budget
When planning brand protection campaigns, we expect to allocate anywhere from 10% to 25% of our ad budget. This is heavily dependent on the product category that your brand is in, as well as how aggressively the competition is bidding on your brand. We want to be sure we have an ample budget, so your brand shows up first for your brand-aware shoppers.
3. Sponsored Product Campaigns
Once we have an advertising budget, we develop Sponsored Product campaigns. These campaigns bid on your own branded keywords so that you appear in the SERPs for Amazon shoppers. We also use product targeting to bid on your own Amazon Standard Identification Numbers (ASINs). This ensures that when a shopper is on your product detail page, we have the best chance of directing that traffic back to one of your brand name products if they leave the page.
4. Sponsored Brand Campaigns
In a similar manner, you can build out Sponsored Brand campaigns where we target your branded searches and product ASINs and deliver those clicks to your branded storefront. The benefit of having a well-developed brand storefront on Amazon goes beyond a shopper’s experience. Until that buyer clicks to go to a product page, it’s like you have them on your own mini-website with little to no interference from other brands. Invest in developing a well-designed storefront as much as you would your own website. It could be the competition-free haven your brand has been seeking.
5. Sponsored Display Campaigns
The process is similar with Sponsored Display campaigns, but rather than using keywords, we’d only use your brand ASINs. This allows your company’s products to appear on high-visibility spots on your product detail page. We have found when using this approach that we recoup clicks within the brand for minimal investment.
Whether a brand is new to Amazon or well established, brand protection via advertising will always be a critically important step in managing your success. Keeping shoppers engaged and within your own product catalog is key. To be sure engaged shoppers turn into customers, take a look through our series on crafting a product detail page shoppers will love.
