Tips To Optimize Your Amazon Ads Targeting Strategy For Successful Results (2023)

Amazon Advertising offers a wide range of options for product ad targeting, and you’ll frequently find new features to help you target customers. In this MerchJar guide, we’re going to help you optimize your Amazon ads targeting so you can consistently reach the customers you want. 

What is Amazon Ads Targeting? 

Amazon ads targeting is a useful feature that helps Amazon marketers reach potential customers with relevant ads that reflect their specific traits, interests, and buying behavior. The feature works by leveraging customer data to segment Amazon users based on basic demographics, browsing behavior, and shopping interests. It can then generate unique ads that are tailored to the different customer segments so as a seller your products are shown to those who would actually want to see them. 

Instead of general ads, your potential customers will get targeted ads that are tailored to their actual interests and past shopping behavior. 

Why is Amazon Ads Targeting Important? 

• Cost efficiency: Amazon targeted ads tend to be more cost efficient than traditional advertising because you get a higher ROI. You can avoid overspending on ad campaigns in the hopes that the right people will see them. With targeted ads you’re guaranteed to effectively track your Amazon ACOS and ensure your ads land in front of the right people. 
• High conversion rate: Targeted ads are really great for producing high conversion rates compared to other ads. This is mainly because you’ll be placing the right product ads in front of the right customers who are ready to make a purchase.
• Data-driven: By using targeted advertising, you’ll get accurate data that you can leverage to enhance the performance of your Amazon ad campaigns. As an Amazon marketer, you’ll be able to continuously test your targeting efforts so that you can increase the quality of your ads so they always reach your target customers. 

How to Optimize Your Amazon Ads Targeting Strategy

Now that we’ve covered the basics of why you need to take your Amazon ads targeting more seriously, let’s dive into the ways you can optimize your ads for success. 

1. Identify Your Targeting Campaign Goals

When you’re creating your Amazon ad campaign, it’s important to define your campaign objective to help you choose a suitable targeting method as well as the products that will help you achieve that goal. For each product you sell, consider a specific business goal you’d want to pursue for that product. 

Here are some strategies to consider for the main objectives you define: 

• Promote: Create a specific campaign that drives sales of your product (e.g. incorporating coupons)
• Expand: Focus on high-traffic keywords and products that will reach a wide range of customers
• Conquest: Research and target your competitors’ products
• Protect: Focus on branded keywords and targeting to enhance the uniqueness of your product
• Cross-sell: Target products in similar categories 

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2. Understand Your Target Audience

Making an effort to understand your target audience yourself will help you develop more effective ad campaigns. In order to understand your target customers better, you should spend some time analyzing any data you get from current customer engagement. This includes evaluating their basic demographics and purchase trends. 

You can get started with these following steps: 

• Analyze your customer base demographics: You can find any patterns for customer age groups, gender location and more in your Amazon Seller Central Demographics Report in the Brand Analytics Dashboard. 

• Analyze what your customers are buying: Understanding what products your customers are typically buying can help you identify which of your products you should be targeting for your ad campaigns. You can get this data from the Amazon Seller Central Market Basket Report in the Brand Analytics Dashboard. Here, you’ll be able to see which products your customers often purchase along with your specific products. 

3. Use Relevant Keywords

Successful keyword research is a crucial part of any Amazon ads strategy because it will help you assess your ads’ revenue potential before launching. These keywords are still important once your campaign is live, though. You’ll need to make sure to keep researching and adding relevant keywords your customers are using to your targeting settings. This will make sure you increase your ads’ visibility to the right audience every time. 

This Amazon ad for a Polaroid camera is a great example of relevant keywords used well. Each word used in the description functions as a unique keyword for customers who want to purchase a Polaroid camera with accompanying accessories. 

You should also consider using negative keywords. They can help prevent your ad campaigns from coming up in search results for similar products that don’t match your campaign goals. Essentially, you’ll be removing non-relevant search terms from your campaigns to make them even more targeted to your desired audience. 

4. Experiment With Amazon’s Targeting Options

When it comes to Amazon’s Sponsored Products, you’ll have three ads targeting options you can choose from. Experiment with all of them to see which gives you the best results. 

• Manual Targeting: Here you can manually choose which products or keywords you want to target. With this targeting option, you’ll have the flexibility to select your own targets and manage their performance. It’s the option that requires the most effort on your part. 
• Automatic Targeting: Here your ad will be automatically matched with products and keywords that are similar to the product that you want to advertise. This feature is based on shopping query history and your product information. This targeting option is best if you want to launch your campaigns quickly and help you discover new keywords and trends for your manual campaigns. 
• Negative Targeting: This targeting option helps you exclude keywords, products, or brands that you don’t want your ads to be associated with. This way you can optimize the performance of your ad campaigns, no matter if you launched them manually or automatically. 

5. Measure Your Ad’s Impact

To make sure your targeted ad efforts are paying off well, you need to define key performance metrics and consistently measure them. You can refer back to the initial objectives you set out at the beginning of your campaign to get a good idea of the metrics you should be measuring. 

For instance, if you set out to increase sales of a certain product, you can measure the total value of your conversions against the cost of the targeted marketing campaign to see if you’re succeeding. 

Invest in a Powerful Automation Tool Like MerchJar to Streamline Your Ad Targeting

Ultimately, the goal is to keep track of your Amazon ads targeting strategy to make sure your products are constantly being shown to the people who would love to see them. It’s true that this can often be overwhelming and time consuming. Fortunately, you can leverage the power of Amazon ad automation software like MerchJar. We’ve designed our software to help you optimize all your sponsored product listings simultaneously while you relax. Want to try it out for yourself? Try MerchJar for free for 30-days and see how your ads flourish! 

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