Manual Advertising Campaigns

Introduction to Manual Campaigns

• Manual campaigns grant advertisers targeting control by letting them select specific keywords and products.
• Unlike automatic campaigns, they demand more setup and continuous management.
• Manual campaigns provide superior precision and customizability.

Targeting Options in Manual Campaigns

• Keyword Targeting: Ads are activated by keywords chosen by the advertiser.
• Product Targeting: Ads are displayed on specific product detail pages or within related categories.

Ideal Users for Manual Campaigns

• Advertisers aiming to refine targeting on high-performing keywords/products.
• Brands desiring greater authority over ad placements.
• Businesses seeking to leverage obtained insights acquired from automatic campaigns.

Complementary Role of Automatic and Manual Campaigns

• Automatic Campaigns: Used to discover novel keywords, categories, and product avenues.
• Manual Campaigns: Used to focus on high-performing keywords and product targets to optimize conversions.
• Use automatic campaigns as the research phase, and manual campaigns as an execution phase.

Transitioning from Automatic to Manual

• Discover: Automatic campaigns gather broad data, including keywords, search terms, and categories.
• Refine: Identify high-performing keywords and products.
• Optimize: Transfer the refined elements from automatic campaigns into manual campaigns for precise targeting.

Keywords and Search Queries

• Keyword: A word or phrase intended to trigger an ad upon a customer search.
• Search Query: The words a customer enters into the search bar.
• Example: Keyword is "Red lipstick" versus a Search Query is "Best red lipstick for dry lips".

Types of Keywords

• Generic: Broad terms not specific to any brand, e.g., "Lipstick" which result in greater impressions, lower CTR, and higher CPC.
• Branded: Terms specific to a brand, e.g., "Sugar lipstick" which result in High CTR, lower CPC, and lower ACOS.
• Competitor: Terms specific to competitor brands, e.g., "Maybelline lipstick" which result in high CPC, lower CTR, and higher ACOS.

Match Types of Keywords

• Broad Match: Ads appear for keyword variations like synonyms or related terms in any order, leading to high impressions, lower CTR, and higher CPC.
• Phrase Match: Ads appear for searches containing the exact keyword phrase, with possible additional words before or after, leading to balanced impressions and CTR with moderate CPC.
• Exact Match: Ads appear solely for the precise keyword, without added words, leading to low impressions, high CTR, and lower CPC.

Second Price Auction and Ad Rank

• Amazon uses a second-price auction where the winner pays slightly more than the next highest bid.
• Ad Rank Formula: Ad Rank = Bid x Quality Score
• Auction Winner Determination: Ads rank by Ad Rank; the highest wins the top spot, and the winner pays slightly more than the rival.
• If two advertisers bid the same, the ad with the higher Quality Score wins.
• Example: Advertiser A bids ₹50 with a Quality Score of 8 (Ad Rank 400), defeats Advertiser B who bids ₹60 with a Quality Score of 5 (Ad Rank 300)

Keyword Research

• Use Amazon's Search Term Report to analyze terms, use third-party tools and competitor analysis.
• Apply Amazon Auto-Suggestions to find trending terms.
• Start with 20-30 keywords per ad group and expand the number of keywords as data is collected.

Campaign Structure for Manual Targeting

• Key components of campaign structure include: Campaign Name, Ad Group Name, ASIN, Keywords, and Negative Keywords.

Campaign Hierarchy

• Campaign: The structure's top level, defining overall budget, targeting, and bid strategy.
• Ad Group: A subgroup within campaigns, grouping related keywords/product targets and allowing granular control.
• Ad: The actual product listings promoted, inheriting settings from their ad group and campaign.

Why Create New Ad Groups

• Doing so allows for better data analysis by isolating performance metrics, and improves keyword alignment for better targeting
• It also enables easier adjustments to bids or targeting settings

Why Create Multiple Campaigns

• To have separate budgets, specific bid strategies, prioritize placements and gain clearer performance insights

Bid Strategies

• Bid strategies allow for real-time adjustments by Amazon, based on conversion likelihood.
• Dynamic Bids - Up and Down: Amazon increases bids (up to 100%) if conversion likelihood is high, and vice versa.
  • It performs best for campaigns focused on maximizing conversions and yields higher CTR/conversions, but increased CPC.
• Dynamic Bids - Down Only: Amazon lowers your bid for low-conversion opportunities, but will not actively increase it.
  • This is for cost-conscious campaigns or when testing new products, yielding stable CPC and moderate conversions.
• Fixed Bids: Amazon maintains bids without adjustments for critical spend campaigns.
  • Best for campaigns where consistent spend is critical, yielding predictable results.

Bids: Setting and Adjusting

• To decide initial bids, use the Amazon Suggested Bid range as a baseline and research average CPCs to stay competitive.
• Use past campaign performance to inform bid levels and set bids according to product profitability.
• Change bids based on performance metrics (increase for high CTR and low ACOS; decrease for the opposite), placement adjustments, and market trends.

Sponsored Product Campaign Placements

• Top of Search: Ads appear at the top, offering high visibility for intent-driven customers.
• Rest of Search: Ads appear below top placements, being cost-effective for broad reach.
• Product Pages: Ads appear on product detail pages, targeting users comparing similar products.

Placement Bid Adjustments

• Defintion: Adjust bids for specific placements.
• Increase bids for Top of Search for high-priority campaigns; lower bids for Rest of Search to maintain efficiency.

Closing Notes

• Manual campaigns empower advertisers to refine targeting for more significant impact and efficiency.