Rumor has it Amazon might buy TikTok 🍿 [MDSR #20]

The eCommerce landscape is ever-changing, but killer Amazon ads and hot products continue to be a top priority for 53% of MDSR readers.

As always, we have the news and million dollar advice you need to see a better return on those investments. Let’s get into it.

Hot Off The Presses 📰

Whether your ad strategy is currently delivering ROI or not, Amazon is certainly seeing gains from it — their Q1 earnings officially cleared generous estimates of advertising and AWS-fueled profits earlier this week. 

Boasting faster than ever prime delivery speeds so far this year, 2024 is already shaping up to be a record-setting year for Amazon. Even more to come as consumers gear up to spend an estimated $254 on Mother’s Day gifts — many of which are sure to be internet famous Amazon products directly inspired by influencers — not to mention the summer Prime Day deal events already on the books.

On that note, it’s increasingly clear that inflation-wary consumers are heavily motivated by discounts and seasonal deals, but recent studies prove they also want a convenient 1-click buying experience. If you decide to give it to them — say, via the Amazon app — don’t forget about post-purchase marketing, because all these convenient buying options are making the shopping journey extremely nonlinear. 

But make no mistake. Brands are still advertising to keep shoppers moving right down the line to that purchase confirmation page — the digital ad market is back on the mend from the darkest days of 2022. Reddit introduced new dynamic product ads. And Meta’s ad revenue jumped 27% in Q1. 

In a perfect world, Meta would invest some of that back into fixing the Instagram algorithms they claim are working perfectly… But the world is imperfect, and the brands still longing for Instagram’s chronological feed will have to take to new channels — which are also constantly changing. Experts are saying a product-led SEO strategy is the antidote to that kind of uncertainty, though.

The uncertainty that brands on TikTok Shop are facing, however, is a different story — and ByteDance shelled out $7 million on ads and lobbying in hopes of rewriting it. Nonetheless, TikTok rivals have a lot to gain with billions of ad dollars — plus the undivided attention of one third of U.S. adults (62% of 18- to 29-year olds) — hanging in the balance. 

Rumor has it that Amazon, Apple, and/or Oracle may or may not be waiting in the wings to grab it. 

Million Dollar Advice 💸 

Once upon a time, selling on Amazon was something like the wild west. New sellers had less to lose, mistakes were low stakes, and there were plenty of loopholes for sellers to benefit from. 

If you’re thinking it’s still kosher to have poor account health, get your listings taken down by bots — or be unfamiliar with Amazon’s terms for selling products in special categories — make no mistake. 

The landscape has changed a lot. The stakes are higher. And loopholes are becoming riskier.

But the Million Dollar Sellers Show with Nick & Ro is here to help. 

Listen to 7 Amazon Seller Mistakes to Avoid in 2024

Amazon PPC Optimization Checklist ✅

We can see why so many of our readers are laser-focused on their Amazon ad strategy right now — there’s so much potential for sales and awareness if you can cut through the noise of over 9 million other sellers to resonate with the estimated 310 million active shoppers on the platform. 

Best practices for high-performing Amazon ads are constantly changing, so we put our heads on an optimization checklist that’ll show you whether you’re pulling enough performance levers on your ad campaigns, and where you might want to focus your efforts going forward.  

Be honest when you ask yourself if you’re already doing these things — and if you could be doing them even better:

☑️ Understand Amazon’s ad formats for best results. From sponsored products and sponsored brands, to display ads, and now audio and video — you should understand your options inside and out to make sure you choose the type that makes the most sense for your goals.

☑️ Do thorough keyword research to improve your ad targeting. Because the keywords you go after determine where your ads appear. You can start with Amazon’s keyword tools, but don’t be afraid to branch out to other third-party tools like Google Keyword Planner or SemRush. And don’t forget to identify negative keywords, so you can avoid having your ad pop up where you don’t want it to appear. 

☑️ Go a level deeper with Amazon’s advanced targeting. Don’t just stop at keywords when you have Amazon’s advanced targeting at your fingertips. It can help your products appear next to relevant items, and even on competitors’ pages — and if you’re using display ads, you can even use advanced targeting to go after shoppers with certain interests and behaviors, like those who have visited your product pages but not bought from you yet.

☑️ Create distinct campaigns for each advertising goal. If you want to use ads to drive X number of conversions with your ads — and an X% lift in brand awareness — you’re better off creating two distinct ad campaigns so you can use the right ad format for each goal. Think: sponsored product ads for conversions and sponsored brand or video ads for brand awareness.

☑️ Invest in strong ad copy. What’s the point of investing in Amazon ads if you just phone in your ad copy without proofreading from ChatGPT? We know this one is obvious but it still gets overlooked, so at the very least, create engaging headlines and calls to action for your ads — and have a solid product description on your landing page to make sure shoppers who click-through don’t immediately bounce.

☑️ Use as much real social proof as possible to boost conversions. Because even if your ad is literally perfect, no one shopping on Amazon would buy your product if it didn’t have any reviews. Ads work better with social proof like ratings, UGC from customers, and even an “Amazon’s Choice” or “Best Seller” badge — the best part is that once you earn these things, you can highlight them in your ad copy and visuals for extra impact.

☑️ A/B test before you pour more money in. There are so many variables in Amazon PPC from your targeting and bidding strategy, to the visuals and words you use. All of these things should be A/B tested one at a time and for a sufficient amount of time so you can understand what actually works for your brand and products — and avoid pouring money down the drain.

☑️ Optimize your bids regularly. Amazon or elsewhere, PPC isn’t a once-and-done task if you’re doing it all in-house. You should check your campaigns weekly to tweak your bids and match types to make sure you’re investing enough in the keywords that are working for you, and avoid wasting money on the ones that don’t.

☑️ Track return on ad spend (ROAS) and adjust accordingly. Similar to advertising cost of sale (ACOS), ROAS is a metric you can track as a leading indicator for your campaign performance by simply dividing your total ad sales by total ad spend. If your campaigns aren’t breaking even relative to your profit margins, you’ll know it’s time to revisit your keyword and bidding strategy.

Think this list is helpful?

Amazon Optimization Playlist 🔥

Introducing Our MDS Inspire 2024 Award Winners  🏆

We'd like to take a moment to share the winners of our special MDS Inspire 2024 Awards — drumroll please…

🏆 Best Keynote Speaker: Big shoutout to Oliver Brocato for his awesome speeche! Check out his video here.

🏆 Best Workshop Speaker: Let's give a huge round of applause to Vanessa Hung for her amazing workshops!

🏆 Best Unique Offers: Kudos to Intellivy and Carbon6 for their awesome contribution!

If you missed the live event, make sure to catch our official highlight reel below.

And remember — this could be you once you secure an early bird ticket for MDS Inspire 2025…

Did you see that post 📲

File under reasons to constantly be testing…

Until Next Time ✌️

As always, thanks for sticking with us until the end. 

If you’d care to share your thoughts on this newsletter, we’re all ears. Just hit reply to sound off. 

See you next time with more of the latest and greatest content you need to succeed this year 🔥

Sincerely, 

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If you are looking for a business professional community made for ecom entrepreneurs, then consider applying today. 

*To qualify, you must be a full-time seller or brand owner and do at least 1 million in verified annual revenue.