Getting started with advertising on Amazon can be intimidating for new sellers. They have already gone through the process of setting up their account and making their product detail pages retail-ready, and are setting up their first ads. If this describes you, keep reading to learn about the five most common ads mistakes new sellers make on Amazon and how to avoid them.
1. Relying Too Heavily on Automatic Campaigns
Amazon’s automatic campaigns are a good starting point for discovering relevant search terms and ensuring that all of the products in your catalog have ad coverage. Many new sellers set up automatic campaigns, only to forget them and let them run without further refinement. This kind of mistake can cost new sellers wasted spend.
Automatic campaigns should be regularly refined in order to prevent wasted spend and actually apply what search terms convert in a separate manual campaign. If an automatic campaign keeps picking up targets and customer searches that are irrelevant to the products being advertised, they need to be added as negative keywords. If there are search terms that consistently show up from traffic captured by the automatic campaign, these should be funneled into a manual campaign.
Advertisers can also use other ad types, besides solely automatic targeting, for discovery. A modified broad match campaign, for example, can bring in more relevant customer searches than an automatic campaign that relies on Amazon’s search algorithm that might not yet understand a new seller’s products, hence bringing in irrelevant traffic.
2. Sticking to One Ad Type
Amazon offers several ad formats, including Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display. Each of these types is designed to support different goals throughout the customer journey. Relying on just one ad type can limit a seller’s reach, reduce brand visibility, and cause missed opportunities to connect with shoppers at different stages of the buying process.
For example, Sponsored Products can help drive sales for individual listings, while Sponsored Brands can increase brand awareness and showcase a seller’s product range. The key is to build a diversified advertising strategy that aligns each ad type with your business goals. You can create a more effective, well-rounded Amazon advertising strategy by testing different ad formats and allocating your budget based on results.
3. More Campaigns Equals Better Results
We’ve seen this happen time and time again. More campaigns do not equal better results. Amazon rewards consistency, so the practice of continually adding new campaigns can backfire and lead to wasted spend, as well as an unwieldy, overly-segmented ad portfolio. A handful of intentionally built campaigns designed to fit within your business’ strategy will usually spend less and yield a better return on investment than a scattershot approach of groups of new ads every day.
4. Focusing on One KPI
Spending your ad dollars efficiently and effectively is an incredibly important aspect of advertising in general. Having clear goals and benchmarks for your business helps prevent a lack of focus. However, brands that treat it as the ultimate measure of success can end up limiting their growth on the platform. This is because focusing on maximizing RoAS or ACoS usually causes sellers to become overly conservative with their budgets, overlook valuable opportunities to attract new customers, or cut campaigns that contribute to long-term sales and brand awareness.
5. Expecting Immediate Results
Time and time again, we see sellers and vendors alike make this mistake. If you make a big change in Amazon Ads, be it starting new ads or changing your strategy, it takes time for these changes to take effect and influence shopper behavior. Ideally, you need at least four to six weeks after implementing new ads or a strategy change to see meaningful results on ad engagement and total sales. Trying to gain insights and make changes based on activity before that risks making changes too early, learning the wrong lesson from the ad results, and overly attributing overall total sales changes to ads.
The Big Picture
Success with Amazon Advertising comes down to building a thoughtful strategy, monitoring performance, and making informed adjustments based on the data over time. By avoiding these common mistakes, new sellers can make better use of their advertising budgets and build a foundation for long-term success on Amazon. Rather than chasing quick wins or focusing on a single metric, prioritizing consistent optimization and data-informed strategies can support your broader business goals. With patience and a willingness to learn from performance data, Amazon Ads can become a valuable tool for growing your brand and driving sales.
