How To Run Google Ads For Amazon Products
Are you looking for a way to increase sales of your products on Amazon? Or give flatlined keyword rankings a bit of a boost?
If so, you simply cannot ignore Google Ads – a powerful tool in the modern-day Amazon seller toolbelt.
In this article, we’ll cover the benefits of Google Ads over a variety of other options for driving external traffic to Amazon.
We’ll then break down how to set up your Google Ads account, create your first campaign with plenty of helpful screenshots from an example campaign I created, and share pro tips from the trenches along the way.
By following this guide you’ll have the confidence to dive into this powerful traffic source for your own Amazon business.
What are Google Ads?
Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) is the name of Google’s advertising platform.
Advertisers can use the platform to run a range of different types of ads, including:
For sellers looking to use Google ads for Amazon products, Search Ads are the best option.
This is because they are text-based ads that are very similar in setup to Amazon PPC.
They also give you a lot of flexibility with targeting and ad copy which will come in very useful later on.
Google Search Ads show up above organic Google search results, much like Amazon ads do on Amazon.
Higher volume of traffic
Let’s be honest, Amazon isn’t exactly struggling with its traffic levels.
But the data doesn’t lie.
Whereas Amazon.com attracts an impressive 2.5 billion visits per month, Google is said to handle 8.5 billion searches per day.
Of course, not all of this traffic has the same buying intent as the searches on Amazon, but a good portion of it does.
Increased buying intent
Despite the general buying intent on Google not being at the same level as Amazon, Google ads allow you to create very targeted campaigns.
Just like Amazon PPC you can define exactly which keywords you want your ads to run for and only include highly relevant purchase intent terms.
Whereas external traffic strategies such as Facebook ads require you to grab a user’s attention and divert them from what they are doing, Google Ads capture existing intent.
For example, if you are selling a yoga mat and include yoga mat related terms in your Google ad you know that someone clicking on your ad has just carried out a highly relevant search and is much more likely to convert.
Additional market share
If you’re not appearing in Google ads spots for your major keywords then someone else is.
That someone else will either be your direct competition or Amazon itself.
The problem with leaving Amazon to advertise on these keywords on your behalf is that you no longer control the narrative.
Amazon will direct that traffic to a generic search results page featuring all of your competitors.
By competing for this ad space you’re able to steer some of that traffic directly to your Amazon listing and capture more market share.
Leveraged platform credibility
Google and Amazon are two of the most trusted platforms in the world.
By running ads from Google to Amazon you are leveraging the combined credibility of both platforms to benefit your brand.
Plus, the way Google Search Ads are set up means the ads you create look as if they are from Amazon themselves.
Most customers won’t know the difference between your ads and Amazon’s, so when they land on your product page there is an assumption that this is Amazon’s choice for the searched keyword.
A big credibility boost.
Simple setup
Whereas options like Facebook ads require image or video creatives and an understanding of audience targeting, Google Search Ads are much simpler to set up.
All you need to get started is a product to advertise, relevant keywords, and a bit of sales copy which we’ll work on shortly.
This is also one of the big reasons you should first focus on search ads as opposed to other forms of Google ads – for example, Google Shopping Ads which require images.
Plus, an extra bonus from Amazon…
In addition to specific Google Ads benefits, when developing a sustainable strategy for driving external traffic to your listings, you’ll also benefit from extra rewards from Amazon.
It has been widely documented – and completely understandable – that Amazon loves when sellers attract traffic from sources outside the platform.
Having grown to a mature size, Amazon is continually looking for new ways to squeeze extra juice out of the eCommerce industry.
And, by incentivizing sellers to send them external traffic they have created additional streams of new loyal Amazon customers.
This incentivization comes mainly in the form of the Brand Referral Bonus which rewards sellers with a percentage of the revenue resulting from external traffic.
Most categories reward sellers with a 10% Brand Referral Bonus so that if you were to drive external traffic to your product listings and generate $100 in sales, Amazon would grant you a bonus of $10 which is taken off your Amazon fees.
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e Creating a Google Ads account
So, the advantages are numerous and the potential fantastic, but how do you get started?
Let’s start with setting up your Google Ads account. Already got an account? Jump to campaign creation.
To create a new Ads account, head to ads.google.com.
You’ll notice that Google often runs promotions for new accounts whereby they credit you with a sum of money when you spend the same amount on ads.
This is often $150-$200 but as you can see here, Google was generously offering ￡400 matched credit! (I am based in the UK so the currency defaults to this).
To take advantage of this offer all you need to do is set up your account and once you’ve spent the stated amount Google will add a credit to your account that can be spent on more ads.
Nice!
Once you start the account creation process you’ll need to either sign in to an existing Google account or create a new one.
I’d suggest having a separate account for your business rather than using a personal Gmail account.
Finally, there will be a few set-up questions to answer about your business and advertising goals.
Onboarding smart campaign setup
You may also find that Google will lead you through a semi-automated ‘smart campaign’ setup.
This is designed to make it easy for advertisers to get up and running (ie. give Google money).
Creating Google Ad campaigns
Now for the fun stuff – getting some traffic running with Google ads!
In this section, I’ll run you through each main setting you’ll need to configure along with some advanced tips on optimising your ads for the best results.
Step 1: Create a new campaign
There are a few different places to create a new campaign, but the easiest place is to come to your account overview page and click Create, then Campaign.
I’d recommend using one Google ads campaign for each individual product and marketplace, along with just one ad group and ad per campaign.
Similar to Amazon PPC ads this will just help keep things streamlined and make it easier to monitor performance later on.
Step 2: Set your objective
Next, you’ll want to select your campaign objective.
You should select Sales.
Some people like to use traffic but really you are looking for sales conversions so this is the right objective to choose.
Step 3: Set your campaign type
For campaign type, as discussed you’ll want to choose
earch.
Display, Shopping, Video, and Discovery ads all have their place, but when running Google ads for Amazon products Search is your best bet as it keeps things simple, targeted, and manageable.
Step 4: Name your campaign
This one’s pretty straightforward. Name your campaign so you can easily identify it.
If you’re going to be running multiple campaigns consider a naming convention such as [product] – [marketplace].
Step 5: Set your bidding strategy
Google gives you a number of bidding focuses to choose from. This determines what the ads will be optimised for.
You can choose between:
As Google can’t track Amazon conversions you’ll want to opt for clicks, then also set a maximum cost-per-click bid
limit.
You can set this at a relatively low number like 0.50c, or you can run some maths to find a more calculated number.
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In my testing Google ads generally convert at between 1-3%.
So, if you’re looking to run ads at breakeven or better, take your profit margin and multiply it by say 3% and use that figure as your cost per click limit.
For example, let’s say you are running ads to a product that sells for $30 of which $8 is profit.
$8 * 3% = $0.24.
In this scenario, you could set your maximum bid at $0.24 knowing that this should put you in breakeven range.
Of course, there are a lot of variables in play and you can optimise this later on if you are paying too much or conversely not getting enough traction.
Step 6: Choose your target networks
By default, Google will select for your ads to be shown across its ‘Search Network’ and ‘Display Network’.
You want to deselect both of these options.
You only want your ads to be showing up in Google searches to maximise the benefits we’ve previously covered.
If down the line you are maximising your budgets and want more exposure, these are options to test. But keep it streamlined when starting out.
Step 7: Choose your target locations
Be sure to specifically target the location of the Amazon listing you are directing traffic to.
Step 8: Choose audience settings
Most of the time the default settings here can just be left.
But double check everything is correct, particularly language if you are advertising to a non-English speaking locati
n.
Step 9: Add your keywords
Ok, the next few steps are what is going to really move the needle with your ad performance, starting with keywords.
For these steps we’ll be using this delightful yoga mat as our example product:
If you’re setting up Google ads for Amazon products then you should already have an active listing and therefore carry out keyword research.
You can refer back to this list to get the ball rolling.
For your Google ads, you’ll want to streamline this list to only the most relevant keywords otherwise the lower conversion rate from Google (in comparison to direct Amazon traffic) can result in a lot of wasted spend.
Before entering the keywords into your ad, I’d highly recommend adding [brackets] to each as this will force exact match only.
Without the brackets, Google will run the keywords on a broad match basis which will be far less targeted and potentially less effective.
If you have a lot of keywords and want to apply the brackets in bulk, paste the keywords into column A of an Excel file or Google sheet and apply the following formula to cell B1:
=”[“&A1&”]”
Copy this formula down column B and it will automatically add the brackets to each keyword.
Then, copy the keywords in column B and paste them into the keywords section of your Google ad.
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Step 10: Set your URL & display path
For your URL, you first need to set the ‘final URL’ which is where browsers will land when they click on your ad.
Whilst you can use a landing page to collect email addresses, the simplest option is to send customers directly to Amazon.
To ensure you are able to accurately measure performance of Google ads for Amazon products I’d highly suggest creating a unique Amazon Attribution link for each ad.
If you want to take things one step further, you can also use PixelMe for advanced analytics and extra audience-building juice.
Next, you can optimise a great little feature of Google ads which is the ability to set a custom
isplay path.
As the name suggests this is just for display and doesn’t affect where the customer lands, so make the most of it!
My go-to option is “best-selling” then “product-name” but you can customise this as you see fit.
Step 11: Customise your headline
The headline of your ad appears prominently in search results and as such has by far the most impact on whether someone will click through, so it’s key you optimise as much as possible.
Again, the fact you’ve (hopefully) taken the time to write a well-optimised Amazon listing speeds this step up.
You can go through your listing copy and pull out the key benefits of your product and refine them down to short 30-character phrases.
Include as many as you can as Google will continually test these to find the
est-performing combination.
Here are a few extra optimization tips for your headlines that have worked well for us:
1. Include your product’s pricing
We always include the price of our product with the main keyword (or price range, eg ‘Yoga Mat Under $30’).
This has its benefits at both ends of the pricing scale.
If you have a discounted promotional price, this will help with attracting clicks and purchases.
However, if you have a more premium-priced product this will help qualify potential buyers.
Remember, you are paying for these ads on a cost-per-click basis. So you only really want to be paying if there’s a chance someone will buy.
2. Lean on Amazon’s brand
Most people clicking on your ad will assume it is Amazon who has placed the ad, so lean into that.
You can include a copy around free shipping (just be sure to reference Prime), your product’s level of reviews, or a money-back guarantee.
These are all trust factors that help improve click-through and conversion rates.
3. Include dynamic keywords
Finally, add {keyword} to one of your headlines and Google will – if applicable – dynamically add the specific keyword a customer has searched.
To create a fallback – in case the keyword they search is too long, or not covered by the keywords you have entered – enter your primary keyword into the Default Text Box:
I like to use Title Case to keep everything consistent.
Close the brace brackets out and include any extra text such as the price of the product. eg. $13 {KeyWord:Yoga Mat} and pin this headline to be the first that shows up.
Inserting the exact keyword the customer has searched can really help match search intent and improve click-through rate.
Step 12: Customise your description
Similar to your title, your description can be optimised with a range of longer portions o
text.
To keep it simple you can just combine multiple headlines into each description and mix and match the order to create unique versions for Google to test.
Step 13: Add some extensions
To grab some extra search engine real estate, add extensions to your ad so that more content shows in search results and catches the eye even further.
Google gives you a range of options, but we’ve found the best to be:
Step 14: Set your Google Ads budget
Before heading to publish you’ll want to just double check the campaign budget.
Google tends to set this budget very high.
Whilst the spending should be relatively controlled by the low maximum bid level you’ve set, I’d always recommend reducing this to something you’re comfortable with.
Step 15: Review & publish your campaign
Finally, Google will give you a chance to review your campaign.
Check everything is correct and when you’re ready, hit publish!
Congratulations, you just launched your first Google ad campaign!
Ampd is a supercharged Google Ads solution for Amazon sellers that gives you unique campaign insights, access to pro-level support, and helps you use Google Ads to grow your business profitably.
Optimising existing Google Ad campaigns
Once you’ve been running Google ads for Amazon products for a while, you’ll want to look at optimising these campaigns.
The good news is that this is a very similar process to optimising Amazon PPC campaigns.
Generally speaking, the main things you’ll want to check and adjust are the bid levels and the keywords.
For the bid level, it’s a simple case of adjusting up or down.
If the Google ads are costing too much and it is unprofitable, adjust your maximum bid down.
If you want more impressions, increase it upwards.
As for keywords, carry out a weekly check and remove those that aren’t performing and add new relevant keywords for further reach.
This post provides valuable insights on running Google Ads for Amazon products. Thank you for sharing.