Maximizing Your Product Targeting Campaigns for PPC Success

Are your product-targeting (PT) campaigns wasting money? If so, you're not alone. Many advertisers are finding that their PT campaigns, which are vital for both defensive and offensive strategies, are not performing as effectively as they could. Product Targeting is a crucial strategy for building both defensive and offensive campaigns for a brand. However, without the right strategies and constant monitoring, these campaigns can lead to wasted ad spend.

Understanding Product Targeting (PT) and Its Importance

Product Targeting campaigns allow you to target specific products to increase your visibility on competitors' product detail pages or protect your own. Defensive campaigns typically target your own products to safeguard against competitors. However, our analysis of Search Term Reports (STRs) for these defensive campaigns revealed a significant number of irrelevant and non-branded keywords that contribute to wasted ad spend. This issue affects all ad types: Sponsored Products (SP), Sponsored Brands (SB), and Sponsored Brands Video (SBV).

Since Prime Week, we've identified approximately $1,000 in wasted spend per campaign due to irrelevant and non-branded keywords. The challenge lies in controlling this wasted spend. For SP PT campaigns, irrelevant keywords can be added as negatives at the campaign level, but there is no similar option for SB and SBV campaigns, leading to increased wasted spend.

Maximizing the Efficiency of Your PT Campaigns

To make your PT campaigns more efficient, here are a few strategies:

1. Choose Exact Targeting for SP Product Targeting: Exact targeting focuses on a specific product, offering better control over where your ads appear. On the other hand, expanded targeting acts like broad keyword targeting, including substitutes, complements, and related products.

2. Experiment with Expanded Targeting: For newly launched products, consider using expanded targeting for two to three weeks to identify potential competitors. Monitor the STRs continuously and eliminate any irrelevant targeting.

3. Utilize Available Reports: Use the "Purchased Product Report" to see which products were targeted, marketed, and bought. If the purchased product is relevant or a competitor, add it to your respective campaigns or create a new campaign to target it. Additionally, the 'Matched Target Report' provides insights into which ASINs your ads appeared against and garnered at least one click. Harvest new product targets from these matched targets to optimize control and performance tracking.

4. Limit Product Targeting: Keep the product targets within each campaign to 15-20 for better tracking and control over performance. Pause targets that have not generated any orders in the last 30-45 days and replace them with new ones from the purchased product report.

Expanded vs. Exact PT: Which is Better?

We experimented to compare expanded and exact targeting for the same product:

- Expanded Targeting: Targets the direct competitor and other closely related products. Resulted in 1 order with a 0.06% conversion rate (CVR), but 40% of search terms were irrelevant.

- Exact Targeting: Targets specific competitor products only. Resulted in 14 orders with a 20% CVR.

Conclusion: For offensive targeting, it's better to use Exact targeting over Expanded targeting to minimize irrelevant search terms and maximize conversions. However, for new products, using Expanded targeting initially can help identify and harvest competitors.

Why Aren't Conventional Defense Campaigns Sufficient?

Relying solely on conventional defensive efforts may undermine your Product Detail Page (PDP). The landscape has evolved, and so must your defense strategies:

1. SB Video Campaigns: With their proximity to the review section, SBV ad placements are crucial for defending your PDP. If not defended properly, competitors with high-quality video content could steal your customers. (https://lnkd.in/gHBFaVc4)

2. SD Video Campaigns: These placements are distracting and are located close to the product. If not defended, you risk losing sales to compelling competitor videos. (https://lnkd.in/gFEJvP8h)

3. Brand Story and A+ Content: A strong brand story and premium A+ content can improve brand recognition and enhance the shopping experience, reducing the risk of losing sales to competitors. (https://lnkd.in/gXx_CnaT, https://lnkd.in/gwNjQbhg)

Final Thoughts

If you're not currently monitoring your PT campaigns closely, start doing so immediately. Adjust your strategy accordingly and increase the frequency of your negative keyword research, especially for PT campaigns. Aim to do this every third day to minimize wasted spend and optimize performance. For SB and SBV campaigns, consider advocating for more robust controls, similar to those available for SP campaigns.