Driving Off-Site Traffic to Amazon - Episode 118

INSIGHTS FROM BOBSLED PPC MANAGER ROSS WALKER

 

DESCRIPTION

Today we're joined by Ross Walker, another member of the Bobsled team. Ross has been a PPC Manager at Bobsled Marketing for the last six months, using his knowledge and experience to manage the Amazon advertising channels for his clients. His special skills are examining and mastering spreadsheet data, finding patterns, and based on that, developing advertising strategies.

The main topic for today's show is off-Amazon paid traffic. Ross explains how brands, particularly new ones, can build more momentum outside of Amazon, and get more traffic to their Amazon pages.

About three years ago, Ross had the opportunity to start working with clients when he joined an ad agency, working in e-commerce and digital marketing, as well as traditional marketing. Around that time, people were developing an awareness of, and interest in the "Amazon opportunity". Most of Ross's clients were coming from the traditional B2B and although no one understood the Amazon potential, the idea of going direct-to-consumer was too simply too tempting to pass up. So Ross and his colleagues started doing research and building case studies to figure out what could be achieved with Amazon.

“Amazon is the least developed of the three digital advertising giants, but mostly because they were the last to the game.”
— Ross Walker

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • Ross discusses how he got to understand what could be achieved with Amazon.

  • Ross was very happy when he got the opportunity to join Bobsled Marketing, as a PPC Manager, so that he could do what he loves doing most.

  • Amazon is the least developed of the three advertising giants - Amazon Advertising, Google, and Facebook.

  • Ross explains why Google has the most built-out advertising platform.

  • Amazon takes many of its advertising cues from Google and Facebook.

  • What needs to be considered when thinking about your overall performance on Amazon.

  • If you're running a good Amazon PPC campaign on Amazon, you will be able to capture the internal demand.

  • Over the last year, Bobsled has been developing a tool kit for generating off-Amazon traffic to Amazon product listings.

  • Ross talks about his two main veins of thinking around generating off-Amazon traffic to Amazon product listings- SEM and social media advertising.

  • The best time, in the life-cycle of a brand, to start considering the strategy of expanding the pool of potential customers.

  • Ross explains why he usually recommends that brands use social media as part of the strategy for Amazon promotions.

  • Amazon is working on improving its ad network algorithm and product because they are still under-developed.

  • Ross discusses some of the challenges brands could face when using his approach to generating off-Amazon paid traffic.

  • Trying to achieve something a little differently.

  • Amazon attribution is a powerful tool for tracking the results of your advertising.

  • Ross explains what the halo-effect of an ad on Amazon is, and how to quantify it.

  • It's important to get your internal Amazon ads going well before you look at advertising elsewhere.


MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

  • Win a copy of Kiri's book, Amazon for CMOs! All you need to do is write a review of this podcast in iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to this podcast, take a screenshot of the review that you wrote, and email it to Kiri at kiri@bobsledmarketing.com or send it to her on LinkedIn.

Season 3Kiri MastersComment