Grabbing Competition with Amazon DSP

Competitors. All brands have them, and all marketers strategize how to defeat them. With consumers having more access to information than ever before, how do marketers catch them at the right time and steer them away from the competition? 
 
In order to succeed, it’s important for marketers to reach their customers during the consideration phase of the consumer journey. This is when consumers are gathering information about products to help inform their purchase decision. Amazon says the average time from an initial shopping query to when a purchase happens is 5-16 days (in the United States) on their platform. They also report it takes an average of 1-5 shopping queries before someone makes a purchase. Ultimately, for a brand to be successful in grabbing their competitor’s customers for themselves, they need to be able to stay top-of-mind throughout that timespan, regardless if users are searching on or off Amazon.

How to target the competition
 
Below are three tactics to use within Amazon DSP that will help brands beat out the competition. It is important to note that there are some restrictions when targeting Amazon ASIN based audiences: campaigns must link back to Amazon and third-party tagging is not permitted. 
 
1. Utilize custom-created Amazon segments 
 
Custom Amazon segments help reach audiences in creative ways. By utilizing custom segments, advertisers can specify which product ASINs to build audiences off of, and they can customize specific recency scheduling. Creating custom segments is a great way to conquest competitors by targeting users who have viewed ASINs that are similar to the brand’s ASINs. Outside of conquesting, custom segments can be utilized to retarget users. For example, advertisers can create audiences of people who have viewed any of their products or just one specific product and customize creative messaging to align with the user’s brand familiarity.
 
2. Similar ASIN Targeting
 
With this approach, brands create an audience by targeting users who have viewed similar ASINs to their own. By choosing which ASINs to associate to their campaign, a brand can directly conquest the competition as the algorithm is analyzing comparable products throughout Amazon. Also, recency targeting can be layered in, which enables a brand to reach a more in-market audience in a timely manner.
 
For example, one of our clients targeted their products ads to Amazon users who had viewed both the brand’s specific ASINs and products similar to the brand. They also layered in a rule that the consumer must not have purchased the product within the last 90 days. This strategy turned out to be very successful with a strong ROAS.  
 
3. Keyword Search Targeting
 
According to Amazon, 75% of their users start looking for products on the platform within the search bar. This means Amazon has a significant amount of data around potential customers and their shopping habits. By utilizing keyword search targeting, brands are able to remarket to audiences that searched for their products on Amazon. What’s even better is that brands can also help drive consideration for their products by reaching shoppers who searched relevant keywords but ended up viewing detail pages of competitors. Although Amazon won’t release the specific search terms used, their algorithm is continuously updating them. By building an audience on keyword searches, brands have the ability to engage shoppers at multiple touchpoints throughout their journey. 
 
By implementing these Amazon DSP strategies, brands can target consumers, whether they’re on Amazon or not, based on shopping interactions with their brand or related products on Amazon. Contact Rise if you’d like our team of experts to help grab your competition.