Why has building brand awareness on Amazon become more important than ever? Because while shoppers are surging into Amazon to browse and buy, so are droves of advertisers. They are spending in ever-greater amounts, eager to capitalize on Amazon’s mushrooming market. It has become vital to develop and maintain a strong brand presence to outshine your competitors.
As a by-product of the global COVID-19 pandemic, Amazon’s business has skyrocketed. It’s pretty astonishing how much! In the second quarter of 2021, Amazon reported an increase of year-on-year advertising revenue by 87%, to almost $8 billion. Amazon has also added to its many Prime subscribers, which now exceeds 200 million shoppers worldwide.
However, this expansion in Amazon’s business isn’t purely down to the cold realities of the ongoing pandemic. The signs were already there that Amazon was seriously making up ground on its closest advertising rivals, Google and Facebook. This led to an upturn of 44% year-on-year in quarter one of 2020. It happened despite the restriction of Fulfilled by Amazon incoming shipments to prioritize warehouse space and onward deliveries for essential goods.
Spend is Moving to Sponsored Brands
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Equally important to know about building your brand awareness is that Amazon’s Sponsored Brands has grown to make almost a quarter of its pay-per-click advertising business, compared to relatively little growth for its Sponsored Products advertising. Amazon is keen to develop the use of Sponsored Brands, as operating at the top of the funnel opens up opportunities at the Awareness stage to new and perhaps bigger brand marketing budgets. The benefit, of course, is that as Sponsored Brands operate higher up the digital marketing funnel, they showcase an entire brand or product range rather than individual items so that they can appeal to shoppers throughout their customer journey.
Don’t Miss Out on New Customers
Global consumers have taken a big step online in the last couple of years. Although the pandemic precipitated this, the evidence so far suggests that most change to shopping methods has become established as long-term habits. Research has found that, as well as moving to online shopping, customers are now more open to new brands (partly fuelled by supply issues of their usual brands due to the pandemic), with 73% of shoppers saying that they would look for new brands in the future. Conversely, this inevitably means that customers’ brand loyalty is weakening. So the need to attract new customers has become even more of an imperative.
Of course, if you want to capitalize on this new wave of customers who are open to giving unfamiliar brands a go, you need to make sure that they know that you’re out there. You need to build brand awareness into your advertising strategy to allow yourself to exploit the potential of new-to-brand customers. Brand building and sales by new shoppers are intrinsically linked. Search Engine Land says, “Investing in brand awareness campaigns also has the trickle-down effect of producing more customers that have not purchased from the brand previously or who are infrequent purchasers.”
A great way to build brand awareness is by harnessing Sponsored Brands ads, as shoppers can see them at the top of their search results on Amazon. The benefit here is that a customer knows right away that you have what they’re looking for, placing your offering at the forefront of their minds as they evaluate the selection available to them. You also have the advantage of some artistic control over how you present your brand and products. It includes your choice of products, logo, and strapline, allowing you to give the ideal first impression of your offering.
Your Competitors are Building Brand Awareness on Amazon DSP
Amazon’s Demand Side Platform (DSP) is the perfect place to promote your brand to new audiences, both on and off Amazon. It offers the opportunity to leverage gems such as lookalike audiences and similar product views. As a result, more than half of all spending in DSP is focused on building brand awareness. If your competitors are leveraging DSP to develop their brand awareness and you aren’t, your brand and range will inevitably become less prominent, distinctive, and memorable than those from rivals who made their brand a priority in advertising strategy.
Make the Most of Amazon’s Ad and Channel Options
There are many advertising formats and features across the Amazon space. Amazon consistently prioritizes the development of new ways for businesses to build their brand awareness. They offer merchants both an ever-increasing variety of formats and the channels in which to place them, such as
- Sponsored Product ads in search results and product pages
- Customizable Sponsored Brands ads to link customers to your Amazon Store or landing page
- Sponsored Display ads on and off Amazon, including in apps
- Video ads on live streaming wait screens on Fire tablets
- Video ads both on and off Amazon, including channels (IMDB, Twitch), with in-feed and OTT options
- Audio ads run across Alexa-enabled devices such as Fire TV and Amazon Echo
Back Up Your Brand With Your Review Profile
However enthused you may be about exploiting the benefits of building brand awareness into your Amazon strategy, there’s one factor that you’ll need to optimize prior. Your potential customers may be drawn to your brand through your awareness strategy. Still, unless you can provide social proof that backs up their favorable first impressions of your brand, their initial interest is unlikely to convert into sales. The quality of your reviews will directly influence their decision to purchase or not. So you’ll need to work on fostering and sustaining an impressive review profile.
E-commerce has opened up shopping options for consumers, and they consider buying way beyond the traditional local bricks and mortar stores. People naturally seek reassurance that these intangible online brands and products are trustworthy.
Reviews are an essential part of the seller’s armory, as 91% of shoppers sometimes or invariably read reviews, with 84% trusting them as much as a word of mouth endorsement. 68% of customers won’t seriously consider purchasing until they’ve read up to half a dozen of your reviews. You’ll need a good supply, and remember that those reviews need to be within the last few months. Shoppers aren’t interested in past glories. So take the time to get your review profile up to scratch so that you don’t undermine your brand-building strategy.
Let Your Brand Fly
In a changing and growing e-commerce market, you need to stay ahead of the game, and building your brand has become more than an option. It’s now an essential part of any digital marketing strategy. Investing in building brand awareness on Amazon is now key to enabling your business to soar, so you’d better get your wings ready now.
About the author
George Roberts is Head of Sales at Clear Ads. He has worked in advertising since 2014, working with an array of media. George’s extensive experience means he has dealt with thousands of clients’ advertising campaigns, understanding their advertising goals to ensure they are achieved. Clear Ads is a world-leading Amazon advertising agency specializing in PPC and DSP ads. It was founded in 2011 to help small and medium-sized companies gain a strong ROI from their digital ad spend. Connect with George on LinkedIn or reach out via the website.
