Don’t put all your eggs in one basket — the adage holds true when it comes to ecommerce advertising. By the end of 2021, Amazon’s global ad revenue is set to reach an impressive $26.1 billion. With the variety of promotional programs this marketplace offers constantly expanding, it can be challenging for brands to determine the best combination of solutions to net the highest results. The answer is often a brand-by-brand, product-by-product scenario.
However, WBX Commerce, which manages the entire advertising process from beginning to end for brands, has seen that combining search-based advertising with display advertising on Amazon’s DSP is a proven recipe for success.
Before we dive into how to combine these strategies, here’s a breakdown of how each works:
Search-based advertising includes products that appear with the “sponsored” tag on Amazon. This includes Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Brand Video and Sponsored Display. If a shopper searches for “coffee,” the first few results appear based on the relevance to the search query. Search-based ads target consumers in the desire stage of the advertising funnel. 
Amazon DSP is a demand-side platform that allows advertisers to automatically purchase and optimize display, video and audio ads on Amazon-owned sites (think Amazon, IMDb, Audible, Zappos and more) and certain third-party sites. These ads appear on the Amazon homepage, Fire TV Stick homepage, and sites like ESPN.com and CNN.com, to name a few. Amazon DSP ads are designed to capture consumer attention in the awareness stage of the advertising funnel. You can access a deeper dive into Amazon DSP here.
Separately, these two advertising strategies are effective at reaching potential customers at different stages of the buying journey, but our data shows that brands that run DSP advertisements in tandem with search advertisements see conversion rates that are four times higher than brands that implement a search-based advertising strategy alone.
Brands that combine Amazon DSP and search-based advertising see 4x higher conversion rates.
Let’s say your brand sells craft coffee. You want to increase sales on Amazon, but you’re having trouble competing with more established brands. You decide it’s time to beef up your advertising strategy.
To build brand awareness and consideration, your brand could begin by placing display ads on a user’s Fire TV Stick homepage. As the consumer settles in to stream their favorite show, they see the ad for your brand’s coffee. During the episode, they pause the show to find out who the guest star is and decide to pull up the show’s IMDb page. As they scroll through the cast members, a display ad for your coffee appears on that webpage. They confirm their thoughts about who the guest star is and return to bingeing their show.
The next morning, they wake up tired (having stayed up too late watching TV) and head to the kitchen for a cup of coffee. They open the cabinet to discover they’re low on joe and immediately open their Amazon app and search for “coffee.” Using search-based advertising, your brand runs a search-based ad to get your coffee to appear at the top of the search results. Since they recognize your brand’s name and product from the streaming device and web display ad, they are much more likely to click on your sponsored product and convert. They click on your product, are happy with the customer ratings and decide to “Buy Now” with next-day shipping. Coffee crisis averted. Customer conversion mission accomplished.
Amazon DSP and search advertisements encompass the full funnel of a customer’s journey.
DSP and search advertisements encompass the full funnel of a customer’s journey. By utilizing the DSP to build awareness and consideration, and search advertising to drive a down-the-funnel purchase, our data shows that brands can maximize the attention of consumers at the right place and time in their buying journey.
In addition to stretching those ad dollars with higher conversion rates, brands that run both Amazon search and Amazon DSP ads in tandem gain access to the Amazon Marketing Cloud, which provides unique insights that can fuel your advertising strategy, including:
Ready to build a full-funnel advertising strategy? It’s simple to get started. WBX Commerce is one of a limited number of agencies with access to Amazon DSP, and after analyzing your existing search strategy, can provide a tailored DSP + search strategy to help your brand grow sales. If your brand runs search in-house and just needs support with Amazon DSP, we’re equipped to help with that, too. Our marketplace services team can connect your in-house search efforts with WBX Commerce’s DSP efforts through the Amazon Marketing Cloud, which gives you access to more data and insights to optimize your Amazon business. Contact us today!
