What is AMS? AMS Review

Amazon Marketing Services (AMS)

AMS is a set of marketing services provided by Amazon to platform suppliers. Since this is a program for suppliers, it is only available through Amazon's Vendor Central platform and cannot be accessed from Seller Central. Therefore, to use AMS, you need to receive an invitation from Amazon to Vendor Central or sign up for the Vendor Express program.

The Difference Between Amazon Suppliers and Sellers

It does take some time to clearly understand the differences between Amazon Vendor Central and Seller Central, and between sellers and suppliers. The following summary of AMS can help you quickly understand these key points.

Simply put, as a seller, you need to pay Amazon to use some placements on their website to sell your products, and you can also use Amazon's logistics services. Generally speaking, sellers have full control over the products, such as they can control the listing, selling price, etc., as long as you abide by Amazon's terms and conditions.

As a vendor, you need to use Vendor Central or Vendor Express, which is a completely different business model. Essentially, you sell your products to Amazon, and they resell the products to their customers, which also means that Amazon controls the listing and the price.

Details about AMS

With AMS, you can use a range of different types of ads and target shoppers based on the keyword searches they search for. These are pay-per-click (PPC) ads, and you bid on keywords and compete with other sellers for ad space. You can set a daily budget for each campaign, and your ad space will be automatically scheduled based on your bid. AMS also provides sales reports that allow you to track the ROI of your ads, helping you optimize your ad performance.

Types of ads provided by AMS

1. Sponsored Products (sometimes also called keyword advertising)

2. Headline Search Ads

3. Product Display Ads

With Sponsored Product ads, you can select the products, keywords, and daily budget you want to promote. Then, based on the keyword bids you provide, you compete with other suppliers to win ad placements. Sponsored Products will appear in the keyword search results of Amazon stores, as shown below:

Headline Search Ads

Headline search ads allow a supplier to display multiple products (three or more) in one ad, and the ad will be displayed at the top of the search results page. Suppliers only need to create a headline, select the products to be displayed, and then choose the landing page after clicking the ad (usually a brand's homepage or a page for a specific product). This type of advertising is not only used to sell products, but also to increase brand awareness. For headline search campaigns, the minimum click cost is $0.1, the minimum advertising budget is $100, and the minimum daily budget is $1.

Product Display Ads

In Product Display Ads, you can target general customer interests or specific products to showcase your products to your potential customers. Suppliers create a headline and insert a logo to make their creative more eye-catching. For Product Display Ads campaigns, the minimum cost per click is $0.02, the minimum campaign budget is $100, and the minimum daily budget is $1.

Should You Try AMS?

Deciding whether to use AMS is not as simple as considering whether your budget is sufficient or whether there is a return on investment. What you really need to decide is to choose between two different platforms and business models. Which one will ultimately make you the most money and help you achieve your business goals?

Therefore, when considering AMS, you should not only consider how Vendor Central marketing ads differ from Seller Central ads, but also consider the overall differences between the platforms and how these differences may affect your business.

The difference between the advertising services provided by AMS and Seller Central

Since Headline Search Ads are also available in Seller Central, there is only one unique marketing method in AMS - Product Display Ads (not available in Seller Central), but this ad type gives you access to the "most aggressive marketing method" because it allows you to target competitors and make your products a potential alternative choice for their customers.

As more advertising methods emerge in Seller Central, it might not be surprising to see Product Display Ads (or similar ad formats) appear in Seller Central in the near future. But for now, you can only use this marketing tool in Vendor Central.

It’s also important that you consider not only the differences between the marketing services provided by Vendor Central and Seller Central, but you also need to know the pros and cons of each platform.

If you sell multiple products on Amazon, you might consider signing up for Vendor Central or Vendor Express, but remember that you only need to test one or two products at first. This allows you to test the effects without risking your entire business. Perhaps you can test with lower-performing products so that you can understand the growth potential that AMS and Vendor Central bring without risking the success of your key products. Also, remember that moving to Vendor Central means you will lose access to MWS (Amazon Marketplace Web Service), which means you will no longer be able to use any helpful third-party software tools because these tools require an API interface.

Note: Amazon Marketplace Web Service (MWS) is an integrated web service API that helps Amazon sellers programmatically exchange data about products, orders, payments, reports, etc.

Increase product reviews to sell more

No matter how you plan to promote your product, you don’t want customers to just click on your ad and come to your product details page; you also want them to click the buy button.

While great product images and product descriptions play a critical role in sales, the actual word-of-mouth provided by product reviews is often the deciding factor for customers when comparing multiple products.

AMS Fees

The minimum budget is $100. Sellers only pay for clicks they actually receive.

AMS running time

It can run for up to six months.

Advantages of AMS

It can greatly increase display volume and traffic, thereby increasing sales, and provide a brand flagship store that can increase brand exposure and advertising conversion rate.

Disadvantages of AMS

Since AMS has a large exposure volume, the budget is difficult to control. In addition, it requires more operational experience than PPC advertising.

References

• 1. Amazon AMS includes: Amazon official website [reference date 2018-03-12T16:00:00.000Z]