Transcript:

Hamish Conway (00:03):
Hi, Hamish Conway here from Sell Global. With me today is Sebastian Hargreaves. Welcome to Tacos Tuesday, where we share insights and wisdom on Amazon Ads. Sell Global is a leading Amazon agency in Australasia and an Amazon Ads Advanced Partner. Today, we’ll discuss nine common mistakes even smart brands make with Amazon Ads. Originally, it was six, but as we were planning, we identified three more. So let’s dive into it. Sebastian, what’s the first mistake you see brands making with Amazon Ads?

Sebastian Hargreaves (00:45):
The first mistake I see is catalog gaps. Many brands don’t advertise some of their best sellers. Advertising can amplify both the good and the bad. If a product is converting well, advertising will help expand its reach. On the other hand, if a product’s listing is weak, advertising will only make it worse. The key is ensuring your best-performing products are getting the ad spend they deserve.

Hamish Conway (01:40):
How can companies identify catalog gaps? What should they look for?

Sebastian Hargreaves (01:47):
The first step is auditing your account. Look at whether all your products are being represented in your advertising campaigns. Not just represented in terms of spend, but proportionally to their sales performance. Your best sellers should be getting the most budget, while underperforming products should receive less.

Hamish Conway (02:21):
Exactly. And you can also look at conversion rates. If a product has a high conversion rate but isn’t getting much traffic, that’s an opportunity for increased ad spend. This ties into the second mistake: poor campaign structure. Can you explain this?

Sebastian Hargreaves (02:52):
When setting up advertising, it’s important to treat different products with different objectives. Not all products are created equal, and their pricing or margin will vary. A common mistake is lumping all products into one campaign. This lack of structure makes it hard to control the outcomes for different product types, especially if their goals differ. For example, you can’t have high-margin products grouped with low-margin ones, as they require different strategies.

Hamish Conway (03:43):
Right, grouping multiple brands into one campaign also doesn’t work. Each brand has its own unique keywords and search terms, so separating them makes the campaigns much more effective. Poor structure leads to inefficiency and makes it hard to pinpoint what’s working.

Sebastian Hargreaves (04:26):
Exactly.

Hamish Conway (04:29):
Moving on to mistake number three: not investing enough in Amazon Ads and leaving sales on the table. Can you explain why this is a mistake?

Sebastian Hargreaves (04:37):
This mistake stems from not investing dynamically in the channel. Sometimes, brands have strict monthly budgets that prevent them from increasing spend when the metrics show positive growth. This is particularly harmful in fast-moving markets where smaller brands can quickly capture market share. If the key metrics are positive, you should invest more to protect long-term growth. Failing to do so can leave opportunities for competitors to take advantage of.

Hamish Conway (05:46):
Amazon gives nimble brands a real advantage. I was talking to a friend in the U.S. who had to scale his ad spend rapidly during the pandemic to meet demand. He went from a small budget to spending $90,000 a month. The metrics were telling him to increase spend, and it worked. But many brands are reluctant to increase spend even when the data points to growth. This leads to missed opportunities and inefficient budget use, forcing agencies to use strategies like dayparting just to avoid running out of budget mid-month.

Sebastian Hargreaves (07:32):
Right, that brings us to mistake number four: spend allocation. How do brands typically make mistakes here?

Sebastian Hargreaves (07:49):
Spend allocation is important at multiple levels—campaign, product, and keyword levels. A common issue is focusing too much on brand defense, protecting your brand, while not allocating enough budget to acquire new customers. Another mistake is over-allocating spend to one type of ad, like sponsored products, and neglecting others like sponsored display or sponsored brand ads. A good mix across ad types is key for long-term success.

Hamish Conway (08:29):
And knowing when to push money into bottom-funnel ads (like sponsored product ads) versus top or middle-funnel ads (like sponsored brand and display ads) is crucial. It’s easy to just keep investing where you’re seeing results, but neglecting other parts of the funnel can lead to missed opportunities.

Sebastian Hargreaves (08:49):
Exactly. It’s about balancing spend across the entire funnel for the best return on investment.

Hamish Conway (09:01):
Moving on to mistake number five: underutilizing ad types. Is there more to this?

Sebastian Hargreaves (11:17):
Once your structure is solid and you’ve addressed catalog gaps, it’s time to start using different ad types to expand your reach. Sponsored brands and sponsored display ads are great for raising awareness and attracting new customers, especially for brands with larger catalogs. Many brands are hesitant to use these ad types because they’re often associated with higher costs, but Amazon provides excellent tools for measuring their impact. Brand owners may be wary of awareness ads, but they can provide great value when used correctly.

Hamish Conway (13:21):
And using these ad types is particularly valuable when you have a larger catalog. You can use them to direct customers to your store and increase visibility for your entire product range.

Sebastian Hargreaves (13:30):
Exactly. Brands often overlook these opportunities. We’ll cover ad types in more detail in a future episode.

Hamish Conway (13:32):
Now, let’s talk about mistake number six: failing to protect your brand. Can you explain why this is crucial?

Sebastian Hargreaves (14:05):
Brand protection is about ensuring that competitors don’t target your branded search terms. On Amazon, competitors can bid on your brand name, showing their products when customers search for you. To avoid this, it’s important to invest in brand defense, which is usually very affordable and gives you a strong return. The key is to avoid over-investing, but some level of brand defense is essential to protect your brand from competitors.

Hamish Conway (15:48):
Exactly. It’s usually a low-cost investment with a good return, as long as you avoid cannibalizing your sales. Now, mistake number seven: starting and stopping campaigns. Why is this a problem?

Sebastian Hargreaves (16:07):
Amazon values consistency. Pausing and unpausing campaigns can harm your organic ranking and negatively impact your performance. It’s better to maintain a steady presence with your ads rather than constantly adjusting them.

Hamish Conway (16:54):
Is there a concept of campaign maturity? When you stop and restart a campaign, does it lose its effectiveness?

Sebastian Hargreaves (16:54):
Yes, we’ve observed that campaigns that are consistently running tend to perform better over time. While Amazon doesn’t define this, we see trends where campaigns that have been running for a while deliver better results. It’s best to leave successful campaigns alone and avoid over-optimizing too much.

Hamish Conway (17:35):
Great point. Moving on to mistake number eight: not managing account health and negative matching. Can you explain?

Sebastian Hargreaves (17:50):
Negative matching means excluding irrelevant search terms from your campaigns. For example, if you’re selling men’s running shoes, you wouldn’t want to show up for “kids’ shoes.” This helps to eliminate wasted ad spend. Accounts that regularly perform negative matching are generally more efficient. It’s a simple practice that keeps your campaigns running smoothly.

Hamish Conway (19:00):
And this is especially important for automatic, broad, and phrase match campaigns, right? These match types can trigger irrelevant search terms.

Sebastian Hargreaves (19:24):
Exactly. Negative matching helps avoid those irrelevant clicks and ensures your budget is spent efficiently.

Hamish Conway (19:39):
It’s crucial for cutting down wasted ad spend, especially in automatic or broad match campaigns. Now, when accounts are not doing negative matching, they risk wasting a lot of money on irrelevant terms.

Sebastian Hargreaves (19:59):
One of the biggest sources of wasted ad spend is from search terms that get one click but no orders. These terms often go unnoticed, but they add up over time. Regularly reviewing and excluding these terms is key to a cleaner, more efficient account.

Hamish Conway (20:32):
If someone notices one-click, no-order terms in their account, should they negative match them?

Sebastian Hargreaves (20:51):
Yes, but relevance is key. If a search term is irrelevant, remove it. If your campaigns are overexposed to broad or phrase match types, they may trigger more of these terms, so it’s important to balance your campaign types.

Hamish Conway (21:25):
That ties back to mistake number two: poor campaign structure. Now, let’s move on to mistake number nine — poor-quality product listings and detail pages. Can you explain how this impacts advertising results?

Sebastian Hargreaves (21:44):
This is the classic “junk in, junk out” scenario. Advertising amplifies whatever it touches — the good or the bad. If your product listing isn’t strong, advertising will just make that worse. It’s crucial to have a good product offering. This includes not only photos but also pricing, review counts, A+ content, and well-crafted copy, like the title and bullet points. Every element plays a part.

Being diligent with the details is key. For example, understanding who your product is for and making sure that comes across in your listing copy and images can significantly impact buyer psychology and conversion rates. Ensuring your listing is fully optimized will improve your advertising results.

Hamish Conway (23:02):
Right, and just as a benchmark, Amazon Australia has a conversion rate of around 10.5%, which is much higher than a typical e-commerce store. That indicates strong buyer intent. But if your product’s conversion rate is under 10% — especially if it’s a higher-priced item, where 5% may be more common — improving your listing can have an immediate impact. A simple fix like optimizing your hero image to make it more clickable can lead to a noticeable improvement in your ad results overnight.

Hamish Conway (23:19):
So, there you have it — nine common mistakes smart brands make with Amazon Ads. We’ve covered a lot of ground today. If you’re thinking, “I’m not sure if I have catalog gaps, wasted spend, poor structure, or missing ad types,” I encourage you to reach out to us at www.gosellglobal.com. We offer an in-depth advertising audit that looks at all the details and helps you get better results.

If you’re based in Australia, there’s a significant opportunity, as many brands are underperforming — there’s a lot of low-hanging fruit. In the USA, the competition is tougher, so you need to be strategic with your ad spend. We also work with clients in Canada, so we can support you there as well.

We look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Seb, thank you for your insights, and thank you to everyone for listening. Have a great rest of your day!