There’s no traditional definition of a fiscal year because every business will create its own, so we’ll keep things in a more abstract sense so you can use tips for any quarter of the year. And whether you already have a plan for it or are gathering data to launch a business for the future, Repricer has some good techniques you can use for your Amazon ad strategy when looking to maximise your ROI.
Why Have an Amazon Ad Strategy?
Put bluntly, it’s almost impossible to succeed in selling — especially selling online — if you don’t have any sort of ad campaign. With brick-and-mortar stores or service-based companies, you might be able to get by on word-of-mouth. But that just won’t cut it online and with retail shops. Shoppers will not go out of their way to find you and your products, so you’ll have to bring it to them.
And Why Have a Q4 Strategy, Too?
There are some ad campaigns you can tinker with, like using A/B testing to figure out what works best in email deals. But when it comes to a Q4-specific strategy, there’s no time for testing. Because it’s a fixed period of time, you’ve got to have a plan that allows you to hit the ground running with maximum success.
And here are some things you should be looking at.
1. Use Data From Previous Q4s
This doesn’t have to necessarily apply to veteran sellers, as newbies can mine data that’s product-specific to get a general sense of what works and what doesn’t. But for veteran sellers, here are some things you should be analysing:
- Product performance
- How various campaigns performed
- Which keywords generated the most buzz
- Which ad groups saw the most action
As much as it might pain you, look as closely at the weak performances as the strong ones. This will tell you what you might want to avoid next Q4 and what you might be able to use instead.
2. Get Your Inventory Into Shape
Dealing with overstock is for another post altogether, but usually, it’s something you want to avoid. That being said, look at which items didn’t sell as well and which ones did. Are they bigger items taking up more physical space and therefore costing you more in storage fees? Or were they items you could easily pair with other products to move them in different ways?
Running out of inventory is a worse situation to be facing. It means you didn’t order appropriately or maybe underpriced your products. Either way, it can impact your organic rank in quite a poor way and lead to reduced visibility during key selling times. And if your Q4 includes a huge selling day like Amazon Prime Day or Black Friday, then you’re going to need to take a hard look at why you ran out — and how to avoid that in the future.
3. Test Drive Your Ad Strategy for Q4
In the beginning, we said that you have to be able to hit the ground running with your ad strategy in Q4 because there’s no time for mistakes. But that doesn’t mean that you have no time for testing, as Q3 is the perfect time to do so.
Use the previous quarter as a chance to see what ads, bids and keywords work particularly well for you. And if your Q3 includes big selling days, even better! You’ll have a golden opportunity to roll out ad strategies that you can mimic for the next quarter.
4. Exploit Content for as Much as You Can
You don’t have the luxury of kinaesthetics the way brick-and-mortar retailers do, so you’re going to have to lean on content heavily. And to that extent, you’ve got things like video, Enhanced Brand Content pages, and Storefront features to help you along. But when you use these tools, make sure you’ve got the following in place:
- Maximum optimisation for maximum exposure
- Visually appealing images
- Good spelling and grammar
- Consistently written headlines and descriptions
Bonus: Lightning Deals
This can be a very powerful tool in your toolbox. If you’re good at creating buzz and feel confident in your Q4 ad strategy, then put out a lightning deal to move inventory that would otherwise be a bit harder to sell. Just use them sparingly and strategically and don’t overdo them, otherwise, they may cut into your profit margin.
Final Thoughts
One theme that should be underlining all of your ad strategy decisions is repricing. Having aggressive pricing strategies in place will help you move products at optimum rates and help you work towards peak efficiency. But it only works if you use Repricer! And when you sign up today, you start things off with a 15-day free trial so you can, like your Q4 strategy, hit the ground running.
