If your brand has social content, adding Amazon Posts into the channel mix is an smart way to get some new placement.
As part of its ever-expanding repertoire, Amazon has introduced feed-based shopping experience with Amazon Posts. A quick rundown of what the program is, the current state of tools and capabilities, and how brands should approach it.
What is Amazon Posts?
Amazon Posts is a new brand discovery experience. It features lifestyle or branding imagery as the creative while landing shoppers on a product detail page. Posts can be found on an advertiser’s own brand detail page, related brand detail pages, and feeds for related posts directly on a product detail page (PDP). This feed basically creates a shopping experience, driven by branded content, directly on the Amazon.com domain.
How brands should approach Amazon Posts
Amazon really wants advertisers to lean into its new branding experiences, so it is making it easy for brands to get up and running. By using the same creative specifications, like Facebook, Amazon made it easy for brands already created content to add it directly on Amazon to participate in Posts. To further inspire involvement, Amazon is offering this placement to brands for free. Brands should take benefit of this cost-free period now. Once Amazon can make this an experience with which shoppers can engage, it’s likely to be monetized.
A key point to keep in mind is that Amazon Posts are entitled to show on related PDPs, meaning competitors could be showing Posts on a page for one of your products. To protect your own PDPs from competitor brands, all brands should think of launching a campaign on their content. To take your posts to the next level, test some creative variation from other brand collateral to see what works with customers. Even though Posts content looks like paid social platforms, it doesn’t offer social engagement and differs from Facebook and Instagram in other key ways. One is that users are on a platform that is primarily used for shopping, not one that’s primarily used for social engagement. Another is that these ads are likely to show along with a competitor, rather than among posts from friends and family. With those two differences in mind, it’s advisable to test some ad variants with clearer calls to action or more concrete product/brand differentiators.
Targeting and measurement options
For Amazon Posts are limited options for target and performance evaluation. Amazon is automatically categorizing ads, so brands will not have a direct hold over which category tags get flagged for their posts. Moreover, Amazon is providing limited reports on how these placements are performing, with only impressions, clicks, and CTR available. Advertisers get no insight into revenue or orders, making it quite difficult to understand how these placements are contributing to the overall business.
Challenges
The main challenge is changing shoppers’ behavior. Amazon has been a transaction-based site where consumers go to get something at a low price, delivered quickly. Over the past couple of years, Amazon work towards shifting consumer behavior by allowing brands to tell their story through Stores, Sponsored Brand, Sponsored ads, and other programs. However, unless Amazon can make these components more native and integrated with the shopper experience, there will be limited opportunities for brands to engage with potential customers.
