ASIN Targeting: A guide to boosting your sales with targeted ads on product pages 

Introduction:  

In this blog we will focus specifically on ASIN targeting. Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN) pages or simply put, your product detail pages, have ads with competitive marketing strategies. Amazon introduced ASIN targeted ads in 2019, but this ad type is still under-utilized when compared to keyword targeting.

Why Product targeting on Amazon ads:

Product targeting was introduced to show ads on product detail pages of your own ASINs or your competitor ASINs.

There are 3 main reasons for doing this:

• Cross-selling - your complementary products together. For ex. Pillow covers with bed sheets. This helps in increasing your AOV (Average order value)

• Up-selling - from low AOV products to higher rated high AOV products

• Competitor targeting - by targeting a better priced, better reviewed product on your competitor's ASIN, you can gain their market share

  
  

How to choose what products to target? 

The more specific your targeting, the easier it is to increase your sales. There are 4 types of products that you can target:

1. Top selling Products: Top selling products are products with stable long-term sales. You can use simple chrome extensions like ASIN Fetcher, to find top products for your keywords. You can target those ASINs with your product. Since consumers and potential buyers are more likely to view the products that appear on top of the page, you also increase your chances of your product being viewed by targeting these ASINs.

Customers recognize and trust these products, making them a reliable source of revenue. By focusing on flagship products, you ensure a steady stream of income and maintain your brand’s reputation. These products can also attract new customers who are exploring your brand for the first time. 

2. Upcoming products: Emerging products are those hot new items that have recently seen a surge in sales. They’re often trending due to new releases, seasonal demand, or increased visibility. Targeting upcoming products can quickly boost your store’s sales and visibility, but it’s essential to act fast since their popularity can be short-lived. Keeping an eye on market trends and consumer behavior can help you identify these products early and capitalize on their popularity. 

   
   

3. Potential products: Potential products are products with high traffic but low sales. Targeting these products is great as they have good traffic, but customers mostly reject these products for others due to either incomplete information on detail page, high pricing, or bad reviews. By promoting potential products, you diversify your product range and discover new revenue streams. Effective marketing strategies, such as targeted advertising and promotional offers, can help these products gain traction in the market. 

   
   

4. Longtail products: These are hard-to-find items with consistent, though typically low, demand over a long period. They cater to specific niche markets and, while they may not generate high sales volumes, they contribute to a steady trickle of sales. Targeting longtail products helps you tap into niche customer segments and enhances your store’s diversity. Plus, these products often face less competition, allowing you to dominate niche markets. 

To create an effective product targeting strategy, balance these different types of products. Top selling and upcoming products are excellent for driving storewide sales and boosting overall revenue. They bring in a steady flow of customers and help you achieve your sales targets more consistently. Meanwhile, potential and longtail products play a crucial role in promoting customer engagement and increasing the number of reviews. Positive reviews from satisfied customers enhance your product’s credibility and attract more buyers. 

How to choose when to target a product:

ASIN target should not be ignored unless it is turning out to be expensive and low ROAS. But there are some specific times when ASIN targeting can give disproportionate benefits:

1. When competitor has increased their pricing: When a competitor increases pricing, and you target them, you have higher chances of converting the customer. Read this case study on how Beco used competitor pricing to its advantage to gain market share.

2. When your pricing is low: ASIN target works best in pricing use cases. So if have discounted your product, go aggressive on ASIN targeting.

3. When you have better reviews than competitor: The end customer can see your pricing and reviews/ ratings on the ad when you target an ASIN. If you have better reviews than the current ASIN, go ahead and target the same.

That said a bad time to do competitor targeting is during sale events. This is because most competitors have discounted their pricing and are heavily guarding their territory. So ASIN targeting becomes expensive and out of reach.

How to do ASIN targeting:

You can choose specific ASINs as per your strategy, target those and others that are like that – including substitutes, complements etc.  

There are few ways that you can choose how you will play out the ASIN targeting for your brand. This will require using tools like Atom 11to better collate and understand data on your products’ performance and your competitor brands’ performance in the market. The more data you can collect, the more it can be leveraged to make your ad campaign targeting increasingly specific and functional and therefore, more successful. 

 First, add the low performing ASINs in your negative targeting – meaning your ad campaigns will specifically not target those products that are not doing well, saving you that amount in the budget which can be put to better use. However, this means you will have to ensure that these products that you are targeting do not fall under either emerging or potential products category. If they do, then you might lose sales by adding those ASINs in the negative targeting category.  

Second, find the top performing ASINs in your product category. See what the most popular results are for the keywords you are targeting and target those ASINs manually for better chances of conversions. An ideal advertising campaign will have less ACOS, and there are multiple ways to achieve this, we have written a comprehensive guide on how to do keep your ACOS low.  

Find your competition – not just the brands that you want to be competing with but the brands that are closer to your category of products in terms of price, quality, ratings and product similarity. For example, you are more likely to succeed if you target ASINs that are priced similar to the product you are selling or have slightly higher price than your product. You are unlikely to make sales if you target ASINs that are priced much lower than your product, or markedly higher than your product. You can also choose and target ASINs that are very similar to your product but with fewer and worse reviews than your product. This might prompt the consumer visiting that competitor’s product’s page to then click and choose your product instead. 

You can also target your own ASINs! Take a look at your products folder, and identify which of those can be sold together, and accordingly you can place your other products on your own ASINs. For example, if your brand deals in toiletries, you can place your brush holder ad on your brush’s product detail page. This kind of targeting will help with boosting your organic ranking and with upselling your other products. Targeting your own ASINs also means your bid amount will be comparatively less. You can use both sponsored products ad targeting and sponsored display ads targeting for this route. 

Summary

As a seller, you must regularly track your ACOS to make sure that your advertising campaigns remain cost-effective. This requires evaluating the performance of keywords, products, and ad placements, and making informed, data-driven adjustments. By keeping ACOS under control, you as a seller can maintain healthy profit margins and reinvest savings into other growth areas, ultimately resulting in significant business growth. 

Atom 11 is a tool that simplifies this process with automated solutions, managing all these aspects in one place. If you want to learn more about how Atom 11 works, schedule a call with us now.