In this episode, Mike, Brett, and Stephen host a round-table discussion about the ins & outs of Amazon advertising's placement settings. These placement settings, which include "top of search", "product pages", and "rest of search", can be the key to cranking up your advertising results. Because certain placements perform better than others, optimizing your placement settings can be one of the best low-hanging-fruit activities you perform for your campaigns. Listen in as we discuss the fundamentals, some weird quirks, things to look out for, and some optimization ideas you can start implementing today to improve your Amazon advertising performance. We'll see you in the Badger Den!

Howdy Badger Nation! In this episode, Mike breaks down his 5 biggest predictions for the future of Amazon PPC. This space is constantly changing. Terms of service changes, the constantly moving landscape, additional marketplaces, new competitors, and additional advertising features are just a few of the factors Amazon marketers need to keep up with. Sometimes the best way to keep up with Amazon is to put yourself in their shoes and ask yourself; what would you be doing if you were making the decisions for all of Amazon advertising? Listen along as Mike does just that - putting himself in Amazon's shoes and predicting the future of Amazon PPC. Don't miss this one! We'll see you in the Badger Den.

In this episode, Mike & Brett discuss the importance of indexation for Amazon PPC. Indexation is the process of Amazon's algorithm understanding what exactly your product is and which searches to display your ads & listings on. Making sure your listings are properly indexed for your highest traffic, most relevant keywords is essential for both PPC and organic performance on Amazon. Listen in as we cover all of the bases when it comes to indexation, including how to index your listings for certain keywords, where to focus your efforts, things to look out for, and what to expect. We'll see you in the Badger Den!

What's up Badger Nation?! This week's episode is a rundown on click through rates (CTR) on Amazon. We haven't talked too extensively about click through rates on the podcast yet, but we really dive into things in this episode and cover everything you need to know about CTRs in Amazon PPC. CTRs can reveal a lot about your business and can help identify potential issues with both your ads and your listings. While there's no official documentation saying so, there's plenty of anecdotal evidence that your CTR actually affects your ad performance as well and may be a driving factor in your ad quality score - which is really important if you want to appear for your highest traffic, most relevant keywords. Don't miss out on this episode; a click through rate rundown. We'll see you in the Badger Den!

In this episode, Mike & Brett discuss a lesser known feature of Amazon advertising - bulk file operations. Bulk files allow you to upload & download large amounts of data into or out of your Amazon account very quickly. Changes that would normally be very time intensive, like bid optimization for example, can be applied much more efficiently when utilizing bulk files, which are essentially just spreadsheets with your advertising data. If you're interested in learning more about how you can make changes more efficiently in your ad account, this episode is for you! We'll see you in the Badger Den.

In this episode, Mike & Brett dive into the latest updates Amazon released last week (May 2019) for sponsored brand ads. These updates include a brand new match type, a redesign of a current match type, and a feature that you would've expected sponsored brands to have before now...  While you do have to be brand registered to access sponsored brand ads (SBAs), they cover a huge amount of real estate in Amazon's SERPs and every brand on Amazon that's serious about growing its revenue and increasing its exposure should be leveraging them to the fullest. Be sure to join along as we dive in, dissect these changes, and discuss the best practices around these newest additions. We'll see you in the Badger Den!

In this episode, Mike & Brett discuss the most important strategy-related concepts to understand when it comes to Amazon PPC and scaling your business. Understanding your goals and direction as a business owner is essential, and PPC is no different. Your advertising strategy, targeting, and bidding should all work harmoniously to achieve the KPIs you’re looking for - whether that’s increasing profitability, bringing in more revenue, cutting your ad costs, or launching a new product. Listen along as we discuss the in’s & out’s around defining your PPC goals, setting your ACOS targets, and getting the results you’re looking for. We’ll see you in The Badger Den!

In this episode, Mike & Brett talking about the latest new metrics that were recently released for Amazon advertisers: new-to-brand. These metrics are meant to help advertisers identify strategies that can drive customer acquisition and efficient business growth on Amazon. They include new-to-brand orders, new-to-brand sales, % of orders new-to-brand, and % of sales new-to-brand. These metrics give you an idea about the percentage of your customers who have purchased from your brand within the past 12 months, which could eventually play a key role in understanding the true value of your PPC conversions over time. While these metrics are only available in sponsored brand ads, video ads, and display ads, these metrics could eventually prove to be quite useful. Right now though, Mike & Brett have some opinions to share about the current effectiveness of these metrics, what they're lacking, and what we're expecting going forward. Don't miss this one! We'll see you in the Badger Den!

Today, Mike & Brett talk about the age old questions:

Mike & Brett have thought about this topic for nearly 15 years combined - and in this episode we share those details & learnings.

Bidding on your competitors' branded keywords is bold. Doing so lets you repeatedly steal away market share from other brands in your niche - potentially attracting long term customers to your brand. However, it's not all sunshine and rainbows in the world of branded keywords. Sometimes, your competitors can fire back. This leads us to the question; is bidding on your competitors' branded keywords worth it? Is it profitable? SHOULD you do it? What happens if things backfire and your competitors start bidding for YOUR branded keywords? Listen in as Mike & Brett discuss all things branded keywords and (hopefully) put your worries to rest. See you in the Badger Den!

Sponsored brand ads showcase a collection of your products to customers who are searching with related keywords on Amazon. This makes them one of the most important ads in terms of real estate on ALL of Amazon. However, sponsored brand ads are missing quite a few features that their sponsored product counterparts offer. These issues make sponsored brand ads more frustrating to deal with than they need to be. In this episode, Mike and Brett discuss some pain points behind SBAs, some ways you can wiggle around those issues, and what we're expecting for sponsored brands going forward. Catch you in the Badger Den!