Amazon PPC VS AdWords: What To Choose

Online advertising is a major part of digital marketing. Whether you work as a freelance marketer or you own a business you want to promote online, learning the basics of online advertising is definitely necessary.

Among the most popular PPC ad tools are Google AdWords and Amazon PPC. While Google AdWords has established itself a long time ago, Amazon PPC is gradually getting more attention with more marketers and businesses using it. Hence, here’s everything you should know about Amazon PPC and Google AdWords and how to choose between the two.

What Is Amazon PPC?

Amazon PPC or Amazon Ads is a third-party platform that third-party sellers use when working with Amazon. You can create ad campaigns through the platform and then get charged for every time a potential customer clicks and views your ad.

There are three main types of ads you can launch with Amazon PPC:

Sponsored Product Ads: This is the most popular ad type which uses keywords and ASIN to target users. ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number) is the number your product gets when you add it to Amazon’s catalog. Sponsored Product ads can be displayed in Amazon search results as well as on product pages.
Sponsored Brand Ads: This type of ad is mostly used for brand building as it allows you to display an ad above Amazon search results with your brand logo, headline, and three products. Sponsored Brand ads can also be displayed in other places and can link to a custom landing page on Amazon.
Sponsored Display Ads: These ads can be placed both on Amazon and on external websites. Sponsored Display ads are perfect for remarketing campaigns as they allow you to target customers that have visited specific product pages on Amazon.

There is also Amazon DSP available to advertisers who want to buy display, video, and audio ads on and off Amazon. In other words, you also have the option of using video ads that link to product pages. These work similarly to Sponsored Brand Ads.

The key metrics Amazon PPC provides you with include:

Impressions: The number of times your ads were displayed.
Clicks: The number of times your ads were clicked.
Attributed Sales: The total product sales per week generated through the clicks on your ads.
Advertising Cost of Sales: The percentage of attributed sales that were spent on advertising.

What Is Google AdWords?

Google AdWords or Google Ads is similar to Amazon PPC advertising. Google allows you to create ad campaigns with ads that will appear above and below Google search results. At the same time, you can work with ads that appear on other websites that are enrolled in the Google AdSense program.

Dustin Fox, an expert from the site for ratings of websites with writing services, explains, “Google Ads is by far the most popular and powerful tool currently available to digital marketers. It’s amazing just how many people you can reach and how many clicks and sales you can get from PPC ads. And Google Ads offers all the tools you need for this.”

There are many different metrics that Google Ads provides you with, but it’s important to focus on:

Impressions: The number of times your ads were seen.
Clicks: The number of times your ads were clicked. There’s also the Click-Through-Rate which is the ratio of impressions to clicks. And the Average Cost-Per-Click is the average amount you pay for your clicks.
Conversions: These can refer to the different actions users perform on your website after clicking on the ad, including leads and sales. There’s also the Cost-Per-Conversion which is the average amount you pay for your conversions. And View-Through Conversions which are conversions you get from users that saw your ads didn’t click on them, but later visited your website through organic search.

Pros and Cons of Amazon PPC

While both Amazon PPC and Google Ads provide you with a variety of valuable features, they both also have their own disadvantages. First, here are the pros of using Amazon PPC:

Amazon ads are ranked based on their profit.
Amazon ads reportedly have a 10% conversion rate which is higher than those of Google (1-2%).

That being said, here are some cons to using Amazon PPC:

Amazon ads will never take you off of Amazon (though this may be a pro if your business operates solely on the platform).
Amazon ads don’t capture users based on behavioral data to retarget.
Not every type of Amazon ad is available to every type of seller.

Pros and Cons of Google AdWords

As mentioned above, there are both advantages and disadvantages to using Google Ads. Louisa Barnard, an expert from the top writing reviews site, puts it this way, “Google Ads is an amazing tool and is extremely popular. But it’s not perfect. So when you decide to start using it, you need to be aware of its downsides.” Here are the pros of using Google Ads:

Google ads are ranked based on their CTR.
Google ads allow you to take users to a specific brand site.
Google ads have an additional keyword match type (Modified Broad Match) which allows you to get more qualified traffic.

And here are some of its cons:

There are too many metrics that could confuse beginners.
A view-Through-Conversions metric can skew your Cost-Per-Conversion metric, so you will need to calculate the real number for the latter on your own.
Google shoppers usually have to be higher in the sales funnel than those of Amazon.

How to Choose Between the Two?

When working with either Google Ads or Amazon PPC, you will likely want to stick to certain PPC trends and follow best practices. However, your choice of a tool at the end of the day should not be guided by popularity. In other words, you shouldn’t just choose Google Ads simply because it’s more popular.

Instead, consider your objectives, preferences, and budget among other things. Of course, if you mostly operate in e-commerce and work with Amazon, Amazon PPC will likely be the best option of the two. On the other hand, if you don’t have that many interactions with Amazon, you will benefit more from choosing Google Ads for your PPC ad campaigns.

Conclusion

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All in all, which tool you opt for will determine how you will execute your PPC ad campaigns. However, this doesn’t mean that you should only use one of the two instead of trying out both. This article will help you determine which tool will fit your interests and goals, so make sure to use these tips to help you make your ultimate choice.