When it comes to managing and setting up PPC campaigns and Amazon advertising, the Amazon Advertising Console is the central platform – especially for vendors. Sellers can also create and manage their campaigns for Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands within Seller Central – but only if their brand is registered with Amazon in the Brand Registry. The Amazon Advertising Console offers almost the same functions as Seller Central, but requires a separate login.
The Campaign Manager in the Amazon Advertising Console
The Campaign Manager is the heart of the Amazon Advertising Console. This is where vendors can view, start, pause and archive their PPC campaigns. At the same time, it provides an overview of the current campaign performance in the form of diagrams. By default, the key figures expenditure, sales, cost-to-sales ratio (ACoS) and impressions are displayed.
Additional metrics can be displayed with just a few clicks, including clicks, cost per click (CPC), click-through rate (CTR), number of orders, new customer orders and revenue from new customers. The percentage of new customer orders and new customer sales can also be displayed to enable an even more detailed analysis of campaign performance.
The table below the Campaign Manager shows all the details of a campaign. The desired key figures can be shown or hidden by clicking on “Columns”. By default, 50 campaigns are displayed per page. A maximum of 300 campaigns can be displayed simultaneously in the Amazon Advertising Console. All other campaigns are distributed on the subsequent results pages.
Designs in the Amazon Advertising Console
The “Drafts” view within the Amazon Advertising Console lists campaigns that have not yet been fully created or launched by vendors, as well as campaigns that have been rejected by Amazon. For Sponsored Brands (formerly Headline Search Ads) in particular, a violation of the Amazon guidelines can lead to a campaign being rejected. Product Display Ads must also be manually checked and approved by an Amazon employee after creation. If this does not happen or a campaign does not meet the requirements, it will also be listed under “Drafts”.
Bulk operations in the Amazon Advertising Console
In the bulk operations area, advertisers can make extensive campaign settings or changes by uploading an Excel spreadsheet. This is particularly useful if several adjustments need to be made to different campaigns at the same time or if the campaign portfolio consists of several thousand individual campaigns. To start a bulk process in the Amazon Advertising Console, an Excel template must first be downloaded and filled out. It is essential that all bulk operators and campaign attributes are filled in correctly and completely. All relevant campaign elements are defined within these bulk transactions, including daily budgets, start and end dates, ad groups, maximum bids, match types and ASINs.
Amazon Advertising Console Advertising Reports
Alongside the Campaign Manager, the “Advertising Reports” section is one of the most important elements of the Amazon Advertising Console. In order to evaluate and measure the success of PPC measures, it is essential that advertisers regularly download and archive the performance reports of their campaigns – ideally at least once a month. In addition to differentiating between campaign types, i.e. Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands, the report type can also be selected. It is possible to generate reports on search terms, targeting, advertised products, placements and performance-oriented metrics over different time periods. There are various time frames to choose from, including today, yesterday, start of week to today, last week, start of month to today, last month and user-defined time frames.
Amazon Advertising Console Stores
If advertisers have registered their brand in the Amazon Brand Registry, they can create and manage their own brand stores in the “Stores” section of the Amazon Advertising Console. These stores or individual subpages can later be specifically advertised via Sponsored Brands campaigns. In addition, the stores offer some key performance indicators (KPIs) on the customer journey and the origin of the visitors. Primarily, however, they serve more as a visual showcase and digital brand presence within the Amazon marketplace to present your own product range in an appealing way.
Amazon Advertising Console – Manage or add users
By default, the vendor or the first registered person is the administrator of the Amazon Advertising Console and therefore has all access rights and write permissions. In many cases, however, it can be useful to grant other users access to the console, whether to work on campaigns together with several employees or to allow external service providers access. In the main menu under “Manage users”, the vendor can add new users and edit or remove existing ones. When adding new users, Amazon distinguishes between two authorization levels. The editor role makes it possible to change content, create new ads, ad groups and portfolios and manage existing campaigns. The administrator role includes all of these functions, but also allows you to change user rights, add new users and adjust payment settings.
For example, if a vendor wants to commission an Amazon agency to manage PPC campaigns in the Advertising Console, the Lektor authorization level is usually sufficient.
Differences between SellerCentral and the Advertising Console
SellerCentral offers almost identical functions and views as the separate Advertising Console. However, there are three key differences that should be noted:
- The Advertising Console requires a separate account to create PPC campaigns.
- User administration and the assignment of authorizations in SellerCentral are much more complex.
While Amazon sellers only need to manage a single platform to control sales, inventory and advertising, Amazon vendors need to manage both the Advertising Console and VendorCentral. However, user management in SellerCentral can become more time-consuming and complex.