Use Amazon DSP To Direct Shoppers To Your DTC Website

Did you know that you can use Amazon DSP (demand-side platform) audience data to create campaigns that send qualified traffic to your ecommerce website? The best part is that this audience data is completely unique to DSP, meaning that you can target shoppers that you have never been able to reach before! This ‘Link Out’ strategy will be a gamechanger for brands looking to grow online revenue and brand loyalty over the next few years.

It’s no secret that Amazon is a very difficult channel to make profitable, so there are some huge benefits to implementing this type of strategy immediately. Read on to learn more!

Types of DSP ads

There are two main types of display ad inventory that can be purchased through DSP:

1) Amazon-owned and operated such as Amazon.com, the Amazon mobile app, IMDb, etc.
2) Third-party advertising exchanges. In other words, all other websites and apps that serve ads.

Brands can choose what kind of ad inventory to purchase (and whether to ‘Link In’ or ‘Link Out’) when they create DSP campaigns.

💡A Bobsled client used DSP to grow their 30-day sales by 408% in just six months – What Is Amazon DSP and How Can It Boost Sales?

The ‘Link In’ DSP Strategy

‘Link In’ DSP campaigns link traffic into the Amazon marketplace. These types of ad campaigns target relevant audiences and help grow your sales on the Amazon channel. 

This is the logical first step for a brand’s DSP strategy as many online shoppers trust the Amazon platform and appreciate the perks of fast Prime shipping, making conversion easier. For a ‘Link In’ DSP strategy to be successful, brands need to ensure that they have adequate FBA inventory available so shoppers can add items to their cart once they reach the product display page.

The ‘Link Out’ DSP Strategy

‘Link Out’ DSP campaigns link traffic to other websites, such as DTC ecommerce stores. These types of ad campaigns target relevant audiences and help grow your sales on non-Amazon channels.

‘Link Out’ advertisers utilize in-market, lifestyle, and demographic audience data to serve ads to their ideal customers. This audience data isn't available to other display advertising services – it’s completely unique to Amazon DSP and offers a new way to drive highly valuable traffic to DTC websites.

💡Learn more about Bobsled’s Amazon DSP Management Service

Benefits of the ‘Link Out’ DSP Strategy

The three main benefits of adopting a ‘Link Out’ strategy are as follows:

1. In most cases, brands observe better profit margins through their own ecommerce store versus online marketplaces such as Amazon. So an effective ‘Link Out’ strategy can improve online revenue and profitability.
2. On your own website, you can present your product line however you see fit, versus Amazon where there is a standardized product display page format. Therefore, brands with very unique products that don’t translate well to Amazon may find the ‘Link Out’ strategy incredibly useful.
3. Own the customer relationship! Generally speaking, brands develop closer connections with shoppers who buy products via their own website versus online marketplaces such as Amazon. Owning the customer relationship makes remarketing and up-selling easier, and this can drastically improve customer lifetime value metrics.

Win more channel Agnostic customers with a ‘Link Out’ DSP strategy

Due to the allure of Prime, the Amazon marketplace has become the go-to place for a huge percentage of online shoppers, and so brands need to have a strong presence on the platform. At the same time, many online shoppers are ‘channel agnostic’, and would happily buy directly through a brand’s website as long as the core details of the offer (namely pricing and shipping timeline) are consistent with other online sales channels. Brands of all sizes often struggle to make Amazon profitable, and so they need to do everything in their power to find extra volume on other channels to pick up the slack.

Moving forward, harnessing the power of DSP’s audience data with a ‘Link Out’ strategy is going to be a no-brainer for brands looking to target and win more channel-agnostic shoppers.

💡Check out Amazon DSP Retargeting - The First 30 Days

Challenges of the ‘Link Out’ DSP Strategy

• Amazon DSP is a different beast compared to PPC, and it’s easy to overspend on display campaigns. Brands need to ensure their team has relevant DSP experience before implementing a ‘Link Out’ strategy to their DTC website.
• The user experience on your DTC website needs to be world-class. If a customer runs into issues (e.g. stock-outs, vague product info, can’t add items to their cart, pricing inconsistencies, long shipping timeline, etc) this will impact your conversion rate, and hurt the profitability of the entire venture.
• The Bobsled team has been in direct communication with DSP representatives at Amazon and we have identified which DSP audiences cannot be utilized for ‘Link Out’ campaigns. If you are unaware of these specific parameters, this will undoubtedly create roadblocks and confusion when you attempt to send DSP traffic to your ecommerce store.
• Amazon DSP provides advertisers with swathes of audience data points, and it’s easy to fall into the trap of ‘paralysis by analysis’. Your DSP team needs to understand how to correctly interpret audience data so you can send the right type of shopper to your Amazon product listings or your DTC website.