Ideally, you want to reach customers along key landmarks in the marketing funnel. An example of this would be to make your product visible during the awareness stage. You’d just need to consistently capitalize on the customer journey throughout.

If you can stand out while they’re considering options, then you’ll likely see a spike in conversions.

Build Awareness

How do you show up on the radar when users are looking for something to buy? Whether you’re selling baby formula or novelty t-shirts, the first step towards successful advertising is to ensure that people know who you are and what you have to offer.

With the PPC (Pay Per Click) model, you only pay for your advertisement if someone clicks on your ad to look at your product. Impressions, or showing up in search results and the “recommendations” tab, are free.

The catch is that Amazon prioritizes the ones that get the most clicks. So you still need to make sure your ad is exciting enough to get attention.

Consideration

You’re probably familiar with the old acronym for sales, AIDA. It stands for Awareness, Interest, Desire, and Action, and it’s precisely the journey your prospects take while online shopping. Let’s break it down:

• Attention - First, you have to show up on the customer’s radar. Even if they’ve seen your brand before, they might not be aware if they haven't seen you recently. Coca-cola does a great job of staying in the public’s consciousness with its ads, plushies, and surprising flavors.

• Interest - Keep your audience’s attention with creative advertising and bring them into the consideration stage. If you show up frequently in SERPs (search engine results pages) and product pages, your audience will consider you more each time they see you.

• Desire - This is when the customer considers your offer’s features and benefits and prepares to make a decision. You should provide more arguments and evidence to close the deal at this stage. Think about what the consumer is looking for and why they’d choose your product, then give them the details they need.

• Action - The conversion, sale, or any end goal for your advertising. A call-to-action, add-to-cart, or simple subscribe button will do the trick. Amazon adds another step with subscribe and save, which helps with customer retention.

Now, AIDA is the traditional customer journey, but it’s not the only one. Other businesses use other variations, but ultimately, it’s the same thing. All journey breakdowns lead to a conversion. For instance, let’s look at Awareness, Consideration, Conversion, and Loyalty (ACCL):

• Awareness - Focus on building a brand. Keywords and demographics enable you to customize your advertisements individually for the best results.

• Consideration - An overlap between interest and desire. Provide plenty of evidence to persuade users that your product fulfills their needs the best. For example, sponsored display ads are great for grabbing people’s attention at the last minute before they settle on a competitor’s offer.

• Conversion - Push your audience over the edge and into a sale. Measure traffic, unique visits, repeat visits, ROAS, and ACOS. Remember: conversions are why you’re advertising in the first place.

• Loyalty - Don’t forget about customer retention. You’ve worked so hard to make that first sale, and it’s easier to maintain a happy customer than to recruit a new one. Amazon makes it simple with reviews, reminders, and recommendations to keep you on their minds long after a sale.

Notice how the principles remain the same. Consideration corresponds to interest. If customers are aware of your product, and they have a need for it, then they’ll consider it as an option.

That’s why learning how to advertise on Amazon includes creating relevant and engaging content. It’s no good to show up on people’s screens if they aren’t going to notice.

Conversion

All of this awareness isn’t useful unless it leads to a conversion. When a customer is ready to take action, all your efforts can pay off.

That’s why advertising on Amazon comes in handy—it makes the entire process much smoother, so you can convert more. Even tracking metrics like Return On Ad Sales (ROAS) and Advertising Cost of Sales (ACOS) is a breeze.

With the right tools, you can analyze all the information from Amazon to get automated reports and alerts. If you’re looking for a way to analyze all your advertising on one platform, InsightLeap has you covered.

This service assists with all your marketing goals. And you might ask, what goals should you be looking to accomplish?

• Reduce the sales cycle. InsightLeap shortens the amount of time between the awareness and conversion stages.

• Increase brand awareness. Reach the largest number of potential customers that are looking for your product with a little help from InsightLeap.

• Improve sales history and product visibility. InsightLeap gets you those conversions more frequently and consistently with efficient advertising sources to ensure optimal ROI.

• Track results. Here's where InsightLeap's amazing software and service shines as it shows you what's working and what needs fixing.

Loyalty

The last step of the consumer cycle is retention. You want to increase consumer loyalty and repeat business from the customers you worked so hard to convert. That’s how brand loyalty is built, ensuring you grow well into the future.

Successful sales don’t end with a conversion, after all. It’s a cycle, not a straight line. Nurture your relationship with your satisfied customers, and not only will they come back, but they also may refer other buyers to you.

Track repeat purchases and take advantage of “subscribe and save” features to reward loyalty and incentivize future business.