What do digital commerce advertising management platforms offer?

As you analyze possible solutions for maximizing your digital commerce advertising, how do you distinguish between vendors’ capabilities? Virtually all digital commerce advertising management platforms offer the following core sets of tools and capabilities:

• Amazon advertising campaign execution.
• Automated bid management and optimization.
• Campaign performance analytics and reporting.

The platforms begin to differentiate by offering additional capabilities that include – but are not limited to – the following:

• Support for additional platforms, including Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Facebook and more.
• Artificial intelligence and machine learning features for bid management.
• Multi-channel attribution.
• Sophisticated business analytics.
• Amazon-seller-specific tools.

The following section discusses some of these capabilities and the key considerations involved in choosing a digital commerce advertising management platform.

Multichannel media support

A good number of the vendors concentrate solely on Amazon advertising. While this may mean that they’re Amazon specialists, marketers may want to manage their Amazon campaigns alongside ads delivered elsewhere.

Some of the platforms allow for campaign management across search sites (Google, Microsoft), some include social placements (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat) and some include display and video advertising.

It’s worth noting, too, that some of the vendors are more aggressive than others when it comes to expanding the platforms they integrate with. For example, some say they are beta testing with Walmart and other emerging retail platforms. If you’re eager to include new platforms in your campaigns, you’d do well to select one of these vendors as a partner.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning models for optimization

Rules-based optimization — where an advertiser indicates circumstances in which bids should be raised or lowered — is standard in PPC advertising, but the more advanced players are employing artificial intelligence and machine learning to perform optimizations. With this type of technology, advertisers can potentially optimize for return-on-investment or for other goals directly, rather than relying on proxy measures.

Multichannel attribution models

When platforms offer campaign management on multiple platforms, ideally they can also track a customer’s journey as they interact with touch points across those platforms. That kind of tracking allows marketers to assign credit to the various messages that moved the shopper down the funnel, so that they can increase or decrease spending based on the conclusions of that analysis. 

Sophisticated business analytics

Some of the vendors go beyond the basics in terms of reporting, providing advertisers with guidance on things like: profitability on a product-by-product basis, whether a product should or should not be advertised, market and competitive activity and more.

Some tools also provide a more holistic view of product performance, integrating paid and organic sales information.

Amazon seller-specific tools

Since some of the vendors come to the space by way of a long-time emphasis on serving Amazon sellers, some of them provide specialized tools that fall outside the advertising arena. These include inventory tracking and demand forecasting, product pricing optimization, keyword research as well as automated buyer-seller messaging and reviews.

For more detail, including profiles of specific vendors, download our buyer’s guide to Digital Commerce Ad Management tools today!

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About the author

Pamela Parker

Pamela Parker is Research Director at Third Door Media's Content Studio, where she produces MarTech Intelligence Reports and other in-depth content for digital marketers in conjunction with Search Engine Land and MarTech. Prior to taking on this role at TDM, she served as Content Manager, Senior Editor and Executive Features Editor. Parker is a well-respected authority on digital marketing, having reported and written on the subject since its beginning. She's a former managing editor of ClickZ and has also worked on the business side helping independent publishers monetize their sites at Federated Media Publishing. Parker earned a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University.