Sometimes it seems like Amazon speaks a language of its own. If you’ve ever ordered anything from this website, you’ll notice acronyms like FBA (Fulfilment by Amazon) and MAP (Minimum Advertised Price). Things can get pretty confusing. As an advertiser, though, there are two terms that you need to know about: AMS and AAP. Knowing the difference between the two will help you optimize your advertising campaigns on this platform.

AMS

AMS stands for Amazon Marketing Services. Basically, it provides you with pay-per-click (PPC) advertising solutions so you can reach new customers on the Amazon Marketplace.

You will likely use AMS if you plan to run ads on Amazon. There are three different types of ads available: Headline Search, Sponsored Products, and Product Display.

Headline Search

These are basically banner ads that appear at the top of search results on the Amazon Marketplace. People who click on these ads will end up on a landing page with a list of your products and services. Headline Search ads are one of the most effective marketing methods on Amazon and let you drive traffic to your store pages.

Sponsored Products

Sponsored products appear on various pages on the Amazon Marketplace. These ads target consumers who are searching for similar products and services to yours and direct customers to your store pages.

Product Display

Product Display ads show up on product listings and are another great way to move prospective customers through your sales pipelines. You can use these ads to target consumers interested in products and services that are similar to yours and drive them to your online store. Alternatively, target specific Amazon Standard Identification Numbers.

You can track your advertising campaigns using Amazon’s analytics tools. These provide you with real-time intelligence about the customers who view and interact with your ads so you can fine tune your future advertising campaigns and make changes to your store pages

AMS is a great way to reach Amazon’s 310 million active customers worldwide.

AAP

AAP stands for Amazon Advertising Platform. It’s a type of demand-side platform — a piece of software that lets you automate multiple ads through one single interface. You can download AAP from Amazon itself or an accredited agency.

Unlike AMS, which lets you target consumers directly on the Amazon Marketplace, AAP allows you to reach customers through a whole host of third-party websites and services. In short, you can advertise your products and services to customers away from the Amazon platform. You can target these customers with mobile ads, video ads, and desktop ads

“The Amazon Advertising Platform allows advertisers to efficiently reach Amazon shoppers on Amazon sites, across the web, and in mobile apps,” says Amazon.

AAP provides you with loads of flexibility when it comes to advertising products. You can create in-stream and out-stream video ads in an MP4, FLV or WebM format, for example. You can also segment your customer base and target the right people at the right time. If you want to advertise footwear, for example, use AAP to increase awareness about your products on third-party clothing websites.

A lot of confusion surrounds AMS and AAP, but you can use these two services to optimize your advertising campaigns. Using both AMS and AAP will provide you with various benefits and help you target the right consumers with your products and services.