Understanding how to leverage Amazon’s Seller Platform and its numerous tools to provide clarity and aid decision making is key to maximising sales and saving time. One of the most time-efficient ways of achieving your goals is to better understand how bulk operations work – in this blog, we’ll take a look at what this term means, and how to use operations in your own campaigns. Other than bulk operations, another useful skill to achieve your targets is to use Amazon SEO to your advantage.
Understanding Bulk Operations
Within Amazon Advertising, operations represent each activity performed on your account. This description spans every single action which takes place while your Amazon Seller account is active, ranging from creating campaigns right through to adjusting your bids and adding keywords.
Bulk operations encompass multiple changes with are made all at once, instead of in individual actions. Bulk operations provide time-strapped sellers with the tools they need to optimise campaigns on a larger scale, helping to save both time and money in the long-term and allowing them to focus on other areas of their business.
How do bulk operations work?
For this, we asked George Meressa, Managing Director of specialist Amazon agency Clear Ads and he said:
“The process of getting to grips with bulk operations is relatively straightforward; you simply upload a single file to the Amazon Seller platform, through which you can then carry out many different ‘operations’.”
The file used for bulk operations is provided by Amazon in the form of a spreadsheet. This includes a template for your campaigns, with all the data available for download via your account. You can use this template to change existing campaigns.
Accessing the bulk operations spreadsheet
The bulk operations functionality is not only handy for editing existing campaigns, it also enables you to create new campaigns.
To get started, you need to go to Campaign Manager and click on the tag titled ‘Bulk Operations’ (full instructions below).
Getting started
After logging into your Seller account, head for Advertising, click on Campaign Manager and select Bulk Operations. After this, you can then choose to modify your existing campaigns or start afresh.
- To modify campaigns, you will have to select creating and downloading a custom spreadsheet. From here, you can choose to adjust a variety of different variables including the date range. This affects only the columns containing existing campaign performance data – notably orders, sales, impressions, clicks, spend etc.
- You cannot make adjustments to a campaign which has been terminated or archived, but there should be little reason to do so. You should also exclude from your selection any campaigns which have received zero impressions.
After you have made your selections, click on Create spreadsheet for download. It will take a few minutes for the file to be created. After Amazon has created the file, simply download it and get started.
If you are beginning this process with an account which has no existing data, then you can simply download a blank template by avoiding most of the options above and going straight to creating the spreadsheet for download.
This can be quite confusing, particularly for those who are new to selling on Amazon, but in essence the spreadsheet is comprised of six different tabs, which detail key pieces of information:
- Instructions
- Attribute Definitions
- Example Bulk Template
- Template – Sponsored Product
- Template – Headline Search
- Template – Portfolio
The template varies depending on your geographical location, so the above definitions may vary – they are intended as a guideline only for what you will see when opening the spreadsheet.
The structure of the bulk file includes a header row, and named columns, which must be preserved to ensure the process of editing works as it should. Be sure not to delete or alter any of the information included in this first row. The second row onwards is referred to as a record, and provides all the data associated with your seller account.
Editing your bulk operations spreadsheet
Editing the spreadsheet is relatively straightforward. You can edit the document in any applicable editing software, including everything from Microsoft Excel to Google Spreadsheets. Apple users can use Apple Numbers, or those who prefer to stay away from the commercial document applications can opt for OpenOffice Calc.
Bulk operations keep track of four different types of information:
- Ad Group
- Ad
- Keyword
- Campaign
Each of these will require you to fill in different fields within the spreadsheet. Campaigns require a budget for each day, a start date and targeting type, while ad groups need a name, maximum bid and status, as well as any SKUs or ads which are applicable. Keywords are added underneath each advert. Each of these steps must be repeated for every ad group in your campaign.
Uploading your file
After editing, it’s now time to upload the file to Amazon. Head for the Bulk Operations screen and select ‘Upload your file to update your campaign’. Next, select ‘Choose File’ and upload your spreadsheet. Note that it could take several hours to process the file, depending on the amount of data which is included. The process only takes a few minutes.
Bulk operations metrics
Using bulk operations is not only a handy way to get things done quickly, it also provides a closer look at your advertising metrics with an in-depth take which surpasses the relative simplicity of the campaign manager interface. There are several areas in which these two methods differ.
Amazon Bulk Operations allows you to more easily trace the tracking metrics of each campaign whilst using Sponsored Products. Following recent updates, it is now more difficult to track major changes in the campaign via the existing reporting tools, as Sponsored Products supplies only simplistic date-based tracking process.
The Campaign manager will allow you to see performance metrics which cover time frames such as today, last week, or over the lifetime of your account. With bulk operations, you can drill down into these numbers with more accuracy, allowing for a more straightforward analysis of the data. By taking this approach you will gain a clearer understanding of the true performance of your account, which is helpful when subsequently deciding on and implementing any necessary changes and improvements.
Campaign managers are advised to look closely at the data from the exact date on which the shift towards each change was made, in order to see the effects with more accuracy.
Major benefits of bulk operations
While the benefits of this approach are numerous, they can be summarised into a few key points.
First and foremost, carrying out changes in bulk means you can adjust your bids quickly and simply. This isn’t just time-saving, it also helps to prevent instances of server errors, which can often be a consequence of alternative approaches.
In addition, you can make the necessary changes without needing to be online – and simply upload the end result after completion. By using the spreadsheet to add all the important details for your campaigns, you automatically generate a back-up, which will prove invaluable should something go wrong.
Boosting your sales performance
Many sellers get confused during the Amazon selling process, mistakenly believing that the more they spend on an advertising campaign, the more they are apt to gain from it. This is not always the case – selling on Amazon is far more complex and requires a far more careful approach in order to accomplish your goals. Each campaign hinges on the bids and the budget, and testing these areas is crucial to securing ongoing success. If you have room to spend more on your campaign, then try increasing your keyword bids.
Carrying out changes in bulk allows you to update the keywords simply and set the campaign to continue for a set period of time. We would highly recommend ongoing testing to assess progress (on a weekly basis ideally) before comparing to your prior achievements. This allows enough data to be gathered for a rigorous look at how to continuously move towards enhanced sales performance.
When to use bulk operations
Whilst ultimately the ‘when’ and ‘where’ to use this capability rests with the campaign manager, there are certain situations where it is often the best choice. If you discover that working in this way doesn’t suit you, then it’s always possible to revert back to the original format, so there is no commitment.
A few clear indications that you could benefit from bulk operations include:
- You are managing larger ad accounts, where you have significant data to handle and are struggling to keep track of everything.
- The same applies to medium accounts, as you will also likely have many different variables to monitor.
- You are feeling frustrated by the limitations of your existing approach, waiting for Amazon’s seller platform to load and repeating the same operations in a time-consuming way.
In these instances, giving bulk operations a try could see you boost not only your ad performance but your productivity across the board. Selecting bulk operations needn’t replace your existing workflow, and can be used either in conjunction with your current methods or as a temporary adjustment until you make a final decision.
