Bol.com

How does bol's Sponsored Products work? A complete explanation

Lars Hurkmans·Co-founder·15 November 2023·Reading time 20 minutes

Sponsored Products is bol's advertising service that lets you pay to place your products at the top of search results, on category pages and on product pages. You pay per click through an auction, and the algorithm determines your position based on relevance, expected CTR, conversion and your bid. This guide explains when to use it, how to bid and how to optimise.

What is bol's Sponsored Products?

Sponsored Products is an advertising service from bol that lets sellers give their products more visibility within the platform. The system places your ads in strategic spots where potential customers see them while browsing or searching: in search results, on product pages and within categories. That increases the chance a customer notices your product and considers buying it.

Where do your Sponsored Products ads appear?

Your ads appear in three ways: keyword-targeted, category-targeted and product-targeted.

• Keyword-targeted: if a customer searches for a term related to your product, your ad can appear at the top of the search results. When a consumer searches through the search bar, a maximum of 30 products is shown per page. Of those, a maximum of 6 are sponsored. They appear at the top of the page, in the middle and at the bottom, with a maximum of 2 products per position.
• Category-targeted: within a specific category page, your product ads attract potential buyers who are browsing that category. Just like on the keyword pages, this is a maximum of 6 products, spread across the page.
• Product-targeted: on the page of a similar product, your ad can be shown as an alternative option. You'll find these products under the heading "You might also like" on the product page. This is a maximum of 6 products.

What does Sponsored Products cost and how does the auction work?

You pay per click on your ad, known as Cost Per Click (CPC). That amount isn't arbitrary: it comes from an auction in which you bid against other sellers for visibility on the same keywords or in the same categories. The auction model is a second-price auction (the Vickrey second-price auction): if you place the highest bid, you ultimately only pay slightly more than the second-highest bid. Specifically, this means that with the winning bid you pay one cent more than the runner-up's bid.

An example to illustrate. Say you bid 0.50 euros for the keyword "marten repeller" and the next highest bidder bids 0.40 euros. If your bid wins, you don't pay the full 0.50 euros you were willing to spend, but 0.41 euros per click. That way you keep your advertising costs precisely under control.

This auction model distributes ad space fairly and cost-effectively among bidders. By carefully considering your CPC bid, you find a balance between maximising your products' visibility and managing your advertising spend. A formal proof of why this bidding method is effective can be found here. Note: this is a technical paper that requires knowledge of mathematics and game theory.

At the end of each month you receive an invoice showing the actual CPC costs. You then get a detailed overview of the clicks your ads have generated and the total costs associated with them. Thanks to pre-set budgets, your spending always stays within your set financial limits, so you're never caught by surprise.

When is Sponsored Products useful for you?

Sponsored Products is useful to deploy in one of the following three scenarios:

1. Product launch: when introducing a new product, it doesn't immediately rank high in the organic results. The product then has low findability and visibility. Sponsored Products helps you get your new item directly in front of relevant customers, which can speed up the start of your sales and boost your brand awareness. If you want to know what advertising costs at a launch, read what advertising really costs at a product launch.
2. Improving organic findability: if you notice your products aren't ranking as high as you'd like within the organic search results, Sponsored Products can be an effective way to improve that position. By generating more clicks and possibly sales through your ads, your organic ranking on bol can benefit from that increased activity. Read this article for more on how the bol algorithm works, so you know even more specifically how Sponsored Products helps improve your organic findability.
3. Defending your position: for products that are already performing well, Sponsored Products can serve as a defensive strategy. It protects your position by preventing competitors from becoming visible on your product pages. This is especially relevant for strong keywords related to your products: it ensures your offer stays dominant.

How does the algorithm behind Sponsored Products work?

The algorithm assesses your products on four factors: relevance (how close you are to the ideal base product), expected CTR, conversion and your bid. Whoever combines those factors best wins the sponsored spot. Understanding how this works forms the basis for the success of your campaigns. Below we work through each factor.

What is the ideal base product?

The ideal base product is a hypothetical reference product that bol assembles from the characteristics customers search for most, based on historical search and purchase data. Bol aims to offer its customers the most relevant search results, and this ideal is the frame of reference for that. It includes crucial characteristics such as:

1. Price: is your product competitively priced within the market?
2. Specifications: does your product match the most searched-for characteristics?
3. Keyword relevance: do your product's title and description align with the search terms consumers use?

It's in bol's interest to promote products closest to this ideal image, since that increases customer satisfaction and maximises the chance of conversion. If your product aligns with this base product, the algorithm recognises it as a top candidate for promotion and increases your visibility within the search results.

What role do CTR and Expected CTR play?

Click-Through Rate (CTR) is the ratio between the number of times an ad is shown and the number of times it's clicked, and a high CTR is a sign to the algorithm that your ad is relevant. Say you have an ad for "marten repeller" and it's shown 1,000 times in bol's search results. If 50 people click on it, your CTR is 5 percent (50 clicks divided by 1,000 impressions, times 100). A high CTR is an indication that an ad is relevant to the user and that the product appeals. Here's how CTR fits within the algorithm:

• Historical performance: the algorithm analyses your ads' historical performance to establish an expected CTR (Expected CTR).
• Expected CTR: this forecast is based on how your product has performed in the past compared to the ideal image of a product for a specific keyword. The higher the expected CTR, the more relevant the algorithm considers your ad for the search term.
• Influence on ad position: a higher expected CTR can lead to a better ad position, even if your bid isn't the highest. That's because bol strives for an optimal user experience by showing the most relevant products.

What role do conversions play?

Conversions are the confirmation that your ads not only attract attention but also actually lead to sales. The Sponsored Products algorithm uses conversion data to measure the effectiveness of your ads. A higher conversion rate can signal to the algorithm that your products are attractive to customers and align with their search intent, which can result in better visibility for your ads within the platform.

Within Sponsored Products, conversions are determined via an attribution model. A click counts as a conversion when there's:

• Direct conversions: the direct purchase of the advertised product after a click.
• Secondary conversions: purchases of other products within the same campaign after a click.
• Tertiary conversions: purchases of other products from the same seller in the same category.

A consumer must have bought the product within 14 days of the click to be included in the conversion.

Calculation example. Say you have a Sponsored Products campaign for a range of ultrasonic repellers. Over 14 days you receive the following data:

• Total number of clicks on your ads: 1,000 clicks
• Direct conversions (the advertised product sold): 50 sales
• Secondary conversions (other products within the campaign sold): 30 sales
• Tertiary conversions (other products from the same seller sold): 20 sales

This gives you the following conversion rates:

• Direct conversion rate: 50 / 1,000 = 5 percent
• Total conversion rate including secondary and tertiary conversions: (50 + 30 + 20) / 1,000 = 10 percent

These figures show that while 5 percent of clicks lead directly to sales of the advertised product, the total impact of your campaign on sales, including secondary and tertiary sales, is in fact 10 percent.

How does your bid influence the auction?

Your bid is the final factor within the algorithm and expresses how much you're willing to pay for a click on a specific keyword or product. This bid significantly influences your ad position, but needs to be balanced with other factors such as product relevance and CTR.

The following factors determine the relevant bid:

1. Competition on keywords: the greater the competition on a keyword, the higher your bid needs to be to be visible. That's because more products are competing for the same visible positions.
2. Your product's price: your product's price compared to the best-performing similar products also plays a role. If your product is more expensive than the top products, you may need to bid more to stay competitive.
3. Minimum bid per category: every category on bol has a set minimum bid. This minimum varies per category and determines the lowest possible bid to take part in the auction.

To a certain extent, your bid gives you more or less chance of a good sponsored position:

• Higher bid at lower relevance: if your product is new or not yet optimised for the keywords, a higher bid can help compensate for the lower relevance and CTR. That way you still achieve the desired visibility, but this is only possible to a certain degree. There are limits to what a higher bid can compensate for, especially if the competition is strong and their products are better optimised.
• Lower bid at higher relevance: if your product is already well optimised for relevant keywords and has a strong CTR, you may still reach high positions with a lower bid. The algorithm then considers your product more relevant, giving you a natural advantage in the auction.

So it's important to find a balance between your bid and the optimisation of your products. A well optimised product with a reasonable bid can achieve better results than a less relevant product with a high bid. This underlines the importance of understanding the algorithm and of investing in your product presentation and optimisation.

How is the auction score calculated?

The auction score is the product of four factors: relevance, expected CTR, conversion rate and bid price. In summary, it involves:

• Relevance: how closely your product matches what the consumer is searching for.
• Expected Click-Through Rate (CTR): the estimated chance your ad gets clicked when it's shown.
• Conversion rate: the ratio of clicks on your ad that lead to a purchase.
• Bid price: the amount you're willing to pay for each click on your ad.

The score is determined with the following formula:

Auction score = Relevance × Expected CTR × Conversion rate × Bid price

What do you need before you start with Sponsored Products?

Before you start advertising, the foundation of your product offering needs to be solid, since Sponsored Products works best on a fully optimised listing. Advertising on a weak listing is a waste of your budget. So make sure of the following:

• Effective product title: a relevant title is the first step to getting your listing in order. For length, bol advises staying under 70 characters, which increases readability and relevance. According to bol's explanation, this gives you a greater chance of being included in the Sponsored Products auctions and in the ads for Google Shopping. The number of characters, incidentally, has no effect on organic findability within bol. If you want to know how to create a compact, efficient title that increases your findability, read this article.
• Complete specifications: make sure all product specifications are filled in correctly and completely. This increases not only the relevance for the algorithm, but also improves organic findability.
• High-quality images: the main image can directly affect your CTR by increasing the appeal of your product. Secondary images enrich the customer experience and can contribute to a higher conversion rate.
• Extensive product description: relevant keywords in your product description are important for the Sponsored Products algorithm to determine the match with search queries. Although the impact on organic findability is marginal, the description plays a bigger role within Sponsored Products, since the content is matched with the keywords you're advertising on.

For a deeper look at how to build an effective listing, we refer you to this article.

Why is stock management important?

Sufficient stock is essential when you use Sponsored Products. Without adequate stock, you risk missing sales opportunities and receiving negative reviews, which can harm your future sales performance.

By taking the points above as a starting point, you lay a solid foundation for your Sponsored Products campaigns. It's the combination of an optimised listing and smart stock management that maximises the effectiveness of your ads and ensures sustainable growth of your sales on bol.

Which bidding strategies do you have within Sponsored Products?

You can choose between two bidding strategies: automatic and manual bidding. These determine how you bid on keywords and products, and each has its own advantages and applications. The right choice depends on your goals, your budget and the level of control you want to have over your campaigns. First we cover a core concept that comes up in both strategies: ACoS.

What is ACoS and what role does it play?

ACoS, or Advertising Cost of Sale, measures how much you spend on advertising relative to the sales it generates. You calculate ACoS by dividing the total advertising costs by the total sales the ads have generated, and then multiplying that by 100 to get a percentage.

Example of an ACoS calculation. Say you've spent 100 euros on Sponsored Products and this has led to 500 euros in sales. The ACoS then becomes:

ACoS = (100 euros / 500 euros) × 100 = 20 percent

An ACoS of 20 percent means you spend 0.20 euros for every euro you generate in sales.

What is a healthy ACoS? A good ACoS is closely tied to the profit margin you make on a product and to the extent to which you're willing to temporarily accept a loss to reach objectives.

Your product's profit margin is an important starting point for determining an acceptable ACoS. As a rule of thumb, your ACoS should be lower than your profit margin to keep making a profit with advertising. For example, if you sell a product with a 40 percent profit margin, an ACoS of 20 percent means you're still effectively making 20 percent profit after subtracting the ACoS. If your ACoS is higher than 40 percent, you're making a loss on the product.

Besides profit margins, your objectives also play a role. When launching a new product or aiming for more visibility, you can choose to temporarily accept a higher ACoS. That can be useful to gain a foothold in a competitive market or to draw attention to a new product. See this as a temporary strategy: in the long run, you aim for an ACoS below your profit margin, to safeguard the sustainability of your advertising spend.

How does automatic bidding work?

Automatic bidding is the simplest bidding option within Sponsored Products, where bol's algorithm manages and optimises your bids. This is handy when you don't want to be manually involved with bidding, letting you use your time and resources more efficiently. Here's how it works:

• Focus on ACoS: bol's automatic bidding system focuses on reaching the set Advertising Cost of Sale (ACoS). It adjusts bids based on the campaign's performance relative to that ACoS target.
• Algorithm's learning phase: when a new campaign starts, the system goes through a learning phase in which the bidding behaviour is adjusted based on the collected data on clicks and conversions.

When automatic bidding is useful. Automatic bidding offers several advantages, especially for users looking for an efficient and time-saving way to manage their campaigns. One of the main advantages is the time savings: you don't have to constantly adjust the bids yourself. That's especially useful if you don't have the time or expertise to continuously analyse the market and bids.

On top of that, the system continuously optimises the bids and adapts to the performance data. That provides a dynamic approach focused on maximising the effectiveness of your campaigns. Since the system constantly adapts to market conditions, your campaigns are always optimised for the current market.

Automatic bidding suits both new and experienced users. New users benefit from the convenience and automation, while experienced users draw valuable insights from the collected data, which they can use to refine their strategies.

Points to keep in mind with automatic bidding. With automatic bidding there are a few important considerations to keep in mind.

When you start with automatic bidding, your ACoS may come out higher than your target. That's due to the learning phase of the algorithm, during which it tries to determine the most effective bidding strategy for your products. Although this can lead to higher costs at first, it's an essential step to optimise the system.

Even with automatic bidding, it's essential to monitor your campaigns regularly. So you keep watching market conditions and the performance of your ads, and adjust your campaigns based on your objectives and budget.

The automatic bidding system takes keyword relevance into account to a certain extent, but it won't automatically turn keywords off or on. So you need to stay critical yourself about which keywords are valuable to bid on and which aren't.

It's important to have a clear understanding of your ACoS and how it fits within your overall sales strategy. Even though the system takes a lot of work off your hands, it remains essential to keep control over your campaigns.

Collecting enough data is crucial for well-founded decisions. With keywords that have little traffic, you may need to spend a lot before you have reliable data, which can be a challenge with automatic bidding. That's why it's important to also collect your own data, such as the average winning bid, and use it to inform your bidding strategy.

How does manual bidding work?

With manual bidding you actively set your own bids and keep full control over your bidding strategy. Unlike with automatic bidding, where bol's algorithm manages the bids, you choose the maximum amount you want to pay for a click yourself. That can be done in two ways, both at product and at keyword level:

1. Bidding per product: you set a bid for each specific product in your assortment. That way you can bid more on your best-selling products or on products with higher margins.
2. Bidding per keyword: you set specific bids for each keyword. This is especially useful if you have good insight into which keywords are most valuable for your products.

When manual bidding is useful. Manual bidding fits particularly well with experienced sellers with an in-depth understanding of their market and product performance. This method offers full control over the bids for both products and specific keywords, letting you fine-tune your advertising strategy precisely.

With manual bidding you bid precisely on the keywords most relevant to your products. That helps increase the effectiveness of your campaigns by advertising more specifically. The method also gives you the flexibility to respond quickly to changes in the market, which is essential in a dynamic online environment.

Another advantage is that you manage your advertising budget more effectively. You can place higher bids for products with higher margins or better performance, leading to more efficient spending of your advertising expenses. This level of control helps you concentrate your advertising efforts on areas likely to yield the highest returns.

An important aspect of manual bidding is using the average winning bid as a reference point. By looking at this average, you get an indication of the current market price for a click on a particular keyword. That helps you decide whether it's worth bidding on a specific keyword and how much you're willing to pay. By incorporating this information into your strategy, you make more effective and cost-conscious decisions about your bids.

Points to keep in mind with manual bidding. Manual bidding requires active involvement and time to continuously monitor and adjust your bids. So you regularly analyse your campaigns and make changes based on current market conditions and your products' performance.

In-depth knowledge of the market and the competition is crucial for effective bidding. That includes insight into demand for your products, competitors' price points and the general trends in your category. Without this knowledge, you risk placing bids that aren't competitive or that don't result in the desired visibility.

An interesting option with manual bidding is using the bol API, with which you can automate a lot of manual work while still retaining more control than with the standard automatic bidding strategy. For example, you can activate your campaigns per hour this way, though this does require technical knowledge of the API. As an alternative to directly applying the API, you can also use third-party tools that offer this functionality. These tools help you manage your campaigns more efficiently and effectively, but also require understanding how you integrate and use them within your overall sales strategy.

What are the key differences between automatic and manual bidding?

Automatic bidding is time-saving and simple, while manual bidding gives precision and full control. Side by side, in short:

Automatic bidding

• Target audience: ideal for new users or for those who want to save time and effort.
• Characteristics: uses bol's algorithms to optimise bids based on the set ACoS.
• Advantages: time-saving and less complex; good for general campaigns without specific requirements.
• Considerations: can lead to a higher ACoS during the algorithm's learning phase and still requires regular monitoring.

Manual bidding

• Target audience: suited to experienced sellers with extensive market knowledge and insight into their product performance.
• Characteristics: full control over bids per product or keyword, letting you bid with precision on specific target areas.
• Advantages: greater precision and flexibility, essential for targeted campaigns and optimising advertising spend.
• Considerations: requires regular monitoring and adjustment of bids.
• API integration: offers advanced options to automate bidding with custom rules, ideal for sellers with technical resources or access to software tools like Pacvue or MarktMentor.

The choice between manual and automatic bidding depends on your experience, your available resources and your specific goals. Manual bidding, strengthened by API integration, is ideal for those who want detailed control over the campaigns and are willing to invest the time needed for monitoring and adjustments. Automatic bidding is a good choice for sellers looking for efficiency and convenience in managing their campaigns, with the help of bol's technology. If you want the benefits of manual bidding without managing it yourself, you can also consider an advertising agency.

How do you gather keywords for Sponsored Products?

When creating a campaign, you specify which keywords you include. That can be done in two ways: you add keywords manually yourself, or you let bol choose the keywords automatically.

How does automatic keyword selection work?

With automatic selection, bol's system takes the lead and chooses, based on your product title, listing and specifications, the keywords that seem most relevant for your products. Three factors play an important role in this:

1. Analysis of your product data: the system analyses your product information, such as the category, title, specifications and product description, to identify relevant keywords. That's why it's important that your product contains the relevant information before you start advertising.
2. Comparison with similar products: it also looks at products similar to yours and adopts keywords used for those products.
3. Fast and broad selection: this process is fast and ensures a wide range of potentially relevant keywords is considered.

Through automatic selection, you usually have a list of relevant keywords for your campaign within sixty seconds. So you don't have to research and select keywords yourself, saving a lot of time. On top of that, you get an extensive list of potentially relevant keywords, which can increase your visibility. Once the list is generated, you can then manually remove keywords.

Although this system works fast, simply and efficiently, it isn't perfect. Keywords are also suggested that might not be efficient in terms of costs and conversions. On top of that, it's not explained why the keywords were chosen, leaving you without the knowledge you need about keywords to determine your strategy.

While automatic selection offers a good starting point, it's therefore recommended to manually review and optimise the list. That way you only invest in keywords that really add value to your campaign. This is best done in combination with tools that give more information about a keyword.

How does manual keyword selection work?

With manual selection you indicate yourself which keywords you add, simply by typing them in, and that can also be done in bulk. Keywords can be entered in two ways:

1. Exact: if you enter a word in quotation marks, only that exact keyword is added. If you enter "marten repeller", for example, you only advertise on marten repeller.
2. Phrase: if you add keywords without quotation marks, combinations of the keyword can also be included. If you add marten repeller, for example, it's also possible that a keyword like ultrasonic marten repeller gets added.

You can combine manual selection with automatic selection. That way you first let bol suggest an extensive list of suggestions, after which you remove the irrelevant keywords. To set up both this method and manually adding keywords effectively, keyword tools are necessary. We'll now highlight three of them.

What does bol Search Trends offer?

Bol Search Trends is a tool within the bol platform that gives insight into the search volume of specific keywords and shows related keywords for the term you enter. That makes it a good starting point for determining relevant keywords for Sponsored Products. There are, however, a few limitations to keep in mind:

1. Manual keyword entry: to use bol Search Trends, you need to already have an idea of which keywords might be relevant. That requires prior knowledge and manual entry. If you're not sure which keywords are relevant, that's a challenge and you might miss important terms. That's why combining the automatic keyword selection of Sponsored Products with bol Search Trends can be an effective strategy: you get an extensive list from bol, which you then refine with the insights from bol Search Trends.
2. Limited information: bol Search Trends only offers information about search volume and lacks other important data needed to fully assess the relevance of a keyword. So you get an idea of the popularity of a keyword, but still need to consider other factors, such as competitiveness and likely conversion rates.
3. No export options: another downside is the lack of an export function. So you have to manually copy over the keywords if you decide to use them in your Sponsored Products campaigns. That can be time-consuming, especially with a large list.

Bol Search Trends is therefore a good tool to supplement the automatic selection of Sponsored Products, but less suited as the sole tool for building your keyword list. It helps you refine the generated list, but for a thorough and fast keyword analysis you're better off looking at more advanced tools such as Keyword Discovery from Bollify or the Keyword Guide from MarktMentor.

What does Bollify's Keyword Discovery offer?

Bollify's Keyword Discovery builds on the functionalities of bol Search Trends and offers a more efficient, data-driven way to find relevant keywords for your Sponsored Products campaigns. Some distinguishing characteristics:

1. Bulk keyword analysis: unlike bol Search Trends, where you enter each keyword separately, with Bollify you can enter up to 10 keywords at once. The tool then generates up to 100 related keywords per entered keyword, which can result in a list of up to 1,000 keywords.
2. More data: Bollify's Keyword Discovery goes beyond just showing search volumes. It offers additional insights such as the number of organic and sponsored listings per keyword, the price level on the first page of the search results, and the average review score on that page. This extra data helps you make a more informed choice about which keywords have the most potential for your campaign.
3. Filter and export options: with Bollify you filter keywords by criteria such as search volume, letting you quickly identify the most relevant keywords. On top of that, you can export your keyword list in bulk, letting you easily integrate the selected keywords into your Sponsored Products campaigns.

Compared to bol Search Trends, Bollify's Keyword Discovery offers a more comprehensive approach to selecting keywords. It combines speed with more information, making it a valuable tool for sellers who want to optimise their keyword strategy without being fully dependent on bol's automatic selection. You work in a data-driven way while still keeping control over which keywords you choose. Although this tool is very useful, another tool deserves to be highlighted too.

What does MarktMentor's Keyword Guide offer?

MarktMentor's Keyword Guide makes manually adding keywords easy and works in two ways: via keywords and via products.

Via keywords. Similar to bol Search Trends and Bollify's Keyword Discovery, you can find related keywords through a keyword you enter. Just like with Keyword Discovery, you can enter one or more keywords, after which a list of related keywords appears with information about search volume, the number of competitors and more. Compared to Keyword Discovery, the Keyword Guide offers a few extra insights worth mentioning:

1. Insight into keyword relationships: the Keyword Guide shows how different keywords are connected to each other. That includes information about short-tail (general) and long-tail (specific) keywords, as well as contextually related terms. This information helps you determine which type of keywords to include in your campaign.
2. Sales needed to be found: a distinctive feature of the Keyword Guide is the insight into the sales numbers needed to rank high for certain keywords. For Sponsored Products this gives an indication of the competition and the sales potential for a keyword.
3. Focused on relevant keywords: the Keyword Guide uses a method that deploys algorithms to combine both current and historical data to determine relationships between keywords. This approach offers extensive insight into the performance and connections of keywords over a certain period, which is essential for sustainable keyword strategies. An advantage is that only relevant keywords are shown, so you fairly quickly build a list of keyword candidates you can use for Sponsored Products without much filtering.

Via products. In the Keyword Guide you can also find keywords by entering products. Similar to the automatic keyword selection of Sponsored Products, you expand your keyword lists via products this way. This lets you determine the starting point of your keyword strategy based on relevant competitors with good sales performance, and then find other relevant terms through those keywords.

Just like with Keyword Discovery, you can export keywords in bulk in the Keyword Guide, letting you quickly add relevant keywords to your campaign.

How do you optimise your Sponsored Products campaigns?

You optimise in a data-driven way and step by step, once you have the algorithm, your keywords and your bidding strategy in order. These targeted steps help with that:

1. Analyse performance per keyword: start by assessing the performance of individual keywords. Determine which keywords perform well in terms of click frequency and conversions, and which are lagging. Use these insights to decide whether you should emphasise certain keywords more or remove them altogether.
2. Evaluate CTR and conversion rates: look at the CTR and conversion rates of your ads. These statistics indicate how effective your ads are at attracting clicks and generating sales, and help assess the relevance and appeal of your product listings.
3. Focus on ACoS: assess the ACoS per keyword. This statistic shows the effectiveness of your advertising spend relative to the sales generated. If the ACoS is too high, consider adjusting the bid for that keyword or turning the keyword off entirely.
4. Link to the average winning bid: use the average winning bid as a guideline to determine whether your bids are competitive. That helps you decide whether you should bid more or less on specific keywords.
5. Use advanced techniques: consider more advanced optimisation techniques, such as adjusting campaigns based on time of day or day of the week. That can be done through integration with APIs or with external tools like Pacvue or MarktMentor, and is especially useful for targeting specific customer segments and maximising ROI.

An effective optimisation strategy for Sponsored Products is dynamic and data-driven. By continuously monitoring, analysing and adjusting your campaigns, you increase the visibility and sales of your products. The key is flexibility and the ability to respond quickly to changing market conditions and customer behaviour.

Summary: what do you pay attention to with Sponsored Products?

In summary, successful advertising with Sponsored Products comes down to five things:

1. When to use Sponsored Products? Base the decision on your strategy and goals. That can range from increasing visibility for new products and improving organic findability, to defending the position of your best-selling products. The choice depends on your current market position and your long-term goals.
2. Importance of product quality and listing. Before you start, your products and listings need to be optimally arranged: complete and accurate product information, quality images and compelling product descriptions. This is the foundation for the effectiveness of your Sponsored Products campaigns and for your success on bol.
3. Strategic bidding and keyword selection. Choosing the right keywords, automatically or manually, and a well-considered bidding strategy are crucial. Tools like bol Search Trends, Bollify's Keyword Discovery and MarktMentor's Keyword Guide can play a role here.
4. Continuous optimisation. Constant evaluation and adjustment of your campaigns are needed for the best results. You actively analyse the CTR and the ACoS per keyword and adjust where that benefits efficiency.
5. Advanced optimisation tools. For those who want to optimise further and seek customisation, APIs or external tools like Pacvue or MarktMentor offer extra options.

Successfully deploying Sponsored Products on bol requires strategic planning, thorough knowledge of the platform and your own products, and a willingness to invest in continuous optimisation. By combining these elements, you increase the visibility and sales of your products on bol. Flexibility and adaptability are important in this.