[00:00:07] Chris: Hi everybody, this is Chris McCabe of ecommerceChris and also co-creator of the Seller Velocity Conference. I'm here with Leah McHugh who created the Seller Velocity Conferecen as well. And we're talking to Ritu Java of PPC Ninja, one of our speakers this year.

We're so excited to have you speaking at the Bend Conference.

[00:00:25] Ritu: Thank you so much guys for inviting me. I'm so excited. Yeah. I just love working with both Chris and Leah, and they're just so fun. And I know that this is going to be an awesome event. They do the best to have the most high quality and you know, fun and enjoyable events. So I'm really looking forward to this one.

[00:00:42] Leah: Yeah. We try to make an event that we want to go to.

[00:00:45] Chris: Right.

Exactly. Yeah. I think that's fun and different from other conferences. And of course you've spoken at other shows this one's going to be a little different, but could you maybe just give a brief synopsis of what you plan to focus on or emphasize at Seller Velocity this year?

[00:01:02] Ritu: Yeah, absolutely. You know, DSP has started getting a lot of traction with Amazon sellers because, you know, there's a certain amount of saturation that's happening with what you can do with sponsored advertising. And people are like, okay, what next, what else can I do? And there's also this frustration that CPCs are rising and the advertising is just getting more and more expensive and more competitive because page one is just, you know, saturated with ads and all kinds of things. it's very hard to be visible and a DSP is just another great way of adding more kind of new to brand audiences to your existing customer base and reach outside of Amazon as well. So I'm going to be talking about, what's possible with DSP in 2022. Even within the past couple of years, that DSP has been an existence has been a evolution of strategies and tactics that a DSP can be used for. So I'm going to try and cover those, you know, top strategies and tactics that we use at our agency. And yeah. And just sharing whatever insights that I've gathered over the years managing DSP for our clients.

So that's the focus on the on the stock.

[00:02:11] Chris: Great. And there's been so many people talking about this topic constantly. Are you hearing the same things every time you go to like an event or a show, are you hearing the same questions from sellers every time? Or are you kind of just playing catch up on what, they don't know that you have to educate them?

[00:02:30] Ritu: Yeah. I mean, I think the questions are evolving. I think the, the industry as a whole is evolving and there's a lot more people sharing their knowledge, which is great because like all of us get educated and we all kind of build on whatever the community has been creating overall. So I think both the questions and the content has evolved and, I like to always modify my content. I get bored if I use the same stuff. So for me also, it's not only an experience in sharing what I've learned, but it's also learning because I always learn something new while I'm presenting a certain point of view. So yeah, I think it's going to be fresh and it's going to be different and I'm sure people are also going to ask different types of questions as compared to maybe two years ago about this.

[00:03:15] Leah: Yeah. I mean, two years ago, people didn't even know what DSP.

[00:03:19] Ritu: Right, exactly. So now you know, DSP is not only managed by Amazon, but there's this like huge kind of list of agencies that you can work with. And that's what's super interesting because now agencies become the intermediary between you and the Amazon DSP platform.

And so a lot of the strategies and tactics actually boil down to what the agency focuses on. Some agencies might be focusing on remarketing as the primary tactics. Some are just going to do what Amazon does, which is upper funnel. And it gives you a lot of exposure and lots of impressions.

And perhaps like an increase in your new to brand audiences, et cetera. Some agencies would probably use a blended model of two. So I think my talk will focus on some of those aspects also to try and demystify what all these terms really mean and how you can talk with your agency about them intelligently, you know, whoever you go with. So, yeah.

[00:04:15] Leah: Yeah. I think that's a really key thing is when you're working with agencies, how to do that most efficiently, which is actually what Justin Coats will be talking about at the Conference. But, you know, just handing it off and assuming that everything is great, is that necessarily always the best tactic. So it's knowing those questions to ask your agency, I think is really key when you're outsourcing this.

[00:04:36] Ritu: Right? Yeah. Yeah. I think it works both ways. Like even for agencies to pick the right kind of customers, they want to work with because they may or may not be able to deliver the kind of expectations that a customer might have. So I think that initial conversation is so important and I think I'm interested in Justin's talk as well, because it w it helps us as an agency to see what clients are looking for, you know how are they evaluating us?

How are they judging us or how they, how they measure us and stuff like that. So yeah, it'll be interesting.

[00:05:08] Chris: That's one thing our conference, Seller Velocity has been known for, and we see it in the pictures when we go through the photos afterwards, speakers, attending other speakers talks.

[00:05:18] Leah: Yeah, absolutely looking in the front row.

[00:05:24] Chris: Yeah. Bend is going to be different this year, but there's so many activities to do around Bend. I know you've lived a lot in the Northwest. Have you spent a lot of time in Oregon in the past?

[00:05:34] Ritu: No, I don't think I've ever been to Oregon is, I think in 2003 or something, it was one of those, you know, everybody wants to go to Oregon because it's, tax-free, you know, one week trips to the us and my brother drove us to Oregon. So we could do a lot of shopping.

[00:05:52] Chris: Lot's of shopping opportunities, but yeah, it's a great area. I've been there several times now and at different times of the year, and there's just so many activities around there. And I think it's good for the creative process too, for people to network in different environments, they can exchange ideas, not necessarily only while eating and drinking.

I mean, we're going to have plenty of food and microbrews and Pinot noir and so forth, but with our best ideas, when we're hiking right now,

We now have meetings hiking, hiking networking, hiking meetings are favorite of mine. But I mean, Bend in general, there's a lot of outdoor brands there, there are a lot of agencies based there because I think people get a lot of work done being in an environment like that. And instead of just in a high rise all day.

[00:06:38] Ritu: Oh my goodness. I am so excited. Cannot wait.

[00:06:41] Leah: Looking forward to seeing you, We never have time when we see each other.

[00:06:44] Chris: We are looking forward to it. And I know I've been referring people to you as well in terms of if they have an ads emergency, you're a good person to talk to because a lot of people don't understand ads and they don't know where to start or they don't know if their strategy's not working and they need to like an assessment,

[00:07:01] Ritu: Right. Yeah, absolutely. Send them my way.

[00:07:07] Chris: Great. Well, we're looking forward to seeing you very soon in Bend, Oregon ,thanks so much.

[00:07:14] Ritu: Thank you so much, guys. See you soon. Take care.