In recent news, Amazon has made a significant change that has slid under the radar and gone unnoticed by many. Amazon has removed editorial recommendations from its search results. This change has forced some brands to pivot their marketing strategies and focus on other methods to get their products seen.
What are (or were) Amazon editorial recommendations?
The editorial recommendations on Amazon have been a valuable tool for both brands and consumers alike. Positioned prominently on the first page of search results, these recommendations showcase a curated selection of items that have garnered recognition from third-party editors, writers, influencers, and publishers who deem them as top contenders within their respective categories. However, with the recent change, these recommendations are no longer visible in search results.
Sellers greatly benefited from the inclusion of their listings in the editorial recommendations section as it held a prominent position on the first page of search results. These recommendations not only enhanced the shopping experience for customers but also simplified product research. It served as trusted endorsements from publishers and content creators within the specific product category. The presence of an editorial review would significantly boost clicks and sales for sellers, making it a valuable asset for driving success in their listings.
How Can Brands Adapt ?
Amazon PPC
So what does this mean for brands and their marketing strategies? On one hand, this change opens up another pay-per-click (PPC) slot on Amazon, which can drive down the cost per click as bids are spread out over more slots. This can be seen as a positive development for brands, especially ones that don’t have high ratings or many reviews.
For Amazon sellers looking to navigate the changing landscape of Amazon advertising, Viral Launch’s Kinetic Amazon PPC tool can provide a valuable solution. This tool offers a range of features to help sellers manage their Amazon PPC campaigns, including the ability to create rules, automate campaigns, and monitor results. Additionally, the tool provides data that allows for informed decision-making and can help sellers optimize their campaigns for maximum results. With Viral Launch’s Amazon PPC Kinetic tool, Amazon sellers can stay ahead of the curve and achieve their advertising goals on the platform.
Drive Organic Traffic
On the other hand, this change also means that brands will need to pivot their editorial marketing strategies to focus on organic traffic. This could include investing more in content marketing and influencer partnerships to generate buzz. By focusing on building relationships with influencers and editors in their niche, brands can continue to drive organic traffic by earning more editorial placements.
Final Thoughts
To sum up, Amazon’s decision to remove editorial recommendations from search results is a game-changer for brands and requires them to reevaluate their marketing strategies. While the removal of these recommendations opens up another PPC slot, brands need to pivot towards generating organic traffic from editorials. This may involve investing in content marketing, building relationships with influencers and editors, and being creative when it comes to attracting and retaining customers. With the right approach, brands can continue to thrive on Amazon and achieve their sales goals.
Pinterest is a social media website and app that works as a visual discovery engine. It provides inspiration on ideas like recipes, home decorations, style tips, and more. With 463 million monthly users, Pinterest ranks in the top-15 social networks worldwide. This presents a tremendous opportunity for online businesses to get their products in front of an active and engaged audience.
The partnership will be implemented over the next few quarters and is expected to begin rolling out later in 2023.
“This milestone partnership will add to the great brands already on the platform and provide more comprehensiveness, shoppability, and a best-in-class buying experience for users, along with greater performance for brands and advertisers. This aligns with our goal of making every Pin shoppable so that we can enable as many users as possible to bring their dreams to life.”
Bill Ready, CEO of Pinterest
Amazon becomes the platform’s first third-party advertising partner, a noteworthy accomplishment that speaks to the strength of Amazon’s reach and the Amazon Ads platform. The announcement also continues the evolving growth of Amazon as an advertising giant.
“Amazon Ads is delighted to partner with Pinterest and make it even easier for customers to discover and buy relevant products through shoppable content, while also providing differentiated value for brands.”
Paul Kotas, Senior Vice President of Amazon
What Does It Mean for Amazon Sellers?
First, the partnership should be phenomenal news for those who sell on Amazon. The potential ability to reach 463 million monthly users is no small feat, even compared to Amazon’s gargantuan reach. If Pinterest were a country and the users were citizens, it would rank ahead of the United States as the third-largest country in the world.
Even better, the Pinterest audience offers a unique advantage regarding segmentation and buyer intent thanks to its primary uses. Whether a user seeks inspiration for home decorations, seasonal fashion, dinner recipes, or virtually anything you might use Pinterest for, they will likely need products associated with their search. Compared to social media networks like Facebook and Twitter where most users aren’t necessarily searching for a product, Pinterest users are almost exclusively looking for products.
For example, the average Facebook or Twitter user might get on the app for news, to check in with friends, or staying up-to-date on pop culture events. However, the typical Pinterest user searches for new recipes, clothes, and crafts. Even after segmenting users, displaying your product in front of an interested customer can be a guessing game on Facebook or Twitter. But on Pinterest, you may soon be able to put your product front and center for a potential customer looking for your goods based on their Pins.
The partnership stays in line with recent trends, as an increased emphasis on advertising on video-based social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels have created plenty of buzz and opportunity in the market. Pinterest features both image and video posts and has prioritized video content and user-generated content since TikTok’s emergence.
Optimize Your PPC Campaigns With Automation
All things considered, implementing Amazon Ads on Pinterest will likely heat up the competitive marketplace. It remains to be seen how the integration will go. However, it’s difficult to imagine a situation where this partnership doesn’t lead to a more competitive advertising market. Sellers who nail their advertising strategy and execution, though, can experience more reward.
With that in mind, there’s no better time to refine your Amazon PPC game plan! And there’s no better way to create, customize, and manage your Amazon advertising methods than Kinetic PPC.
Optimize your Amazon PPC advertising for Pinterest with Kinetic.
Kinetic PPC is Viral Launch’s state-of-the-art tool to automate your advertising on Amazon. The innovative Amazon PPC software improves your campaigns with in-depth reporting of campaigns, keywords, and search terms. Kinetic utilizes artificial intelligence to make data-informed suggestions. It allows you to create customized rules for maximum performance at the keyword and ASIN levels.
For example, you can create custom rules to increase spending on high-converting keywords or shut off spending on duds. Utilize the pre-made templates within the tool to get started or create your own to flex your advertising muscle and accomplish your advertising goals.
Still, if handing over your Amazon advertising to a tool feels daunting, no worries. Kinetic contains built-in safety checks you can set to manual mode, allowing you to see the recommended actions before putting them into motion.
As Amazon Ads move to Pinterest and possibly other platforms, sellers who develop high-performing strategies and tactics will be richly rewarded. Get ahead of the game with a 14-day free trial of Kinetic PPC and see what it can do for your online business!
As an Amazon seller, you are probably aware of the numerous marketing tools and programs available to help you promote your products and increase your sales. One such program that has gained popularity in recent years is the Amazon Influencer Program. But is this program really effective? In this blog post, we will explore it and its benefits for Amazon sellers.
Influencer marketing has become an increasingly popular strategy for brands to reach new audiences and drive sales. By partnering with influencers who have a strong social media presence and engaged following, brands can leverage their influence and credibility to promote their products to a wider audience. According to a survey by Influencer Marketing Hub, 63% of marketers intend to increase their influencer marketing budgets in 2021, highlighting the effectiveness of this strategy. Brands can benefit from influencer marketing by reaching new audiences, increasing brand awareness, building trust and credibility, and ultimately driving sales. Additionally, influencer marketing can be more cost-effective than traditional advertising methods, making it an attractive option for brands of all sizes. By collaborating with influencers (and developing a strong influencer marketing strategy), brands can tap into the power of influencer marketing to achieve their business goals.
What is the Amazon Influencer Program?
The Amazon Influencer Program allows social media influencers to earn money by promoting Amazon products to their followers. Amazon influencers receive a unique storefront URL that they can use to showcase their favorite products to their followers. When a follower clicks on a product and makes a purchase, the influencer earns a commission.
The Amazon Influencer Program is different from the Amazon Affiliate Program. The affiliate program is open to anyone who wants to promote Amazon products and earn a commission on sales. The Influencer Program is only available to social media influencers with a significant following on social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook.
How to Become an Amazon Influencer
If you are interested in becoming an Amazon influencer, here are some tips to help you get started:
Keep in mind that the Amazon Influencer Program is invitation-only, and meeting the eligibility requirements does not guarantee acceptance. However, by creating consistent high-quality content and
Keep in mind that the Amazon Influencer Program is invitation-only, and meeting the eligibility requirements does not guarantee acceptance. However, by creating consistent high-quality content and building a strong following, you can increase your chances of being accepted into the program.
Eligibility Requirements:
To become an Amazon influencer, you need to meet the following eligibility requirements:
You must have a YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook account with a significant number of followers.
Your social media account must be active and in good standing.
Your social media account must be public.
Your content must be relevant to Amazon’s product offerings.
If you meet these requirements, you can apply to the Amazon Influencer Program through your Amazon Associate account. Once your application is approved, you will receive a unique storefront URL that you can share with your followers. You can customize your storefront with your favorite products and categories to make it more appealing to your followers.
Amazon Storefront
One way to maximize the benefits of the Amazon Influencer Program is to create an Amazon storefront. It should be noted that this Amazon Influencer storefront is different from an Amazon Seller Storefront. One being for an influencer, the other registered under the Brand Registry and for a brand.
The Amazon Influencer storefront is a curated page that displays all the products you recommend as an influencer. This makes it easier for your followers to find and purchase products you recommend, ultimately increasing your commission earnings.
How to create an Amazon Influencer storefront:
Sign up for the Amazon Influencer Program and get accepted.
Once accepted, you will receive a unique URL for your storefront.
Customize your storefront by choosing a theme and adding your logo and branding.
Add products to your storefront by searching for and selecting them from the Amazon catalog.
Organize your products into categories to make it easier for your followers to navigate.
Promote your storefront on your social media platforms and website to drive traffic and sales.
Creating an Amazon storefront is an excellent way to enhance your influencer marketing efforts and increase your earnings.
Benefits of the Influencer Program for Amazon Sellers
The Amazon Influencer Program can be an effective marketing tool for Amazon sellers for several reasons:
Reach a wider audience: By partnering with social media influencers, Amazon sellers can reach a wider audience that they may not have been able to reach on their own. Influencers have a loyal following of fans who trust their opinions and recommendations. When an influencer promotes a product, their followers are more likely to trust their endorsement and make a purchase.
Increase sales: The Amazon Influencer Program can help Amazon sellers increase their sales by driving traffic to their product listings. When an influencer promotes a product on their storefront, their followers can click on the product and make a purchase directly from Amazon. This can result in an increase in sales for the Amazon seller.
Cost-effective marketing: The Amazon Influencer Program can be a cost-effective marketing tool for Amazon sellers. Unlike traditional advertising methods like TV commercials and billboards, the Amazon Influencer Program allows sellers to promote their products through social media influencers at a lower cost.
How to Reach out to Amazon Influencers
Reaching out to (and working with) Amazon influencers can be a highly effective way to promote your products on Amazon. The first step is to identify influencers who are a good fit for your niche or category. You can do this by searching for influencers on Amazon’s Influencer Page, or by using third-party tools to find influencers who are already promoting products similar to yours. Once you’ve identified potential influencers, it’s important to reach out to them in a professional and engaging way.
Start by introducing yourself and your brand, and explain why you think the influencer would be a good fit for promoting your products. Be sure to offer them something of value, such as a discount on your products or an exclusive preview of new products. Finally, be open to negotiation and willing to work with the influencer to find a mutually beneficial arrangement. With the right approach, reaching out to Amazon influencers can be a highly effective way to promote your products and grow your business on Amazon.
Example Influencer Outreach Email
Dear [Influencer Name],
I hope this message finds you well. I came across your Amazon Influencer Page and was impressed by your content and engagement with your audience. I’m reaching out because I believe your influence and expertise could help promote our brand and products to a wider audience.
Our brand specializes in [describe your niche/category/products]. We’ve received great feedback from our customers and are confident that your followers would love our products as well. We would be happy to offer you a [percentage/discount/flat rate] on your first purchase, and additional discounts on future purchases, in exchange for your promotion of our brand.
We’re open to any ideas or suggestions you may have on how we can work together to promote our brand and products in a way that’s beneficial for both of us. We’re excited to hear back from you and hope to work with you soon.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Best regards,
[Your Name]
Amazon Influencer Program vs Affiliate Program
One common question is, “What’s the difference between the Amazon Influencer Program and the Amazon Affiliate Program?” While both programs allow you to earn commissions on products you recommend, there are a few key differences.
The Amazon Influencer Program is designed specifically for social media influencers with large followings. Influencers who are accepted into the program receive a vanity URL, a curated storefront, and other tools to help them promote products to their followers.
The Amazon Affiliate Program, on the other hand, is open to anyone with a website, blog, or social media platform. Affiliate marketers receive a unique tracking code for each product they promote and earn commissions on any sales made through their links.
While both programs offer opportunities to earn commissions on Amazon products, the Influencer Program is more exclusive and provides additional tools and resources to help influencers succeed.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Amazon Influencer Program can be an effective marketing tool for Amazon sellers. By partnering with social media influencers, Amazon sellers can reach a wider audience, increase their sales, and promote their products in a cost-effective way.
To become an Amazon influencer, focus on building a strong following on social media platforms, creating engaging content, and promoting Amazon products that are relevant to your audience. By following these tips, you can increase your chances of being accepted into the Amazon Influencer Program and maximizing its benefits.
Viral Launch’s comprehensive suite of Amazon software tools can help Amazon sellers get into influencer marketing. With Viral Launch’s Product Discovery tool, sellers can identify potential products that are currently being promoted by influencers. They can also use the Competitor Intelligence tool to identify competitors already using influencer marketing to promote their products. Viral Launch’s Market Intelligence tool can help sellers identify the most popular influencers in their niche or category, as well as track their performance over time. Additionally, the Listing Analyzer tool can help sellers optimize their product listings to maximize their chances of success with influencer marketing. By using Viral Launch’s suite of Amazon software tools, sellers can gain valuable insights and data that can help them develop an effective influencer marketing strategy.
FAQ
Can I use the Amazon Influencer Program to promote any product on Amazon?
No, you can only promote products that are available through the Amazon Influencer Program. These products are selected by Amazon and may vary depending on the category or niche you are promoting.
Can Amazon influencers collaborate with brands directly?
Yes, Amazon influencers can collaborate with brands directly outside of the program. However, any products promoted through an influencer’s Amazon storefront must be part of the program.
What is the difference between the Amazon Influencer Program and the Amazon Affiliate Program?
The Amazon Affiliate Program offers a commission on every sale made through an affiliate link, while the Influencer Program offers a commission on products that are specifically promoted through an influencer’s Amazon storefront.
Can I use the Amazon Influencer Program alongside other affiliate programs?
Yes, you can use the Amazon Influencer Program alongside other affiliate programs as long as you disclose this to your followers.
If the last few years have taught us anything, it’s how very precious and fragile good health really is. And what that means is that consumers of every age, ethnicity, gender, and social status are looking for new, better, and more affordable ways to cultivate long-lasting wellness. That also means that there has perhaps been no better time than now for clinics, healthcare facilities, and purveyors of medical products and services to consider selling medical supplies on amazon.
However, marketing your facility or your products on Amazon is likely going to require a markedly different approach to promotions than your business is used to. This article examines strategies medical practices and suppliers can use to achieve success selling medical supplies on amazon.
Making Money Selling on Amazon
It doesn’t seem to matter anymore what your industry is — if you’re not selling on Amazon, you’re missing out. In fact, reports show that 89% of Amazon sellers are profitable, and that 37% saw profits increase throughout 2022.
As more of the population become comfortable operating online, many of our needs previously defined by brick-and-mortar or in-person experiences are being revolutionized. Telehealth, for example, is facilitating long-distance connections between doctors and patients across the globe. In the same way, medical service and product providers are seeing success using the Amazon marketplace as well.
restricted categories on amazon: Getting the Appropriate Permissions
Amazon is, literally, the largest marketplace in human history. It enables sellers of every stripe to reach a truly global customer base.
Perhaps not surprisingly, though, access to medical products and service providers has traditionally been quite limited and subject to extensive federal and international regulation. That does not mean, however, that medical product providers and practices cannot avail themselves of Amazon’s tremendous market reach.
What it does mean, though, is that if you want to market your medical practice or product on Amazon Stores, you’re probably going to need to jump through some hoops. For instance, if your product or service is regulated by the FDA, as many health-related ones are, then you’re going to fall into a restricted category.
That will require you to meet certain conditions before you’re permitted to market your business, product, clinic, or service on Amazon. In most cases, this will require you to receive FDA approval, adhere to FDA standards, and comply with certain labeling requirements as defined by Amazon.
Using Data-driven Marketing
Once you have received the appropriate permissions and met the relevant requirements for marketing on Amazon, you can turn your attention to defining a platform that works. If you are a local medical practice or a smaller-scale manufacturer of medical products and devices, you aren’t likely to have much experience in marketing to a global audience.
The prospect may, indeed, be daunting, but don’t despair. Marketers today have more and better tools than ever before for understanding and reaching their target audience. The key to reaching your ideal client on Amazon is data.
Data-driven marketing enables you to understand who your target client is, what they want, what they need, and what they require. But these aren’t the only insights to be gleaned through data. Data can also help you define patterns of behavior in your target audience, including identifying the types of online content that pique their interest and generate the most clicks.
Once you’ve defined what kind of content your target audience is looking for regarding medical services, devices, and products, you can craft your Amazon marketing materials accordingly.
Marketing Your Practice Through Online Relationship Building
One of the most important things to bear in mind when you’re learning to leverage the power of Amazon to market your medical practice is that your goal is not to advertise.Your goal is to build relationships.
Marketing your medical practice, product, or service is, fundamentally, about starting an ongoing conversation with your target customer base. The Amazon Store is only one prong of a larger strategy in which you cultivate an engaging and engaged online presence in order to connect with your target audience.
Thus, linking your Amazon Store with your business’s website is an ideal way to take your business relationships from merely transactional to truly transformational. You might use blogs, discussion forums, and even online events to help your target clients learn about your practice, your company, and the products and services you provide.
In the process, you will be building a sense of community in your client base. The more audience members connect with you and with one another, the better able you will be to identify and respond to their evolving health needs.
The connected Amazon Store, then, is the domain where you endeavor to meet those needs. Your Amazon Store becomes the locale where you are able to respond to the conversation you are having with your clients through your product and service innovations featured there.
Selling Medical Supplies on Amazon: The Takeaway
The provision of medical products and services is truly a labor of love and, now more than ever, medical practices and health product companies can serve a global market. Unleashing the tremendous power of Amazon Stores is an ideal way to access this international customer base. However, doing so effectively requires strategy, calling on stakeholders to improve their marketing strategy for a new, more diverse, and far larger target audience. This requires marketers to ensure they have the appropriate permissions and adhere to relevant guidelines for marketing on Amazon.
This also requires marketers to tap into the tremendous power of data to define the target audience, understand their behavior, and align their marketing strategy accordingly. Finally, improving marketing through Amazon Stores means integrating Amazon into a more comprehensive and compelling digital strategy. Cultivating a robust digital presence enables medical practices and product purveyors to engage in an ongoing conversation with the target audience, building client relationships that can last a lifetime.
Viral Launch’s accurate data coupled with our powerful tools, provides Amazon sellers with everything they need to succeed. Create an effective marketing strategy, boost visibility, and see sales skyrocket with Viral Launch. Sign up today and get your first 14 days free!
Corey Gary is Viral Launches amazing Demand Generation Strategist and Advertising Manager. This guest post written by Corey highlights the importance of E-commerce and Advertising in how they go hand in hand.
The beginning.
I started my career in Digital Marketing as an Analyst at an agency located in New York City. I joined an account with separate teams for programmatic, paid social, and E-comm. Since we rarely communicated with each other, I felt siloed and inefficient.
A few years and a few clients later, I’ve worked across almost all facets of Digital Marketing. I’ve run Display & Video as well as Search & Social ads. There have also been opportunities to buy programmatic podcast ads and CTV (connected TV ads). I also purchased a programmatic Digital-Out-Of-Home campaign where the vendor claimed they could change ads at a bus stop based on the interests of the people walking by. We ran this campaign before iOS 14.5 and increased privacy regulations.
Working on a channel-agnostic team of digital marketers not only rounded out my Working on a channel-Agnostic team of digital marketers not only rounded out my skill set but was best for the client’s expanding needs. Having multiple types of marketers on one team helped us own all stages of the digital marketing funnel.
Awareness campaigns matter for E-commerce and Advertising.
Awareness campaigns are excellent for large brands, but how about those small Amazon start-ups who don’t have millions of dollars to spend on billboards that connect to the Metaverse? That’s where e-commerce advertising is essential. Buying for conversions is where marketers can gauge the effectiveness of their campaigns. E-commerce advertising becomes essential once a consumer is familiar with a brand. As a consumer, if I allocate myself $150 for a new pair of running shoes, I can choose between big brands such as Nike or Adidas and Asics. Or, I can shop with up-and-comers like On and Hoka. These two shoe brands are agile and efficient in their digital marketing. Both On and HOKA have extensive running shoe digital marketing campaigns while the big brands are nonexistent on the SERP (Search Engine Landing Page).
As a consumer during the evaluation process of the marketing funnel: I decided to allocate my $150 depending on a wide range of criteria such as cost after taxes & shipping, quality of the product, reviews, merchant (Amazon or EastBay), and color. For the digital marketer on the other end of the purchase, yes, people buy running shoes based on color, guilty as charged.
The seller can optimize their ads to account for all these criteria to meet the customer when they’ve allocated time to research and budget. It takes time for the Digital Marketer to A/B test which ads perform best on a specific channel. Here’s one example.
On Amazon, an ad for the keyword [running shoe] could perform vastly different than an ad for the keyword [racing running shoe]. The first keyword is for buyers who want a running shoe but aren’t necessarily intense runners. However, [racing running shoe] clarifies that the buyer could be participating in this year’s New York City Marathon in addition to their local Turkey Trot. Viral Launch has expert-level keyword analysis software to help e-commerce marketers discover the best keywords to target for their online advertisement.
Conversions mean results.
So, why is it essential that all Digital Marketers learn E-commerce Advertising? Conversions drive business results, and ultimately the purpose of marketing is to have a positive return on investment. Marketers can spend all day ideating grand awareness campaigns. Still, conversion marketing is where CMO’s can go to stakeholders exclaiming, “look at how my campaigns drove an increase in sales with a positive.
Accessibility is an integral part of a fair and just society; this does not exclude the online experience. Accessibility in digital marketing is frequently overlooked.
Without accessible goods and services, millions of people will be cut off from the products they need. In the US alone, 61 million Americans live with a disability that impacts their shopping and buying experience.
You can incorporate accessibility in digital marketing by accounting for the diverse needs of all users and consumers. This will improve your reach, strengthen your brand image, and ensure that all users can buy from your eCommerce site.
Common Mistakes
Offering accessibility in digital marketing isn’t just the right thing to do — it can save you from expensive litigation fees, too. Even major brands like Netflix and Nike have been sued for failing to provide an accessible web presence. As a growing brand, the last thing you need is legal battles and fines.
Avoiding these mistakes will ensure that most users can use your web content. However, you may still need to complete an accessibility audit with a licensed web developer to ensure that your content meets today’s standards.
Accessible Listing
As an Amazon seller, the listing is the most important piece of the marketing puzzle. Your Amazon listing has to double as a point of sale and a marketing opportunity. As such, you must ensure that your listing is fully accessible to all users.
Fortunately, Amazon itself is an accessible website. This means that you don’t have to worry about the code behind your listing or headline advertisement and can focus on the visual and written elements of your Amazon listing.
Ensure that you provide multiple images of your product so that visually impaired users have the best chance of seeing your offering. Fill out the keywords field, as this will be used as your alt-text for your product. While alt-text doesn’t need to be grammatically correct, it should make sense for users who are using screen readers.
Use a color-blind simulator to ensure that color-blind users can see your products. Keep your descriptions short and ensure that any anchor text you use is descriptive of the link’s destination.
You should also account for neurodiverse users who will come across your Amazon listing. Neurodiversity is an umbrella term that “covers multiple diagnoses” like autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia, and ADD/ADHD. You can help neurodiverse users interact with your Amazon listing by avoiding unnecessarily explosive language and metaphors and using better organization.
If you’re looking to increase traffic and convert more visitors into customers, we can help. Our listing optimization software tools will compile a comprehensive list of keywords for your product and title, helping you to reach new audiences and drive more traffic to your product listings. Assuring you’re able to produce high-quality, vivid product descriptions that highlight specific product information not located elsewhere on the listing – helping potential customers find and buy your products faster.
Social Media
Social media is an invaluable tool for Amazon eCommerce sites. A successful social media strategy can improve your reach and drive traffic toward your Amazon listing. However, you need to ensure that your social media posts are fully accessible before you begin your next campaign.
Start by choosing the right social channel for your business. Choosing the right platform will simplify your approach and make it easier to craft effective, accessible marketing. If you’re new to social media, consider creating a business page on Facebook and working with an influencer on Instagram or TikTok. These platforms will help build your brand awareness and gather vital customer reviews.
Make your Facebook page accessible by following social media accessibility guidelines. Caption all of your video content before you post it, and give context for animated GIFS. This will ensure that visually impaired users can understand and interact with your content. If you use emojis on Facebook, be aware of how screen readers will present the emoji to users.
Work with your chosen influencer to create accessible branded posts on Instagram or TikTok. Encourage them to capitalize each new word in their hashtags, as this will improve the screen reader’s effectiveness. A short description of the content can also help users understand the context of the post.
Websites and WCAG
If you host a website in addition to your Amazon listing, you need to meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) standards. WCAG 2.0 is designed to help all users navigate web-based content with ease and independence. WCAG has four major indicators for accessibility:
Perceivable: can users tell that your content exists? Is your content perceivable to folks who are color blind, deaf, visually impaired, etc?
Operable: can users navigate your content? Is your website keyboard accessible? Do users have enough time to navigate the site before they are timed out?
Understandable: do you use unusual words or explosive language? Will all users be able to understand the abbreviations you use?
Robust: will your content be accessible in five years? Is it compatible with new models of screen readers?
Meeting these WCAG 2.0 standards ensures that your website is authentically accessible. This will drive more traffic toward your Amazon listing and will improve your digital brand presence.
Conclusion
Accessibility in digital marketing, specifically in Amazon ads, is an important part of your Amazon advertising strategy. Start by reviewing WCAG 2.0 guidelines and work with influencers who already understand how to create branded, accessible content on social media. You can also rewrite your alt-text and double-check your anchor text to ensure that your marketing is understandable and operable for all users.
If you’re still having trouble boosting traffic to your Amazon listings, you can also compare it to your competitors with the Viral Launch Google Chrome extension. You can also analyze which keywords you’re striving to rank for, and other Google trends.
If the last few years have taught us anything, it’s the importance of being able to recognize changing conditions and adapt and adjust to changing conditions. This begs the question: How to advertise your business during major sales events?
On September 26th, Amazon officially announced the inaugural 48-hour Prime Early Access Sale slated for October 11th, leaving Amazon sellers just two weeks to prepare for what projects to be one of the biggest shopping events on the calendar.
While it had been rumored for months before it became official, the timing of the announcement leaves little time for Amazon businesses to stock up on supplies and optimize inventory. Additionally, the sale effectively speeds up the holiday shopping window.
Needless to say, the market conditions have changed.
For many Amazon sellers, advertising on Amazon can be a headache even on an average day. So how does a major sales event like Prime Day, the holiday season or Prime Early Access Sale change how to advertise your business?
Below, we’ll take a look at a few crucial pieces of advice and data points that may help you take control of what can be controlled at this point, and navigate through busy sales periods like a seasoned pro.
Perhaps it goes without saying, but it certainly helps to know when these busy sales periods are. With a heightened awareness of the potential of changing conditions comes a greater ability to act swiftly and decisively with confidence.
On rare occasions, times with drastic change can’t realistically be accounted for. But for the most part, Amazon sellers can do themselves a favor by anticipating seismic shifts in the market.
Even for savvy, longtime Amazon sellers, the rules and conditions they grew accustomed to disappeared when the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted normalcy around the globe, with plenty of trickle-down effects impacting the e-commerce and Amazon marketplace.
While the COVID-19 disruption served as an extreme example of how an agent of change can flip a marketplace on its head, we can apply that thought and learning experience to other avenues when business as usual takes a turn.
More typically, busy sales periods like Prime Day, Cyber Monday, Black Friday, the Prime Early Access Sale and holiday season will cause greater fluctuations in the market. If you sell a product with a greater deal of seasonality, the ability to forecast when sales will see an uptick or downtick in demand can have a great impact on the profitability of your ads.
High-traffic sales events up the ante in every way for Amazon businesses. It’s a key factor to consider when deciding how to advertise your business at these times. With more shoppers searching for a deal, the opportunity for record sales multiplies. But with that opportunity being there for the taking, the competition in the market intensifies.
Your typical ad bids that routinely win prime digital real estate are highly unlikely to get the job done during these high-sales periods, changing the math significantly in the battle between visibility and profitability.
Although it can be easy to focus on the big sales number during a major sales event, that big bag of cash isn’t the only thing to keep an eye on.
Without a doubt, seeing skyrocketing sales is always welcomed. But success during Prime Day or the Early Access Sale can do so much more, helping your business prosper far beyond the promotional period.
For example, increasing brand awareness and new-to-brand customers through advertising can go a long way toward earning sales all year long. According to an Amazon study, brands that advertised leading up to and during Prime Day showed a 216% increase in awareness and 214% increase in considerations, compared to the prior week.
The most difficult aspect of customer retention? Earning their purchase in the first place. Once a customer has purchased a product from your brand, they are much more likely to purchase yet again from you as long as they feel like they got a good return on their investment.
Additionally, the sales made during these multiplier events greatly affect your visibility going forward. When you achieve sales either via search or through keyword-targeting advertising, your product sees an increase in organic rank. With organic rank serving as the holy grail of profitable sales, a successful sales event can help your bottom line all year round.
Capitalizing on the influx of traffic during these sales events can become a foundational part of your year-round performance, bringing in repeat customers who seek out your product the next time they need it.
Because of the increased competition for eyeballs, your ACoS (average cost of sale) will likely increase, a metric sellers like to keep as low as possible. However, consider these ancillary benefits while concocting your strategy and use these extra wins as consolation for the added cost.
For every seller, finding the perfect balance between advertising costs and profitability through conversion takes a large sample size of data and plenty of trial and error. And these numbers become warped on high-traffic sales events, but typical data can still be incredibly useful for mastering that balancing act.
One study conducted by Perpetua provides valuable insights into the numbers during July’s Prime Day 2022 compared to data in the month before and weeks after.
One of the more interesting figures from their case study shows that for Sponsored Products, Amazon businesses that increased ad spend by 50% saw a minimal rise in ACoS while experiencing a significant boost in conversion rates.
In short, this data indicates that increasing ad spend to match the hype of these events can be quite profitable despite the rise in ACoS depending on your product, price point and ad spend budget.
If you can afford to raise your ad spend by a significant amount, you’re much more likely to see a positive return on ad spend. For those who choose to stick with business as normal or provide a meager boost to their ad spend, the return on your investment are more likely to disappoint.
How to Advertise Your Business: Execution
How Can You Execute These High-Opportunity Strategies?
For each and every product, the data changes can be drastically different, making it difficult to apply widescale rules to follow.
However, Viral Launch’s Kinetic tool makes creating profitable advertising campaigns and tracking performance as easy as can be via automation. With easy-to-create rules you can create to trigger action, you can optimize your ad spend by combining an informed strategy with state-of-the-art automation.
Within Kinetic, you can customize your advertising experience to match your goals and budget like never before. Create rules that increase ad spend for profitable campaigns and shut down campaigns or keywords where you’re not getting a proper return on investment once they’ve met the criteria you’ve set.
Kinetic PPC provides all the Amazon advertising functionality and tracking to help maximize your advertising success all year-long. However, it can be especially worthwhile when it comes to deciding how to advertise your business during high-velocity, high-stakes sales periods.
Amazon Advertising can be a complex topic, but Viral Launch’s Amazon PPC platform Kinetic simplifies your performance so you can stop wasting money on inefficient ad spending and maximize profits.
“With the launch of ASIN view, you can measure the search performance of a specific product by metric, such as clicks or conversion rate, within a selected time frame.”
– Amazon Seller Central announcement
Before this addition to the Brand Analytics suite, you could only find ASIN-level data and metrics through Viral Launch’s Kinetic PPC tool. While the addition certainly assists sellers, it’s a far cry from what Kinetic is capable of when it comes to capabilities like data fetching and rule-based automation that optimize your campaigns at the ASIN level.
How to use Product View in Viral Launch’s Kinetic PPC platform.
Optimize your Amazon PPC campaigns at the product level
Kinetic’s main benefit is the ability to make rule-based automations that trigger when a set of selected criteria is met. These capabilities provide endless possibilities. With pre-set rules to get beginners pointed in the right direction and plenty of custom rules for PPC experts, it truly is the single tool for newbies and PPC wizards alike.
For example, suppose you’re running an ad and want to target keywords with small-to-medium search volume because they’re less expensive than their higher-volume counterparts but fear overspending on low-volume. In that case, you can set your limits on search volume estimates and create campaigns that automatically shut off if a certain level of unprofitability is met.
On the other hand, suppose a campaign for another product is absolutely crushing it. You can set it up for successful campaigns to increase spending for your best keyword or ASIN-targeted campaigns and appear more frequently in your most successful positions.
In either condition, Kinetic’s product-level PPC data and automation assists sellers with skyrocketing their most successful campaigns and halt unprofitable ones.
Kinetic showcases a comprehensive collection of data points for your product for you to take action on with the push of a button.
With integrations from the rest of the Viral Launch suite pulling invaluable data such as search volume estimates, suggested PPC bids and recommended keywords, Kinetic provides critical data points to make your campaigns easier to run and much more data-informed.
Not to mention your most crucial, personalized sales data points can be quickly discovered in Kinetic. PPC Sales, PPC spend, RoAS, ACoS, conversion rates, organic and sponsored rank and much, much more are all automatically tracked for your campaigns and can be seen at the product level for PPC.
All of this data goes a long way when it comes to running your ad campaigns. Not only does this simplify the data to make more data-informed decisions, but they also assist with seeing why and how they’re succeeding or not. In an easy-to-view, easy-to-navigate platform, you can see the performance at a very broad level, or zoom in for a more granular view of how your product performs for specific keywords and similar or complementary ASINs.
Start improving your PPC performance today
Dig into Kinetic PPC for campaign and product level PPC data and automation like you’ve never seen before.
While Amazon’s recent addition of displaying product-level PPC performance in Brand Analytics marks a step in the right direction, it’s only a fraction of the data, automation, integration with other tools and strategic assistance provided within Kinetic.
Kinetic makes it easier than ever to supercharge your PPC campaigns and understand your product performance like ever before. For more information, check out our guide on How To Use Kinetic PPC for your first step in becoming a PPC guru.
As PPC becomes an even more significant tool in the Amazon seller arsenal, it’s even more critical to have the intelligence advantage. Now that every brand-registered Amazon seller has easy access to ASIN-level data in Brand Analytics, it’s as critical as ever to gain the edge with the advanced metrics and actionable automations available in Kinetic.
Want to stop wasting advertising spending and run more efficient campaigns? Of course you do! See what Kinetic can do for you! Sign up for your free Kinetic trial today to start running more efficient, more profitable campaigns.
Cash flow is the backbone of any eCommerce company. It is crucial to keep cash flow moving smoothly. If it becomes too much of a pinch point, it can kill the business. Cash flow is defined by the amount of cash available to your business throughout its operations. It is usually measured every month, and the primary source of promote cash flow for eCommerce businesses comes through selling product.
Cash flow is crucial for businesses and shows how much money passes through the operations. Yet, it is not the same as a profit. The funds received from customers are collected under the term cash flow. Businesses still need to pay for expenses like rent, labor, utilities, taxes, and other fees. Every company has a constant fluctuation of cash flow. The amount of cash received (and when) depends on supply and demand and the business’s monthly expenses. With proper data management, a company’s ever-changing cash flow can still be predictable and manageable and enable sound business decisions.
Why Is Cash Flow Important
Cash flow is the backbone of a business, so if it fails, the company fails. A recent study from CB Insights found that a third of companies failed because they ran out of cash. One-third of businesses also fail due to an insufficient market for the product they are selling. Which then leads to a lack of cash flow. Improperly managed cash flow streams can lead to poor decision-making, a misunderstanding of how a company’s money is spent, and ultimately be the downfall of a business.
Companies need to prioritize their cash flow to ensure that their business will stay afloat and reap more benefits from adequately managed cash flow. As businesses manage their cash flow, they pay close attention to how their money is spent and control their finances. When a company has a positive cash flow, it improves the relationships with its partners and customers and promotes brand loyalty. It can also help businesses find their strengths and weaknesses, and how best they can expand.
What Promotes Cash Flow
There are a few ways that businesses can promote cash flow and ensure that they will thrive. The first step in promoting cash flow is planning and forecasting. In order to spend money correctly, businesses need to know how much money will be coming in and when. With a better idea of how money flows through a business, there will be less overspending and fewer mistakes when judging how much money the company has.
With planning comes a strategy of what businesses should spend money on and when. Companies should plan when their cash flow is coming in and the best allocation of that money. If there is a low demand for a particular product, there is no need to spend cash flow on an abundance of inventory. Companies should find what is a priority for spending and what needs the most attention. Pay close attention to what needs fixing. This will promote more cash flow and allow attention to shift to minor issues.
Cash flow improves when companies receive money faster and hang onto it longer. Speeding up the process of obtaining cash can incentivize customers to choose a faster form of payment. Companies can hold on to money for longer by buying inventory, earning interest, and elongating the amount of time before paying expenses. This sales cycle gives control over when costs pay off and how much money is in the business at one time.
What Challenges Cash Flow
Many daily challenges come along with maintaining cash flow. Businesses that forecast their finances consistently can learn how to work around everyday challenges. Conversely, companies that do not find solutions to these problems end up with cash flow as a bigger pinch point, which can negatively impact the entire operation.
Some common challenges with cash flow include delayed payments from customers. Sometimes, purchases can happen pretty quickly. Businesses may not reap the benefits of the purchase and experience a time with a shortage of cash. Less cash flow is caused by bank deposits holding money. Or if a large sum of cash flow to buy equipment or machines, leading to businesses waiting for new revenue. Companies unaware of their total cash flow, or spend their cash flow before secure income experience negative cash flow. The life of the business is then solely dependent on the speed of its recovery.
How Payability Can Help
Payability recognizes the difficulties that eCommerce businesses face with cash flow. The funding programs are built for eCommerce businesses that need assistance filling the gap between paying expenses and receiving revenue. eCommerce businesses no longer have to worry about the risk of cash flow with the help of Payability. To see if your company qualifies for Instant Access to your marketplace payouts, visit Payability.com and apply now.
Thank you Payability for your guest post. For more information on Payability, head to their site. To better your selling business and software tools, head to Viral Launches main page.
As the world recovers from the global pandemic, eCommerce businesses are adjusting yet again to the modern landscape. We’ve seen some interesting Amazon selling trends in 2021, as merchants find new ways to stay ahead of their competition and leverage Amazon’s expanding offerings.
Now, as we near the end of 2021, let’s take a look at some key tips for selling on amazon to keep in mind for 2022.
Inspect Sample Goods Before Switching Manufacturers
Poor product reviews break listings. 89% of buyers read product reviews as part of their customer journey; you can’t afford to lose consumer trust by accumulating bad reviews. If your products have a bad reputation, you will have trouble selling them to just break even.
So, be sure to order and inspect samples from manufacturers beforehand. If you’ve been using a supplier for a while, don’t drop the ball by compromising your vetting process; it takes one wrong delivery to ultimately tank your customer reviews. Another thing to learn for selling on Amazon in 2022.
Take Advantage of Amazon’s Expanding Branding Features
Amazon’s Brand Registry gives sellers more control over their products and brand representation. The program is easy to join, and here are a few reasons why you might want to consider it (other than the fact that it’s free):
Increase product sales and conversions
While you may not notice an immediate change in your bottom line, Amazon’s Brand Registry actively works to remove fraudulent listings and delist third parties that are fraudulently using your brand’s name.
Reducing fraud is vital to building trust in your brand and driving conversions. Otherwise, if buyers unknowingly purchase a knockoff, it may reflect poorly on your brand’s image. You can use the registry to report any perceived violations and have infringements removed.
Take back control over your product’s information
Sharing accurate, valuable product information is vital to building customer loyalty. It’s essential to avoid misleading prospects and help them understand precisely how your product can benefit them.
Unfortunately, third-party sellers may not honor your core values and alter your descriptions, spreading misinformation. You can’t avoid third-party sellers either, because they make up for more than 50% of Amazon sales.
Fortunately, Amazon’s Brand Registry gives sellers more control over how products are described in the listing. After submitting your product and company information, Amazon will regulate any third-party attempts to alter them, preserving the key information.
Beyond these measures, the Brand Register protects brands against more complex fraudulent efforts as well. For example, some third parties may use your company logo or information to sell their own knock-off products. Amazon’s Brand Registry combats these malicious activities by:
Removing listings that use your company logo or trademark on products that aren’t yours.
Images need to be removed with trademarked information/items that don’t represent your company.
Removing fraudulent listings that use your brand’s information.
Learn and implement this for 2022.
Access the Sponsored Brands Feature
The Brand Registry unlocks your access to Amazon’s Sponsored Brands Feature, which is an ad format that lets businesses promote up to three products. It also allows you to include your company logo and brand name, which is great for raising brand awareness if you’re selling on Amazon.
A big draw for using the Sponsored Brands feature is that your ad will appear at the top of search results, even above “Sponsored Products.”
Stay on Top of Amazon’s Evolving SEO Algorithms
Paying attention to Amazon SEO is vital to increasing your listing’s visibility and ensuring prospects can easily find you. In a nutshell, Amazon SEO’s purpose is to help consumers buy, so the algorithm works to meet this goal.
When a consumer searches on Amazon, the algorithm quickly determines which product listing has the highest likelihood of fulfilling the searcher’s needs. In other words, Amazon’s SEO algorithm needs to figure out which listing has the highest ‘purchase likelihood’.
Similar to Google on-page SEO practices, there are technical steps you can use to improve your product ranking, including the use of keywords, images, and optimized titles and descriptions. But, to beat out the rigorous competition and rank at the top of Amazon search results, you need to convince the algorithm that consumers are ready to buy your product.
That’s where the A10 (formerly known as A9) algorithm comes in. Amazon’s algorithm undergoes continuous updates, with the ranking factors adjusting slightly every six months or so. Thus, staying current with the evolving algorithm is important to keep your product listing at the top. Keep this up for things to learn for 2022.
Amazon’s A10 algorithm, in general, prioritizes two core criteria for ranking:
The number of customer reviews
Your sales rank, which includes details like how many customers are searching for your product and buying it
It’s important not to get bogged down by the algorithm’s technicalities. Sure, it’s updated regularly, but its core working and objective remains the same: to help customers buy what they need. This intention means sellers should focus on optimizing their offerings for customers.
True to Amazon’s MO, you’ll notice that the two core criteria behind the A10 algorithm are geared towards customers. The algorithm reflects Amazon’s commitment to delivering the best customer experience. By sharing this commitment i.e., keeping customers happy and meeting market needs, you can drive your search ranking up.
Have Both a Vendor and Seller Account
Many growing businesses struggle to decide between having a vendor or a seller account, because each offers unique pros and cons. But what if you could combine the best of both worlds? Turns out you can—Amazon doesn’t restrict sellers from having both accounts.
By having both a vendor and seller account, you can complement sales efforts and mitigate restrictions. For example, seller accounts usually get fewer sales because they lack the “sold by Amazon” endorsement, so having an additional vendor account can increase your bottom line.
Retailers can also leverage the advanced analytics and flexibility of a seller account to help launch new products. Generally, Amazon is hesitant to promote new vendor products because they lack performance information. So, you can do the initial heavy-lifting and sales testing from your seller account and eventually use the analytics to encourage Amazon to endorse the item from your vendor account.
Invest in Good Customer Service Mechanisms
Amazon’s commitment to customer service and delivering the best customer experience is a critical driving factor behind the eCommerce giant’s success. Amazon sellers can take a page out of the Megacorp’s book and improve sales by committing to good customer service.
Ecommerce gives merchants access to a full suite of data, analytics, and meaningful insights to tailor marketing efforts and optimize the customer experience. However, without the right systems in place, your support team won’t be able to leverage the data to your brand’s benefit.
Thus, it’s important to invest in good customer service software solutions. For example, you might want to consider using email automation to deliver automated updates, like shipping notifications or order verification.
Additionally, it’s vital to invest in tools to centralize information to maintain customer satisfaction. If customers receive unsatisfactory answers or varying responses across channels, they become frustrated and confused, reducing your FCR (First Contact Resolution) rates. With a centralized knowledge base, you can resolve customer support requests faster and more accurately. Learn this for 2022.
Executive Summary
The core best practices for selling on Amazon don’t change. Whether you look at 2010 or 2021, successful sellers prioritize customer-first experiences, strive to deliver value, take feedback seriously, and leverage tools to optimize their operations.
As we break into 2022, it’s important to remember that these objectives won’t change, but the means to achieve them might. For example, SEO algorithms are continuously evolving, and new technological developments help businesses optimize their operations in new ways. Therefore, staying up to date with these advancements and trends is vital to keep your brand relevant and successful.
To sum things up to learn for selling on Amazon in 2022, don’t forget to:
Weigh your options out with Seller and Vendor accounts, and see if it’s beneficial to use both.
Invest in centralized knowledge and automation to deliver better customer service.
Leverage Amazon’s robust branding features.
Keep up with the latest Amazon SEO updates.
Inspect your products as they arrive.
And don’t forget to put your customers first!
—-
Jake Rheude is the Director of Marketing for Red Stag Fulfillment, an e-commerce fulfillment warehouse that was born out of e-commerce. He has years of experience in e-commerce and business development. In his free time, Jake enjoys reading about business and sharing his own experience with others.
Thank you, Jake for the guest blog post! Be on the lookout for more great content!
