Tag: viral launch tools

Conquer Keywords on Amazon: Viral Launch’s Keyword Manager

Optimizing your product listing for keywords on Amazon can quickly skyrocket sales and unlock your product’s full potential.

There are plenty of ways to make money on Amazon, but for those who choose the FBA route, optimizing your listing for keywords on Amazon is a must regarding maximizing your opportunities for sales success.

Whether through organic search or the advertising route, understanding your product’s popular (and less popular) keywords is essential to reach customers searching for your product.

That’s why we created Keyword Manager, our comprehensive keyword tool that helps you stay on top of your keywords in every single way.

Quite simply, Keyword Manager is your go-to tool for all things keyword related. With stakes higher now than ever, it’s crucial to ensure your keywords are on-point during the hectic holiday season.

All you need to do to get started is sign up for a plan that includes Keyword Manager and grant MWS and Seller Central authorization, and let Keyword Manager go to work with creating your personalized, all-in-one keyword dashboard.

What exactly does Keyword Manager do?

Keyword Manager includes nearly all the keyword data you could ask for, personalized for you.

Keyword Manager delivers an encyclopedic list of keywords for your product, along with various metrics to help you understand, track and strategize your keywords like never before, all in one easy-to-view spot.

Consider it a digital checklist for all your keyword needs no matter where you’re at in your Amazon selling journey.

Making sure your listing’s copy includes all of your product’s essential keywords, checking for indexation, finding organic and sponsored rank positioning, displaying badges such as Amazon’s Choice and presenting the search volume for these keywords are just a few of the handy things Keyword Manager does automatically for each and every one of your products listed on Amazon.

How does Keyword Manager identify your most valuable keywords on Amazon?

That would be our revolutionary ARCS™ algorithm!

ARCS™ (ASIN Relevance and Conformity Semantics) programmatically determines the most relevant and important keywords for products on Amazon. Think of it like a reverse ASIN search on steroids.

The data science team at Viral Launch cooked up ARCS™ to evaluate up to 10,000 keywords and 500,000 products to determine the critical keywords for a given product.

This process plays an instrumental role in finding and sorting the keywords you should be most interested in regarding your product’s performance. Of course, you can also manually add any keywords in Keyword Manager to ensure every last one of the keywords you care about is displayed.

What are the Keyword Manager Dashboard Metrics?

Priority Score

Priority Score is a rating from 0-1000 that indicates a keyword’s importance based on search volume analysis. This score is based on our proprietary algorithms and is a good indicator for which words are most important to get into your listing. Of course, you want your highly-relevant, high-search-volume words in your listing.

Relevancy Score

Relevancy Score is a scale between 0-1000 that rates how relevant each keyword is to your seed keyword. To determine relevance, Keyword Research runs a massive Reverse Market Lookup. This is similar to a Reverse ASIN Lookup, but bigger and better.

Volume Estimate

The Volume Estimate metric showcases how often customers search for a given phrase on Amazon. Our search volume estimate numbers arrive via our Keyword Research tool and utilize a proprietary formula to determine search estimates over the past 30 days. When you click on the number, you’ll find historical search volume estimates, which come in handy regarding seasonality.

CPC Bid

A suggested keyword’s bid cost for Amazon’s Sponsored Ads, based on our tracking and recommended best practices.

Opportunity Score

Opportunity Score is a rating from 0 to 1000 that measures a keyword’s potential to rank based on a market analysis of each keyword’s top-selling products. A low score means most competitors are using the term in their listing and thus low opportunity. But a high opportunity score means that the top 10 listings don’t include the term (or some variation of that term) in their listing. Adding high-opportunity keywords to your listing is a quick and easy way to pick up some easy rankings with solid volume.

Used in Listing

It’s as simple as it sounds! Is this keyword in your listing? Our Listing Builder tool lets you cross off keywords as they’re added to your listing’s copy, but this aspect of Keyword Manager works for already-written listings to ensure your listing is fully optimized for search.

Indexed?

Contrary to popular belief, utilizing a keyword phrase in your listing doesn’t guarantee that it will index for the keyword in question. While it’s most likely you will index for those keywords, there are exceptions. This column helps prevent blind spots for keywords in your listing that you’re not indexing for, allowing you to move keywords into higher-priority places to achieve indexation and become eligible to rank.

Organic Rank

Where is your product ranking for this particular keyword? You can sort this column by your highest-ranking keywords to get a feel for where your products are the most visible without advertising. Also, an arrow pointing up or down may accompany the number in this column if applicable, indicating whether you’re trending upwards or downwards lately. You can click into this number to see your ranking over time as well for a longer view into your trajectory.

Sponsored Rank

Running PPC ads? This column shows where your product is being displayed on search pages, so you can see how much bang you’re getting for your buck and easily see how positioning impacts sales.

Never miss a beat when tracking keywords

During the busiest sales days of the year, Keyword Manager’s keyword-tracking capabilities should be your best friend.

Of course, tracking keywords all year round should be on all Amazon sellers’ radar, but the holidays and signature sales events raise the stakes substantially. Tracking keywords allows you to monitor your performance and manage your visibility virtually in real-time. By doing this, you can quickly limit the amount of ground lost when you drop in rank and optimize your offering while ascending.

It’s as easy as 1-2-3 to start tracking keywords in Keyword Manager. Simply tick the box next to Rank Change Notifications for the desired keyword and customize your notifications in the following pop-up. Boom!

If you’re not constantly checking your inbox, you can always customize your email app settings to ensure you receive Viral Launch emails as push notifications to ensure you’re primed to act on these changes as quickly as you’d like to.

Since visibility is king on Amazon, this element is a no-brainer to stay on top of your game all year round, but especially during the busiest times of the year when things can change rapidly and have resounding repercussions.

Wrapping it up

Regarding tracking keywords on Amazon, nobody does it better than Viral Launch’s Keyword Manager. Within the software suite, you can easily discover new insights, track performance, and take swift action to supercharge your Amazon business for peak performance.

During this holiday season and beyond, beef up your keyword game with the all-encompassing Keyword Manager to always be on top of your game. Once you’ve added your product to Keyword Manager, it’s like adding a high-powered, mastery-level assistant to your team with handy tips for improving your business.

Get started today and make the most out of this holiday season and ride into 2023 on a wave of sales!

Get started for FREE with the entire Viral Launch software suite today!

Amazon Selling: How to Advertise Your Business During Major Sales Events

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.

Know When The Math Changes

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

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.

Understanding Benefits Beyond The Obvious

Photo by Negative Space on Pexels.com

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.

Balancing Sales and Profitability

Photo by EKATERINA BOLOVTSOVA on Pexels.com

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.

Graphic and data originally from perpetua.io.
Graphic and data originally from perpetua.io.

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.

Set yourself up with Kinetic PPC today to manage campaigns, monitor keywords and product performance and optimize your advertising experience today.

Pro vs. Pro Plus Ads: Which of the Amazon Seller Plans Is Right for You?

The world of Amazon is a wild one, with different seller tools required at each stage of the journey. Therefore, it’s a tremendous benefit to dig through Amazon seller plans to discover the software tools that are just right for you!

If you remember the fairytale Goldilocks and the Three Bears, you’ll remember Goldilocks making herself comfortable in the forest home Papa Bear, Mama Bear, and Baby Bear. Each time Goldilocks tests out an element of the home (chairs, beds, bowls of porridge), one option is not enough, another too much, and the third option is juuuust right.

Depending on which stage you’re at in your Amazon journey, you’ll likely relate to Goldilocks when deciding between software packages. One option may not have all the capabilities you’re looking for. Another may have too many tools, resulting in you paying for tools you don’t need.

At Viral Launch, we specialize in creating software with relevant and reliably accurate data that Amazon sellers can leverage to thrive in the marketplace. With three unique plans thoughtfully designed to meet sellers at their stage, we have the right plan for you.

Without further ado, let’s break down the differences between our two most comprehensive Amazon seller plans, Pro and Pro Plus Ads.

[Check out our Amazon seller plans, packed with innovative, industry-leading data!]

The Pro Package

Firstly, let’s begin with our most popular software bundle. The Pro package contains everything Amazon sellers need to start and grow their business accordingly.

Viral Launch’s Market Intelligence tool, via the Chrome extension.

What’s Included in Pro

  • Product Discovery: Quickly uncover brilliant product ideas to start selling on Amazon! With 4 unique search types and plenty of filters, sellers can reverse engineer product ideas that align with their goals and resources.
  • Market Intelligence: Master your market to ensure your product’s success! Gain access to the most accurate sales estimates along with price, and review trend data to consequently understand the market and validate product ideas.
  • Keyword Research: Eliminate the guesswork with the markedly most accurate search volume estimate data available. Search for a product and instantly see a list of all related keywords with current and historical search data.
  • Competitor Intelligence: Know the competition better than they know themselves with our cutting-edge reverse ASIN lookup tool. Find out what they’re doing right or wrong and use that info to optimize your listing, ads, and more.
  • Listing Builder: Craft an SEO-optimized product listing designed to convert with our time-saving tool. With a comprehensive keyword list to draw from and real-time feedback with our Optimization Score, anybody can significantly improve their listing’s copy!
  • Listing Analyzer: Never miss out on a sale due to a lousy listing ever again! The innovative tool provides data-based feedback and performs a SWOT analysis as a result to make sure every aspect of your listing is top-notch.
  • Keyword Manager: Uncover cutting-edge keyword analytics such as index checks, organic and ad rank tracking, search volume trends, badge notifications, and keyword scores.

With a full fleet of insightful seller tools, it’s no wonder why it’s our most popular subscription package. Lastly, at $99/month, Pro is a cost-efficient option for Amazon sellers looking to start or grow their Amazon business.

The Pro Plus Ads Plan

Optimize your PPC campaigns like never before possible with Kinetic!

The Pro Plus Ads package explicitly gives Amazon sellers access to all of the seller tools in Pro, plus access to our innovative advertising console to scale their business. Kinetic, our comprehensive PPC advertising solution, makes PPC simpler for beginners while simultaneously boasting advanced customizability and unmatched data reporting for PPC experts.

Visibility is the name of the game on Amazon. Formerly, organic rank was the only way to be visible for customers searching for your product on Amazon. At the present time, PPC advertising allows anyone can gain exposure if they’re willing to pay for it.

Furthermore, the possibilities for your business are limitless with consistently high-performing advertising campaigns.

What’s Included in Pro Plus Ads

  • Every tool included within the Pro package. That’s right. All of them.
  • Kinetic: Automate your PPC campaigns like never before! Set manual or automatic rules into place to end underperforming ads or scale up successful campaigns and see easy-to-view PPC metrics to optimize campaign performance.
  • Elevated usage limits across all tools with limits

RELATED: How to Use Kinetic, Viral Launch’s PPC Tool

Packed with integrations from the Viral Launch software suite, sellers can perform next-level PPC campaigns based on the most accurate sales and keyword data in the market.

Perhaps the most flashy aspect of Kinetic is that you can create automated rules based on your campaign performance. In a nutshell, this allows you to put an end to inefficient campaigns to prevent wasteful spending, or increase spending on ones that are thriving.

Priced at $199 per month or $1,990 annually, the plan practically pays for itself with well-structured campaigns and

In Conclusion

To sum up, the main difference between Pro Plus Ads and Pro is access to the Kinetic PPC platform.

For Amazon sellers looking to establish their brand on Amazon, the Pro plan has everything you need to jumpstart your success. By

On the other hand, if you’re a seller looking to exponentially expand your brand, break sales plateaus, and dominate on Amazon, the Pro Plus Ads plan possesses the tools to make that happen.

Do either of these plans sound right for you? Whether the answer is yes or if you’re still on the fence, sign up for our free 14-day trial to Pro Plus Ads to take the next step in finding the Amazon seller plan that’s right for you!

Want the latest Amazon updates sent directly to your inbox? Subscribe below to never miss important Amazon news!

Amazon Market Intelligence Chrome Extension: New Features

With Viral Launch’s Market Intelligence Chrome Extension, discovering insights into product markets directly on Amazon has never been easier. And it just got even better.

In the latest version of our chrome Amazon extension, we’ve pushed major updates to conveniently elevate your product research to new heights!

Without further ado…

Introducing The Keywords Tab

We’ve added a Keywords tab with key metrics from our Keyword Research tool in addition to the four existing tabs (Sellers, Trends, Analysis, and Calculator). Open up the Keywords tab when examining a page of Amazon search results or on an individual ASIN’s page, and you’ll see the following updates:

Related Search Terms

Using our proprietary ARCS algorithm and powerful collection of Keyword Research data, the extension now provides related search terms for you.

For example, researching “couch pillows” might come in handy. However, the search term “throw pillows” generates more than triple the search volume and would be a better primary keyword to use for your research.

Too often, sellers make the mistake of performing product research under a secondary or tertiary search term instead of the primary keyword. With this feature, you can now avoid making that mistake by quickly comparing search volume estimates for a handful of the most relevant search terms for the keyword.

Google Trends Integration

Think you’ve spotted an emerging trend? Use Google Trends to validate ideas beyond the Amazon marketplace in just a click.

On top of receiving access to our Amazon search volume estimates, you can now check Google Trends to see how in-demand a search term is outside of Amazon. Under the displayed search term, just click on the Trends icon to see search interest directly from the company synonymous with search.

While we stand firmly behind Amazon search volume estimates being the most significant consumer demand indicator, we also believe the more data available at your fingertips, the better equipped you are.

Why do we recommend Amazon search volume estimates? Easy. While Amazon and Google are both search engines, they serve two entirely different purposes. Google’s mission is to organize information and make information universally accessible; Amazon search takes you to a marketplace.

At the very core, Amazon searches are done with buyer intent, while Google searches are made to learn. However, Google trends data can help determine seasonal interest and provide another avenue of product research for the growing number of Amazon sellers expanding their brand beyond the confines of the Amazon marketplace.

Scout Your Competitors Like Never Before

We’ve incorporated our reverse ASIN lookup tool, Competitor Intelligence, into our chrome Amazon extension so you can uncover how an individual ASIN is performing across crucial keywords.

When running the chrome Amazon extension on a product page, the Keywords tab quickly compiles the organic rank for the selected ASIN.

Now you can instantly dig deeper into the performance of competitors! Knowing where the competition is succeeding and where opportunities exist helps you stay one step ahead and fast-track your Amazon success.

For an even more comprehensive look into your competitors and how they’re ranking on a keyword-by-keyword basis, be sure to add the competing ASIN into Competitor Intelligence for a deep dive into their performance.

The Market Intelligence extension is free to add to your Chrome browser. However, you’ll need a subscription to our Essentials package to earn access to the abundance of impactful data that has helped thousands with their product research.

Lastly, drop your email below to receive the latest Viral Launch product updates and Amazon news in your inbox!

Unveiling Viral Launch’s Revamped Pricing Plans: What’s New

With Viral Launch’s updated pricing plans, we aim to help sellers at each stage of selling on Amazon dominate in 2021 and beyond.

At Viral Launch, we’re committed to providing you with the tools and data you need to dominate on Amazon! So it only makes sense that as Amazon continuously evolves, so do we.

From researching product ideas to sourcing materials to scaling your online business, each stage of selling on Amazon requires unique tools and data points to make intelligent, data-backed decisions.

As we aim to support Amazon sellers throughout their entrepreneurial journey, our subscription plans have been thoughtfully redesigned to meet Amazon sellers’ needs at each stage.

Get Started With Essentials

You talked, we listened.

Formerly our Beginner’s Research Kit, our new Essentials product research bundle receives a few significant upgrades. Due to popular demand, we’ve overhauled our product research bundle with two features previously unavailable: reliably accurate search volume estimates and our proprietary Product Idea Score.

Search Volume Estimates

Reverse engineer product ideas by filtering through categories, sales, price, search volume, and more!

Search volume estimates are a vital element of product research, as they’re an incredibly powerful indicator of demand. At its core, Amazon operates as a search engine where searchers have a firm intention to buy.

In December of 2018, Amazon made changes to their data collection that prevented third-party providers from collecting exact search volume. With search volume estimates generated from an in-house data science team, we are extremely confident in the accuracy of our estimates.

Furthermore, if you’re a seller with access to Brand Analytics, you can judge our accuracy by comparing our estimates to the Search Frequency Rank.

Subscribers to our Essentials plan now have access to this high-impact metric. In Product Discovery, feel free to set minimum and maximum filters for estimated search volume to find products with your ideal amount of demand.

Product Idea Score

Our Product Idea Score is a rating system of 1-5 stars that analyzes key metrics such as monthly sales, review trends, sales patterns, market competition, and much more into one composite score.

Once you’ve filled out your search criteria, you can now sort by Product Idea Score to quickly assess the strength of an idea.

While not meant to replace thorough, intensive product research, the score is designed to simplify the product research process. We strongly recommend using the score as an indicator of if a product is worth further investigating.

Previously available exclusively to annual subscribers, this advanced metric is now available to monthly subscribers to our Essentials, Pro, and Pro Plus Ads software plans.

Product Discovery: Quickly uncover brilliant product ideas to start selling on Amazon! With 4 unique search types and plenty of filters, sellers can reverse engineer product ideas that align with their goals and resources.

Market Intelligence: Master your market to ensure your product’s success! Gain access to the most accurate sales estimates along with price and review trend data to understand the market and validate product ideas.

The Viral Launch Pro Package

Our Pro plan retains all of the features that make it our most popular package, with a few upgrades.

Pro subscribers receive access to everything included in Essentials, plus full access to Keyword Research, Listing Builder, Competitor Intelligence, Listing Analyzer, and Keyword Manager. Additionally, Pro subscribers now can utilize the Product Idea Score.

We’ve also expanded the limits for Competitor Intelligence, Listing Analyzer, and Keyword Manager to allow sellers more data than ever! In addition to Product Discovery and Market Intelligence, Pro subscribers get the following tools and features:

Keyword Research: Eliminate the guesswork with the most accurate search volume estimate data available. Search for a product and instantly see a list of all related keywords with current and historical search data.

Competitor Intelligence: Know the competition better than they know themselves with our cutting-edge reverse ASIN lookup tool. Find out what they’re doing right or wrong and use that info to optimize your listing, ads, and more.

Listing Builder: Craft an SEO-optimized product listing designed to convert with our time-saving tool. With a comprehensive keyword list and real-time feedback with our Optimization Score, create your listing’s copy like a pro!

Listing Analyzer: Never miss out on a sale due to a lousy listing ever again! The innovative tool provides data-based feedback and performs a SWOT analysis to ensure every aspect of your listing is top-notch.

Keyword Manager: Uncover cutting-edge keyword analytics such as index checks, organic and ad rank tracking, search volume trends, badge notifications, and keyword scores.

The New Pro Plus Ads: Now With Kinetic PPC

Our renovated Pro Plus Ads package has been thoughtfully designed for Amazon sellers looking to effectively and efficiently scale their brand.

Formerly, our two highest-level tiers were Brand Builder and Kinetic PPC. We’ve merged them into one comprehensive package. As a result, Pro Plus Ads contains the full fleet of Viral Launch software to provide everything you need to take your Amazon business to the next level!

Pro Plus Ads subscribers gain access to Kinetic PPC, our time-saving tool created to optimize and simplify pay-per-click advertising. Generally, sellers are often scorned by PPC, with it being too complicated to understand, too expensive, or too time-consuming to be worth the opportunity cost.

Kinetic PPC eliminates or mitigates these roadblocks so you can run high-performing PPC campaigns to reach more customers, improve organic rank, and take your Amazon business to new heights!

Moreover, sellers on our new-and-improved Pro Plus Ads package secure access to every tool in our software suite, including all tools within the Pro plan and Kinetic.

KINETIC: Automate your PPC campaigns like never before! Set manual or automatic rules into place to end underperforming ads or scale-up successful campaigns and subsequently see easy-to-view PPC metrics to optimize campaign performance.

We certainly know that starting PPC can be daunting and filled with questions. No worries! We have plenty of resources to help you start advertising on Amazon. For instance, our Kinetic PPC education series provides fundamental knowledge and strategy to Amazon advertising.

Find Your Viral Launch Pricing Plan Today

Lastly, be sure to check out our updated pricing page with our new subscription tiers for more information. Start your free trial today to access innovative tools to assist with building your Amazon business.

Have any questions? Feel free to drop a comment or reach out to our customer service team at service@viral-launch.com!

Want the latest Viral Launch updates, Amazon news, and seller tips and tricks sent straight to your inbox? Just drop your email in the box below!

Amazon 2020 Year in Review: The Hottest Items of a Year Like No Other

The Amazon 2020 Year in Review: Examining the products that defined the past year.

“What was it like living in 2020?”

We’ll likely be tasked with answering that question at some point in the future. And oh boy, how would we begin?

Undoubtedly, we’ve all had our own unique, personal experience with 2020. But collectively, you can tell the story of 2020 through consumer trends. What were we looking for and buying? What was popular in 2020 like no time before?

Behind the year’s hottest items lies a story about a year for the history books. Shoppers bought more items on Amazon than ever before, an important benchmark that tells a story of its own. Responsible for nearly half the items sold online, Amazon is a powerhouse packed with an almost unlimited trove of insightful data.

Using Viral Launch’s comprehensive software suite, including tools such as Keyword Research and Market Intelligence, we’ve tracked Amazon trends via sales and search volume.

Using that information, we’ve compiled your Amazon 2020 Year in Review, with the data on the year’s hottest items.

The COVID-19 Pandemic

Face Masks

What a difference a year makes. Remember when “face mask” conjured thoughts of a football helmet, Halloween accessory, or a part of a beauty routine? Man, those were the days.

With an estimated search volume that lingered around 240,000 searches per month for nearly two years, we can’t accurately say the phrase itself came out of nowhere.

PICTURED: Estimated searches for “face mask” on Amazon over time.

But the reasoning behind this search began to change and take on a whole new meaning starting in February as COVID-19 infiltrated the country. As towns, cities, and states mandate the wearing of masks to contain the virus, demand is higher than ever as we enter 2021.

With over 1.8 million searches this month, face masks may be as popular of an item that Amazon has ever had.

With the influx of searches, sales skyrocketed.

In the image on the left, we see sales estimates for a top-selling face mask listing dating back to January 2019. For the entirety of 2019, they sold between 100-200 units per month. Since late March, they’ve sold over 1,000 units per month for much of the year.

Many of the top sellers for the product just started selling in the past few months, as longtime sellers were wiped out of inventory quickly due to boom in demand. As the need for face masks has persisted, it’s allowed newer sellers to enter the market and find success.

But face masks were far from the only COVID-related product to rise to prominence in 2020…

Hand Sanitizer

We imagine no two products paired more often than face masks and hand sanitizer for the year.

Unlike face masks, there was no redefining “hand sanitizer” this year and it’s a product that has always experienced consistent sales. But clearly, the demand climbed exponentially in the wake of COVID-19.

Brands such as Germ-X, Purell, Rubbermaid, and Amazon’s Solimo were at the forefront of the pack to take on the massive amount of traffic looking to kill 99.9% of germs.

However, even the major brands couldn’t have been prepared for the onslaught of sales. As showcased in the image below, sales stagnated for months on certain listings, almost certainly due to providing enough inventory to meet the insatiable demand.

At Home Products

But COVID-19 had a much larger imprint on our buying habits than directly stopping or killing the virus through masks and sanitizer.

Due to the abrupt changing of our world, we had to adjust our everyday habits on the fly. Of these changes, finding alternatives to the gym has been one of the more impactful ones on Amazon. Whether because of gyms closing, restrictions on gym-goers, or people preferring to not using shared equipment, the home workout market has been on a tear.

If you’ve tried purchasing at-home gym equipment over the past few months, you’re well aware of this.

These popular Bowflex adjustable dumbbells are a space-efficient solution for working out at home, but you’ll have to wait up to 4 months before it’s in route to your home.

Hoping to avoid the dreaded “quarantine 15” weight gain, many gym-related products have seen a dramatic upswing in interest on Amazon. Across the board, searches for treadmills, dumbbells, adjustable dumbbells, and jump rope have all experienced nearly four times as much traffic at its 2020 peak compared to pre-COVID demand.

Additionally, work life shifted from the office to remote for many companies. In recent months, it’s become apparent that work-from-home is here to stay. Workers have begun to turn their at-home work station from makeshift to one that better fits their long-term needs, the market for traditional office supplies has grown substantially.

In the last quarter of 2020, the following home office products have seen a dramatic increase in demand; office chairs, desks, desk accessories, and HDMI cables to get that time-saving double-screen action going.

Here’s to 2021’s Year In Review centering around getting back to normal as we defeat the virus and get back to normal.

2020: The Year TikTok Broke Through

In a more typical year, 2020 would be known as the year of TikTok.

Once upon a time, the lifespan of a social network platform was brief. One day there’s a brand new app that your cool friend is touting. The next, it’s gone the way of the dinosaur. When was the last time you updated your Myspace Top 8? Made any cool Vines lately?

Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter all have a decade or more under their belt. Snapchat isn’t far behind. With the massive amount of money bankrolling these social networks, it had been a while since a new social network materialized that could compete.

From government intervention to surpassing 100 million U.S. users to the rise of content houses dedicated to TikTok stars, the app has solidified itself as Gen Z’s breakout social media.

Even before TikTok announced eCommerce integrations to allow merchants a larger presence on the platform, the rise of TikTok trickled into consumerism.

The Ring Light

Once an accessory for photographers and select content creators, the ring light became a must-have item for TikTokers this year. Peaking during the holidays, over 1.6 million estimated searches were performed for the product.

LEFT: Search volume for “ring light.” RIGHT: Search history for “ring light with stand.”

While searches for “ring light” peaked at the end of the year just in time for the holiday season, “ring light with stand” made a considerable leap in April and May before a holiday push.

Likewise, green screens saw a rise thanks to TikTok and it’s feature to use any backdrop with a handy green screen. As TikTokers pros like Jason Derulo and Will Smith use green screens for content gold, they rushed to Amazon to get one of their own.

@jasonderulo

Posting my faves til 2021 @chrisashley @willsmith #willxjason

♬ Love Not War (The Tampa Beat) – Jason Derulo & Nuka

Evidenced by over 440,000 estimated searches in December (compared to 106,000 in January), green screens were on everyone’s holiday wishlist.

Pop Culture Trends of 2020

As we spend more time indoors than ever, the year saw a rare shift back to the monoculture. With so many different sources of entertainment available, finding shared experiences through pop culture became a rarity. In a time where we were around family and friends less than ever, pop culture events of the past year gave us ample conversation topics, even if those conversations were through text, social networks, or Zoom.

Here are the shows, events, and games that helped define the past year.

The Netflix Standouts

Demand for tiger shirts roared during the show’s peak in April, then again right in time for Halloween.

With how long this year has felt, it may be difficult to believe that Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness came out in March. But it’s true. Just as the coronavirus forced us indoors, Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin entered our lives and became the modern-day Hatfields and McCoys.

Released on March 12th, the day between the WHO declaring COVID-19 a pandemic, the docuseries provided much-needed entertainment and comic relief as we headed indoors.

But Tiger King was far from the only blockbuster hit from Netflix. In the last few months of the year, The Queen’s Gambit became the most-watched scripted miniseries in Netflix’s history. The drama, set in the 1950s and 1960s, renewed interest in the strategy-based board game.

For a top-selling chess kit, The Queen’s Gambit premiere on October 23rd kicked off a dramatic uptick in sales.

Premiering on October 23rd, searches and purchases have spiked for chess-related terms. In September, searches for “chess set” totaled 41,868. As the show’s rise in popularity coincided with the holiday season, searches were up to 345,245 in December. But the holiday season alone can’t be attributed to the uptick in searches for the phrase, as December 2018 and December 2019 each had between 105,000 and 120,000 searches.

The Queen’s Gambit’s popularity and the resulting blitz of traffic and sales prove selling the right product on Amazon at the right time can be incredibly rewarding.

The Kobe Effect

On January 26th, the world lost NBA legend Kobe Bryant in a helicopter accident that took the lives of Bryant and eight others, including his daughter Gianna. Around the world, millions of fans lamented for the fallen icon.

Fans of Bryant sought solace in merchandise to honor the basketball icon.

Just before COVID-19 changed American life, countless fans of “The Black Mamba” gathered outside of the Staples Center in Los Angeles, where Bryant provided so many memories throughout his storied career. Fans adorned the area surrounding the arena with murals and items to memorialize Bryant.

As fans grieved, people sought Bryant gear to show their allegiance to Bryant was as strong as ever.

While Amazon typically isn’t the go-to source for athletic apparel from signature athletes, fans flocked to the eCommerce retailer looking for available merch. Much of Bryant’s signature merchandise is through the NBA or Nike, both of whom exclusively sell in their own stories.

However, part of Bryant’s allure is that he wasn’t just a typical athlete. You can find the five-time NBA champion’s autobiography, series of children’s books, and much more on Amazon.

Sports In 2020: Checking In On The Champs

Search volume trends for champions in the four major U.S. professional sports leagues mirrored the popularity of each sport in recent years, highlighting that football is America’s true pastime. Below, you’ll find each 2020 champion’s peak monthly estimated search volume.

(NFL) Chiefs: 174,757
(NBA) Lakers: 82,758
(MLB) Dodgers: 41,967
(NHL) Tampa Bay Lightning: 38,959

Even as teams played in empty or sparsely packed arenas, fans showed their support from afar.

The Gamers Level Up

Similar to TikTok, 2020 was a new high score for gaming. With more time spent indoors and next-generation XBOX and PlayStation consoles, it’s no surprise that competitive and casual gaming alike powered up. Amazon-owned Twitch, a streaming platform used primarily for gamers, nearly doubled the amount of content watched from Q3 2019 (2.5 billion hours) to Q3 2020 (4.7 billion).

The 2020 Console Wars

The latest battle of the Console Wars, with the XBOX Series X and PlayStation 5 consoles releasing in the last quarter of 2020. Due to production and manufacturing delays causing a stock shortage, many gamers are still refreshing their browsers in hopes for a restock.

Because of this, gamers are searching for the consoles at an astronomical rate. But which console wins in our 2020 year in review?

Over the holiday season, the PlayStation 5 appears to be the desired next-gen console for Amazon shoppers.

During the most popular shopping season, Sony’s Playstation 5 is holding a steady lead over its counterpart from Microsoft. Hopefully, more and more gamers can make the switch to next-gen as more consoles become available.

For reasons good and bad, 2020 has been a year for the books. As the ball drops in Times Square signaling the beginning of 2021, we at Viral Launch wish you a happy new year!

Thanks for checking out our Amazon 2020 Year In Review! Did we miss anything you think belongs on the list? Feel free to start your free trial with Viral Launch to dig through the data on your own! What was your favorite trend of 2020? Drop a comment below and let us know!

Want to make money by selling on Amazon? Learn from the experts in our totally FREE seller course!

The Viral Launch Black Friday & Cyber Monday Special

Thanks to sellers, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are two of the most anticipated shopping dates on the calendar.

At Viral Launch, we believe the sellers deserve a deal too!

That’s why we’re offering them 50% off the first month of Pro monthly, our most popular plan.

What’s included in a Pro Monthly subscription? Everything you need to find winning products, be a master of your market, and keep tabs on your listing’s performance. Whether you’re looking for your first product to source and sell or an FBA veteran, our Pro plan has everything you need for every step of the way.

With a Pro Seller plan, you’ll receive access to SEVEN insightful tools to take the next steps in your FBA journey:

  • Product Discovery: Quickly uncover brilliant product ideas to start selling on Amazon! With 4 unique search types and plenty of filters, sellers can reverse engineer product ideas that align with their goals and resources.
  • Market Intelligence: Master your market to ensure your product’s success! Gain access to the most accurate sales estimates along with price, and review trend data to understand the market and validate product ideas.
  • Keyword Research: Eliminate the guesswork with the most accurate search volume estimate data available. Search for a product and instantly see a list of all related keywords with current and historical search data.
  • Competitor Intelligence: Know the competition better than they know themselves with our cutting-edge reverse ASIN lookup tool. Find out what they’re doing right or wrong and use that info to optimize your listing, ads, and more.
  • Listing Builder: Craft an SEO-optimized product listing designed to convert with our time-saving tool. With a comprehensive keyword list to draw from and real-time feedback with our Optimization Score, anybody can create their listing’s copy like a pro!
  • Listing Analyzer: Never miss out on a sale due to a lousy listing ever again! The innovative tool provides data-based feedback and performs a SWOT analysis to make sure every aspect of your listing is top-notch.
  • Keyword Manager: Uncover cutting-edge keyword analytics such as index checks, organic and ad rank tracking, search volume trends, badge notifications, and keyword scores.

But this deal won’t last forever! Lock this in before the end of day on Cyber Monday 2020 to gain access to the seller tools powering some of Amazon’s most successful sellers.

40,000 Strong: Viral Launch Reaches 40K Product Launches

Here at Viral Launch, our mission is to help you meet your goals as an Amazon seller, big or small (although we always advocate for dreaming big!).

While we don’t spend too much time resting on our laurels or patting ourselves on the back, we just reached an important milestone. This milestone in particular has had a direct impact on the lives and dreams of our clients as well as our company. And we think taking the time, however briefly, to recognize where we’ve been and what we’ve done is a great way to help keep our feet pointed due north as we push ahead to the future.

So all philosophical waxing aside, here’s the big news: earlier this month, Viral Launch officially hit 40,000(!) Launches. That’s 40,000 of our clients’ products that we’ve Launched, helping them take one more step toward success.

How We Got Here

Let’s take a moment to consider how far we’ve come. You may already know some of this, especially if you’ve been a follower of Viral Launch for a while, but let’s quickly recap.

In addition to our Launch milestone, Viral Launch also recently celebrated a birthday. Our company turned 4 years old in early October and then a few days later, we surpassed the 40,000 Launches mark (happy birthday to us!). Pretty cool for a company not even a half a decade old.

We also had a pretty epic birthday celebration:

Having worked in leadership roles at other companies, Viral Launch President/COO Mitch Black said it’s important, especially for a young company, to take a step back once in a while to celebrate success.

“It’s important we take note of milestones like this for all of our constituents including customers, employees, the community and our affiliates,” Mitch said. “It’s a milestone in just a few years in business that not only measures our short-term success, but is indicative of our long-term success.”

 

Viral Launch President/COO Mitch Black

We’ve come a long way since our humble beginnings. Our CEO and Co-Founder, Casey Gauss, along with Co-Founder Jordan Dekker conceptualized Viral Launch in the fall of 2014 while the two were in college, and the company was founded shortly thereafter.

But they never expected their dorm room dream would one day turn into a full-fledged company.

“When we created Viral Launch, we initially set out to create a small service as a side project,” Casey said. “I never would have dreamed that we would run thousands of Launches, let alone tens of thousands!”

A few months after the inception of Viral Launch, Casey had taken most of the control of the company and had set his sights on making Viral Launch a success in the long-term as well.

The months and years following consisted of hard work and dedication, as well as a little bit of luck, that contributed to our success. This includes Casey programming the original Viral Launch platform with socks on his hands because he couldn’t afford heat in his apartment. What doesn’t kill you, right?

Viral Launch Co-Founder/CEO Casey Gauss

“Looking back, I am both blown away at the incredible number of Launches we’ve been able to run and honored that we’ve had the chance to help so many brands and entrepreneurs over the last four years,” Casey said.  

Things have also come full circle as Jordan has recently re-joined the team as our own in-house ecommerce expert.

If you want to read more about the humble beginnings of Viral Launch and how we got here, check out Casey’s blog post on the topic.

You can also check out this video from Casey’s personal Vlog, with awesome footage captured over the years.

What this Means for Viral Launch

While hitting 40,000 Launches is a cool milestone for us as a company, we’re more concerned about how that has affected the amazing entrepreneurs we’ve worked with.

“Hitting this milestone is a key indicator based on volume that says we care about our customers,” Mitch said. “It is a testament to all the Viral Launch employees that we continue to provide a high level of customer service that has enabled over 40,000 Product Launches.”

These days, we’re running hundreds of Product Launches a day, which helps to generate valuable keyword ranking and additional revenue for our clients.

Running Launches also helps us gather data to provide better, more informed services and tech to our clients.

“Looking toward the future, the data we’ve been able to gather through these 40,000 Product Launches has been instrumental to shaping our product roadmap and laying the foundation for some game changing new technologies we have in the works,” Casey said.

Where We’re Going

Reaching a milestone like this is all the more reason to keep pushing the envelope to provide the best software and services to our clients. Because at the end of the day, that’s why we’re here! Accolades like this along the way are nice, but to us this just means we’ve created something that can truly help people and people are noticing.

So to anyone and everyone who has used our software or services, we want to extend a huge THANK YOU for letting us be a part of your journey.

Looking ahead, this milestone means we’ve got a lot to look forward to and a lot more work to be done.

“I see the future as bright for us,” Black said. “We exist to help build the most dominant brands in E-commerce through innovative and data-driven automation. This measure is validation we are on the right path. Viral Launch will continue to empower brands through technology and data to become leading forces on Amazon – the world’s largest E-commerce marketplace.”

With that being said, keep your eyes open for what’s to come from Viral Launch. We’ve got a lot of really cool stuff planned for the future, some of which is coming your way very soon!

And once again, thank you for helping make Viral Launch what it is today!

New Features Make Viral Launch Smarter, Better, and Stronger

At Viral Launch, it’s our mission to help you build the most successful Amazon businesses. We love having the opportunity to be a part of your entrepreneurial journey, and we don’t take this honor lightly. Part of our mission is providing you with the most sophisticated, effective, and results-driven Amazon seller tools in the world.

Based upon your feedback, over the past few months, we’ve pushed nearly 100 code changes, consisting of new search filters, performance improvements, and new features. 😱 And there is a lot more in the pipeline!

Here is a quick overview of some of the updates:

  • Product Discovery now easier for new sellers with Preset Searches
  • Mobile Friendly Product Discovery and Market Intelligence
  • 10,000,000+ New Products, Keywords, and Brands
  • New Filters
  • Bug Fixes

Preset Searches in Product Discovery

Product Discovery is a comprehensive and sophisticated tool that, for sellers with limited experience, can be quite intimidating. We understand. And that’s why we’ve made Product Discovery even more accessible with Preset Searches.

Presets allow you to run with filter combinations that we’ve created for you. For example, if you are looking for High Margin Market opportunities, but you don’t know which filters to use to find them, no worries! With Preset Searches, you select what type of results you are looking for, and we fill in the filters for you.

Example Preset: Quick Win Keywords

Filters:

    • Average Monthly Revenue: $5,000-25,000
    • Average Profit Margin: Min 50%
    • Sales to Reviews: Min 5

 

The filters will automatically populate based on the preset you select. This gives you a great jumping off point and a much better understanding of how to start using various filters to find the exact opportunities you are looking for.

Warning: It is important to note that presets are simply a starting place. They are there to help you better understand how to use the filters. If you only use the presets without making adjustments, you will likely find a lot of the same products other sellers have found. These may end up being bad product opportunities because of too much competition or saturation.

Coming soon, we will also introduce Custom Presets so you create and save your own preset searches! For example, let’s say you’ve stumbled across a killer filter combination that churns out amazing five star product opportunities. You can save that Preset (filter combination) so you can return regularly to see which new products, keywords, and brands we’ve added to the mix.

Let us know what you think of our new Preset Search feature in the comments below! We love honest feedback. 🙂

Now Mobile Friendly

Product Discovery and Market Intelligence are now available on-the-go with our new mobile friendly versions. Our best ideas don’t always strike us when we’re at our desks. And as an entrepreneur, you hate wasting time not being productive. Now you can knock out your product research or check sales estimates on new product ideas from anywhere. We’ve spent hours putting together a mobile design that is intuitive and still looks great.

Pro Tip: While we do not have a dedicated app for your smartphone, you can save Market Intelligence or Product Discovery as bookmarks on your home screen as if they were apps. This allows you to easily access the tools and begin searching instantly, providing the same look and feel as a native application.

Click the links below for instructions on saving your favorite research tool to your home screen.
iPhone instructions
Android instructions

     

 

10,000,000+ New Products, Keywords, and Brands

Since launching Product Discovery just over two months ago, our data aggregation systems have been working tirelessly to keep our data fresh and to add new opportunities to our database. This means there are new products, keywords, and brands for you to uncover daily!

Ever think you’ve found all the “good keywords” or all the “best brands” in Product Discovery? Think again. Check back in a couple of days for plenty of new golden opportunities just waiting to be discovered.

New Filters Added Regularly

Along with our commitment to add new opportunities, we want to add new ways of discovering those opportunities. In the last month we’ve added two new filters, and there are more on the way. Those new filters are Shipping Tier (applicable to all four search types: Product, Keyword, Brand, and Category) and Brand Name (obviously only applicable to Brand search).

What additional filters would you like to see?

Nearly 100 Code Pushes in the Last Few Months

As a company, we are dedicated to having the most sophisticated and results-driven tools on the market. We want to make sure you have the tools you need to build your private label empire efficiently, scalably, and fast! We are relentless in our mission, which means we not only launch superior tools, but we are committed to continually improving performance, resolving bugs, and adding new features. In a market that changes so rapidly, constant improvement allows us to stay on top of the software market, so you can stay on top of your Amazon market! We average over two code pushes or updates each business day!

What would you like to see us update next? Let us know in the comments below.

Additional Updates

  • Market Intelligence: Major webapp performance improvement
  • Market Intelligence: Combined Competitive and Standard view with optional image on/off switch
  • Product Discovery: Added Clear All Filters button for quicker filter usage
  • Product Discovery: Added Idea Value to pinned results so you can estimate the total value of products found with Product Discovery

Create a free Viral Launch account to try out Product Discovery and Market Intelligence for free. Once inside the Launchpad, you can subscribe! 

TRY IT FOR FREE

Continuing to Help Amazon Sellers Grow Their Profits and Businesses In New Ways

It has been approximately two months since we launched the new positioning of Viral Launch and it has been absolutely incredible! Instead of simply helping sellers get ranking, and leaving the rest up to them, we’ve been able to come along and help our clients through every crucial aspect of driving sales. Its been amazing, and extremely rewarding to be able to work and build some of the most successful brands/products on Amazon. The Viral Launch team and I get energized by being able to help our clients increase their sales, profits, and overall business on Amazon. And we’ve been able to do just that, to an even greater extent with all of our new services and capabilities. It has been incredibly beneficial to the sellers we have the pleasure of working alongside. With that said, its not enough. Its never enough. We’re always hungry to leverage our vast knowledge and data to spur growth in new ways and greater capacities.

So in our quest to help Amazon sellers grow their sales, their businesses and achieve their dreams of financial freedom and internet success we’ve built a powerful new tool completely separate from Viral Launch which happens to be launching…..in just two days!! (Wednesday the 28th)

“What exactly is this new “powerful” tool and how is it going to help you increase your sales and improve your business?” For the answer to that, you’ll have to check back in tomorrow for more info; this is just the teaser! 😉

On the edge of your seat? Let me know in the comments if you are as excited as we are!! (spoiler alert: we’re pretty excited considering we’ve been working on this for the last three months and the results have been blowing our minds.)

Talk tomorrow!

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