Welcome to Basilio Inc. ‘s Build. Grow. Exit Big: Your Guide to Selling on Amazon. If you’re contemplating launching your own business as an Amazon seller, stay with us, as we will cover all the vital aspects of building a successful and profitable business on Amazon.
It’s a general truth that Amazon is nowadays considered the world’s largest e-commerce platform. As of 2018, Amazon boasted $233 billion in revenue, with over 5 million third-party sellers operating across Amazon’s 12 worldwide marketplaces. There’s no doubt that setting up a business on Amazon can yield significant profits. However, if you truly aim to succeed on this platform, you should ensure that you are doing everything by the book.
This is precisely why our team, led by Jerome Basilio, has created this comprehensive guide. It will help you grasp every minor aspect required for building a successful business on Amazon.
In this chapter, we will explore effective marketing tactics that sellers can employ to boost their product sales on Amazon. We will cover strategies for both 3rd party sellers and Amazon Retail vendor suppliers, as well as delve into the concepts of kitting and bundling.
While we have already discussed internal mechanisms such as product detail page optimization and the use of specific criteria for product evaluation, there are four primary marketing methods that sellers can leverage to enhance their online sales:
- Sponsored Product Ads: By utilizing Sponsored Product Ads, sellers can promote their products on Amazon’s platform, increasing their visibility to potential customers. This advertising tool allows sellers to target specific keywords and appear prominently in search results, driving more traffic and conversions.
- Gold Box Deals & Lightning Promotions: These time-limited promotions offer significant discounts or exclusive deals on select products, creating a sense of urgency and encouraging customers to make a purchase. Participating in Gold Box Deals and Lightning Promotions can attract new customers, increase sales velocity, and boost brand exposure.
- Holiday Promotions: Leveraging the holiday season is a crucial marketing strategy for sellers. Running special promotions, offering exclusive discounts, and tailoring product listings to align with seasonal themes can capture the attention of shoppers during peak shopping periods. Implementing holiday-specific marketing initiatives helps sellers capitalize on increased consumer demand and maximize sales potential.
- Amazon Marketing Services: Amazon provides a suite of advertising solutions under Amazon Marketing Services (AMS). This includes display ads, video ads, and customizable campaigns to reach target audiences and drive product visibility. AMS enables sellers to enhance their brand presence, increase product awareness, and ultimately drive sales.
By incorporating these advanced marketing tactics into their Amazon selling strategies, sellers can effectively expand their customer reach, improve brand visibility, and ultimately drive higher sales volumes. It is essential for sellers to analyze their target market, select the most suitable marketing methods, and continuously optimize their campaigns to achieve the best possible results.
In the following sections, we will delve into each marketing method in greater detail, providing valuable insights and practical tips to help sellers execute successful marketing campaigns on Amazon.
Sponsored Product Ads, found in the Campaign Manager section of the Advertising tab in Seller Central, are a powerful pay-per-click tool that sellers can utilize to enhance the visibility of their products on the Amazon marketplace.
These ads are displayed based on search relevancy and targeted keywords, ensuring that they appear to customers actively searching for relevant products. When a customer clicks on a Sponsored Product Ad, they are directly taken to the product detail page of the advertised item.
Third-party sellers across more than 30 categories, spanning from Electronics to Health & Beauty, can leverage Sponsored Product Ads to amplify the organic traffic they receive for their products.
It’s important to note that Sponsored Products Ads are not available for adult products, used products, and products in closed categories.
Here are a few examples showcasing how Sponsored Products appear on product pages:
Sponsored Product Ads at the bottom of the Product Detail Page:
[Visual representation of Sponsored Product Ads at the bottom of the page]
Sponsored Product Ads on the Amazon Search Engine Results Page (SERP):
[Visual representation of Sponsored Product Ads displayed on the right-hand side of the search results, similar to paid ads in a Google search, as well as at the bottom of the page]
It’s worth mentioning that Sponsored Products can also be displayed on both mobile and tablet browsers, extending the reach of these ads to users on various devices.
For sellers who have previously experimented with Sponsored Product ads but are not currently utilizing them, it’s important to note that the real estate for Sponsored Products on Amazon has significantly expanded. This increased availability presents a greater opportunity for sellers to secure ad placements and be discovered by new customers.
By strategically incorporating Sponsored Product Ads into their marketing strategies, sellers can effectively boost the visibility of their products, drive targeted traffic, and increase sales on the Amazon marketplace. In the following sections, we will delve deeper into the various aspects of running successful Sponsored Product campaigns, providing valuable insights and practical tips to maximize their effectiveness.
Sponsored Products on Amazon offer various benefits that can help sellers achieve their marketing goals:
- Increase product visibility: Sponsored Products allow you to enhance the visibility of your products, making them more prominent to potential customers.
- Highlight new offers: Whether you’re introducing a new version or model of a product, such as iPhone 6 vs. iPhone 5, Sponsored Products can help draw attention to these new offers.
- Showcase unique selections: If you have unique or exclusive products, Sponsored Products can help showcase them to a wider audience.
- Boost exposure for low-performing items: Sponsored Products can provide a visibility boost to products that have low sessions or are not performing as well as expected, helping increase their chances of being discovered and purchased.
- Increase visibility for clearance items and seasonal promotions: If you have clearance items or seasonal promotions, Sponsored Products can help increase their visibility and attract more customers.
- Overcome inertia for new ASINs: When launching a new product on Amazon with no pre-existing sales history, Sponsored Products can help generate initial traffic, clicks, and conversions, kickstarting the product’s visibility and sales ranking.
- Improve search engine results page ranking: By driving more traffic to your product page and increasing conversions, Sponsored Products indirectly contribute to improving your search engine ranking on Amazon. This can lead to additional organic traffic and conversions, creating an upward spiral effect.
It’s important to note the limitations of Sponsored Products
- Availability of the buy box: Sponsored Product Ads only appear for offers that currently have the buy box. You cannot use Sponsored Ads for items that you don’t currently have the buy box for.
- Increase buy box share: Sponsored Ads cannot directly increase your buy box share. While an increase in sales can have positive effects on your performance metrics, it won’t improve your buy box eligibility if you have underlying issues that need to be addressed.
Sponsored Products are a powerful tool for driving visibility and sales on Amazon. By utilizing them strategically and optimizing your campaigns, you can effectively promote your products, increase conversions, and improve your overall success on the platform.
There are two primary methods available for advertising on Amazon
manual targeting and automatic targeting.
Each method offers distinct advantages and allows sellers to effectively promote their products and increase their visibility on the platform.
- Manual Targeting: With manual targeting, sellers have more control over the keywords used in their ad campaigns. After selecting the products they wish to advertise, sellers can either choose from the keywords automatically generated by Amazon or input their own keywords. This allows sellers to strategically target specific search terms that are relevant to their products, maximizing the chances of reaching their target audience.
- Automatic Targeting: Alternatively, sellers can opt for automatic targeting, where Amazon determines relevant customer-targeted keywords for the products in the campaign. This option can be beneficial for sellers who prefer a more hands-off approach or are unsure about which keywords to target. By leveraging Amazon’s algorithm, sellers can ensure that their ads are shown to potential customers based on their search queries and browsing behavior.
Reporting: The Campaign Manager section provides valuable insights into the performance of your advertising campaigns. Within the dashboard, you can monitor running and paused campaigns, view creation dates, daily budget limits, and assess sales statistics. These statistics include the total amount spent on the campaign, sales generated from the campaign, and the ACOS (advertising cost of sales). ACOS represents the percentage of sales revenue spent on advertising and helps sellers gauge the efficiency and profitability of their ad campaigns.
Advertising Costs: Sponsored Product Ads operate on a cost-per-click model. Sellers set the maximum amount they are willing to pay for each click, which plays a role in determining the placement of their ads within search results. Similar to other PPC advertising platforms, the ad placement is determined by an auction pricing model, and sellers are charged a fee every time a customer clicks on their ad. It’s important to manage your advertising costs effectively by setting appropriate bid levels and monitoring the performance of your campaigns to ensure optimal return on investment.
Getting Started: To utilize Sponsored Products, sellers need to enable their seller accounts for this advertising feature. Currently, bulk uploads are not available, so sellers will need to manually create ads for their products. The process begins by navigating to Seller Central > Advertising > Campaign Manager > Create Campaign. From there, sellers can select existing listings to advertise on, establish spending limits and default bid levels, and choose keywords for manual campaigns. Additionally, considering competitor keywords and utilizing tools like Keyword Dominator or the Google AdWords keyword tool can help generate a comprehensive list of relevant keywords. Amazon also offers helpful suggestions and guidance throughout the setup process to ensure sellers make the most of their advertising campaigns.
By leveraging Sponsored Product Ads and utilizing manual or automatic targeting, sellers can effectively increase their product visibility, reach potential customers, and drive sales on the Amazon marketplace. Monitoring campaign performance, adjusting bids, and refining keyword strategies will help sellers optimize their advertising efforts and achieve their marketing goals.
Keywords
Keywords play a crucial role in the performance of your Sponsored Product Ads on Amazon. They determine the pages on which your ads will be displayed and are essential for effective ad targeting.
Here are some additional insights from the Keywords section of Amazon’s help page:
Matching Keywords to Search Terms: Amazon matches the keywords in your ad group with the search terms that customers enter on Amazon.com. When a customer’s search term matches your keywords, your ads have the potential to be displayed to that customer. Therefore, it is important to choose relevant keywords that accurately represent the products in your ad group.
Relevance and Ad Performance: It’s crucial to ensure that the keywords you select are relevant to the products in your ad group. Amazon expects the keywords to align with the product detail page metadata. If Amazon determines that a keyword is not relevant, your ads will not receive impressions when customers search for that particular keyword. For example, if your ad group only contains bath towel SKUs, your ad for “Beach Towels” will not receive impressions because it is not relevant to the products in your ad group.
Maximizing Relevance: To maximize the relevance of your keywords, it is important to provide thorough and accurate information in your bullet points, product description, and search term data. This ensures that your keywords align with the details and features of your products, increasing the likelihood of your ads being displayed to customers searching for relevant terms. By selecting and optimizing relevant keywords, you can enhance the targeting precision of your Sponsored Product Ads. This, in turn, increases the chances of your ads reaching potential customers who are actively searching for products similar to yours on Amazon.
Automatic vs Manual Targeting
When it comes to targeting keywords in your Sponsored Product Ads on Amazon, you have the option to choose between automatic and manual targeting. Understanding the differences between these two approaches is essential for optimizing your ad campaigns.
Here’s a closer look at automatic and manual targeting:
Automatic Targeting: With automatic targeting, Amazon automatically matches your SKU to all relevant customer searches. This means that your ads will be displayed when Amazon identifies a search term that aligns with your product. The bidding process for automatic targeting works slightly differently. If the same SKU is included in both an automatic targeting campaign and a manual targeting campaign, and the automatic campaign has a higher maximum bid, the SKU’s ad will only receive impressions and clicks in the automatic targeting campaign. Automatic targeting allows for broad exposure and helps you reach a wider audience of potential customers.
Manual Targeting: Manual targeting allows you to select specific keywords that are relevant to your product. You have full control over the keywords you choose and can optimize your campaigns based on your targeted keywords. It’s important to select multiple keywords that accurately represent your product to increase the chances of receiving ad impressions and clicks. Unlike automatic targeting, where Amazon matches your SKU to various search terms, manual targeting allows you to focus on specific keywords and optimize your bids accordingly.
Keyword Parameters
When choosing keywords for your campaigns, keep in mind the following parameters. Keywords can only contain letters, numbers, or spaces. Punctuation or special characters such as pound signs, commas, or apostrophes are not permitted. Additionally, there is a maximum limit of 1,000 keywords per ad group. If you have reached this limit, you won’t be able to add more keywords to the ad group, even if you archive some existing ones. In such cases, it might be worth considering a campaign with automatic targeting, which will match your SKUs to relevant customer search terms automatically.
Adding Keywords: You can add new keywords to an existing ad group at any time. Simply select the ad group, go to the Ads tab, and click on the “Add Keywords” button. You can choose from Amazon’s recommended keywords, enter your own keywords, or use a combination of both to expand your keyword coverage.
Keyword Matching
In Sponsored Product Ads on Amazon, keywords play a crucial role in determining which customer search queries trigger the display of your ads. Understanding how keyword matching works can help you optimize your ad campaigns effectively.
Here’s a breakdown of how keyword matching operates on Amazon
Broad Matching: Amazon uses full or partial keyword overlap to match keywords to customer search queries. This is known as broad matching.
Let’s consider an example:
Suppose you bid on the keyword “silver dog bowl,” which is relevant to the SKUs in your ad group.
A customer performs a search for the term “dog bowl.”
Since the words in the customer’s search query are fully contained within your keyword, it is considered a match and included in the advertising auction for the keyword.
For customer searches that contain more than two words, matches may be determined using only a subset of the keywords in the customer’s search term.
Tip: You only need to enter a specific keyword or keyword phrase once, and Amazon will automatically match it to customer searches that are plural or in a different word order.
For instance, if you bid on the keyword “silver dog bowl,” Amazon will automatically match it to the following customer searches:
Plural variations: silver dog bowls, silver dogs bowls, silver dog’s bowls.
Word order variations: dog bowl silver, bowl dog silver, dog silver bowl, and so on.
Capitalization variations: DOG SILVER BOWL, SilvER DOG BowL, and so forth.
Gold Box Deals and Lightning Promotions
Amazon’s Gold Box Deals and Lightning Deals are prominent features that provide customers with exciting discounts and limited-time offers.
Understanding how these deals work can help sellers leverage these opportunities to boost their sales and visibility on Amazon.
Here’s an overview
Gold Box Deals: The Gold Box is a special section on Amazon’s website that showcases the deal of the day. Customers can find it by clicking on the “Today’s Deals” link at the top of the home page. Gold Box Deals feature limited-time discounts on a wide range of products across various categories.
Lightning Deals: Lightning Deals, on the other hand, can be found throughout Amazon.com, including the Gold Box page. These deals are available for a specific duration or until all the promotional discounts are claimed by customers. Each customer is typically limited to purchasing one item at the discounted price.
Product Selection: Amazon’s system automatically selects products for Gold Box Deals and Lightning Deals based on several factors, including applicable promotions, sales history, buyer reviews, and more. Sellers do not have the option to directly submit their products for these deals. Instead, Amazon identifies the best promotions offered by sellers and features them in the Gold Box and Lightning Deals.
Optimizing for Gold Box and Lightning Deals: To increase your chances of being selected for these deals, Amazon recommends providing the best promotions you can for your products. Products are chosen based on their sales rank and positive buyer reviews. Offering competitive discounts and maintaining a strong sales performance can improve your eligibility for these high-visibility promotions.
To learn more about Gold Box and Lightning Deals, you can visit the following Amazon Help pages:
Gold Box Deals: http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_rel_topic?ie=UTF8&nodeId=914590
Lightning Deals: http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_rel_topic?ie=UTF8&nodeId=200417170
Creating a Promo Deal
To create a promotional deal on Amazon, follow these steps
- Go to the Manage Promotions page and click on “Create a promotion.”
- Select the type of promotion you want to offer. You can choose from options such as free shipping, purchase discount, purchase with purchase, free product, fixed price, or null benefit.
- Specify the products that qualify for the promotion and set the discount that customers will receive.
- Enter the promotion tracking information, including the start and end dates of the promotion, a tracking ID, and a description.
- Decide whether customers need to enter a claim code at checkout to avail the promotion discount and configure the claim code compatibility logic as desired.
- Provide promotion content that will be displayed to customers, such as merchandising text and Terms and Conditions. Customize the default Terms and Conditions text to accurately reflect the terms of your promotional offer.
- Review all the details of your promotion and ensure everything is correct.
- Finally, submit your promotion for review and approval.
By following these steps, you can create and set up a promotion to attract customers and drive sales on Amazon.
Holiday Promotions
If you are interested in submitting a Holiday deal for consideration during the months of November and December, you can reach out to [email protected] with all the details about the deal you would like to offer. Rest assured that your message will be carefully reviewed by the appropriate teams internally.
When selecting a product to submit for review, it’s important to consider the following factors:
Is this product highly suitable for promotion during the holiday season? Will it be a popular holiday gift choice for customers?
Does the deal price offer exceptional value for customers?
Do you have sufficient inventory available to meet the demand throughout the duration of the promotion?
If the deal ASIN has variations (e.g., color/size), does the offer cover a good range of these variations?
Here’s an example of an acceptance letter sent to a merchant for inclusion in the Holiday Savings program (any identifying information has been removed for privacy):
Hello SellerABC,
We appreciate your patience as we finalize a few remaining details. We are thrilled to inform you that each of the items listed below has been approved to be featured as an Amazon Deal on our Marketplace Holiday Deal page at www.amazon.com/holidaysavings!
Your product or products will be prominently showcased from December 9 through December 16, offering the Deal Price you specified (refer to the list below for your reference).
IMPORTANT: To ensure the successful running of each deal, it is necessary for you to edit the price(s) in Seller Central. The instructions for this process are provided below the approved ASIN(s).
Your approved ASINs are:
ASIN Sale Price (in USD $)
B00AZ87RE4 $11.49
B00AZ87Q7W $11.49
B00BITNKT0 $8.25
Instructions for setting your Sale Price:
Log into Seller Central and click on “Inventory” near the top left of the screen. Select “Manage Inventory” from the drop-down menu.
Locate the approved ASIN and click on the “Actions” link to the left of the ASIN. Choose “Edit Details” from the options.
Ensure you are on the Offer tab of the page, then scroll down to “Sale Price” as shown in the image below. Enter the Sale Price mentioned in this email, along with the start and end dates of December 16 and December 23. Remember to click “Save” at the bottom of the page to preserve your changes.
If you use an automatic repricing engine, make sure to disable it for your approved ASINs during the sale dates.
Participating in holiday deal inclusion can be an excellent way to generate swift sales momentum during the Christmas season. If you have products with sufficient margin to offer a deal, we highly recommend giving it a try. Please note that Amazon requires a discount off the lowest price found across the internet within the last 30 days. If you have previously run a deal on another platform like Groupon, eBay, Overstock, or a small blog, it may impact your eligibility to run a promotion with Amazon.
Don’t miss out on this opportunity to make the most of the holiday season and boost your sales. We wish you the best of success with your promotions!
Amazon Marketing Services
Offers a wide range of effective marketing tools tailored for Amazon’s vendor clients, who are businesses that directly sell to Amazon. Although we do not advise sellers to sign up solely to become Amazon Retail customers for the purpose of accessing these features, those who were previously Amazon Retail customers can still benefit from these services by maintaining an active account. These additional marketing services, exclusively available to vendor clients, provide valuable opportunities to enhance product visibility, drive sales, and maximize marketing efforts on the platform. It’s worth noting that bundling is another strategy sellers can utilize to boost sales and offer unique product combinations, providing customers with added convenience and value.
Amazon Marketing Services (AMS) provides a comprehensive suite of self-service advertising tools designed to empower vendor clients with additional solutions for improving product visibility and driving higher conversion rates.
AMS offers a range of unique options exclusively available to vendor clients, including:
- Brand Pages: These customizable pages allow you to showcase your brand and products in a visually appealing and informative way, providing a compelling brand experience for customers.
- Sponsored Search: With Sponsored Search, your ads are prominently displayed ABOVE search results on Amazon.com, ensuring maximum visibility and increasing the chances of attracting customer attention.
- eCommerce Ads: By leveraging eCommerce Ads, you can expand the reach of your products and generate awareness and consideration among Amazon shoppers. These ads can be displayed across the Amazon advertising network, which includes Amazon.com, Amazon-owned sites, and a network of trusted partner sites.
- A+ Detail Pages: A+ Detail Pages offer enhanced content and rich media features to create a more engaging product description. This feature is exclusively available to products sold by Amazon Retail, providing a competitive advantage for vendors.
These powerful advertising options offered by AMS enable vendors to effectively promote their products, build brand presence, and drive sales both on and off the Amazon platform.
Amazon Vine
Amazon Vine is an exclusive program offered by Amazon.com since 2007, designed to provide manufacturers and publishers with authentic reviews for their products on the platform. Unlike other review programs, participants in Amazon Vine, known as “Vine Voices,” are not compensated for their reviews. Instead, they are selected based on the helpfulness of their past reviews, as voted on by other Amazon customers.
Once invited to join the program, Vine Voices have the responsibility to maintain their status by reviewing all selected products they receive within 30 days of receipt. To ensure the quality and credibility of their reviews, Vine Voices are expected to maintain high rankings from Amazon, reflecting their expertise and commitment to providing valuable feedback.
By leveraging the expertise of Vine Voices, Amazon Vine helps manufacturers and publishers gather genuine and unbiased product reviews, fostering trust and credibility among potential customers. This program ensures that customers receive reliable and helpful insights to inform their purchasing decisions, ultimately benefiting both sellers and consumers on the Amazon platform.
Subscribe & Save
Subscribe & Save is a convenient program offered by Amazon that allows customers to subscribe to automatic deliveries of specific products on a monthly basis. By signing up, customers not only enjoy the ease of automatic deliveries, but also benefit from a discount off Amazon’s regular prices, free standard shipping, and the flexibility to manage their subscriptions. Although Subscribe & Save is exclusive to Amazon and not available to third-party (3P) sellers, 3P sellers have the option to create post-purchase promotions, such as offering a 15% discount on future purchases, to provide similar benefits to their customers. While the impact may differ, it is still a viable option to enhance customer satisfaction.
Vendor Powered Coupons (VPC)
Another valuable tool for vendors on Amazon is Vendor Powered Coupons (VPC). These coupons can be accessed by clicking on the “Coupons” link found in the “Today’s Deals” section of Amazon’s website. This section serves as its own department, with unique links and listing pages dedicated to promotions. By exploring the VPC page, you can discover a wide range of popular coupons offered by vendors in various categories, providing an opportunity to attract customers with enticing discounts and promotions.
Bundling & Kitting
Bundling and kitting are strategies that sellers can employ to offer unique product combinations to customers on Amazon. While the terms “multipacks” and “bundles” are sometimes used interchangeably, it’s important to note that they have distinct definitions according to Amazon’s guidelines.
Multipacks typically refer to a single product that includes multiple quantities of the same item, such as a pack of three identical t-shirts. These multipacks must adhere to specific packaging and labeling requirements set by Amazon to ensure proper identification and fulfillment.
On the other hand, bundles involve combining different products or variations from multiple brands into a single offering. Bundling offers customers a curated selection of complementary items that enhance their shopping experience. When creating bundles, sellers must ensure that all products meet Amazon’s guidelines for packaging, labeling, and compatibility.
By utilizing bundling and kitting strategies, sellers can enhance product visibility, provide unique offerings, and potentially increase sales on the Amazon marketplace. It’s important to familiarize yourself with Amazon’s guidelines for multipacks and bundles to ensure compliance and maximize the benefits of these strategies.
Amazon Says About Bundling
Amazon acknowledges the value and convenience that product bundles can offer to buyers. According to Amazon’s guidelines, sellers are allowed to create bundles by combining different products to create a new bundled product. However, it’s important to ensure that these bundles consist of highly complementary items that provide added value compared to purchasing the individual items separately.
For a bundle to be considered valid, it needs to be a distinct item with its own ASIN on Amazon. Some sellers opt for bundles as a way to differentiate themselves from competitors selling the same popular product. Note that media bundles are not permitted, although media items can sometimes be included as part of a bundle, so it’s crucial to review Amazon’s Product Bundling Policy for detailed information.
When it comes to multi-packs, it’s essential to understand the distinction. If a bundle is a multi-pack, such as a pack of six pairs of socks, it should not be listed as a bundle. Amazon provides specific instructions regarding multi-packs, UPCs, and the item package quantity for multi-packs.
For sellers planning to list multi-packs with several identical items, a new UPC is typically not required for certain categories like Grocery & Gourmet Foods, Home & Garden, and Sports & Outdoors. However, for multi-packs in categories other than these three, purchasing a new UPC is necessary.
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