A Quick Guide to Amazon Marketing Strategies

If you have a business selling products on Amazon, you are one of 9.5 million Amazon sellers worldwide, based on Marketplace Pulse research. Sounds daunting, doesn't it?

Amazon is considered one of the biggest eCommerce platforms globally, selling in 16 countries, with over 12 million products and services. Unsurprisingly, some say the marketplace is over-saturated and too competitive to crack. An Amazon agency may tell you otherwise.

According to the 2022 State of the Amazon Seller Report compiled by Jungle Scout, the average new Amazon seller stands to make between $26,000 to $810,000 in annual revenue. Despite being a competitive platform, there's no denying it has a significant global customer base. In fact, over 55% of shoppers start their online journey on Amazon, and 90% use Amazon to compare product prices across various stores. With over 300 million active users, business owners could be missing out on a valuable market. Therefore, with the right marketing strategies, it stands to be a lucrative opportunity.

This article will highlight some of the crucial elements of an excellent Amazon marketing strategy and what to consider to increase your store's success.

The Foundations of Amazon Marketing

Amazon marketing is crucial to making your business a success on the platform. The basis of marketing an Amazon brand is to increase rankings in search results, conversion and sales.

Amazon marketing channels are split into two categories: internal and external marketing. Internal Amazon marketing involves Amazon PPC and SEO implementation. In comparison, external methods include utilising other techniques outside of Amazon, like PPC advertising, social media, Amazon affiliate services (blogs, websites, etc.), and email campaigns. As you can see, external marketing techniques are a field all of their own, and thus, we will only focus on internal strategies in this article.

Seller Strategies to Ace Internal Amazon Marketing

The best marketing strategies utilise a range of methods to improve how a search engine views your website, or in this case, product listings. Below we dive into two of the most important aspects of any Amazon marketing strategy: SEO and PPC.

Amazon SEO

Search engine optimisation, or SEO, is the practice of setting up your website with a search engine in mind. The search engine assesses which websites provide the best information based on your search query. Suppose you are optimising a website for Google. In this case, an expert would optimise your pages for Google's ranking criteria, so it shows as an authoritative source and higher in search results. It typically does this by looking at the following:

• Domain authority;

• High-quality information;

• Excellent imagery;

• Clear, concise and compelling copy;

• Relevant keywords;

• Optimised pages.

While Amazon is known as a global eCommerce platform, it is, in fact, a search engine that shows the best, most relevant product at the top of the customer's search result. Its A9 Algorithm evaluates product listings to ensure they are ranking appropriately. To rank in Amazon's SERPs (search engine results page), you must follow a similar process to ranking with Google; however, instead of optimising your website, the focus is on making your product listings search-friendly.

SEO is the most critical factor in your Amazon marketing strategy because it helps build your store's credibility and rankings over time. Essentially, it is a vital step towards organic, sustainable growth. Since 70% of Amazon shoppers don't click past the first page of search results, it is imperative to rank high to increase sales.

Amazon SEO is a holistic process to improve search rankings and increase sales. Some of the following measures and factors are worth considering:

• Relevant keyword research;

• Writing clear, compelling copy;

• Optimising product titles;

• Quality photos;

• Optimising content with keywords and best practices in mind;

• Collect positive customer reviews and high ratings.

Amazon pays attention to these factors, but they also track your sales and conversions. The above optimisations help improve CTR (click-through-rate), meaning more people click on your listing from the search results page, improving sales. Thus, the higher your conversion rate, the higher your listings rank.

Amazon PPC

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) is a marketing model where advertisers pay each time someone clicks their ad. Depending on the targeted keywords, PPC may help boost your efforts to drive traffic to your site or fend off competitors if it's a particularly difficult search term. Advertising is a huge part of Amazon's own marketing efforts and a credit to its success. However, curating an effective PPC campaign is no simple solution - it requires experience, expert knowledge and time to implement. Thus, many consider hiring an Amazon advertising agency to help make the most of Amazon's PPC services.

Some crucial actions to take:

• Keyword research to find appropriate terms;

• Organising search terms in various ad groups;

• Creating the necessary landing pages for your campaigns;

• Optimising landing pages to improve conversion rate.

Amazon designed its PPC services, or sponsored ads, to aid the sellers' journey in getting more sales. Although the average cost-per-click (CPC) is increasing in all product categories, Amazon PPC is still a viable way to market your products. Firstly, your investments can lead to increased product visibility, especially if you're not yet in the SERP. Ads appear above organic results, putting your product at a great advantage as your listing is at the top of the rankings.

Moreover, unlike some other PPC models, Amazon doesn't make you pay for impressions. An impression refers to each time your ad shows on a results page. Amazon sellers only pay when the user actually clicks on the ad, making it a more profitable investment.

Finally, with the right keyword research and campaign setup, Amazon PPC advertisements can save you time by showing your listings alongside the targeted search. It becomes easier to reach people with an intent to purchase, and since your product appears right at the top, they are more likely to click on your ad.

Should Your Business Use Amazon FBA?

Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) is a third-party fulfilment service Amazon offers to its sellers. In a nutshell, it handles the entire customer journey from the moment someone purchases a product. This includes packing and shipping the item, customer service and potential returns. This seamless customer experience alone contributes to repeat customers and more sales. However, Amazon FBA may offer further opportunities to enhance your Amazon marketing strategy and grow your eCommerce business.

Deciding if your business should use Amazon FBA is a discussion all of its own, but one thing is for sure, there's a reason 73% of Amazon sellers use FBA to sell. As Amazon's algorithm seems to consider conversion rate a ranking factor, it's worth noting that Amazon FBA brands get access to free, 2-day Prime delivery. Not only are FBA brands more likely to rank higher in SERPs, but customers usually prefer Prime products for a number of reasons.

Firstly, free, fast delivery is a huge, unique selling point and a significant reason why buyers shop with Amazon over other brands. Moreover, when someone buys an Amazon product or one with the Prime stamp, it comes with a certain level of service. With this feature, you have suddenly gained access to Amazon's reputation and excellent customer service. Therefore, if you decide to become an Amazon FBA brand, it could increase your ability to rank higher in search results, improve conversion rate, and, ultimately, generate more sales.

Should Amazon Sellers Invest in an Amazon Agency?

Between Amazon's marketing strategies, like SEO and PPC, as well as FBA services, there are a lot of ways to market your products on Amazon. However, the most successful brands take a holistic approach and create a strategy that uses multiple marketing channels.

Promoting an Amazon brand is a lot of work, but if done right, it really pays off. With that said, many business owners consider Amazon consulting to set them up on the right track. This is a perfect solution if you have the skill and time to implement it. However, most brands that lack these essentials prefer hiring an Amazon management agency to take care of this entire process and scale the business.

Amazon agencies have an extensive internal team that can provide a vast array of digital marketing services. Their full-service Amazon management offer provides day-to-day oversight of your store, Amazon PPC management, listing and content creation, analysis and SEO, social media marketing and 1-1 consulting. The aim of an Amazon agency is to set your brand up for sustainable growth, so you get increasingly high ROIs year on year.

By investing in these services, you save tremendous amounts of time that you can allocate to core business goals and product development. Outsourcing this project also means you gain access to an extensive team of experts with proven experience scaling brands, just like yours.

Final Thoughts

Amazon can be a lucrative platform to sell products providing you understand the complex nature of its algorithm and invest in Amazon marketing. As we have seen, many people hire an expert Amazon agency to manage their eCommerce store daily and grow their business. However you decide to approach Amazon marketing, SEO remains the best way to grow your brand over time as it can generate substantial organic traffic to your listings. At the same time, Amazon PPC can get your listings above the top-ranking products to slow your competitors and improve sales.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes