How Do You Create a Profitable Amazon Marketing Strategy?

The online shopping behemoth, Amazon, has transcended the boundaries of the ecommerce industry by becoming the second most popular online source for product searches, right behind search engines. How do you create a profitable Amazon marketing strategy?

How to Create a Profitable Amazon Marketing Strategy

It wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that Amazon is the leader in ecommerce, seizing 56.7% of the U.S. ecommerce market in 2021. In other words, 38% of people use Amazon to search for products online. All these stats show that using this platform to sell your products means an opportunity to take advantage of the massive traffic it generates.

But, the fact that there are about 1.9 million active sellers on Amazon puts things into perspective and shows you need to set your store apart if you want to cut through all that noise. Here are some tips on how to create a profitable Amazon marketing strategy and make the most of this ecommerce marketplace. 

Have an Amazon Advertising Strategy in Place  

Formerly known as Amazon Marketing Services (AMS), Amazon Advertising is a pay-per-click (PPC) service. It’s similar to Google Ads, and sellers are only charged a fee when potential customers click on their ad, regardless of whether they end up purchasing anything or not. 

There are three main types of Amazon Ads: 

• Sponsored Display Ads allow you to reach your target audiences, and they’re not limited to the Amazon platform. These ads also enable you to retarget those who have already shown interest in your products. 
• Sponsored Products are ads used for individual products, and they can significantly increase your visibility since they appear on the first page of search results. According to Amazon, these ads can lead to a 55% increase in impressions. 
• Sponsored Brand Ads are banners with your brand logo, custom tagline, and several products relevant to the keyword you choose, displayed at the top of Amazon SERPs. 

Since these are paid ads, it’s a good idea to make sure your investment is worthwhile by hiring an agency specializing in Amazon PPC advertising to help you manage this aspect of your marketing. 

Leverage Amazon Reviews

Customer reviews and product ratings are critical to the success of your Amazon marketing strategy. One of the biggest barriers to online shopping is the inability of customers to touch, feel, and try on the products they want to buy. Besides that, unless your store is a household name, customers might be suspicious about the quality of your products. 

That’s where social proof comes in to save the day and help you convince your potential customers that your store is legit and that you sell high-quality products. Amazon Reviews and ratings have the power to push indecisive customers off the fence. Opinions of other customers who have bought and used your products are the next best thing to seeing and feeling the items they’re eyeing in person. 

While some of your happy customers will decide to leave a review without being asked to, you can’t count on that. You need an Amazon review strategy. Some of the following tactics can help you get reviews and stay compliant with Amazon’s terms of service. 

• Use the Request a Review feature which allows you to manually ask your customers to share their feedback about the product they purchased and the overall customer experience. 
• Use product inserts, or put simply, cards you slip into the product package and ask for a review. However, it’s important not to offer incentives for a review and stay neutral. 
• Launch products via Amazon Promotions. This tactic will put your products in the spotlight, and thanks to promo deals, many customers will feel an obligation to reciprocate by leaving a decent review. 

Implement an Amazon SEO Strategy

As we’ve already mentioned, Amazon also doubles as a search engine, so it’s only logical to optimize your store for search and attract some traffic organically.  Amazon has a proprietary search algorithm, A9, and its role is to rank products in search results. Similarly to Google, A9 also rolls out unexpected updates, and its top priority are users, that is, buyers. 

Visibility, relevance, conversions, and user experience are the four pillars of A9, and here are some best practices for covering all of them. 

• Do keyword research and try to figure out what your potential customers type into the Amazon search box when looking for the products you’re selling. Then make a list of these words and phrases so that you can include them in your product titles and descriptions. However, avoid keyword stuffing, as it can only hurt your rankings. 
• Use A+ content, a tool that allows you to enhance your product descriptions and features by including your brand story, better images, and effective text placements. All this can significantly boost your sales. 
• Optimize pricing to make it more competitive. You can also implement the automated pricing tool that will automatically adjust prices based on different parameters so that you don’t have to do that manually. 

Tap into the Power of Social Media

Social media is a great avenue for promoting the products you sell on Amazon. This can significantly expand your reach and bring you additional traffic. 

However, it’s a big mistake to create an Instagram or Facebook page dedicated only to these promotional activities. This can overwhelm your potential customers and drive them away. 

It’s much better to maintain balance and use social media channels both for promoting your products and sharing useful, entertaining, or educational content related to the products you sell and your brand. Promotions, giveaways, and contests can engage your following and build loyalty.  

Occasional branded content, such as a product promo with a link to your Amazon store, is OK. It will connect potential customers with products they might like and need. 

Make Your Amazon Marketing Profitable

These simple tips will point you in the right direction and help you navigate digital marketing on Amazon. A final word of advice is to keep track of how each of these tactics performs, as that will allow you to tweak them on the go and improve your Amazon marketing strategy results.