Amazon Marketing
What is Amazon's Editorial Recommendation: Everything You Need to Know
- June 18, 2021
- DGF - Digital Growth Formula
If you’re a brand selling your products on Amazon, you probably find it quite difficult to be listed on the first page of search results. So, in order to have more chances to be visible to potential customers, many brands choose to use sponsored ads. But did you know that there is another way to appear on the first page?
This is a relatively new program of Amazon which is called Editorial Recommendation. It’s not an ad, nor a simple product listing. Some sellers have heard about it, some didn’t, but many don’t know how to benefit from it.
Keep reading to find out the secret of Amazon’s Editorial Recommendation, what it is and how it works. Also, you’ll learn how to get involved in that program and increase your sales through it.
Amazon's Editorial Recommendation: What is it?
Let’s clearly define what Amazon’s Editorial Recommendation is.
Amazon’s Editorial Recommendations are articles written by professional publishers about certain products that appear on the first page of Amazon’s search results if certain keywords are searched.
Next time you search for some products on Amazon pay closer attention to search results and you will see the Editorial Recommendations. They usually appear below the sponsored ads and above or below Amazon’s Choice products.
The Editorial Recommendations section is larger than the sponsored ads, so the size itself encourages shoppers to open it. On the left side of this section, you will see a short snippet of a product-related article with an option to read the full article about each product in detail. Above the article, shoppers will see the name of the publisher. Then to the right, you will see the products. Each product is shown with a unique title and description.
Amazon’s Editorial Recommendation is part of Amazon’s Onsite Associates Program which features product-related content from third-party creators.
These creators are invited by Amazon. They are reputable affiliate publishers like The New York Times’ Wirecutter, Best Reviews, CNN Underscored, bloggers and influencers. Instead of promoting affiliate products on their website publishers do it directly on Amazon. Besides, if a customer makes a purchase using the link in the editorial recommendation, the publisher will receive a commission from that sale.
Note that the article features only the publisher’s opinion, Amazon has no influence on it. All the recommendations, reviews, opinions belong to the content creator, not Amazon. Also, Amazon has no influence on which products are mentioned in the article.
How it Works
Here’s how editorial recommendations work.
- A product is presented to publishers.
- One of the publishers might decide to include your product in his/her recommendation.
- Amazon decides which articles to run as it has absolute decision-making power in this part.
- Then articles run on Amazon. There is no exact time for how long an article will run. Sometimes it could be one month, sometimes more. Usually, they stop running, when they are not generating sales, or when there is a new article for the same keywords.
Amazon wants to have as many articles as possible. It’s good news, as every seller can get an editorial recommendation.
In order to have access to this program, your products should meet Amazon’s requirements.
Amazon's Editorial Recommendation: Requirements
Who can qualify for the editorial recommendations program?
Let’s say up front, that this program is not for beginners. If you’ve just started selling your products on Amazon, you can’t get a recommendation. This is for more experienced sellers who have a strong sales history and high rankings.
Whether you’re a beginner or not, this is a great Amazon marketing strategy to implement later on. So keep reading and when you become an established seller, you’ll also be able to take advantage of this program.
- Your product has a rating of 3.8 stars or more
This makes sense, as Amazon doesn’t want lower-rating products to be recommended. Customers won’t trust these recommendations if the products don’t have high ratings.
- Minimum 100 reviews
Reviews are another proof that your products are selling well.
- $30,000 a month in sales
Your product should sell well and besides that, you should have plenty of inventory in stock.
- Your product should be in the approved category
This means that your product doesn’t have medical claims on its listing. Also, the product can’t be religious, sex, or drug-related.
As you can see Amazon has very strict and clear requirements. These requirements ensure that the product is already competitive and consumers have a good opinion about it. If your product meets these requirements, you can contact publishers right away and get an editorial recommendation for your product.
How to Get an Editorial Recommendation for Your Product?
There are two ways you can get editorial recommendations: organically and through an agency. As mentioned above, Amazon has no influence on what creators are writing, so you can’t get a recommendation by contacting Amazon.
Publishers can write about any product they like and some lucky sellers might have their products discovered through these recommendations without even requesting an article.
However, your products might not be on the lucky list of publishers. So, it’s more common to use the second method. Of course, you can contact the publishers through direct messaging, so that they write an article about your product, but it’s very uncommon. Publishers receive too many requests from sellers, they simply can’t try every product to write about it. There are only 200 publishers and millions of sellers.
So, a more common way to contact a publisher is through agencies, like Digital Growth Formula. With them, sellers can more easily access the editorial program. Agencies are in contact with different publishers, so you have more chances to get a recommendation with the help of agencies.
How is it Displayed?
Every editorial recommendation is related to a certain keyword. So, when a shopper is searching for some product, they will see an article related to this keyword. Though articles appear randomly and there may be no recommendations for a different search of the same keyword.
The article is displayed in the same way as sponsored ads. It goes into a rotation with other publishers’ articles for the same keyword. The more competitive the keyword is, the fewer it may be displayed. On average, an editorial recommendation is displayed 25% of the time.
How it Works for Publishers
Publishers are writing their unique opinion about products, which can’t be influenced by anyone. And that’s what makes these articles valuable. Publishers decide the style of writing, the wording. So if you don’t like the wording you can’t change it. But if you think that a publisher has written the wrong features about your article you should contact the agency or the publisher.
Overall, the publisher is more inclined to show your product from a good side as the publisher gets a commission from sales. So they will try to present your product as great as possible.
The articles cannot include any links that will direct shoppers off of Amazon.
Publishers can also post the article on their website. But remember that the main purpose of the article is Amazon’s editorial recommendation. It’s up to the publisher whether to post the article on their website or not. It’s merely for the benefit of the publisher, if they’ve written an article, why not post it on their own website too? This is very beneficial for the sellers too, as their products will also appear in organic search results on a website with a high rank.
Publishers can promote up to 4 products. However, only 3 products will be displayed on the search results page. The fourth product can be seen if the shopper clicks on the arrow toggle on the right or on the article itself. So it’s very important to be among these 3, as many shoppers won’t click on that arrow. The article of your product will be ranked based on the keywords from your listing.
Each promoted product will appear under a different category. For example, there can be “Best Budget Blender”, “Best Blender For Everyday Use”, “Best High Powered Blender”. This is a very effective way to show your product’s main features highlighted. So, the shoppers will easily find what they were looking for.
Benefits for Sellers
Now, after discovering what editorial recommendation is, it’s time to find out how the sellers can benefit from it. In order to sell products on Amazon, you need your products to be placed in any possible listing. Many sellers don’t see the real advantages of editorial recommendations if they already have placed their products on sponsored ads or brand ads.
Let’s firstly take a look at all the possible placements of the product.
Products on Amazon can appear as:
- Organic listing
- Sponsored ad
- Brand ad
- Editorial recommendations
Each product automatically appears on the results page if the shopper searches certain keywords. But products also are ranked depending on many other factors, so your product may not appear on the first page. Shoppers rarely get to the 2nd results page, so if your product is not on the first page, you should think about using other placement possibilities.
Editorial recommendations appear on the first page, so, no matter on which search results page your product appears, it will always be on the first page as an editorial recommendation.
Even if your product appears on the first page, you should still use other methods. The more shoppers see your product the more they trust it, even if they know it’s due to advertising. So, if you have that opportunity, use all the possible methods to display your product.
Increase Consumers' Trust
Editorial recommendations will increase your brand’s trustworthiness. Ads can sometimes be irritating, and many picky customers won’t pay attention to them. They are created by the brand, so it’s natural that a brand wants its product to have more sales. Contrary to ads, recommendations are created by third-party publishers, who express their own opinions, and not Amazon nor the brand can influence them.
Editorial recommendations are more trusted than Amazon’s Choice. Amazon’s Choice products, as the name says, are chosen by Amazon, so customers will think that Amazon wants you to choose it as they will make more profit from it. While editorial recommendations are created and recommended by independent professional reviewers.
Recommendations provide social proof for customers, as they are written by people just like them, who tried and liked the product.
Besides, products on an editorial recommendation are shown under a certain category name like “Best Eco-Friendly Product”. Customers see exactly what they need. They won’t even look at organic listings or any other products, as they’ve found what they were looking for.
Increase Sales
The most important benefit, of course, is that recommendations highly increase sales. In a case study by SellerRocket, sales of a product increased by 47% after 30 days of running the recommendation. The most surprising fact is that only 7% of it came from recommendations, while 40% came from other channels like organic listings and ads. As you can see, recommendations not only increase sales directly through them but also through other channels.
Increase Products' Visibility
Editorial recommendations increase the visibility of the product. Your product can be displayed in four places, so you will have a higher chance to sell your product. Besides, a recommendation is displayed in a much larger spot than organic listings and ads. And they are visually distinctive from anything on the page, as there is a separate spot for the article and separate for the products. Additionally, each product has a boldly written category for it.
Increase Brand's Awareness
In addition to product visibility increase, recommendations also increase brand awareness.
Recommendations create a good brand image and they educate shoppers why they should buy your product and how it is different from your competitors’ products.
Boost Product’s Organic Ranking
Sales of any kind will boost your organic ranking. PPC ads along with editorial recommendations will ensure your higher rating. Besides, it can also boost your ranking for other keywords.
Advertising Cost of Sale is Only 10%
The ACoS of a good PPC ad will be 20% of the revenue, while editorials recommendations’ ACoS is as low as 10%. When you run an ad, you pay a fee whenever a shopper clicks on that ad regardless if a purchase is made, while with editorial recommendations you pay only when a purchase is made. Also, editorials’ fee is consistent and predictable, while PPC fees always fluctuate.
There are up-front or monthly fees once your product’s article is running. Usually, agencies charge you after you get sales from the editorials, so it’s very beneficial for sellers.
Appear on Publishers' Website
As mentioned above, you may organically appear on Google’s search results thanks to the publisher’s website. Publishers usually post their recommendations on their websites as well. So, when a customer searches for your product on Google or any other search engine, they may as well see the article on a reputable website.
To Sum Up
New marketing trends appear every day and Amazon’s editorial recommendations are one of them. Always look for new trends and implement them in your Amazon SEO optimization strategy to boost your sales.
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Digital Growth Formula Team
At DGF we know the power of digital marketing, and we can prove that you can scale your business with us. Our team has a deep understanding of the industry, and we want to share our experience and expertise with you.
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