Amazon Marketing in 2021: The Complete Guide to Planning Your Amazon Marketing Strategy

Narine Nazaryan
December 25, 2020

It’s fascinating how Amazon drives massive traffic to your product listings, and not just any traffic, but real customers ready to purchase. And all you need to do is just convert that traffic into buyers.

It’s simple right? But simple things are often more complex than we think.

You are not the only one who wants to sell on Amazon. The competition is quite high and many shops and listings stay out of the spotlight.

If you want to beat your competitors, you should understand how the Amazon platform works and what you can do to rank higher on Amazon search results.

1. How Amazon Search Works

2. Amazon’s Ranking Algorithm

3. Amazon SEO

4. Amazon PPC

Chapter 1

How Amazon Search Works

If you have ever tried to sell on Amazon, you already know it’s really hard to make your product show up on the first page positions of Amazon’s search results. Understanding how Amazon search works is crucial for driving more sales, growing your business and your shop’s overall success. It’s not a secret that most Google searchers never look past the first page results.

The same logic works with Amazon search as well. Even if your product appears on the second or third page, most shoppers will not see it. Let’s agree that most of us are too busy or inpatient to look past the first three or four results.

Please note that search results pages for different queries may vary. The products are displayed as:

List View – features about 15 – 16 products on every page.
Gallery View – features about 24 – 25 products.

For example, if you search for “3d pen”, Amazon search results look like this:

And for “Christmas decorations” it looks like:

Before you start your shop, the first thing you need to know is how Amazon search looks and works and what are its components.

Amazon Organic Search Results

Amazon Organic search result shows products relevant to a user’s query. It shows all the relevant information that the buyer needs before deciding to click on a specific product and allows to compare a couple of products at first glance.

Over the years, Amazon evolved and now provides exceptional and relevant search results to buyers. It showcases:

Seller information
Product short description
The product’s rating
Product reviews
Price
Sales and coupons information
Amazon prime
Shipping information
When the product will arrive
In stock availability
Buying choices

For organic results businesses and shops owners need to conduct Amazon SEO.

Amazon Sponsored Products

Amazon Sponsored Products are PPC ads that show up on Amazon’s search results page to increase a product’s sales and visibility. SPAs can be displayed at the beginning, middles and at the end of the search results page and are really hard to miss.

Amazon’s Choice

A product labeled as “Amazon’s Choice” is a feature that outlines the “best fit” offer for a buyer’s search query and assumes that many Amazon buyers have bought and were satisfied with it. How can you be eligible for Amazon’s Choice? A product must be Prime-eligible and available to be shipped immediately.

Amazon Editorial Recommendations

Amazon editorial recommendations is a section that suggests product-related posts and articles written by bloggers, authors or influencers. The short description gives a general idea about the post with an option to learn more and read the whole article. It’s a helpful recourse to make the shoppers search process easier.

Amazon Brands Related to Your Search

This feature offers products that are related to buyer’s search query and can provide additional insights and new offers to choose from.

Holiday Gift Guide

Amazon’s holiday gift guide offers a selection of curated gifts and shops. This guide covers everything and makes it easy to choose the perfect gift for everyone.

Amazon Search Filters

Amazon filters allow buyers to sort the search result product by delivery time, availability, ratings, color, etc.

Chapter 2

What is Amazon’s Ranking Algorithm And How it Works

For making your products visible to Amazon buyers and survive fierce competition you need to have a deep understanding of the Amazon’s A9 algorithm. This algorithm chooses which products or shops to display. Of course there is no magic recipe how to make the algorithm to rank you better and, as with all search algorithms, what you can do is try to pick up hints and follow the best practices. So the ranking factors are:

Keyword or search word relevancy – Amazon keywords are an inseparable and crucial part of SEO that allow the search engine to understand your product and show it on the top of the search results page.

Conversion rate – includes reviews, prices and images quality.
Customer satisfaction – if buyers are happy they will come back.

I know it’s not much and doesn’t explain anything. Let’s dive deeper and understand what exactly you can do to improve your positions and rank higher. Keep reading, as the most important parts are yet to come.

Chapter 3

Amazon SEO: How to Improve a Product Ranking on Amazon

If you fail Amazon SEO opyimization, you will not just lose traffic, but also will not be able to grow your shop and increase the sales. But don’t panic, there is a way to improve your SEO and rankings. Just remember that Amazon cares and trusts buyers more than you. Keep this in mind when optimizing your shop and make it buyer friendly and customer centric.

Let’s have a look on the fields that you must optimize:

Keyword Research

Why are keywords important?

Because they are specific search queries that buyers type to find products they. Identifying related keywords will allow your product to rank higher and appear in the search results first places. It’s important to take the time to perform detailed Amazon keyword research and analysis.

So, how do you perform Amazon keyword research? There are some tools and tips that you can use:

Amazon autocomplete
Competitor’s listings keyword analysis
Buyers reviews
Free or paid tools

Takeaway: Try to not use generic keywords. They may have high search volume, but competition will be fierce and chances are very narrow that you will rank for these keywords. Anyway, buyers type more specific queries, so try to add low search volume but specific ones.

Invisible Keywords

Invisible keywords are used in Amazon Seller Account and aren’t visible to buyers. Their main purpose is to give Amazon’s algorithm a general idea about your product listing and what specific keywords you are targeting. There are five lines available for sellers to fill out with 50-character limits each.

Backend keywords main rules are:

Don’t repeat your keywords
Use only plural or singular
Don’t include different variations of the same keyword
Avoid punctuation marks

Takeaway: Remember that Amazon may reject your whole entry if the allowed character limit is exceeded.

Amazon Product Title

The key element of Amazon SEO is the product title optimization. The most relevant and important keywords should be placed in your product title. It plays a crucial role when Amazon matches your listing to buyer’s search query and influences your CTR.

When writing a listing title, put all relevant keywords, but avoid overstuffing it as your title will not read naturally, can look spammy and harm your rankings.

Keyword Stuffed Title

Your customers are ordinary people, not Amazon algorithm, so make sure that your title is readable and understandable for humans’ first.

Optimized product title

When optimizing your Amazon product title, you should include:

Your product name
A clear and very short description of your product’s purpose
A specific material or ingredient
The color
The size

Takeaway: The most important parts of your title are the first 5 words. Try to catch the buyer’s attention with the first words.

Amazon Product Price

When launching a new product, perform competitors’ prices analysis. Check how your competitors are pricing similar products and how they perform.

This will allow to understand the market better and be aware if similar products have much lower price than yours to avoid below mentioned possible scenarios:

Decreased sales
Low CTR
Low Amazon search rank

Takeaway: Offering the cheapest product doesn’t mean you will be successful on Amazon.

Low price headbands that have 5 ratings.

High price headbands that have 6,753 ratings.

Product Images

Appealing, high resolution and professional product images affect CTR, increase sales and rankings. The images appear:

On the Search results page: The first thing buyers see is your product image. Based on first impression, they decide whether to click on your listing or skip it.

On the Product page: Buyers make their decision to purchase a product based on images, as an appealing and high quality visual carries all the information they need.

Takeaway: There are technical requirements and optimization tips for Amazon product images, but the important thing is that your images should be min 1000×1000 pixels.

Bullet Points

Bullet points save buyers’ time as they are easy to read and provide key points about the product. Here goes the most crucial information and your product’s benefits.

Before writing bullet points, perform competitors’ analysis and keyword research. This will give you a general idea on what your target audience looks for and allows you to add valuable and high search volume keywords to your copy. The best practices to follow are:

Approximately 200 characters for one bullet point
Add keywords
Be short and specific
One benefit/feature for each bullet point
As only the first three points are visible on Mobile, display the important ones first

Takeaway: As you can use only 1000 characters, be sure to be specific and include your product’s most valuable and unique features.

Product Description

Write understandable, easy to read and informative description with a strong CTA. Include specific information like product’s size, care information, warranties, etc. The best practices to follow are:

Read Amazon Style Guides
Don’t repeat bullet points.
Provide additional and complete information about your product.
Break the text into short paragraphs.
Use html code to format your text and make it more readable

Takeaway: Don’t include company information in your product description.

Reviews And Ratings

One of the key factors of your increasing sales and high rankings depends on your product’s reviews and ratings.

Products that have a solid amount of reviews sell better because buyers get a third party feedback that gives them additional information and increases their trust toward your shop and products. This convinces Amazon that your buyers are recommending your products and your shop should appear in a higher position of Search results.

For getting more reviews and higher ratings:

Provide exceptional customer service
Comment on negative reviews
Be respectful
Try to answer to all feedback and questions

Takeaway: Add a small card in the parcel you send to your customers and kindly ask them to write a review.

External Traffic

Driving traffic from external sources may affect your Amazon rankings and raise your trustworthiness. The main traffic sources are:

PPC
Social media
Email marketing
Influencer marketing
Business website
Branding

Chapter 4

Amazon PPC: How to Dominate Your Niche On Amazon

Amazon PPC allows its sellers to create and run ad campaigns for their products. It is an Ad model where a seller pays a cost to Amazon when a buyer clicks on their ad.

Amazon’s PPC key metrics are:

Search Term – search query that a buyer types into Amazon.
Keywords – the words sellers bid on
ACoS – advertising cost of sale
Impressions – how many times buyers have viewed your ad
Clicks – times buyers have clicked on your ad
Conversion rate – percentage of sales compared to the number of clicks
Cost per click – the average cost a seller is charged per click
Negative targeting – excluding unwanted search terms
Keyword match types – the match between the keyword and buyers search term.

For creating and running Amazon PPC Ads, sellers must:

Have an active Amazon seller account
Have a professional selling plan
Be enrolled in Amazon brand registry
Meet Amazon Buy Box criteria.

Amazon PPC Types

Before choosing the ad type you want to run, do some research, look at competitors. But the best way to understand what works for your product, is trying different ad types and analyzing the results. Start small, don’t spend too much at first. After testing all the options, decide on your Amazon Ad budget.

The main Ad types are:

Banner ads – appear at the very top of Amazon search results and allow to promote both the product and the brand as well.

Sponsored product ads – are the most common type and appear on the search result page or product details page.

Display ads – for targeting use ASIN, product categories, competitor’s product pages, related categories and interests.

Amazon PPC Campaign Optimization

If you think that all you need to do for Amazon PPC to work is creating an Ad campaign and running it, you are deadly wrong. If you want to get high results and increase your ROI, you should optimize your Amazon PPC campaign as well.

The main steps include:

Keyword research
Structured campaign
Rank optimization
Bids analysis and adjustment
Grouping similar products
Listings optimization
Excluding unwanted search queries

Over to You

Instead of writing a long conclusion that will repeat all the above mentioned text one more time, here is a visual cheat sheet that you can use whenever you want to remember just important points:

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Jasmine

Jasmine is a digital marketer with an avid passion for content creation, SEO, and the newest technological advances. She loves creating engaging content and scaling start-ups through creative growth strategies.