The 3 Pillars to Private Label Success on Amazon

By: Anthony Lee

Content presented during the Smart China Sourcing Summit Apr 17-19, 2016. Organized by

What we’ll cover:

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The 3 Pillars to Private Label Success on Amazon

Visibility & Conversion as they pertain to the three most

important actions that any brand intending to sell on Amazon

will need to take.

These three actions are:

1. Optimization (the creation of the perfect listing),

2. PPC (specifically sponsored product ads), and 3.

3. Promotion.

We’ll also discuss how these three things affect Amazon’s

search algorithm and how understanding the mechanics of

such will help catapult you into profit.

The Ever Elusive Algorithm

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BUT FIRST...

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What it Looks Like as it Pertains to You, the Seller

Simplified –

• Sales Velocity

• By Keyword

• Over Time

• Drives Ranking

Not As Simple –

• Moving Averages Over Benchmark Periods

• Sales Generated from Unique Orders

• Conversion Rate for Specific Keywords/Phrases

We can only guess what these benchmark periods of

time are, but they appear to be hourly, daily, weekly, monthly and 6 months. This is ENTIRELY speculation.

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Your Honeymoon Period

New products have a greater chance to surge in

keyword ranking because they lack a poor conversion

history.

Keep this in mind….

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Optimization: Images

Old Image

New Image

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POSTING INSTRUCTIONS Optimization: Images

Main Image – White background. Take up as much of

the photo as possible. Clear shot from the best possible

angle.

Product Shots – Clear shots from as many angles as

possible, showing all dimensions.

Staged Shots – Use a familiar background to set the stage

of your product. Gets the buyer to picture the product in

their home/kitchen/garage etc.

Action Shots – Shows product in USE. Also, depicts your

target demographic using it, so the buyer will identify.

Infographics – Incorporates information into the product

shot. This allows you to convey vital info about pieces or

functionality.

Images are your most powerful opportunity to evoke an

emotional response from your prospective buyer!

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POSTING INSTRUCTIONS Optimization: Title

Old Title: LP00401 – Learning Tower

New Title: Little Partners Learning Tower - Kids

Adjustable Height Kitchen Step Stool for Toddlers or

Any Little Helper

-Capitalize on keywords (for algorithm) – Kids Step

Stool, Kitchen Step Stool, Step Stool for Toddlers,

Kitchen Helper, etc.

-Briefly Explains benefits (for customer) – Adjustable

Height Kids Step Stool, for Toddlers

-Result: Sessions TRIPLED. Conversion rate also doubled

on average. This resulted in an increase of over 400%

in sales.

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POSTING INSTRUCTIONS Optimization: Title

Speak to the Algorithm: Add as many relevant, high traffic

keywords as you can.

Speak to your Audience: Make it sound natural and to the

point, not spammy.

The Goal: Make your title as short as possible while including

the highest searched keywords and the most important

benefits.

Keep in mind that title is truncated. Get your biggest benefit

in front. Check to see what it looks like on different devices

(also good for main image).

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POSTING INSTRUCTIONS Optimization: Keywords

Back End Keywords are immensely important. They play a roll in

search rank as well as PPC. Search term keywords are just as

important as your title.

Client Study: Original keywords for wine tool – wine tool

wine key

wine opener

corkscrew

wine accessories

Revamped keywords – wine tool key opener corkscrew

accessories gifts women dining

bartender drinks bottle bar waiter

foil cutter stainless steel wood

double hinged beer cap top

Results – page infinity (over 20…could not find) to page 1

overnight for major term “wine opener”

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POSTING INSTRUCTIONS Optimization: Bullets/Description

Not as important for ranking, not as heavily read, still allows

your listing to look professional.

Bullets: Clear, concise, brief and benefit driven!

Attempt to get pertinent info above the fold in most layouts.

Description:

Use <p> and <b> tags if you can to break up the text and

make it look nice.

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POSTING INSTRUCTIONS Optimization: Other Things Affecting Conversion

Pricing:

HUGE for Conversions

Amazon Buyers Seek VALUE

The Lower the Price & Higher the Value, the Higher Conversion

Make sure you study your market.

Outshine your competition with higher value at a better price.

Consider your customer BEFORE your margin.

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POSTING INSTRUCTIONS Optimization: Other Things Affecting Conversion

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POSTING INSTRUCTIONS Optimization: Other Things Affecting Conversion

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POSTING INSTRUCTIONS Optimization: Other Things Affecting Conversion

Reviews: Social proof important factor for TRUST, which increases

conversion.

0 – 50 Can make a big difference. 50 – 100 Not as much (usually).

Build an intelligent machine that gets reviews on a consistent

basis. Best way is with a followup email sequence (feedback

service).

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POSTING INSTRUCTIONS Optimization: Increase Organic Reviews

Protip: RUN PROMOTIONS (i.e. use a service like ZonBlast to give

out coupons for your product at steep discounts)! There is NO

incentive to leave a review. Average review conversion is

about 3% and largely negative. You depend on your buyers’

good nature. Opening communications with them is a great

way to get results. HOWEVER, a gentle nudge to a promotion

buyer usually easily pushes them to leave a review. This is how

we got these results.

Protip: Input video links in your followup. It will set you apart.

You cannot link outside of Amazon, but if you host on

Amazon’s S3 cloud, you get an Amazon link. Make a thank you

video or instruction video.

Protip: Hyperlink to where you want your customer to go when

you ask for feedback. It makes it easier for them and looks

cleaner.

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POSTING INSTRUCTIONS Optimization: Other Things Affecting Conversion

Reviews:

Reviews, CAN, however, have a positive effect on conversions.

Here is an example. No changes were made to the title,

price or to the photos. All things remained the same except

for Reviews.

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POSTING INSTRUCTIONS Sponsored Product Ads: Keywords

PPC works off keywords rather than key phrases, stitching

relevant terms together over time.

Make sure highly searched keywords are in your listing and

search terms so you will get PPC impressions.

Target audience, subject matter keywords, etc, under “more

information” will help your relevance.

Strategy: Auto Campaign > Broad Match > Phrase Match >

Exact Match

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POSTING INSTRUCTIONS Sponsored Product Ads: Match Type

Broad – Show keywords in any order, with any combination of

other words, singular and plural. So, blue widget will show for

extra hard blue widgets, metal widgets blue, blue ultra hard

plastic widget cases, for example. After your auto campaign

gives you an idea of important keywords, run a broad match for

them and find all the keyword phrases that get impressions and

sales.

Phrase – Show key phrase in the exact order it is put in as. So,

blue widget will only show for blue widget hard plastic, ultra light

blue widget, snap on blue widget case, etc. Blue and widget are

always present, always next to each other and always in that

order. When broad match campaign reveals profitable key

phrases, put them in a phrase match campaign to further refine

and find the profitable phrases.

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POSTING INSTRUCTIONS Sponsored Product Ads: Match Type

Exact – Will show your keyword or key phrase only exactly as it is

put in. So, blue widget will ONLY show ads for the term blue

widget. Once you identify profitable phrases or keywords from

your broad and phrase match campaigns, you want to create

an exact match campaign for them. Why? Because you want to

give terms that you KNOW are converting to sales their own

budget, so you can put more money into them.

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POSTING INSTRUCTIONS Promotion: Stimulate the Algorithm

Algorithm Ranks higher from Higher Sales + Higher Velocity +

Higher Conversion Rate

“Launching” efficiently involves giving Amazon’s algorithm

these things.

By providing a group of deal hungry Amazon buyers with your

product at a discount, you can spike sales velocity and

conversion rate simultaneously.

This will result in an overall increase in ranking for the most

relevant search terms. Using special URLs with embedded

keywords helps you control which search terms get the biggest

jump.

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POSTING INSTRUCTIONS Promotion: Launch Services

Two types of launch services – those that focus on SALES

(explicitly to improve search rankings) and those that focus on

REVIEWS (explicitly to improve review count).

Sales-centric platforms focus on driving sales through means

that will increase ranking for specific keywords.

Review-centric services often require users to leave reviews to

continue to have access to the platform.

You must decide what is best for your business, and what will

benefit you most in your specific niche.

ZonBlast is a sales-centric product launch platform designed to rank your products for the keywords of your choice.

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POSTING INSTRUCTIONS Promotion: ZonBlast

Our Results:

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POSTING INSTRUCTIONS Putting it All Together

Use These Three Pillars

• Listing Optimization - Conversion

• Amazon PPC - Visibility

• Launch Promotion - Visibility

After over a year of study, we’ve found this to be the most

intelligent way to quickly launch your brand because:

Conversion + Visibility = Sales & Profit

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