There are only so many factors you control when it comes to optimizing your Amazon product listing to drive traffic. The listing format is standard, the allowed fields and specs are fixed, and you have a very definite framework within which to work.
Good news is, everyone else is playing by the same rules. Which means that, with a little hard work and insight, you’ve got a great shot at winning the traffic game.
Pricing, Pictures & Other Points
When it comes to your Amazon listing you control things like:
- Price
- Pictures
- Listing Title
- Bullet Points
- Description
- Subject Matter
- Search Terms
Your control of each of these items is limited, and exists within the boundaries Amazon sets and the rules they’ve defined. Of the above, when doing a search the user first sees your main image, the title, and the price.
A good main image and title, and possibly price, will get the user to click through to your full listing. What you’re after is traffic, or impressions (ranking high in the search results), click-through rates and, ultimately, conversions.
Creating The Perception Of Value
A comment on price. Conventional thinking would be that, the lower your price, the more likely the user is to click to your listing and buy. This isn’t always the case, however, and in fact a price that’s too low can convey the wrong perception, possibly leading the user to conclude the product is of inferior quality. Conversely, a higher price — within reason — can convey a sense of higher quality, and may actually lead to more sales.
Price your product according to what it’s worth. Don’t short its value.
Think of the gas-station sushi example. Say you’re faced with two options, a sushi place with “$1 All You Can Eat Sushi!” or a place next door with “$12 All You Can Eat Sushi”. You’d probably be more inclined to trust the $12 option, right? Better to spend a little more for the quality now, and avoid the (literal) heartache later.
Not everyone thinks this way, of course, but most will. Setting your product at the lowest price you can bear may not always be the best solution. In fact, a higher price, in some cases, may even serve you better. Experiment to see.
You may be surprised.
The Customer Approach Vector
Pricing, pictures and limited factors aside, let’s take a moment to acknowledge the incredible opportunities available to you as an Amazon seller. Yes, the competition has gotten fierce over the last several years, but you’re part of a game that has tremendous potential.
Amazon is where people go to shop. More than that, in almost every case they go there when they already know exactly what they want. When someone goes to Amazon they’re there to find that thing they want and buy it.
This customer approach vector makes it easy to sell on Amazon.
You don’t need to invest in a lot of outside marketing (none at all, really), you just need to be the thing that comes to the top of their search results when they go online and search for it. They already know what they want (a toaster, a hammer, shampoo, whatever), they now just need to find it, determine which one is best, and buy it.
This is awesome.
And so yes, the competition is fierce, but much of the work has already been done by Amazon and the shopping experience they’ve created. Customers flood in all day every day. You just need to be the thing that rises to the top when they search.
Which means the limitations of your listing aren’t really that limiting at all, as the one thing that matters most, the one thing over which you have wide control, is the very thing customers will use to find you:
Keywords.
Keywords: The Holy Grail Of Amazon Search
Keyword rankings are the #1 factor on Amazon for driving traffic to your product listings. Search is important in all forms of online retail, but on Amazon ranking for the top search terms for your product is vital.
Customers shop using keywords that describe the products they’re interested in. They browse through the options that appear in the first few pages of the search results. Your goal is to rank as high as you can in those results.
A product listing rich in keywords has the best chance of appearing in the search results of your target buyers. There are various strategies for keyword use.
- Major keywords will have high competition, yet they generate the most traffic.
- More specific keywords (long-tail) have less traffic, but with lower competition you’ve got a better chance of ranking higher for them, and thereby grabbing a bigger slice of the available searches.
You should already have a short list of keywords for your product category, search terms you want to rank for, before doing any additional research. From there you can identify more specific, long-tail keywords in order to flesh out your listing.
Amazon rewards relevancy. Your product must be relevant to the keywords you use in order for them to rank in search results. Amazon is nothing if not customer-centric, and their goal is to put only the most relevant products in front of potential buyers.
Things like click-through rate and conversions over time, as well as volume of sales, determine a product’s relevancy for specific keywords. Sales rank is driven by sales volume, which in turn is driven by showing up for the relevant keywords that lead the customer to your product.
Crush It
Optimize your listing to convert. Pictures, descriptions and all else. Sell the potential buyers once they’re there.
But get them there.
Drive traffic to your listing with the right target keywords.
ManageByStats has an entire suite of tools dedicated to helping you find, refine and put into use the best possible keywords. Called Catapult, it includes a reverse ASIN tool, Keyword Scout, to help you find them, a refinement tool, Distiller, and a tool to help you optimize your listing, called Wordsmith.
If you’re already using ManageByStats the Catapult tools are in there now.
With the right keywords, effectively applied to the various elements of your listing, you can be the one crushing it on Amazon.
To your success.
Your ManageByStats Team
