Driving traffic to Amazon is a great way for sellers to gain a competitive advantage and attract new customers. And, of course, Amazon appreciates when sellers bring more people to their site. A well-executed strategy towards driving external traffic to Amazon can boost impressions, drive sales, improve keyword rankings, boost your BSR (Best Seller Ranking), and also help you develop long-term relationships with customers.
To Begin with, What is External Traffic?
Before we get into the article, let’s just introduce what we mean when we say “external traffic”.
For most Amazon sellers, the primary source of traffic and sales is “internal”. This means people who type in amazon.com or open the app, and either find your product from the search results or click on one of your sponsored ads.
External traffic is everything else. Here, instead of waiting for someone to go on to Amazon, you proactively get in front of them somewhere else online. This could be any of the below;
- Paid ads (Google, website ads, etc)
- Email or instant messenger
- Social media
- Website referrals
- Magazine or Newspaper (or with a QR code or URL to your product)
Amazon sellers also now have access to a powerful Sponsored Display Ad solution, generating automated, targeted ads for users across the Amazon network.
Generally, generating external traffic needs a considerably different approach from generating traffic from inside Amazon. With internal traffic, you are predominantly optimizing for people who are searching for something to buy, whereas with external traffic you go out and find people who may not know they want to buy something at this time, and convince them that your product is what they need.
Increasing Traffic to Amazon Product Listings
As the competition on Amazon and the cost of sponsored ads continue to increase, you need to get ahead and look for additional ways to drive traffic to your listings. While Amazon has powerful internal advertising solutions for sellers and brands, you could be missing out on sales by not advertising outside of Amazon.
a). On-Amazon Optimizations
The first and most frequently used way is to achieve everything on Amazon by using high quality product photos, operating using Amazon’s in-house advertising platforms (Sponsored Products, Display ads and Search Ads), improving brand content and Optimizing Amazon SEO and listing content (doing keyword research, optimizing your backend keywords for relevance and search volume, and improving the content of your title, bullet points, and description).
Let’s discuss the selection of appropriate keywords, as this leads to a major chunk of conversions. Bidding on the right keywords to include in your product pages and hidden search-term fields can improve your ranking, ultimately increasing your sales. Refer to the Amazon data as it is actual customer data, words that customers have been searching for to find your products.
While Amazon doesn’t publish this information, you can access it through the search-term report available within the ad console.
When you type a word in the search bar Amazon provides you with suggestions based on previous customer searches. This is a great way to get an idea of what shoppers are searching for so you don’t miss any valuable keywords.
The Amazon search bar is also a useful resource for identifying keywords that customers frequently search….” Could also reference a free Chrome Extension called AMZ Suggestion expander which will expand on existing search suggestions
Third-party tools such as Helium10 and even Google’s free Keyword Planner are a great way to find beneficial keywords. Brand registered vendors also get access to Amazon’s own Amazon Brand Analytics solution. You need to simply enter different search terms that relate to your product, go through the list of suggested keywords and put any that may be relevant in your hidden search-terms field.
Add your most important keywords in your product title and also in your bullet points and description, so that Amazon knows your product is relevant for someone searching with that keyword. Avoid repeating words in your title or product listings and try to use as many descriptive words as possible, as customers tend to use adjectives. Additionally, details, including colour shades and sizes, and any other relevant info such as packaging contents and form factor will also help. Avoid including commas because they waste space and don’t count. Lastly, don’t forget synonyms because, what you call a rug, some people might call a mat or perhaps a carpet. It’s relevant to note that the benefits of these optimizations aren’t just limited to Amazon. Proper optimization will help your products rank well on Google and other SERPs, too.
b). Off-Amazon Optimizations
After making the most of on-Amazon platforms, the second approach to increasing traffic that will come in handy is driving external traffic (traffic from sources outside of Amazon) to your product listings. By employing channels outside of Amazon to drive traffic to your Amazon product listings, you are expanding the pool of potential customers for your brand. The Amazon Attribution tool is also great to help measure and drive directly attributable off-Amazon leads by giving you a better understanding of which off-Amazon channels are performing well and driving sales.
The sources from which you drive traffic to Amazon for views depend on the assets you currently have, the products you sell, who your target market is, and what your business goals are.
For instance, Facebook Ads can be a very effective medium for some sections, particularly lifestyle products such as beauty or outdoors products. But they can be expensive, and they are only becoming more competitive.
Social media platforms stand as an incredible marketing opportunity, as these days consumers are on their phones all day, whether for work or leisure. To drive external traffic to your Amazon listing, grow your brand on social media, build a following, connect with your audience, and increase brand awareness.
Over and above your own social media strategy, your brand can get in front of thousands of viewers if you engage social media influencers that fall in your brand’s niche. Collaborating with influencers popular in your space can help grow your social media following further increasing your sales on Amazon. Influencer marketing can have a positive impact on your business if done correctly.
According to some reports, TikTok is responsible for many products going viral and causing huge spikes in sales. While there isn’t a guide or study that explains what makes a product reach TikTok’s viral status, being on the platform and engaging your followers with regular posts is a good start.
Pinterest is also a great source on its own. There are two things to keep in mind while considering Pinterest as a source. Because of its layout and user base, it caters to certain products. It’s also a platform that demands high-quality visuals and is primarily used by women. If your products are beautifully designed and mainly target women, Pinterest will most likely prove to be a solid option for external traffic.
2. Build an Email List
Not many are aware but, emails stand as one of a brand’s most valuable marketing assets, and collecting them should always be on the priority list. With an email list, you have a roster of former and potential customers that have had some kind of interaction with your brand. You can remarket your products to them with promotional messages and special deals made exclusively for them.
3. Affiliate Blogs
While this option doesn’t give you full control, unless of course, you own your own blog, this is a great way to help drive additional traffic to your Amazon products.
There are various niche sites run by content creators who are part of the Amazon Associates Program. When they write about a product, they include an affiliate link to the Amazon listing; they earn a commission each time one of their blog visitors clicks on their link and purchases the product on Amazon.
You can also reach out to YouTube accounts and websites in your niche asking if they would be interested in featuring your product for their video or blog.
Advantage Over Competitors
Selling on Amazon is becoming more competitive by the day. By driving external traffic to Amazon, you gain an advantage over competitors. This means that you don’t particularly have to compete with the various other products on the Amazon Search Engine Results Page, as you send traffic straight to your listing.
In Summary
When done right, driving external traffic is a powerful growth lever that can help you to grow your sales, improve your organic rankings, and build assets that give your business much greater stability. Regardless of the source of traffic you use, driving eyes to Amazon will help sellers gain an edge over the competition and build a brand. Driving external traffic to Amazon is a powerful strategy to boost sales, improve rankings and gain more customers, and Amazon may reward you for sending traffic their way.
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