Your Amazon Listing. so you can grow your sales and improve your rankings.

Transcription

1 Your Amazon Listing so you can grow your sales and improve your rankings.

2 Introduction We want to give you an extensive overview for driving traffic to your Amazon listing. This guide is full of actionable information that you can implement in your Amazon business. The core topic we ll discuss is driving traffic from outside of Amazon to your product page. (This is usually called outside traffic, or external traffic ). Common traffic sources include Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and Blogs. Why drive traffic to your Amazon listing? Driving external traffic is a great way to grow your Amazon sales while building a more resilient brand. If you re not ranking highly on Amazon already, driving external traffic lets you boost your sales velocity and rankings. That s why this approach is incredibly valuable for product launches. If you already rank well on Amazon, driving traffic to your Amazon listing lets you find additional customers. It also builds a brand so that you can rely less on Amazon in the future. 2

3 Instead of being entirely at Amazon s mercy, external traffic gives you the power to take back control. You can build a more indepedent business that will be around for the long-term. By mastering driving traffic to your Amazon listing, you ll grow your sales, have more successful launches, and build a long-term brand. You ll become less reliant on Amazon while getting an edge over your competitors. Who is this guide for? If you re launching your first product, you ll definitely find this guide valuable. If you ve been selling for a while, you ll still likely learn a lot from this guide. If you ve never run an external traffic campaign before, you re best off reading this guide from beginning to end. If you re more experienced, you ll probably want to head straight to the chapters that interest you. This guide will help you get an edge over your competition, so act on as many of the tips as possible!

4 CHAPTER An Amazon Sales Funnel That Works 4 min CHAPTER 02 Tools Of The Trade CHAPTER 03 Creating Your Amazon Landing Page CHAPTER 04 Driving Traffic To Your Amazon Listing CHAPTER 05 Advertising Amazon Products on Facebook CHAPTER 06 Facebook Retargeting for Amazon Products CHAPTER 07 Google AdWords for Amazon Sellers CHAPTER 08 Getting Product Reviews CHAPTER 09 Conclusion 07 3 min 14 4 min 15 6 min 23 4 min 30 8 min 41 7 min 58 3 min 62 1 min 4

5 CHAPTER 01 An Amazon Sales Funnel That Works 4 min In this chapter, you ll learn how to build a successful Amazon sales funnel for your Amazon business using external traffic. What is an Amazon sales funnel? A sales funnel refers to the buying process that you lead your customers through when they are purchasing your products. First, let s start with the most common Amazon sales funnel mistake. Are you making this crucial mistake? There is a common mistake sellers make when it comes to external traffic. This mistake is to drive traffic straight to your product listing. You should never drive traffic straight to your product listing. Why? No matter which traffic source you use, it won t be nearly as targeted as Amazon s internal traffic. By sending unqualified, untargeted, traffic straight to your listing you ll run into two problems: 1) Low sales Most of the people you drive to your listing won t be ready to buy your product at full-price immediately. Unlike people who are browsing Amazon, they might not be interested in buying right now. The result will be that your external traffic campaign won t be a big success. You ll end up spending quite a lot of money on ads, without seeing much of a return. 01

6 2) Low conversion rates Low sales translates to low conversion rates. Driving untargeted traffic to your Amazon listing will negatively impact the overall conversion rate of your listing. What is a conversion rate? Conversion rate = number of sales / number of people viewing your product. So for example, if 100 people view your listing and 10 buy, your conversion rate is 10%. Why does your conversion rate matter? Many experienced sellers believe that conversion rate is a ranking factor in Amazon s ranking algorithm. This means that lowering your conversion rate by driving external traffic straight to your listing could negatively impact your rankings. In other words, if Amazon sees that your page isn t making a lot sales for the number of people who visit it, Amazon will direct less people to your page! 02

7 A mindset shift: Why capturing s is more important than sales The key to a successful external traffic campaign is to understand that, in the short-term, capturing s is more important than profits. Why is capturing s so important? You ll be able to: Build your own launch list. This will allow you to distinguish yourself from low-quality giveaway sites. Next time you want to get an Amazon product off the ground, simply your list with a discount offer. Send weekly or monthly newsletters. This allows you to build a long-term relationship with your prospects and customers. Drive sales with the push of a button. Running a special offer? Simply send an and you ll be able to drive extra sales. Build a brand. If you capture a customer s before they buy on Amazon, you can send them to your e-commerce site in the future. (This is fully compliant with Amazon s terms.) Retarget customers on Facebook. By capturing s, you can create retargeting audiences of customers on Facebook. 03

8 How to capture s using landing pages The key to capturing your customer s s is to collect them before they purchase on Amazon. Here s how it works: You want to drive external traffic to a landing page, instead of straight to Amazon. What is a landing page? A landing page is a web page that has been designed for one single objective. In our case, that objective is to capture an . It looks something like this: 04

9 Crafting a compelling offer for your Amazon sales funnel Why would anyone give away their on a landing page? you may be asking. It s simple. Give people a compelling reason, and they ll be more than happy to part with their address. There are two common types of lead magnets that work well for Amazon sellers. 1) Give away a discount The easiest way to get people to give you their address is to give them a big discount. (The best way to do this is to set up single-use promo codes, which protect your inventory.) This method is highly effective for a number of reasons: You ll be able to build an list. The people who click-through to your Amazon listing will almost certainly buy, increasing your conversion rates. You ll get a lot more sales. This results in a higher Best Sellers Rank (BSR) and overall higher Amazon rankings. 05

10 2) Give away educational content such as an ebook Selling a cocktail shaker? Why not give away a 30-page ebook full of amazing cocktail recipes. Once you get someone to give you their in exchange for an ebook, you can build a long-term relationship with them, and eventually entice them to buy. Which method should you use? Go for the discount option if: You can afford to give discounts. You want to boost your Amazon rankings and BSR. You want to build a targeted customer list. Go for the ebook option if: You can t afford to give away discounted units. Your product already ranks highly. You mainly just want to build an list. Building an Amazon sales funnel is just the start. You ll need to drive traffic 06

11 CHAPTER 02 Tools Of The Trade 3 min Using the right tools can make all the difference between your campaign being a success or failure. This chapter introduces all the tools you ll need to run a successful external traffic campaign. 1. Amazon Landing Page Generator First, you ll need a landing page tool for your external traffic campaign. As discussed in chapter one, a landing page is a key element of any successful traffic campaign. There are plenty of options to choose from, but here are our two favorites: Best General Purpose Landing Page Tool: Leadpages Leadpages is the best choice if: You want to build a general-purpose landing page. You want to give away an ebook in exchange for an address. You can learn more about Leadpages here. 07

12 Best Amazon Landing Page Generator: LandingCube LandingCube is our own product, so we may be slightly biased here =) LandingCube is a landing page tool built from the ground up for Amazon sellers. It gives you everything you need to convert external traffic into customers. LandingCube is the best choice if: You want to capture s by giving away coupon codes. You want to boost your sales and improve your Best Sellers Rank. You can learn more about LandingCube here. 08

13 2. Marketing Tools for Amazon Sellers Next, you ll want to choose an marketing tool for your Amazon business. marketing software will allow you to stay in touch with the people that enter their information on your landing page. This lets you ask your customers for feedback, build your own launch-list, and build long-term relationships with your customers. Both Leadpages & LandingCube work with a wide array of marketing providers. Here are some recommendations. MailChimp You can t beat MailChimp s offering. MailChimp is completely free to start. Their generous free plan let s you add up to 2,000 subscribers and send up to 12,000 s a month (that s a lot). Not only is MailChimp free to begin with, it s incredibly easy to use. If you re an entry-level seller, you can t go wrong with MailChimp. 09

14 AWeber Used by 100,000+ small businesses, AWeber is one of the most popular marketing tools in the world. It s been around for a long time, and comes at a very reasonable price point. Drip We ve been using Drip (which is now owned by Leadpages) from the day they launched over four years ago. Drip boasts advanced marketing automation features such as workflows, while still remaining easy to use. 10

15 ConvertKit ConvertKit has a similar feature set to Drip, but is mostly targeted at bloggers. ConvertKit boasts powerful marketing automation features and a beautiful, easy-to-use interface. Looking for other marketing providers? You can t go wrong with GetResponse or ActiveCampaign. 11

16 3. Analytics, Conversion Tracking & Retargeting tools Google Analytics We highly recommend setting up Google Analytics on your landing page. Not only will this allow you to see how people behave on your landing page, it ll also allow you to easily: Create Google AdWords retargeting audiences. Track AdWords conversions with Google Analytics goals. You can get started with Google Analytics here. Facebook Pixel The Facebook Pixel is a powerful tool that lets you: Track Facebook Ad conversions. Create retargeting audiences based on how your visitors behave on your landing page. If you plan on advertising on Facebook, we highly recommend you add the Facebook Pixel to your site. You can learn more about the Facebook Pixel here. Implementation Setting up your Facebook Pixel & Google Analytics tracking codes will depend on your landing page tool. LandingCube, lets you set up Google Analytics tracking and the Facebook Pixel with a single click. Using LeadPages? Read this. 12

17 4. Single-use Promo Codes If you ve decided to give away discount codes as your optin bribe, you ll want to set up single use promo codes in Seller Central. Single use promo codes are valid only once, and thus let you protect your inventory. You can find a great guide on how to create single-use promo codes here. You should now be familiar with the tools required to drive traffic to your Amazon products. In the next chapter, you ll learn how to set up your landing page. 13

18 CHAPTER 03 Creating Your Amazon Landing Page 4 min Using a landing page is a key element to any successful external traffic campaign. In this chapter, you ll learn how to set up an Amazon Landing Page with LandingCube. Getting Set Up Before moving forward, you should do the following: Decide on a compelling offer. We recommend you give away discount codes that are at least 50% off. To protect your inventory, you ll want to set up single-use promo codes for your product listing. Optional: Sign up for Google Analytics and create a Facebook ad account. Optional: Sign up for an marketing tool. If in doubt, go for MailChimp as it s free to start. Building your Amazon Landing Page Building a landing page for your Amazon product takes less than 3 minutes with LandingCube. Simply follow the instructions here: Once you ve implemented the steps above, you re ready to drive external traffic to your Amazon listing. 14

19 CHAPTER 04 Driving Traffic To Your Amazon Listing 6 min What techniques are there for driving traffic to your Amazon listing? Here at LandingCube, we re big fans of Gabriel Weinberg s book TRACTION: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth. One of the book s most interesting concepts is traction testing. Traction testing means identifying a traffic channel idea, and spending a small amount of time and/or money to see if that traffic channel could work for you. Based on the results, you can then either double down on the traffic channel, or try a different one. Each traction test is really just an experiment. The faster you run high quality experiments, the more likely you ll find scalable, effective growth tactics. Sean Ellis, founder of Qualaroo 15

20 How to test external traffic channels for your Amazon business TRACTION outlines a pretty elaborate process for testing traffic channels. If you re an experienced seller or marketer, I d encourage you to read the book. However, if you re just starting out with driving traffic to Amazon, you re better off keeping things simple. Our advise is to choose one traffic channel that seems promising to you. Try it out, and make sure you track your results (using Google Analytics or the Facebook Pixel). Spend a small amount of money on your experiment, and re-evaluate as soon as you have results. If your test worked great. It s time to double down. You want to put all your effort into extracting as much value as possible from this channel. Your test didn t work? No worries, just try another idea. Channels vs. ideas Be careful when making bold statements such as Facebook Ads don t work for me. There s a good chance that the implementation of your campaign (how you set up your ads targeting, copy, images, etc.) is to blame, not the channel itself. 16

21 External traffic ideas for Amazon Sellers There are tons of external traffic ideas to choose from; from crowdfunding on sites like Kickstarter to sponsoring local events. Choosing from all these options, we ve narrowed things down to our favorites. All of these are fast to implement, meaning you ll have results in the shortest time-frame possible. Choose one of these external traffic channels to start with: Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Search Engine Marketing, also called Search Engine Advertising, lets you show your ads on search engines, such as Google and Bing. This means your customers will see your ad at the moment they re searching on Google or Bing for the things you offer. You only pay when people click on your ad. This is called pay per click. Say you re selling air purifiers. Search Engine Marketing will promote your listing when someone googles air purifiers. 17

22 As an Amazon seller, Search Engine Marketing is a great way to get started with external traffic. Simply show ads for keywords with a clear buying intent that are related to your product (eg. iphone power bank ). To start, you ll probably want to focus on Google AdWords, as Google has the most search volume. Ready to try Google AdWords for your Amazon business? Chapter 7 of this guide is dedicated to setting up AdWords for your Amazon listing. What about Bing Ads? Some advertisers notice lower ad spend and higher conversion rates on Bing, but there s less traffic because Bing is less popular. Our advise is to set up AdWords first, and then experiment with Bing. Twitter Ads for Amazon FBA Sellers Example of a Twitter ad. Twitter has had a rocky couple of years. From slow user growth to the company s stock dropping, there has been a lot of bad news recently. Still, Twitter continues to be one of the world s largest social networks, with more than 300 million active users. For a number of reasons, Twitter is not the first place you should start when driving traffic to your Amazon listing. It s only worth experimenting with if you feel like you re already maxing out on other channels, such as Facebook or AdWords. Still want to give Twitter Ads a try? Here s a good tutorial. 18

23 Pinterest Ads for Amazon Sellers Pinterest is a visual social network where users can pin images they like. Here are some interesting facts from Shopify: The average order value of sales coming from Pinterest is $50 higher than any other major social platform. Pinterest is the #2 overall source of all social media traffic to Shopify stores. 93% of Pinterest users use the platform to plan purchases. Suffice to say, Pinterest is a traffic channel worth exploring for Amazon sellers. Image source: Pinterest.com 19

24 How it works Pinterest Ads uses a system called Promoted Pins. This means you can get more visibility for your pins, and thus more traffic to your site. Should you use Pinterest? This depends on your business. Keep these two facts in mind: Pinterest is very visual. The majority of Pinterest users are female (81%, according to Business Insider) If your products are beautifully designed, and/or if your target demographic is female, you ll have better results then if you re selling run-of-the-mill products targeted at men. Interested in Pinterest Ads? This guide is a good starting point. Instagram & Facebook Ads for Amazon FBA Sellers Google AdWords and Facebook are giving each other a run for their money. They both have huge ad networks and highly sophisticated online advertising tools. Example of a Facebook ad. 20

25 Facebook ads come with a huge variety of targeting options. From targeting people based on their age, gender, geographic location and interests, to (re-) targeting previous website visitors and customers of yours, Facebook has it all. Facebook is one of the best ways for Amazon sellers to drive external traffic. That s why chapters five and six of this guide is solely dedicated to Facebook Ads for Amazon sellers. What about Instagram? Instagram is owned by Facebook, so you can use Facebook s advertising tools to promote your products on Instagram. Similar to Pinterest, Instagram ads will work especially well if you have nice looking products and high quality photography. Targeting Bloggers & Influencers Targeting influencers is one of the most effective ways to reach your target market. You ll want to reach out to them, and get them to share your product with their audience. Based on how big someone s online following is, they might be happy getting a free review unit (many bloggers are hungry for content ideas), or you might be able to incentivize them with a payment of a few hundred dollars. The most common type of influencer you ll run into is bloggers. Bloggers are great because they usually have both an list, social media accounts and a blog where they can post your product. Other types of influencers include YouTubers and Instagrammers. Unlike buying ads on search engines or social networks, there s a bit more legwork required with this approach. You ll actually have to reach out to people and make deals with them. Nonetheless, this approach can be highly effective. 21

26 In its simplest form, influencer outreach for your Amazon business comprises three steps: 1. Make a list of influencers in your space. 2. them. 3. Follow up. You can use a tool such as Boomerang to follow up with people if they don t respond. 4. Try to negotiate a deal. Curious? Here s a great case study on influencer outreach on YouTube: The Amazing Seller #381 ZERO SALES TO $100K IN 11 MONTHS + OUTSIDE TRAFFIC TIPS Moving forward You should now have an overview of which traffic sources are best for driving traffic to your Amazon listing. The next step is to choose a traffic channel and set up your first campaign. If you re a beginner, our recommendation is to choose either Facebook Ads or Google AdWords to start. 22

27 CHAPTER 05 Advertising Amazon Product Listings on Facebook 4 min Facebook ads are one of the most powerful external traffic sources for Amazon sellers. If you set up a successful Facebook ad campaign, your Amazon listing will benefit from increased sales velocity, which leads to a higher BSR, better rankings and more profits. Not only that, but you ll also get an edge over your competitors. The vast majority of Amazon sellers never use outside traffic sources, such as Facebook. Best of all, setting up your first campaign is actually pretty easy. Reviewing the basics As discussed in previous chapters, make sure you drive your Facebook ad traffic to a landing page, instead of straight to your listing. Sending Facebook traffic straight to your product listing massively decreases the chance of your campaign being a success. You ll want to use a sales funnel such as this: Now that we ve got that out of the way, we will walk you through setting up your first Facebook ad campaign. 23

28 Making your landing page compliant with Facebook s terms To make sure your landing page is compliant with Facebook s terms, we recommend the following: Host your landing page on your own website. Include a link to your privacy on your landing page. Include navigation elements that link away from your landing page. Setting up your first Facebook Ad campaign Step 1: Setting up a Facebook Page First, you ll need to set up a Facebook page for your business. Without a Facebook page, you won t be able to run Facebook ads. Before you proceed, invite a couple of friends to like your page for some extra social proof. Step 2: Setting up a Facebook Ad account Next, it s time to set up a Facebook ad account. Go to facebook.com/business and click Create an Advert. 24

29 Step 3: Creating an ad campaign Now, go to the Facebook ads manager, and click Create Ad. Choose Conversions, and give your ad campaign a name. Now you ll need to select a conversion event. If you use LandingCube, choose Lead. LandingCube triggers this event when your customer enters their address. (If you don t see any events here, make sure you ve set up your pixel and requested a coupon at least once, so Facebook knows of the event.) 25

30 Step 4: Targeting Now you want to define your audience targeting. This is the most important part of your Facebook campaign setup. The more you know about your target market, the easier this will be. Creating an audience essentially lets you target people based on a number of characteristics, including age, location, interests or behavior. It s really powerful. Here are a couple of things to consider when building your audience: Create an audience of at least 10,000 people. The more people exposed to your ad, the better. Be as specific as possible. Use detailed targeting, as you shown in the image below. Interest targeting is particularly powerful. Make sure you include Amazon.com as an interest to ensure they re enthusiastic Amazon customers, and try to find as many interests relevant to your product as possible. If I wanted to sell bodybuilding supplements, I d probably target like this: 26

31 Or, if I wanted to sell a Happy Birthday plush cat, I d target people like this: As you can see, I d target Women aged who have an upcoming birthday, and who are interested in Amazon.com, cats, and stuffed toys. 27

32 Step 5: Setting your budget & schedule Set a reasonably low daily budget to start ($5?), and make sure you set an end date that matches the expiration date of your landing page. Leave most of the other settings to default, and continue to ad creation. Step 6: Setting up your creative & launching your ad When creating an ad creative, use compelling images and text for maximum results. Looking for inspiration? Here are some great Facebook ad examples. Once you ve created the ad, just hit Confirm to launch your ad. 28

33 Step 7: Tracking results It s important you track your campaign s performance. If you don t stay on top of your campaign stats, you could end up spending a lot of money on something that doesn t work. In the early days of your ad campaign, make sure to check your results daily. You can check your results by following this guide. Image source: Facebook.com Conclusion As you can see, setting up a Facebook campaign isn t that hard. It s important, however, that you check your stats often, and that you improve & optimize your campaign further. This article only scratches the surface on how to run Facebook ads. As you get more experience, we highly recommend you continue learning more about Facebook ads. Here are some great resources: Facebook Advertising for Ecommerce Entrepreneurs by Shopify Perry Marshall s Ultimate Guide to Facebook Advertising Either way, the above guide should be enough to get you started running external traffic to Amazon. 29

34 CHAPTER 06 Facebook Retargeting for Amazon Products 8 min Retargeting is a powerful way to drive outside traffic to your Amazon products. With Facebook retargeting for Amazon products, you can show Facebook ads to people who ve visited your website or bought from you in the past. Retargeting ads are particularly powerful because they are only shown to people who ve previously interacted with one of your products or your brand. These people are a lot more likely to buy than the general population. This chapter explains how you can set up retargeting ads for your Amazon FBA business. How to retarget Amazon products on Facebook For normal websites, retargeting looks like this: (Image by ReTargeter.com) 30

35 Retargeting works by adding a code snippet (often called a pixel, such as the Facebook Pixel) to your website. The problem with this approach is that as an Amazon seller, you can t add the necessary retargeting code to your Amazon listing. This complicates retargeting for Amazon product listings. Luckily, there are two approaches that you can use to set up Facebook retargeting for your Amazon business: Option 1: Retarget your existing customers. This option lets you show retargeting ads to your previous customers. This is handy if you launch another product in the niche, or if you have a product your customers can buy again (such as a nutritional supplement). Option 2: Retarget landing page visitors.. If you drive traffic from outside Amazon to a landing page (which you should), you can place retargeting code on your landing page. This will allow you to retarget your visitors. The rest of this article will walk you through the exact steps to set up a successful Facebook retargeting campaign. Choosing a goal Before setting up retargeting, you want to think about your goals. What do you want to accomplish? There are a number of interesting options: You can send people to a landing page that allows you to capture their address. You can retarget buyers asking for honest feedback in the form of Amazon product reviews. You can give away single-use promo codes, so you can boost your sales velocity and BSR. If you have an e-commerce store, such as Shopify, you can drive people to your own store. Before continuing, choose a goal and set up your landing page. 31

36 Retargeting networks The two biggest retargeting advertising networks are Facebook ads and Google AdWords. Facebook Retargeting for Amazon Sellers Facebook retargeting lets you place ads in your prospect s Facebook & Instagram feeds. The key to a successful Facebook retargeting campaign for your Amazon products is to understand Facebook Custom Audiences. Using Facebook Custom Audiences, you can show ads to your customers, or to people who have visited your website or your landing page. Creating ads with custom audiences is similar to creating a normal Facebook ad campaign, as described in Chapter 5. The main difference is that, instead of targeting people based on their interests, you can choose to target a custom audience. We ll talk about how to set up Facebook custom audiences for your Amazon business later in this chapter. Google AdWords Remarketing for Amazon Sellers Google AdWords remarketing lets you show Google ads to your visitors. To keep it simple we ll focus on Facebook retargeting for the rest of this article. That being said, AdWords retargeting is a powerful way to drive traffic, so feel free to investigate it further. You can learn more here. (Image courtesy of Google) 32

37 Option 1: Retarget your existing Amazon customers on Facebook People who have bought from you in the past will be likely to buy from you again in the future. They ve demonstrated that they re willing to spend money on the products you are offering. Selling to these people will be comparatively easy. The way to retarget your existing Amazon customers is by uploading your customer database to Facebook so you can create a Custom Audience. Your Amazon customer list contains data (eg. name, zip, city, state) that Facebook can match with their users. This isn t perfect. You won t have a 100% match rate, but you will be able to target a lot of your customers this way. What kind of match rate can you expect? Until recently, Amazon let you export your customer s phone number. Phone numbers make it very easy to match your Amazon customers to Facebook users. This appears to have changed. The remaining relevant data points you can still access are: First name Last name Zip City State Country Using these data points, you will be able to match a good percentage of your customers to Facebook users. In one test, we uploaded about 5,500 customers, and Facebook was able to match 2,200 of those people to Facebook accounts. This is a match rate of approximately 40%. 33

38 Step 1: Downloading your Customer list First, go to Reports Fulfillment Then, go to Sales Amazon Fulfilled Shipments. Go ahead and schedule a report. As mentioned above, the match rate you can expect is about 40%. Considering that your custom audience should be as large as possible (in an ideal word 10,000+ people), we recommend going for a long time frame: 30 days or more. Download the report. 34

39 Step 2: Download & format your spreadsheet Download your report and open it with Excel, or any other spreadsheet editing tool. The only change you ll need to make to your spreadsheet is to to split the name column into two: First name and Last name. You can follow the instructions here: Split name field using Google Sheets Split name field in Apple Numbers Split name field in Excel Advanced Tip: Segment your customers by product. If you sell multiple unrelated products, you may want to split your spreadsheet by product purchased. To do so, sort or filter your spreadsheet by Product, and copy and paste your customers into a new empty spreadsheet. Step 3: Creating a Facebook Custom Audience from your Amazon customers Log into your Facebook ad account and go to Assets Audiences. 35

40 Choose Create Audience Custom Audience. Choose Customer File paste data. Add customers from your own file or copy and Now, upload your spreadsheet. Match the following fields: First name Last name Zip City State Country Phone number (if available) Congrats! You ve just created a Facebook custom audience from your Amazon customers. Depending on your audience size, you ll need to wait up to a few hours for Facebook to fully process your upload. Now that you ve created your custom audience, you can start running Facebook ads. The process is similar to what we ve described in Chapter 5. The only difference is that instead of targeting people based on their interests, you ll target the custom audience you just uploaded. For a more detailed overview, read chapter 5 on how to set up Facebook ads for your Amazon business. 36

41 Do Amazon s terms of service allow this? In its communication guidelines, Amazon states: In general, you may contact buyers (Amazon.com customers) only to complete orders or to respond to customer service inquiries. You may not contact buyers for marketing or promotional purposes (including via , physical mail, telephone, or otherwise). It s unclear if showing Facebook ads to people counts as contacting buyers. The above policy is aimed at preventing sellers from ing, snail mailing, or calling buyers. Regardless, the above approach seems like a bit of a gray area, so do proceed with caution. A safer approach that is still highly effective is to create a lookalike audience (instead of a custom audience) from your Amazon customers. Lookalike audiences are people that have similar characteristics to the list of people you ve uploaded. Using this approach, you ll be able to show targeted Facebook ads to people very similar to your customers. You ll also be able to rest assured that you re not violating Amazon s terms of service. Retargeting landing page visitors The second option you have is to retarget people that visit your landing page. This approach is very effective, and completely in-line with Amazon s terms of service. Why use a landing page? If you drive outside traffic to your Amazon listing, you should always send your visitors to a landing page, instead of straight to your listing. For a detailed explanation, refer to Chapter 1. 37

42 Step 1: Facebook Pixel setup First, you ll want to add the Facebook Pixel to your landing page. What is the Facebook Pixel? The Facebook Pixel lets you build advertising audiences based on their behavior on your website. You can create a Facebook Pixel for free by following the instructions here. The exact implementation will depend on the landing page tool you use, but in most cases you ll have to copy, edit, and paste some JavaScript code. Using LandingCube, you can add The Facebook pixel with a single click. Step 2: Wait Start driving traffic to your landing page and wait. Facebook will start collecting data about your visitors. You ll need to drive at least 100 visitors to your landing page before proceeding. Step 3: Set up your Facebook retargeting audience Set up a Facebook Custom Audience for the people that interacted with your landing page. Keep in mind that Facebook s minimum size for custom audiences is 100 people. This is a precaution by Facebook that ensures you can t target specific people individually. 38

43 Go ahead and create a Facebook Custom Audience. Choose Custom Audience Choose Website Traffic 39

44 Now, you can either choose to target everyone (All website visitors), or only people that performed a specific action. In this example, we ll create a custom audience for people that triggered the Lead event. LandingCube triggers the Lead event when someone enters their in exchange for a coupon code. Click Create Audience and you re done. The last step is to can set up a Facebook campaign as usual. Please refer to the previous chapter for more details. 40

45 CHAPTER 07 Amazon AdWords Google Ads for Amazon Products 7 min This chapter will guide you through setting up an Amazon AdWords campaign for your Amazon product. Why bother? According to a survey, 25% of Amazon sellers use AdWords. There s a reason a quarter of all Amazon sellers are using AdWords: it works. By implementing Google AdWords correctly, you ll be able to grow your Amazon sales and Best Sellers Rank. You ll also have a competitive edge over the 75% or so of sellers who don t run AdWords. What is Google AdWords? Google AdWords lets you show ads to people that search for specific search terms (called keywords) in Google. For example, when you search Google for air purifiers, you ll see results similar to this: 41

46 There are 2 parts to a Google search result. 1) Ads AdWords ads usually shows at the top of the search results. This is where your ads will appear. (There are multiple types of AdWords ads, but we ll stick to normal text ads during this guide.) 2) Organic results These are the search results that are ranked by Google s secret algorithm. 42

47 AdWords For Amazon Products AdWords can work very well for Amazon businesses. It s a great way to drive external traffic to your product listing, so you can make more sales and improve your Best Sellers Rank. Let s revisit our funnel from Chapter 1: The secret to making AdWords for your Amazon products work, is to drive traffic to a landing page, instead of to your Amazon listing. We recommend capturing s in exchange for single-use promo codes (give a discount of at least 50%) on this landing page. The landing page would look something like this: 43

48 You could either build this landing page yourself, or use a landing page tool such as our own product LandingCube. Making your landing page compliant with Google s terms To make sure your landing page is compliant with Google s terms, we recommend the following: Host your landing page on your own website. Include a link to your privacy on your landing page. Include navigation elements that link away from your landing page. Using this approach, you ll be able to: Track AdWords conversions for your Amazon listing Capture the addresses of your buyers Boost your sales velocity and Best Sellers Rank The purpose of this approach is not necessarily to have a positive return on investment on your campaign. Depending on how big your discount is, this might be hard to pull off. Instead, we ll think long-term. The purpose of our AdWords campaign is to: Build an list. You can turn this into your own launch list in the future. Boost your sales velocity. This means you rank higher on Amazon and get more sales. With this in mind, let s get started. The rest of this guide walks you through setting up your first AdWords campaign for your Amazon product. We ll assume you ve already created your landing page. 44

49 Step 1: Setting up your AdWords account If you don t have an AdWords account already, go to adwords.google.com and set up an AdWords account. Tip: If you ve never used AdWords before, you may be eligible for a $75 coupon from Google. Click here to learn more. 45

50 Step 2: Keyword research A keyword is the phrase (or search term ) that someone searches for. If you type air purifiers into Google, your keyword is air purifiers. Choosing the right keywords is an important part of a successful AdWords campaign. You want to make sure your keywords are as relevant as possible, otherwise you ll be wasting money on low-quality keywords that don t convert. To begin keyword research, navigate to Google s Keyword Planner. An easy way to start is to paste your landing page into the keyword planner, and hit Get Ideas. 46

51 Google will now build a list of keywords, along with search volume, suggested bid, and miscellaneous information. Now, find the keywords that are closely related to your product. In this example, we re giving away a Pusheen plush cat toy. The keyword pusheen (the name of a cat) is too broad, while pusheen plush toy or pusheen birthday plush are highly relevant. Click the blue arrow (Add to plan), and download the plan to get a spreadsheet containing your keywords for later use. 47

52 Step 3: Creating your first ad campaign Leave the keyword tool and go back to the AdWords interface. In the lefthand sidebar, navigate to Campaigns and click the + button. Select Search Network. 48

53 As your goal, select Sales. Under Setup details, choose Get website visits and paste your landing page URL. Give your campaign a name. For best results, disable Include Google search partners and Add Display Network. 49

54 Assuming you re targeting customers in the USA, choose United States as your location, and English as your language. Next, choose your bidding strategy. For maximum control, choose Manual CPC (you can leave Enhanced CPC turned on). Choose a daily budget. Better start off small, for example with $5. Also make sure to set an end date, otherwise your ads will run indefinitely. Now, click SAVE AND CONTINUE. 50

55 Step 4: Creating ad groups The next step is to create your ad groups. What is an ad group? An ad group contains both ads and related keywords. Each AdWords campaign must contain at least one ad group. Google will automatically suggest keywords based on your landing page content. This is where you ll add keywords to your ad groups. You can use Google s keywords suggestions here, as well as keywords from the spreadsheet you created earlier when researching keywords. 51

56 Setting your match type For best results, set your match type to exact match. This means that your ad will only show to people that search exactly for this keyword. An exact match keyword is surrounded by square brackets and looks like this: [keyword] For each ad group, you ll have to set a default bid. You can start off with $1 (AdWords will tell you if your bid is too high or too low) and add at least one keyword. Make sure you only add closely related keywords to each ad group. How to structure your ad groups The best approach is to have very few keywords per ad group. Why? In the next step, we ll be creating ads for all of our ad groups. You ll want to make sure each ad is highly related to the keywords in your ad group. For example, we ll put [pusheen cat plush] and [pusheen plush] into the same ad group, while [pusheen stuffed animal] goes into another group. 52

57 Let s create 2 ad groups And we re done. Click SAVE AND CONTINUE. 53

58 Step 5: Creating compelling ads Great we re ready to write some ads. Creating ads that convert is all about copywriting. You may not be a copywriting expert, but here are a couple rules to follow: Use your keyword in your ad. Ads that include your keywords will get more clicks, as Google highlights these words in bold. Include a call to action, such as Buy Now, Learn More, or Claim Your Coupon. Are you giving a big discount? Only limited units left? Mention this in your ad text. Capitalize All Words. Extensive Testing Has Shown That Ads Where All Words Begin With A Capital Letter Have Higher Click-Through Rates. For more tips and examples of successful ads, read this post. Go ahead and create your ads. Here s what we came up with: 54

59 Pro tip: For best results, create 2 ads per ad group. Google will automatically split test your ads, and choose a winner. That s what we did here: Last, click SAVE AND CONTINUE. 55

60 Step 6: AdWords Conversion Tracking for Amazon products When it comes to paid traffic, you ll always want to measure conversions. If you don t track conversions, you re essentially flying blind. Using AdWords conversion tracking features, you ll be able to identify: Which keywords are working for you. What your cost per conversion is. What your conversion rate is. Unfortunately, adding AdWords conversion tracking code to an Amazon listing is not possible. (That s yet another reason why you should never drive AdWords traffic straight to your Amazon listing.) Instead, you ll want to track conversions on your landing page. You have 2 options: Track a conversion when someone clicks through to Amazon. Track a conversion when someone claims a coupon in exchange for their address. The actual implementation of AdWords conversion tracking depends on your landing page tool. To get started, Google has a good tutorial on setting up conversion tracking. If you use LandingCube, you can track AdWords conversions using our Google Analytics integration. Set up Google Analytics for your landing page with one click, and create a Google Analytics goal for the ClickToAmazon event LandingCube triggers. Then, import your Google Analytics goal into AdWords Conversion Tracking. Once conversion tracking is set up, you ll be able to track your ad campaign s effectiveness. 56

61 Conclusion This chapter only scratches the surface of teaching how to use Google AdWords. Even so, if you re following our recommendation to offer big discounts on your landing page you ll likely see good results, even if you re not an AdWords expert. Want to dive even deeper into AdWords for your Amazon business? We highly recommend Perry Marshall s AdWords bible : Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords by Perry Marshall 0:00/2:56 57

62 CHAPTER 08 Getting Product Reviews 3 min This chapter assumes you re using an Amazon landing page tool, such as LandingCube, to capture s in exchange for promo codes. There s another benefit of driving external traffic to your Amazon listing: you ll be getting more Amazon product reviews. External traffic is a highly effective way to get more Amazon product reviews. Using the approach outlined here, you ll get a lot more reviews than usual. Why? 1. People that received an exclusive discount will be more likely to leave you an honest review. Psychologists call this the Law of Reciprocity it basically says that when someone does something nice for you, you ll be likely to do something nice for them in return. 2. Instead of using Amazon s seller messaging service, we can send a beautiful feedback request straight to your customer s actual address, using an provider such as MailChimp. Best of all, the approach outlined here is completely in line with Amazon s terms and conditions for sellers. Complying with Amazon s terms Amazon updated its policies regarding product reviews in late [ ] you may not provide compensation (including free or discounted products) for a review. Review solicitations that ask for only positive reviews or that offer compensation are prohibited. You may not ask buyers to modify or remove reviews. The approach outlined in this chapter makes sure you comply with Amazon s updated terms. 58

63 To comply with Amazon s terms, we ll need to make sure of the following: Ask for honest feedback, regardless of it being positive or negative. Don t require a review in exchange for a discount. Read on to learn how to get more product reviews using external traffic. Step 1: Set up a landing page First, you ll want to set up your landing page and your promo discounts. (For detailed instructions, read chapter three.) Connect your landing page tool to your tool, so that new optins will be sent straight to your provider. If you haven t used an marketing provider before, give MailChimp a try. 59

64 Step 2: Set up your autoresponder Set up an autoresponder that sends a few days after your new customer gets added to your marketing tool. In that , reference that they got a special deal, and that their feedback is really valuable to you. Here s a draft Hey there, Thanks so much for being part of our <product name> promo campaign. The reason I m talking to you today is: I d love to get your feedback. Yup, I d love to hear from you and what your thoughts are on <product name>. >> Click here to send feedback for <product name> << Your feedback is super important as it helps us to improve our products. As a small business, it also helps us stay relevant against huge multinational competitors, so we can continue providing you with great, affordable products. Your feedback really is important to us. Thanks so much. -Name -Title Tip: Make sure is a link to your Amazon product page in your . 60

65 Step 3: Drive traffic Last but not least, start driving traffic to your landing page. To get started, set up an AdWords or Facebook ad campaign. As you can see, adding an autoresponder to your external traffic campaign is an easy way to get more Amazon reviews, while building an list and boosting your sales. You ve almost made it to the end of this guide. Click here to continue to the last chapter. 61

66 CHAPTER 09 Conclusion 1 min In this guide we ve discussed how to drive external traffic to your Amazon listing. Summary In the first chapter we described what an effective Amazon sales funnel looks like. In chapter two we introduced our recommended tools. For best results, you ll need an Amazon landing page tool, an marketing tool, Google Analytics, and the Facebook Pixel. In chapter three we talked about how to set up a landing page for your Amazon product in less than three minutes After discussing key concepts and explaining how to set up a landing page, we started teaching you how to drive traffic: Chapter four contained an extensive list of traffic driving ideas. Chapter five helped you set up your first Facebook campaign. Chapter six explained Facebook retargeting for Amazon sellers. Chapter seven discussed Google AdWords. Last but not least, chapter eight discussed how to get product reviews using external traffic. 62

67 The Bottom Line No matter if you re launching a new product, or if you re continuously giving away a small number of units per day, external traffic is a great way to grow your Amazon business. Learning how to drive more traffic to your Amazon listing will give you an edge, and help you build a brand that will be around for the long-term. Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed it! Do you want your friends to succeed in their Amazon business as well? Why not share this guide with your friends, or on Facebook. David Hehenberger, creator of LandingCube. 63