Who would you pick: a customer who purchases one high-ticket item from your site, but never returns, or a customer who makes hundreds of smaller purchases from you over the course of 10 years?

The answer is simple: In most cases, you’d pick the person who buys from your site repeatedly. Not only is the sum of their transactions often greater than the single item, but their customer loyalty is also a major advantage.

However, to understand if you’re attracting repeat customers, you need to track your customer lifetime value (CLV). In this blog, we’ll discuss how to do that and what you can do to increase your CLV.

What is customer lifetime value (CLV)?

CLV is a measurement indicating how much money customers are likely to spend on your brand during their lifetime.

For instance, a person who buys a Subuaru as his or her first car may initially pay $25,000. But, as s/he grows older and earns more spending power, s/he may upgrade to fancier models — or purchase multiple Subarus for the family — and wind up spending another $40,000 to $80,000 on Subaru cars over the years. The driver’s CLV could be as much as $105,000.

In another case, the average meal kit subscriber may only stick with the subscription box for six months (the duration of a temporary diet) and have a much lower CLV.

In both situations, CLV helps you to predict customer behaviors and understand when or why purchases drop off.

The relationship between CLV and CAC

CLV also plays another critical role: it acts as a compass for your company in terms of helping you decide how much to invest in attracting new customers versus retaining existing ones.

For this reason, CLV tends to go hand in hand with customer acquisition cost (CAC). If the estimated CLV for a customer is $300, you wouldn’t spend $500 in ads to acquire customers exactly like him or her.

In other words, you don’t want your CAC to exceed your CLV because you’d lose money on that relationship.

How to calculate CLV

The formula for CLV can be simplified to…

CLV = Average purchase value x average number of purchases x average length of customer relationship in years

That said, CLV calculations can vary from business to business, and by cohort. For example, if you own a subscription business where you deal with more predictable “contracts” than a typical eCommerce business, you likely should factor in churn rate (i.e., CLV = Average monthly recurring revenue per user / churn rate).

Your formula may grow more sophisticated over time as you account for changing market conditions (which could impact your prices) and new customer behaviors, among other variables. The simplified formula above gives you a place to start, but certainly isn’t prescriptive or all-encompassing.

5 Ways to improve CLV

In most cases, your time (and money) is better spent convincing existing customers to repurchase from your site as opposed to finding, nurturing, and acquiring new ones. With this in mind, here are five ways to increase CLV.

1) Make it easy and enjoyable to purchase from your brand

A whopping 68% of customers defect from a brand because of a bad customer experience — and the blame doesn’t fall squarely on customer support. A bad customer experience can result from inaccurate product descriptions, poor return policies, and/or slow shipping. Take time to audit the customer experience from start to finish and address any inefficiencies in your operations. Check out your site, too, to make sure it’s easy for customers to explore your whole catalog and add items to their shopping carts.

2) Launch a loyalty program

One of the most effective ways to earn repeat business is to offer an incentive. A loyalty program does just that by providing rewards or special discounts based on a user’s engagement with your brand. Loyalty programs can simultaneously motivate your best customers to refer their friends, or repeatedly choose your brand over a competitor by fostering relationships and/or creating the feeling of exclusivity.

3) Use customer surveys to learn buyer preferences

Customer surveys can return valuable insight straight from the source. Rather than guessing the reason behind a low CLV, for instance, you can ask your customers directly what they like or dislike about your products and/or site. Aside from creating a better customer experience with this feedback, you can build goodwill by showing you care.

4) Retarget customers

Keep your brand top of mind by leveraging retargeting (aka remarketing) ads. Fortunately, retargeting ads on Google, Facebook, Instagram, and other channels tend to be relatively cheap. With them, you can serve ads to people who’ve already visited your site or made a purchase from you once before.

5) Use emails and SMS strategically

Don’t underestimate the power of these everyday communication channels. Ninety-nine percent of email users check their inbox every day, while SMS marketers see impressive open rates of 82% on average. Using either or both platforms, you can inform your customers of new product launches, special deals, or products they may be interested in as opposed to waiting around for them to discover those things on their own.

Wrapping up — What is the importance of customer lifetime value?

CLV is what makes an eCommerce business resilient, and future-proof. Having high customer lifetime values indicates you’ve found the right product-market fit, you’re meeting and exceeding customer expectations, you’re providing a great buyer experience, and your products are worth coming back for.

Google is no longer king when it comes to product searches. Today, 74% of U.S. consumers begin their product searches on Amazon, according to Jungle Scout, and more than half (56%) say they would buy from Amazon if they were only allowed to buy products from a single store.

That’s a lot of money being thrown Amazon’s way. A large part of that success is due to the search engine algorithm that’s hard at work in the background: A10.

Amazon’s A10 algorithm is at the core of Amazon’s superb user experience. Keep reading for a breakdown of how A10 works and how to get your ASINs ranking on the first page of eCommerce’s most popular search engine.

What is Amazon’s A10 algorithm?

A10 (formerly called A9) works much like Google’s algorithm. It analyzes a variety of signals to determine if a product matches what a buyer is looking for based on his/her query in the search bar.

Unlike Google, however, A10’s primary focus is to encourage a sale. It factors in signals that best indicate if a product is relevant to the user and will deliver a positive buying experience — after all, Amazon’s claim to fame is its obvious obsession over the customer experience.

These signals now include:

• Seller authority – seller feedback, account performance, Buy Box win rate, etc.
• Click-through rate – how often your product is clicked on
• Organic sales – sales generated by organic listings of your product
• PPC sales – sales generated by your Amazon PPC campaigns.
• Off-site sales – sales on your Amazon listing from external traffic
• Internal sales – sales from things like Amazon’s “Frequently Bought Together” box
• Conversion rate – how often a visit to your listing ends up in a sale
• Impressions – how often your products show up anywhere on Amazon.com

The practice of getting your products to rank high on Amazon is more broadly referred to as Amazon SEO (short for “search engine optimization”). It’s something every Amazon seller must invest in to maximize their sales on the channel.

Amazon A10 vs. A9

A10 was released in December 2020 as an update to the A9 algorithm. It signaled a big shift in how rankings on Amazon are now handled. The biggest change: A10 prioritizes products that are relevant, as opposed to those that are more profitable (via vehicles like Amazon PPC).

A10 also looks at dozens more variables with varying weight. It’ll look at everything from stock availability to catalog breadth to seller feedback, scanning for products that have a positive track record.

The implication is that the longer you’ve been on Amazon, the better chance you have at ranking, according to one source that additionally noticed a major drop in Amazon PPC traffic after the algorithm update. The change represents a renewed focus on actual buyer behaviors, as opposed to an emphasis on what sellers insist buyers want.

How to optimize your product listings for Amazon SEO

So, what steps can you take to get your ASINs on the front pages of Amazon? Here are some quick tips to get you started.

Create detailed product listings

Accuracy is key to ensuring your customers are satisfied with their purchases. Whether you’re writing your product title or tweaking your description, make sure you paint an accurate picture of your product. Avoid waxing poetic and focus on providing detailed copy that prevents returns caused by claims such as “item description was inaccurate.”

Descriptions, images, and A+ Content can additionally showcase the correct use of your product as well as its true size.

Apart from this, you’ll want to include advanced product attributes when setting up your listing. Go beyond the handful of basic requirements and include optional descriptors, like material or special features that matter to your everyday customer. If, for instance, you sell skincare, it may be worth mentioning that your lotion is great for sensitive skin.

Each of these efforts can help boost conversions, collect more positive feedback, and reduce returns.

Build your credibility

To meet A10’s seller authority criteria, your customer service needs to be top-notch. Answer customer questions promptly and don’t delay in shipping orders or handling any order-related issues.

If there’s an issue with an order, communicate that with your buyers right away. (If you’re part of the large majority of Amazon sellers who leverage FBA, then FBA will handle customer service for you.)

Keep an eye out for frequently asked questions, too. Those can always be addressed within your listing itself if you notice the same concerns being expressed repeatedly.

Once you’ve completed an order, take advantage of Amazon’s “Request a Review” button to remind customers to leave a review. Alternatively, Amazon’s Vine Program can help you beef up reviews on new or slow-moving products.

Promote your products

Increase off-site sales and overall conversions using cross-channel promotions. As noted earlier, Amazon likes to see your product discovered by buyers even outside of its own platform. Its A10 algorithm will notice if you use social media ads or Google ads to drive more traffic to your ASIN.

“By giving greater search priority to products that drive traffic to Amazon from outside sources, the Amazon A10 algorithm update is Amazon’s means of taking aim at competing eCommerce marketplaces,” says one source.

While Amazon PPC reportedly carries less weight on your rankings with the most recent algorithm update, it’s still a valuable means for earning your first sales or inducing more clicks on your listing. Experiment with a mix of Amazon and non-Amazon promotions to drive more traffic to your products.

Wrapping up — Keep A10 top of mind to build listings that convert

A10 has a direct impact on your product’s success on Amazon. Take some time to understand how it works and apply the above tips to keep your listings on your customers’ radars.

Webinar recap — As Q4 approaches, it’s crucial sellers take steps to implement strategy. Whether that’s increasing inventory, optimizing ads, or taking steps to prevent additional costs, it will make and save you money. While much of this can be handled manually, the wealth of digital tooling on the market often makes it faster and more cost-effective to automate.

This webinar was put together via a collaboration between Kaspien and MyFBAPrep, featuring Taylor Smits from MyFBAPrep, Jeremy Rossow, Digital Marketing Manager at Kaspien, and Richard Taylor, Agency Manager at Kaspien. We discuss the following tools and how they apply to your Amazon business this holiday season:

• Tool #1 Preptopia®
• Tool #2 AdManager
• Tool #3 Channel Auditor

Who are the hosts? MyFBAPrep 4:04

MyFBAPrep is an FBA prep, warehousing, and distribution service providing end-to-end logistics. The service leverages a network of 50+ warehouses across the U.S., Canada, the U.K., German, Italy, and the Netherlands. MyFBAPrep offers solutions for FBA, FMB, and direct-to-consumer, with end-to-end eCommerce fulfillment across multi- and omni-channel.

Who are the hosts? Kaspien 6:03

Kaspien blends eCommerce SaaS with brand agency, life cycle management, and one-on-one brand assistance to provide one of the only full-service (end-to-end) brand life cycle management solutions. Kaspien originally launched as a retailer and has since become one of the largest 3P retailers on Amazon. We designed our tooling in-house to meet our own needs, and later developed it as SaaS services for the marketplace. That means all Kaspien tooling is by sellers, for sellers.

Tech Tool #1 MyFBAPrep Preptopia® 8:40

Preptopia® is an FBA prep management tool designed to help consumers tackle scaling to meet demand. That’s especially crucial in Q4, when holiday demand can send sales skyrocketing, even without increases in ad spend. If you prep your own goods, you might not be able to keep up or meet strict Amazon guidelines and deadlines.

Sourcing to a prep or 3PL partner resolves this issue, but doesn’t provide the kind of transparency you need to stay on top of business. And, moving to warehousing on your own means shifting your core business from selling to warehouse management.

Preptopia® combats this problem by delivering insight and access into the FBA prep process. That means:

• Live prep status, when it’s prepped, what the status is, what’s picked up, when it’s in FBA, when it’s shipped out
• Pricing clarity, in the form of a single, aggregated invoice for all involved 3PLs from our network of 50+ warehouses
• Create and manage shipping plans with real-time tracking, even to Amazon

This is achieved using the Seller Partner API for end-to-end communication with Amazon so you can see every step of the process, from creating the labels, to pallet weights and more.

The tool itself also offers a complete dashboard of SKUs, orders, inventory, suppliers, active warehouse locations, and units in storage. Warehousing data is consolidated to a single dashboard, no matter how many locations you have. However you can filter by PO, down to the unit, quantity in the prep process, etc. Plus, with filtering to sort by warehouse, stage, date, vendor, etc., you can check and track specific units and orders.

That full transparency and control will give you the insight and scalability you need to increase volume for Q4 seamlessly – without overburdening pick-and-pack, or losing oversight of the full shipment process.

Tech Tool #2 Jeremy at Kaspien 22:28

Kaspien’s AdManager is designed to scale Amazon advertising with automation not available in Seller or Vendor Central. Kaspien developed the tool in-house for its own use. Automation tools for advertising can also help you tackle issues like Amazon’s increase in advertising costs (CPC is up 50%, ACOS is up 22% YoY, and 1.3 million new sellers joined Amazon in 2020). And, ad spend normally doubles for Q4; during this period, ads get more expensive, but you can also drive considerably more revenue. Making ads sustainable, manageable, and scalable for this period is critical.

How? AdManager uses a four-part solution to optimize how you bid on keywords, to manage bids based on ACOS, and to control when ads run, essentially shifting attention away from day-to-day updates and towards overall strategy.

Campaign Structure 27:07

Optimizing ads means optimizing at the product level, which requires a reliable campaign structure. It’s ideal to use keyword isolation so you can highlight which keywords are doing well and move them into specific campaigns when they do well, remove them when ACOS gets too high, and continuously experiment with new keywords.

That’s a lot if you do it manually. After all, you have to set up four campaign types for sponsored product ads (Exact, Phrase Match, Broad, and Auto), and then continuously review Excel reports to assess performance and move keywords where they perform the best. This kind of campaign structure isn’t scalable with manual ad management, but with AdManager, it’s a simple matter of clicking through a Wizard and allowing the app to do the work.

Once you set up a product, the program infers that you’re also using broad and phrase match to expand your keyword list. This type of categorization allows for Search Term Optimization (see below) to have maximum impact per product, per keyword.

Day Parting 30:24

If you know what time of day users shop, you can tailor ads to that. AdManager gives you full insight into sales and ad performance by the hour each day of the week. You can then remove ads from low-performance or high ACOS settings, optimizing ad spend without changing keywords or ads.

When we applied this tool ourselves, we saw a 40% reduction in ACOS in the first six weeks.

Search Term Optimization 32:12

AdManager continuously reviews and mines search term reports from Amazon Advertising. You set standards for ACOS (high and low) and the app automatically adds and removes keywords from the campaign when they either cost too much or meet performance thresholds to drive profit. For example, you can set a standard to move any keyword with ACOS under 30% into the campaign. Of course, you can do this manually, but AdManager does it automatically at a period set by you, and without any human intervention, saving hours of reviewing Excel sheets.

Dynamic Bid Optimizations 33:32

Create custom bid management rules to bid keywords up or down automatically throughout the day. AdManager allows you to set up bid rules on any combination of 12 performance metrics to oversee how much you spend. That means you can control how much you budget per campaign based on values like ACOS.

Spend More on Amazon, Wisely 35:36

Impressions go up anywhere from 100%–200% during the final months of the year, so it’s always a good idea to increase ad spend. AdManager allows you to do so using rules that prevent ad spend from increasing unless the ad is profitable. So, you set a target ACOS, and AdManager will ensure your ad always scales to keep driving sales, so long as a profit can be made.

Setting that ACOS cap adds security to holiday ad budget increases, because you’ll always know where ad budget is allocated.

Tech Tool #3 Channel Auditor 40:49

Channel Auditor is a Kaspien tool designed to identify and file FBA cases to request refunds. That’s especially important as you move into the end of the year. For example, as Amazon sales go up, so does FBA inventory — and the rate of mistakes. That can be lost inventory, overcharging for fulfillment and storage fees, under-reimbursing for past cases, or mishandling inventory. Amazon often doesn’t handle or reimburse these cases on its own – you have to apply for and open a case.

Channel Auditor is only available in the U.S. for Seller Central, and for cases less than 18 months old. That means if you implement it now, it applies for the 2021 and 2022 holiday seasons.

In addition, Channel Auditor uses a combination of algorithmic review and identification of potential cases and manual submission of cases. Our team manually writes up and submits cases to Amazon, ensuring the highest quality submission, and thus the greatest chance of winning the case. Importantly, Amazon doesn’t allow automated case submissions.

Once submitted, we manage and track those cases – as well as offer real-time dashboards to sellers – until the case is fully reimbursed. And, it’s free until you’re paid. We charge a 25% (negotiable) fee on all won cases, not an up-front subscription. To date, we’ve recovered over $7 million in reimbursements for FBA sellers.

Case Study 46:59

One of our brands in the health and personal care category began using Channel Auditor, and within one month, we’d recovered $5,000 for them. Within five, they’d filed 150+ cases, eventually recovering $13,000 with a 75% success rate.

Polls From the Audience

How you currently sell on Amazon 2:14

• Seller Central – 75%
• Vendor Central – 8%
• I Don’t Currently Sell on Amazon – 17%

Which of the following is the most important when you think about outsourcing your logistics? 22:08

• Access to multiple warehouse locations – 57%
• Monitoring all inventory in one portal – 57%
• Outsourcing the entire fulfillment process – 43%
• Multi-channel fulfillment – 57%
• Faster turnaround times – 57%

Do you plan to increase Amazon advertising spend this Q4? 40:01

• Yes – 64%
• No – 18%
• N/A – 18%

How are you currently seeking FBA reimbursements? 52:08

• I make my cases manually in Seller Central – 50%
• I use a service provider or software – 40%
• I am not. Please help! – 10%

End of Webinar Thoughts

Justin 37:28

There’s still time to get your Q4 Amazon strategy in place. Make sure you optimize how you’re running ads. Many sellers are afraid of $99/month fees, but chances are, it’s more cost-effective to use the automation. And, if you’re short on  time and have high volume, agency services are available to ensure your budget is well spent.

Taylor 17:29

Order more inventory than you think you need. You’ll also want to get your inventory into storage and fulfillment centers as early as possible. Don’t worry about stocking too high. January is often the second best month of the year for Amazon sellers, so anything you don’t move in December will likely go in January. Plus, with massive lead times from China right now, overstocking is a better business decision than under, because if you sell out on December 4, you’re done for the year.

You’ll also want to create FBM listings to back up your FBA listings so that, if you do stock out with FBA, you can continue fulfilling those listings and avoid losing traction in the marketplace.

Richard 47:47

Most Amazon sellers’ FBA inventories drastically increase during Q4, as does Amazon’s propensity for errors. Make sure you have solutions in place to request reimbursements when issues do go wrong, because even though FBA has the inventory, sellers are still responsible for fixing the issues.

Q&A 52:12

Amazon FBA is meant to simplify fulfillment, but preparing a shipment for FBA is anything but. You must meet a number of strict FBA prep requirements to avoid check-in delays, unexpected charges, or rejected inventory.

To give you a sense of what the process entails, here’s a list of several common FBA prep services to be aware of.

1) Receiving and inspection

You need to make sure your items aren’t damaged when they arrive at an FBA warehouse, or missing completely. Beyond losing money, you risk losing customers to inferior quality or missing inventory.

So, prior to dispatching your inventory to Amazon, take the time to inspect your items carefully and check that the number of units in your shipments aligns with the total that FBA expects to receive and post online.

2) Dunnage and wrapping

When it comes to packing your items, consider which dunnage (bubble wrap, packing paper, air bags, etc.) is best for your product.

According to FBA’s guidelines, your packages must pass a three-foot drop test (detailed here) consisting of a drop on each side and one drop on a corner. Some product categories, like batteries, may undergo an even higher drop test.

Should your item show signs of breaking, you should consider over-boxing them and/or reboxing items in custom packaging.

3) Polybagging

Polybags are popular alternatives to boxes, as they’re lightweight and take up far less storage space. They’re a great way to shave down shipping costs, provided your item doesn’t require extra protection.

However, like with everything else, Amazon FBA has specific criteria for polybags. All polybags must be at least 1.5 ml thick, have an opening of at least five inches, and not exceed three inches past the dimensions of the product. They must be transparent and barcoded for most product types, plus include a suffocation warning of a certain size.

4) Stickering

This step includes adding suffocation warnings, expiration dates, or other essential stickers to your packages. You may additionally need to remove retail stickers, like price tags, to avoid confusion or an unprofessional look.

Although a small detail, this step is essential for earning FBA’s seal of approval and ensuring a good customer experience. The last thing you want is your inventory to get held up at the door because it lacks the right labels.

5) FNSKU labeling

Speaking of labels, Amazon requires FBA sellers to attach FNSKUs to their packages. FNSKU is short for “Fulfillment Network Stock Keeping Unit.” It’s a code generated by Amazon that allows the company to trace shipments and orders back to you.

FNSKUs are not to be confused with UPCs, which are specific to the manufacturer and can be shared by multiple sellers. FNSKUs are unique to you, the merchant, and protect you from commingled inventory (in other words, your items won’t get mixed with inventory provided by other sellers — which has, in the past, caused sellers to become linked to fake or damaged goods).

FNSKUs must be properly affixed onto your packages to cover all other UPCs and labels. While you can do this yourself, you can also pay Amazon to do it for you, or hire a 3PL.

6) Kitting and bundling

Offering your products as multipacks or bundles is a great strategy for leapfrogging competition on Amazon. You can list your products to separate, non-competitive ASINs and incentivize consumers to buy more units at once.

However, kitting and bundling isn’t accessible to everyone. It requires extra inventory, coordination, and work — not the least of which being Amazon’s bundling policies and requirements for pre-packaging your units together.

When prepping your kits for FBA, you need to package them so that individual barcodes don’t face outward, and only the barcode for the pack shows. All kits must include “sold as set” or “do not separate” labels to further avoid confusion when they arrive at FBA warehouses.

7) Variety packs

Similar to kits and bundles, variety packs let you sell multiple products at once. But while bundles include two complementary items, variety packs include multiple flavors or new items for customers to try.

These, too, must be pre-packaged and clearly labeled. When selling food-related variety packs, you have to observe other food-specific requirements, including guidelines for how many items are sold together and how to determine which expiration date to show.

8) Custom packaging

It’s no secret that Amazon doesn’t want you to use paper or boxes to promote outside channels, including your own website. But there is some wiggle room when it comes to product inserts. With these, you can safely say thank you, deliver important warranty information, or ask for product reviews (neutrally).

These efforts reinforce your branding and help customers remember your brand name, not just Amazon’s. When prepping your items for FBA, include product inserts in your packages, because Amazon certainly won’t do it (not without a fee, at least).

Wrapping up — Tap a pro to handle your FBA prep services

You have a lot to keep in mind when preparing your inventory for FBA; the above is just the tip of the iceberg. If you’re looking to work as quickly and efficiently as possible, your best bet is to hire a team like MyFBAPrep. Not only will you avoid wasting your energy, but you’ll also gain the support of professionals who are very familiar with Amazon’s standards. Contact us for a free consultation to see how we can improve your fulfillment process.

It’s no secret advertisements have a special place in Amazon’s ecosystem. They can be found at every major touchpoint of the marketplace, and continue to proliferate as more sellers realize advertising is a necessary part of their marketplace strategy that builds on a strong Amazon listing.

Amazon itself sits on a trove of consumer data, making it the third-largest ad publisher in the U.S., behind Google and Facebook. So, how should you leverage Amazon ads? What do you need to know to use ads responsibly? Keep reading to learn the answers to these questions.

When should you invest in Amazon advertising?

Various circumstances warrant the help of Amazon ads, among them:

• New products – You need a way to earn your first sales and collect product reviews to increase your rankings, plus boost brand awareness.
• Slow-moving stock – You need to increase visibility on your ASIN and liquidate your inventory to make room for newer, more high-demand items.
• Seasonal products – You need to make the most of a particular holiday or season, e.g., selling Christmas ornaments, which generate the most sales in Q4.
• Competitive category – You want to use ads to leapfrog competition on search results pages and/or increase your odds of scoring the “best seller” badge.

How does Amazon PPC work?

Amazon’s pay-per-click (PPC) ads are available to both vendors and marketplace sellers who are enrolled in Amazon’s Brand Registry. They’re currently offered in three formats:

Sponsored Products

This is the most popular ad type. It lets you promote individual ASINs throughout Amazon category pages and product detail pages. Sponsored Product Ads increase weekly views by 54% and weekly sales by 40% on average, according to Amazon.

Sponsored Brands (aka Headline Ads)

This type of ad appears at the top of search result pages, as well as to the left and bottom of search results. They feature your logo and multiple products from your catalog, appealing to customers who may not know exactly what they want to buy, but are open to exploring brands like yours.

Sponsored Display Ads

This is the newest ad type (launched in 2019), and it works very differently from the other two. First, display ads can be found both on and off Amazon. Their primary purpose is to drive shoppers back to the products (or similar products) they were previously considering. The second difference: Sponsored Display Ads can’t be targeted via keywords like the other two — they’re targeted by products or audiences.

As mentioned above, Amazon offers various targeting methods depending on the ad type. These methods include keywords, categories, individual ASINs, and others that can be managed manually or automatically.

The cost-per-click (CPC) of all ads is determined in a second-price auction, where you submit a bid and only pay $0.01 above the second-highest bidder.

4 Tips for running a successful Amazon ad campaign

1) Structure your campaigns strategically

Poorly organized campaigns are among the most costly and inefficient ones. To save yourself the trouble, think of a logical system for structuring your campaigns. As an example, you can create campaigns based on brand or product line.

The goal is to group similar products together and to make sure keywords (or other targeting methods) closely align with your product. For example, “memory foam pillow” and the names of popular brands might go in the same campaign.

This ultimately prevents you from overspending or wasting your ad budget. With well-organized campaigns, you can create clear keyword groups, like ones segmented by competitive terms versus branded terms versus generic terms.

2) Pick highly relevant keywords

Just like Google ads, it’s possible to inadvertently target keywords that are too broad or competitive for you to generate meaningful traffic. However, unlike Google ads, you have the advantage of knowing that anyone who clicks on your Amazon ad already has the intent to buy.

Your main job is to check that your keywords are accurate and descriptive enough to attract the right shoppers. You can leverage various keyword match types (broad, phrase, and exact), as well as negative targeting to block low-converting traffic. Additionally, you can use tools like Semrush or Jungle Scout to discover the competitiveness, popularity, and relevance of different search terms and phrases.

3) Make sure your listings paint the whole picture

Your ads are only as good as your product listings. In other words, just because your products garner more visibility via ads doesn’t mean they’ll start selling themselves; buyers still need a reason to trust and feel confident in your product.

Prior to investing in ads, check that your listings have several high-quality images. Make sure your title includes the right keyword(s), and your bullet points and description are rich with detail so there’s no confusion by the time shoppers reach the end. Use A+ content to spruce up your page and keep buyers engaged — just don’t forget to keep  enough inventory in stock to support ad-driven orders.

4) Test both manual and automatic campaigns

Different schools of thought tout solutions for how to manage your campaigns. In general though, manual campaigns offer the most control over your keyword targeting and ad spend.

That said, Teikametrics’ mirrored approach to campaign structure helps you get the best of both worlds. Using this approach, you would run one manual and one automatic campaign simultaneously for one category, objective, or parent ASIN you’re advertising. Everything within those campaigns would look the same, except for the way they’re managed.

For example, you could have an automatic and manual campaign both targeting “memory foam pillow,” linked to your ad group for memory foam pillows.

Your automatic campaign will cast a wide net and help you discover new keywords to add to your manual campaign. Meanwhile, you can use your manual campaign to test more granular control over the bidding to get the most out of that keyword.

Wrapping up — Let Amazon ads take you farther

Amazon ads let you cover more ground on the vast marketplace. Like any form of advertising though, you need a clear strategy to reap the benefits. Heed the above tips to use ads to your advantage without sending your ad spend off the rails.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday — historically the busiest shopping weekend of the year — is upon us, and in 2021, it’ll be bigger than ever. For millions of shoppers, Black Friday and Cyber Monday present an unmissable opportunity to get a head-start on their holiday shopping and cash in on some massive savings.

2020 brought us unprecedented conditions that fueled the Black Friday and Cyber Monday online shopping spree. That year, Shopify merchants made $5.1 billion in sales, up 76% from 2019. Yet, even under normal circumstances, customer spending tends to reach a record-breaking high over the Black Friday weekend. According to Digital Commerce 360, consumers spent $12.4 billion on Cyber Monday alone (updated with 2023 numbers).

In essence, Black Friday is one weekend you cannot miss. Follow these vital BFCM strategies to leverage the sales season for your business success.

5 BFCM strategies to maximize your sales

The best marketers and eCommerce owners prepare for Black Friday well in advance of the Holiday season. They know Black Friday is one of the biggest shopping days of the year; to reap the benefits, they need to have a strategic marketing plan in place. The earlier you start your Black Friday planning, the more time you’ll have to pull together a Black Friday campaign that wows shoppers.

Follow our Black Friday and Cyber Monday marketing best practices to make this shopping weekend your most profitable one yet.

From optimizing your eCommerce store to hosting an event and planning strategic email sequences, these strategies will make your online sales soar this Black Friday weekend.

1) Optimize your eCommerce store for BFCM

From the moment people land on your eCommerce website, they should be able to navigate to your Black Friday offers easily.

With a few simple strategies, you can optimize your eCommerce store without compromising style or user experience.

Persuade shoppers with exit intent pop-ups

Website pop-ups can do more than simply generate email sign-ups. They’re also a great tool for promoting offers and information of interest to your audience.

If you already use exit intent pop-ups on your website, consider giving these a seasonal Black Friday refresh to remind site visitors of your upcoming or current Black Friday deals. This quickly and easily lets shoppers know about your Black Friday sale while they’re browsing your online store.

Delivering exit intent pop-ups is also a great way to prevent people from leaving your site without making a purchase, which boosts customer retention and can increase your online sales. The top-performing pop-ups have a 10% conversion rate, clearly demonstrating the power of pop-ups.

Take care when designing your Black Friday pop-ups. Have them appear after four seconds or when someone goes to close the browser window. Well-designed pop-ups that are carefully timed could lead to conversion rates as high as 60%, according to research by Campaign Monitor.

Engage customers with BFCM quizzes

Gamification makes shopping more entertaining for customers and can add a hidden motivator that encourages them to take action. eCommerce quizzes can be a powerful tool for increasing customer engagement and driving revenue.

You can use a Black Friday quiz to personalize the shopping experience for your customers. Add some fun personality and interest-based questions into your quiz, then use the answers to shape customer shopping recommendations.

For example, an eCommerce brand that sells scented candles could use their Black Friday quiz to ask shoppers about their dream holiday destination, favorite scent, and go-to seasonal treat. Then, at the end, they could present customers with recommended candle scents based on their answers.

By using LeadQuizzes on their website, the eCommerce brand Bourbon and Boots, for instance, generated 35,752 leads and doubled their sales in just three weeks.

Reward BFCM shoppers with bonus loyalty points

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are prime opportunities to reward your most loyal customers.

52% of loyal customers will join a rewards program. Furthermore, over 39% of customers are willing to spend more money with a brand they’re loyal to, even if there are cheaper options elsewhere. So, if you aren’t rewarding loyalty, you’re missing out on the chance to nurture customer relationships and increase repeat orders.

If you offer a loyalty scheme for returning customers, you could reward Black Friday shoppers with bonus loyalty points. This will encourage them to shop with you during the Black Friday sale. More importantly, it will persuade them to shop with you again in the future, knowing they can cash in their bonus loyalty points.

Advertise your Black Friday bonus loyalty points to existing customers through email marketing, on social media, and on website banners. After all, if your customers don’t know about your loyalty offer, you can’t expect them to take part in it.

2) Host a BFCM weekend event

Shopping events don’t have to be reserved for in-store customers only. You could host an online Black Friday event that offers customers an interactive virtual experience and encourages them to shop with you over the weekend.

This event can form part of your promotional activity in the lead-up to the weekend. You can use it to promote your Black Friday deals, let customers know about new product launches, and offer them something in return for their loyalty.

From engaging influencers and industry experts to sharing event-only special offers, hosting a Black Friday weekend event can be a great way to boost your Black Friday and Cyber Monday ROI.

Run BFCM contests

As part of your Black Friday event strategy, you could run Black Friday or Cyber Monday contests. Adding this fun, interactive element to your events will help you reach your target audience and incentivize them to engage with your online store.

Many retailers will simply share special discounts for BFCM, so running a contest where customers can win a prize will give you an edge over competitors.

Work these contests into your Black Friday weekend event to create a lucrative event that your target audience will be excited to attend. You could, for example, give all event attendees the opportunity to win a Black Friday “golden ticket,” which grants them a large once-in-a-lifetime discount. When running contests, make sure the prize is something that genuinely interests potential customers.

You could also encourage people to share the contest with their friends as a way to gain a bonus entry into the prize draw. This is a great way to expand the reach of your Black Friday campaign and get even more people to visit your online store.

Add live shopping to your BFCM marketing strategy

If you’re thinking about hosting a BFCM weekend event, you may want to incorporate live shopping into your marketing strategy.

Live shopping events are all the rage in the eCommerce world right now. Retailers using live shopping have experienced increased conversion rates. Hosting a livestream shopping event could be a lucrative way to ramp up your Black Friday revenue.

These livestreams are also a great way to increase demand and encourage impulse purchases. You could offer limited-time promotions and flash sales as part of your Black Friday live shopping event. Use a countdown to remind attendees that time is ticking to redeem the offer. This creates a sense of urgency and can subtly increase purchases throughout the event.

Don’t forget to make your live shopping event interactive. Consider teaming up with popular influencers to raise interest, and work some interactive elements into your event such as Q&As, live product demonstrations, and competitions.

Read: Live shopping: How to use livestream videos to boost eCommerce conversions

3) Go all out on your BFCM social media campaigns

Social media allows online retailers to connect with customers outside of the retail environment. So, when it comes to Black Friday, make sure you develop a show-stopping social media campaign.

This should include organic social media posts in the lead-up to and duration of the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend. Use these posts to promote your offers and products. However, your social media pages shouldn’t be strictly sales-focused, so be sure to share fun or informative posts that pique the interest of your target audience.

Outside of organic social media, you may also want to run influencer campaigns or Black Friday social media ads.

Prep your influencer campaigns

The influencer industry is fast growing, and with good reason; almost 90% of marketers report the ROI from influencer marketing is comparable to or better than other marketing channels. With such strong ROI potential, we believe any eCommerce brand should consider incorporating influencer marketing into their upcoming campaigns.

Whether its micro-influencers with smaller followings and more accessible budgets, or large-scale influencers with millions of followers and large budgets, influencer marketing can be a lucrative marketing tactic for retailers of any size.

Be sure to prep your influencer marketing campaigns for a Black Friday promotion. You could work with influencers on a gifted basis, wherein you send them products in return for online promotion. Alternatively, you could invite influencers to speak at a Black Friday event or to collaborate with you on a special offer.

When it comes to influencer marketing, you can get creative with your campaign ideas. Consider which influencers align best with your brand and target audience, then work on developing an influencer campaign that will really appeal to your audience.

Read: Influencer marketing strategy: How to find the right partners for your brand

Run BFCM social media ads

Social media ads are powerful for two reasons: first, they reach people outside of your existing audience; secondly, they re-engage existing customers and store visitors.

Increase your social media presence with a Black Friday-focused social ad campaign. When planning your ad creative, use branding and messaging that’s consistent with your website and your wider Black Friday marketing activities. This uniformity is appreciated by customers and can help drive up your sales revenue.

The platform you use for your social media advertising will depend on which channels your audience is most active on. If your audience commonly uses TikTok, invest in TikTok advertising. More likely to find them on Facebook or Instagram? You’ll want to set up Facebook and Instagram ads. Wherever you go, take time to tailor your ad objectives and messaging to your audience.

4) Create a winning BFCM email sequence

Email newsletters offer retailers a direct line of communication with an already engaged audience. Take advantage of this channel by creating a winning Black Friday email sequence.

As part of your sequencing, you may want to include the following types of emails:

• Pre-sale announcement
• Sneak peek of upcoming sales and offers
• Pre-sale reminder
• Black Friday event invitation
• Black Friday event reminders
• Announcement email when your Black Friday sale opens
• Black Friday exclusive coupon code
• Last-chance email for offers ending soon

When sending emails, it also pays to segment your audience. Doing so allows you to personalize your email content to suit different customers. This increased relevance and personalization can, in turn, increase click-through rates and on-site conversions.

Update your abandoned cart emails

As well as being proactive with pre-scheduled Black Friday email marketing campaigns, retailers should also remember to activate abandoned cart emails.

All online retailers experience cart abandonment. But, with well-thought-out emailing, you can recover some of those abandoned carts and turn them into sales.

Research by Moosend found that 50% of people who click on cart abandonment emails will then go on to complete their purchase. So, be sure to activate your cart abandonment email automation ahead of Black Friday weekend to recoup any half-finished purchases.

You could go the extra mile by creating a personalized Black Friday cart abandonment email template and offering customers a time-sensitive coupon code if they complete their purchase during the BFCM weekend.

Read: 7 Keys of eCommerce email marketing

5) Prepare your logistics

While running promotions and campaigns can be brilliant for increasing sales, it’s equally important that you’re able to fulfill orders.

When working on your Black Friday marketing campaigns, don’t overlook the logistics side of fulfilling the expected uptick in online orders. You may want to increase customer support over the Black Friday weekend, announce shipping deadlines earlier, and invest in inventory and fulfillment support.

Announce shipping deadlines

If you suspect shipping may be slower than usual due to the increased demand, you can preemptively warn customers of expected shipping delays.

Add a Shipping Information page to your eCommerce store that informs customers of any shipping delays that may occur for orders placed over bank holiday weekends. Pair this with keeping your customers updated on the status of their order to help calm their nerves.

Add inventory and fulfillment support

If you want to make sure your Black Friday orders are fulfilled to a high standard, you may want to invest in inventory and fulfillment support.

Inventory support will ensure your Black Friday promotions go off without a hitch. The last thing you want is to sell a product, only to realize it’s already sold out. Preptopia® provides you a clear picture of your inventory status at all times. This is ideal for high-traffic periods such as Black Friday weekend when you expect a higher influx of orders than usual.

At MyFBAPrep, we can also handle the prep and fulfillment of orders to Amazon Fulfillment Centers or direct-to-consumer orders. This means you can focus on the sales and marketing of your eCommerce store knowing we’re handling the shipping process.

Read: What to look for in a third party logistics provider

Wrapping up — BFCM strategies and marketing best practices to amplify your sales

While it only lasts a few days, the Black Friday weekend is a key sales period for online retailers. Solidify your BFCM marketing strategy in advance to ensure you have the best Black Friday marketing campaign that drives sales for your online store.

Remember to look at cross-channel marketing opportunities, from email marketing to social media and live shopping. The more places your Black Friday offer is visible, the more people you’ll connect with.

After the Black Friday weekend, continue your marketing efforts with post-Black Friday marketing campaigns that re-engage BFCM shoppers.

As lucrative as Amazon can be, it’s a hard place to build your brand. A majority of Amazon shoppers are brand agnostic. In fact, 65% of surveyed consumers said they would feel comfortable buying from names they’ve never heard of before on marketplaces like Amazon.

Amazon A+ Content, however, provides a golden opportunity to showcase your brand with an outstanding product listing page. With it, you can increase your credibility and help customers better distinguish between your company and other competitors. Here’s how.

What is A+ Content?

A+ Content is a tool that’s only available to brands enrolled in Amazon’s Brand Registry, or to sellers who participate in special Amazon programs, like Launchpad or Amazon Exclusive.

It’s free for eligible sellers, unless they opt for Premium A+ features (video, interactive content, etc.), which are only available to vendors at a hefty price.

A+ content grants you access to special layouts, text, images, charts, and other multimedia to spruce up your Amazon product descriptions. It’s a self-service tool located in Seller Central, with the ability to boost your product sales by an average of 3% to 10%, according to Amazon.

Previously, A+ Content was reserved for first-party vendors. Its equivalent for third-party sellers was called Enhanced Brand Content (EBC). But these two features have since merged into one program to help enhance seller listings.

Top benefits of A+ content

A+ Content doesn’t exist simply to make your Amazon listing look pretty. It serves a variety of purposes, ranging from better brand control to greater customer satisfaction. Here are a few key benefits to keep in mind.

Reinforced branding

By creating a more visually appealing, branded experience, you can help shoppers remember your name. You can switch the narrative from “I bought this from Amazon” to “I bought this from [your company].”

Reduced bounce rate

A+ Content gives you the advantage of eye-catching visuals and informative text blocks, which help you grab the attention of shoppers who are just skimming through your listing.

More sales

By publishing more professional images, you can build trust and credibility in your brand. Additionally, you can provide helpful guides (like size charts) to make buyers feel more confident in the product they’re about to buy.

Fewer returns

Because A+ Content allows shoppers to make more informed decisions from the get-go, customers are less likely to return their products due to misaligned expectations.

5 ways to use A+ Content

1) Increase brand credibility

How did your company get its start? What does your team aim to do? Sharing your company’s mission, values, and/or origin story is one way to connect with your buyers.

For instance, this listing for the ThunderShirt Sport Dog Anxiety Jacket mentions how “it all started with a dog named Dosi over ten years ago! Dosi was terrified of thunderstorms and fireworks, and her family wanted to help. Fast forward a few months, and they had created the ThunderShirt.”

This not only demonstrates the brand’s expertise in pet care, but also gets the customer invested in the brand.

2) Answer customer questions

One of the best ways to leverage your A+ Content is by addressing frequently asked questions about your product. Check the questions and reviews sections of your listings, or survey customers directly.

Through this exercise, you may find close-ups of a certain feature or specific instructions for how to care and/or use your product could be helpful.

3) Illustrate true sizing

Plenty of sellers already use A+ Content to display size charts prominently, whether for clothes or items that come in different sizes. Similarly, A+ images can help show what measurements like 65L or 23.62” x 10.83” x 12.99” actually look like.

This listing for a travel duffel bag, for example, includes a picture showing how the duffel bag looks next to a standard suitcase (spoiler: it’s huge).

4) Show how your product is superior

It’s not uncommon for shoppers to land on your listing, only to bounce seconds later and resume their research. A+ Content can help your customers find everything they need in one place.

While it’s against Amazon’s policies to name your competitor directly within your listing, you can use the comparison chart module to highlight other products from your catalog, just in case the product in question doesn’t meet the buyer’s criteria. By highlighting other options or add-on products, you avoid losing a buyer to a competitor.

5) Inspire customers to take action

A+ Content provides plenty of space to show how your product can be used or why your customer may need it right now.

For example, this listing for a pet playpen uses a combination of four images and text to illustrate various scenarios in which a playpen may be necessary.

Or, this listing for Play-Doh offers a cute craft idea. In both instances, customers can more clearly envision themselves making the best use of your products.

Wrapping up — Elevate your Amazon product listings with A+ Content

If you’re eligible to take advantage of this special feature, don’t ignore it. Though it takes some groundwork to set up, the rewards for using A+ content are well worth it. Let these five uses jumpstart your creativity to make the most of Amazon A+ Content.

It’s hard to overstate the importance of your Amazon product detail page. It’s the biggest stage to showcase your items on the marketplace. When you optimize your Amazon product listing well, it has the power to turn a visitor into a customer.

However, getting people to click on your Amazon product listing is no easy feat. With more than 350 million products now sold on Amazon, competition is fierce, and Amazon’s ranking algorithm is becoming pickier about who gets first-page status.

As a seller, you not only need to make a good first impression that encourages a click — it also has to be a lasting one to yield a sale. In this blog, we’ll cover strategies for earning the top spot in Amazon’s search results, as well as using your real estate on the marketplace to your advantage.

Keep reading for tips on how to create high-ranking, high-converting product listings that give your brand the greatest exposure on Amazon.

Amazon’s A10 algorithm: A quick overview

A10 (formally called A9) is the ranking engine behind Amazon. Just like Google’s algorithm, which ranks web pages according to a user’s query, A10 is designed to match product listings to the right search terms.

A10 is known to evaluate relevance and accuracy more deeply than A9, which prioritized the most profitable products first. It does so by looking at signals like product reviews and seller feedback to determine which items are better according to their buyers.

For this reason, seller authority is of utmost importance. Aside from feedback, Amazon tends to favor sellers with more available inventory, larger catalogs, and strong sales histories. A10 looks at dozens of other factors outside of these, but the key takeaway is that, to rank high on Amazon, you need to deliver a positive customer experience from start to finish.

When crafting your product listing, you need to be as detailed and accurate as possible so customers aren’t surprised by their purchases.

6 tips for creating a high-ranking Amazon listing

1) Compose click-worthy titles

Your product title is one of the most prominent lines of text on your listing. As A10 crawls it for keywords, consumers scan it for key information.

Amazon has strict requirements for titles, as well as some suggested formulas for each product category. These formulas reflect how buyers typically search for certain types of products. For instance, if you sell home appliances, you’ll want to include the brand and model number in your titles. However, if you sell clothing, a model number isn’t necessary — but material is.

Aside from following Amazon’s suggestions, think from the perspective of your target users. What details do they care about most? What questions do they usually have about your product? How do they filter their searches?

Try to include one or two of these details in your title, such as “lotion for sensitive skin.” The goal here is to balance necessary facts with enticing copy. A higher click-through rate (CTR) is also beneficial, as A10 will factor this into its calculation when determining how to rank your product listing.

2) Don’t underestimate the power of images

You’ve heard the saying, “A picture’s worth a thousand words” and are probably sick of it. But nothing is truer when it comes to your Amazon listing.

Images help customers visualize themselves using your product, especially when they can’t physically see or touch it while they shop. Your images are also likely the first things  buyers will see when they land on Amazon’s category and product pages. So, be meticulous and critical here.

As you create your images, follow Amazon’s image requirements, which give instructions on proper backdrops, use of human models, and more. Provide as many images as you can (Amazon allows up to 10) and use professionally shot photos.

Take advantage of alternate images to display the true dimensions of your product, close-ups of features, and other essential details like size charts. Alternate images also provide an opportunity to showcase your products in different environments and situations.

However you decide to use your images, always follow product photography best practices — like using natural lighting — for best results.

3) Give your copy some TLC

Two other prominent areas of content on your listing are your product features (aka, bullet points) and description. Both need to blend keyword optimization with compelling, creative copy.

Start by thinking about what your customer needs to know or already values about your products. For instance, if your target customer is environmentally conscious, highlight up front how your products are vegan or cruelty free.

List your top five advantages in your bullet points. Keep these uniform in length so they’re visually appealing and easy to scan. Stick to the facts, too, as opposed to using biased statements like “best seller” (which Amazon strictly prohibits).

When writing your product description, elaborate on the benefits you mentioned in your bullet points, and pay attention to the details your customers have an emotional stake in. Address things like: how can your product better their everyday lives? What pain points does your brand help resolve? What does your product offer that customers can’t find anywhere else?

Although you want to keep your descriptions concise, use the space thoughtfully to build trust in your brand.

In both your bullet points and descriptions, use keywords naturally. Focus less on stuffing them wherever possible, and more on demonstrating your industry expertise. By doing so, you’ll intuitively tick off all the necessary boxes for an optimized listing, such as including synonyms and semantically related words that resonate with your audience.

Read: How to write compelling product descriptions on Amazon

4) Leverage A+ content

A+ content is currently only available to sellers enrolled in Amazon’s Brand Registry or programs like Launchpad and Amazon Exclusives. If you do have access, you should definitely take advantage of it.

A+ content can increase product sales by an average of 3%–10%, according to Amazon, and is entirely free to use. It opens the door to more dynamic graphics, videos, charts, FAQs, and other media that showcase your brand in a more professional light.

Using A+ content, you can drill into special features, specs, and uses for your product. Some brands take advantage of this space to share their brand story or to offer more detailed instructions on how to determine the right size for the product.

When used strategically, A+ content helps not only to increase sales, but also to prevent returns due to “item not as described” or “wrong size.” Though it takes extra time to create, A+ content is well worth the investment, as it can capture attention, convert visitors, and set the right expectations from the get-go.

Read: What is Amazon A+ Content (previously Amazon Enhanced Brand Content) and how to use it

5) Beef up your reviews

Many top-ranking listings have hundreds, if not thousands, of positive reviews. Reviews offer the social proof that customers and A10 look for when evaluating your products — but, of course, Amazon has strict guidelines about how you can collect reviews.

You can’t, for instance, incentivize people to leave a review by offering a monetary reward. Similarly, you can’t campaign for positive reviews. You can only ask for honest opinions, no matter if they’re positive or negative.

To help out, Amazon offers a “Request a Review” button that you can leverage for each buyer order. It triggers an email asking for your buyer’s feedback and can be automated, if desired.

Another option is Amazon’s Vine program, which invites the most trusted reviewers on Amazon to share their opinion on new or pre-released products. You can enroll products with fewer than 30 reviews for feedback, which is typically detailed and high quality. The program is free of charge, but is only available to brand-registered sellers.

If nothing else, ads and cross-channel promotion can help drive the initial sales you need to build up your reviews. It goes without saying your listings first need to be in tip-top shape to avoid negative reviews. Make sure they’re accurate and reflect the right service levels to avoid misaligned expectations about your product and/or shipping speeds, for example.

6) Use Amazon ads strategically

As noted above, Amazon PPC ads can help gain traction for items that are seldom seen on the marketplace. They can boost your chances of ranking for specific keywords, even if your product has yet to collect enough reviews or sales to stand on its own two feet.

You can choose from a few types of ads on Amazon: sponsored products, sponsored brands, or product display. Each of these appear on different areas of the site and are targeted slightly differently.

The key for any Amazon ad campaign is to structure them properly. Similar to Google Ads, you should have a deliberate, consistent method for organizing your ads. For example, sellers will often create high-level campaigns based on product categories, brands, or product lines. From there, they form more specific ad groups based on subcategory or ASIN.

Beyond this, there are various ways to manage your campaign. We recommend starting with automatic campaigns, which don’t require as much hands-on management to test your theories. Manual campaigns can then come in handy when you want to dedicate more attention to, and stretch the impact of, search terms and ads that worked well in your automatic campaigns. View more Amazon advertising tips here.

Read: Amazon advertising guide: Best sellers, ads, and pushing slow-moving stock

7) Find the right price for your product

Amazon is an enormously competitive marketplace, and there will always be another seller trying to undercut you. So, how do you find the right price for your products to meet customer expectations while satisfying your profit margins?

You could go back to basics and manually crawl similar listings to determine how your competitors are pricing their products. Are they pricing low to attract attention and get the sale, or going in high to maximize profits? Either way, this old-school approach to research isn’t the best use of your time—especially if you have multiple listings to review (the average Amazon seller has more than 100 products for sale). And even your best guesstimates won’t beat an automated data-driven approach.

You can consider using a repricing tool or price analysis tool instead. For example, Profasee is a dynamic pricing tool that uses AI to analyze hundreds of real-time data points about buyer behavior, preferences, and searches. It calculates the optimal pricing (not just the cheapest) for your listings, so you don’t have to.

Wrapping up — Don’t leave your Amazon product listings to chance

Landing on the first page of Amazon’s SERPs is a hard-earned honor. To secure your position, you’ll need to optimize your product detail pages and actively drive customers to your ASINs. Use the tips above to get started and convince Amazon you’re worthy of a first-page position.

Tip: Once your sales have gone through the roof, look into outsourcing your fulfillment to continue scaling.