5 Effective Ways to Market Your Products on Amazon

Written by: Rhonda Giebelstein, Online Marketplace Strategist

So, you’ve decided to sell your products on Amazon. Congrats, you’re in a marketplace that 75% of American consumers use to shop.

But with over 2 million different sellers, the competition is stiff.

You may be wondering how to best market your products on Amazon to drive sales on your items.  Well, you’re in the right place!  Let’s talk about the available options.

1. Sponsored Products

You can find Sponsored Products in the Campaign Manager tab of Seller Central.  This tool is similar to building campaigns on Google AdWords, or Bing Ads.  With Sponsored Products, you can create campaigns for your items (either automatic or manual), set your start and end dates, and set your daily budget.  Reporting and analysis is more detailed compared to Headline Search Ads because Sponsored Products has been available longer.

2. Headline Search Ads

You can find Headline Search Ads in the Campaign Manager tab of Seller Central.  This feature is fairly new, and Amazon is still adjusting the functionality and reporting for this option.  We have seen positive results with Headline Search Ads, including slightly fewer ACoS (advertising cost of sales) than that of Sponsored Products.

3. Lightning Deals

If you are a professional seller, you can create a Lightning Deal under the Advertising tab in Seller Central.  These are limited time sales that Amazon will post in an attempt to drive sales.  To have your Lightning Deal approved, make sure you follow the guidelines set by Amazon.

4. Coupons

This feature can be found under the Advertising tab in Seller Central. You can create a coupon for any product or group of products.  This offers additional savings to customers without having to run an item sale. Note: Using sale prices will help with Buy Box Eligibility.  A coupon can either be a dollar amount or a percentage off the purchase.  You can limit customers to one coupon use, or allow customers to use it multiple times.  Customers will see that a coupon is available in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page), as well as on the item listing page. The customer simply checks a box, and the coupon is applied at checkout.

5. Promotions

Promotions can be found under the Advertising tab in Seller Central. There are several different promotions available to sellers.

a. Social media promo code. Use this to create a percentage-off-promotion that links to your social media. Customers can click directly on your offer and checkout without ever having to enter a promo code. A simple and user-friendly way to reach customers on social media.

b. Buy one get one (BOGO). Just like it sounds. You can set it up so when customers buy one (or 3 or 10), they get one free.

c. Free shipping. Here you have the ability to offer free shipping on a subset of your catalog.  Note: that this will have no impact on the Buy Box.  If you want to influence the Buy Box, consider changing your shipping settings  You can create a free shipping template and apply it to the items you want free shipping on.

d. Giveaway. If you’re looking to increase your social media following, this is a clever way to do it. Offer your item for free as part of a sweepstakes.

e. Percentage off. Similar to the Social Media Promo Code, you have the ability to advertise a percentage off of an item or group of items.  Again, this will not impact your Buy Box Eligibility.  If that is your goal, you’re better off submitting a sale price on your item.  The benefit of the Percentage Off option is that you can build it into a tiered option.  For example: 5% off 1 item or 10% off 5 or more items.

Which Amazon marketing tool should you use?

The answer is completely dependent upon your primary objective. Is it to win the Buy Box more often? Is it to drive traffic within Amazon to your items? Or maybe it’s to drive customers from social media to your items on Amazon.

Each advertising option will help you do something different.

Understand your end goal and weigh the available tool options to make the decision that is right for your business. Still unsure? We can help.