How To Optimize Your Product Feeds on Amazon

OPTIMIZING YOUR PRODUCTS ON

AMAZON.COM

@TonyVerre | @Rockfish

#SMX #33D

EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT ME

The Professional• Associate Director of Search Strategy @

Rockfish

• eComm Search Lead for WPP Team

Kimberly-Clark

The Personal• Married, Father of 3 Girls

• Former Literary Teacher-Turned-SEO

• Digital-Obsessed Search Geek

• 1-Time Triathlon Finisher


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AMAZON: SEARCH-CENTRIC E-COMMERCE

1999 June, 2004

Jan, 2010 Jan, 2014


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AMAZON WANTS CONSUMERS TO SEARCH

You Tell Them

What You Want

They Give You What

Best Fits Your Needs


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UNLOCKING THE A9 BLACK BOX


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AMAZON 101: DEFINING THE ELEMENTS

Amazon Element Definition

Vendor Central Amazon.com’s 1st Party retailer destination to create and

manage your products, manage your inventory, view item level

reporting on sales and inventory, view invoices/payments and

access to ARA data (Invitation Only)

Seller Central Amazon.com’s 3rd Party seller destination to create and manage

your products, manage your inventory, view invoices/payments

and analytics (professional only) (Subscription-Pay Model)

Amazon Predictive Search The most commonly typed keywords and phrases consumers

use on Amazon queries

Amazon Retail Analytics (ARA) Amazon analytics on product sales and consumer search terms

Pageview Rank Metric that shows how “visible” and “how much awareness” a

product has with consumers on Amazon.com

Seller Rank Metric based on Amazon.com sales that is updated hourly to

reflect recent and historical sales of every item sold on

Amazon.com


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AMAZON VENDOR CENTRAL VS. SELLER CENTRAL

• 1st Party Retailer Hub

• Amazon Invitation Only

• Amazon responsible for all

logistics

• Works with Vendor Central

Team or Agency to set up

products

• Access Amazon Retail Analytics

(ARA)

• Ability to Advertise on Amazon

• 3rd Party Seller Hub

• Individual/Businesses in

Subscription-based model

• Seller manages virtual

storefront

• Products are listed by Seller

• Access analytics (Professional

Only)

• Ability to Advertise on Amazon


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WHAT’S IN AMAZON’S A9 ALGORITHM?

Relevance

Seller Rank

Pageviews Rank / CTR

Amazon uses

Product Information

+ Consumer

Interaction to power

the components of

their A9 algorithm


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Predictive Search &

Vendor Central

Product Optimization

PageViewsRank & CTR

Seller Rank

AMAZON’S VIRTUOUS OPTIMIZATION CYCLE


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GOOGLE + AMAZON = WIN

Primal consumer behaviors move across platform. If

the query has high purchase intent in Google, they’re

doing it the same way in Amazon.


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AMAZON PREDICTIVE SEARCH

Use Amazon Predictive

Search to see what

keyword phrases consumers

use to find products.

Screen shoot. Catalog. And

test in Amazon Retail

Analytics (ARA).


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AMAZON VENDOR CENTRAL

Search Frequency is

“Percentage of significant

search terms on Amazon

with fewer searches

performed during the

reporting period.”

Amazon Retail Analytics

(ARA) gives you consumer

search term data across

Amazon as a whole and

by Top-Level Categories


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Predictive Search &

Vendor Central


PageViewRank & CTR

Seller Rank



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2 TYPES OF PRODUCT CONTENT

All Products

Free

More Search Weight

Non-Customizable

(Uniform fields)

Not All Products

Extra Cost

Less Search Weight(?)

Customizable

Templates

Self-Service Option

Overrides Basic

Description


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80 Character

Max

OPTIMIZING BASIC PRODUCT CONTENT

As all products must have basic content, these elements

are the prime area to optimize and have the most search

weight.

Product Title

Key Features

Product

Description

Search

Keywords


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OPTIMIZING A+ CONTENT

• Optimize A+ Content with key

unbranded phrases

•Optimize Alt-Text on all images

with branded and unbranded

keywords

•Content: 300 - 1200 words

•No ASIN linking, Brand Store

linking only

•Overrides Basic Product

Description if used

Pay-to-Play content. Less search weight but can

provide a relevance boost.


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Predictive Search &

Vendor Central


PageviewsRank & CTR

Seller Rank



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WHAT’S PAGEVIEWS RANK?

All ASINs on Amazon

accumulate PageViews Rank.

This metric shows how

“visible” and “how much

awareness” a product has

with consumers.

A general correlation can be

between a lower PageViews

Rank and increased order

counts.


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HOW CAN YOU INCREASE PAGEVIEWS RANK, CTR, & ORDERS?

Use multiple digital channels to drive traffic to your

products, and measure them.


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AMAZON SERVICES: SPARKLE SEARCH, BANNERS, & PPCADS

What is Sparkle Search?

1. Target up to 25 keywords

(branded, unbranded and

cross-category)

2. Drive Consumers to Coupons,

Brand Landing Pages or Brand

Stores

3. Pay for Impression Share, Not

Per Click

Amazon Launches Sponsored Search

Sponsored Search is a cost-per-click, keyword-based search advertising

product available in your AMS account that is designed to drive traffic to

your Amazon Brand Page. Info here:

http://g-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/AmazonBrandStoresPlatform/AMS_User_Guide._V356582849_.pdf

http://g-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/AmazonBrandStoresPlatform/AMS_User_Guide._V356582849_.pdf


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Amazon offers multiple ways for

retailers to place ads (in a

variety of standard & custom

sizes) in virtually any area of the

site.

Amazon offers targeting and

serving options depending on

the banner ad.

See the full list of Amazon Media

Group offers here:

http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=a

z_adv_ln_dads_as?&node=3055324

011

AMAZON SERVICES: SPARKLE SEARCH, BANNERS, & PPCADS

http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=az_adv_ln_dads_as?&node=3055324011


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AMAZON BRAND STORES

Amazon offers retailers brand

stores to drive consumers to a

brand destination on

Amazon.com.

Three Types of Brand Stores*:

1. Free

2. $10,000

3. $70,000

The difference in price extends to

various types of customizations

and targeting allowed for brand

stores.


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Predictive Search &

Vendor Central


PageViewRank & CTR

Seller Rank



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WHAT’S SELLER RANK?

The Amazon Best Sellers calculation is based on

Amazon.com sales and is updated hourly to reflect recent

and historical sales of every item sold on Amazon.com.

Simply put: the more a product sells (volume), the

better the Seller Rank.


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TWO TYPES OF SELLER RANK

Amazon provides Seller Rank at a category

level and sub-category level.

Category Seller Rank Sub-Cat Seller Rank


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DOES SELLER RANK MATTER? IT DEPENDS.

Some Amazon Search Queries

are much more Seller Rank-

driven than others. If the

query has a high search

frequency or is a part of the

categorical taxonomy, it’s

likely more Seller Rank-

driven.

Queries with less search

frequency or are out of

categorical taxonomy are

more likely to relevance-

driven.


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NOT ALL QUERIES ARE CREATED EQUAL

“LED TV” “Moist Wipes”

56% of products for “LED TV” are in the Top 10 Sub-

Category Seller Rank; 6% for Moist Wipes.

56%25%

13%6%

Seller Rank Breakdown

1 - 10 Seller Rank 11 - 20 Seller Rank


41 - 50 Seller Rank 51+ Seller Rank

6%

31%13%

6%

44%

Seller Rank Breakdown



41 - 50 Seller Rank 51+ Seller Rank


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6 CORE ELEMENTS OF AMAZON’S SEARCH RESULTS


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WINNING MEANS A WELL-OILED MACHINE

There isn’t a single phase of

the A9 algorithm and Virtuous

Optimization Cycle that is

inherently more important

than another.

All of the elements of the

Virtuous Cycle have to work

in unison.


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Thank You!

Marketing

How To Optimize Your Product Feeds on Amazon