The integration of SEO, Content and Marketplace Advertising for sellers on amazon represents a much larger opportunity than just optimizing your amazon listings. Since amazon now serves as a discovery platform (and in some cases, even competes against Google) – and customers are moving freely across various channels prior to converting – treating amazon as an individual silo leaves you leaving money on the table.
Why do separate channels underperform?
Since most amazon programs fall under either performance marketing/commerce, while the SEO and Content fall under brand/demand generation, there exists a lot of duplicate research being performed. In addition to duplicate research, there is also inconsistency in the messaging of products across channels. Lastly, there is also a lack of attributed data from the beginning of the shopping experience to the end. For example, if a shopper goes onto a manufacturer’s blog to read a comparison article about a product and later uses the product name in a search bar on amazon, it would likely be counted as a “direct” sale, giving credit to the final conversion point without crediting the initial point of contact.
A common way to bridge this gap is by utilizing a shared taxonomy. This means that the Keyword research completed during the creation of blog headlines, product pages and Amazon’s backend keywords should come from the same set of research. If teams are working with separate sets of keywords; then the listings created around one variation of the term will rank differently than the articles written around another variation of the term. Additionally, paid advertisements may compete with organic assets for space on the same search terms. As brands enter or scale in Europe (DACH region), working with an specialized Amazon Agency from Germany will add value to an overall integrated marketing program. Most agencies in this area will understand the unique nuances associated with each market that generalist teams tend to miss.
Connecting your own Content with marketplaces
As stated earlier, Amazon utilizes A9 and A10 to determine how rankings occur on its marketplace. Conversion rates and sales velocity are significant factors and so too is relevance to keywords. When planning owned content to align with a marketplace mindset, you can positively affect all three areas.
For example, a category page or buying guide that ranks on Google for a high-intent query can generate qualified traffic directly to an amazon listing via a branded link or Amazon Attribution tag, increasing both sessions and conversion rate on the detail page.
Steps to align your Content and SEO with marketplace demand
Keyword research should be run in tandem using tools like Helium 10, Jungle Scout or Semrush. Then take these findings and create a single master list that categorizes each Keyword based on the shopping funnel stage. Product descriptions found on a company’s website and a+ Content on amazon should utilize core messaging concepts similar to one another, however adapt the message formats accordingly. Customer feedback – regardless if positive or negative – should be utilized as input in creating Content briefs because customer language is strong inspiration for both SEO keywords and conversion copy. Companies that develop this workflow generally see increased organic rankings on their own brand website and increases in unit session percentages on amazon within one to two quarters.
Utilizing Marketplace Advertising within an entire funnel framework
While Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands and sponsored displays all advertise different parts of the shopping funnel – many advertisers still allocate them to a singular budget, optimized by acos. A better approach would be to map each format to an individual funnel stage. Sponsored display ads and Sponsored Brands videos are ideal for awareness and consideration advertising. Sponsored Products handle the bottom-of-the-funnel advertising where shoppers’ intent is greatest.
When these advertisement campaigns operate along-side other forms of advertising outside of Amazon; things become far easier to track. A branded search campaign operating on Google that directs users to amazon would need to coordinate with defensive Sponsored Brands bidding on the exact same branded terms. Retargeting audiences created from users visiting a website can be correlated with DSP campaigns operating on Amazon – closing loops that cannot be completed separately from each other. Useful guidelines were developed by the IAB, as well as certifications available within amazon ads that provide benchmarking capabilities for companies developing this type of discipline internally.
