Planet Amazon Podcast
The Planet Amazon podcast addresses all things Amazon and other eCommerce marketplaces. In each episode, we talk with Brands and Sellers about Amazon news, new features, policies, brand policies, logistics, marketing, issues, and challenges, among other topics. All the discussions in this podcast will be from our and our guests' perspectives, always considering how to successfully manage brands on the $600+ Billion Amazon marketplace and the other eCommerce platforms. This podcast is a must for all brands selling or looking to sell on eCommerce marketplaces. Planet Amazon is hosted by Adam Shaffer, President of Phelps United and a veteran/leader in the eCommerce industry.Phelps United offers brands comprehensive Amazon seller services in 5 key areas that save time and expense while sales and profits accelerate.
Planet Amazon Podcast
Conquering Global Marketplaces with Effective Amazon Advertising Strategies
In this episode, Sammy Akthar from Regro Media brings his wealth of experience as an Amazon seller to our show, shedding light on the intriguing process of crafting a brand that serves as a problem-solver for customers. He walks us through the fascinating facets of expanding to global marketplaces, highlighting the universality of Amazon's algorithm and the unique challenges of advertising on Amazon.
Sammy guides us as he demystifies what it takes to understand your target audience and tailor your products and advertising strategies to meet their needs. Through his own experiences, he unpacks how researching, creating, and advertising products specifically designed to solve particular problems can lead to business success. You'll hear about the concept of Lifetime Value of a customer and its pivotal role in recovering advertising costs. What's more, Sammy introduces us to the ingenious world of Chat GPT and its application in discovering product niches and keywords for Amazon Advertising.
As we delve deeper, Sammy enlightens us on the art of optimizing Amazon Advertising CTR and CVR. He emphasizes that while ads may drive traffic, it's the listing's role to convert that into a sale. Tune in to uncover how factors such as the main image, reviews and ratings, price, placement, delivery time, and coupons can significantly influence your CTR. Sammy also shares invaluable insights on Amazon's Catalyst and Partner Programs, the red flags to be wary of when hiring an agency, and the importance of analyzing data to make informed decisions.
For more information about Regro Media, visit https://regromedia.com/
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The Planet Amazon podcast, brought to you by Phelps United, addresses all things Amazon and other eCommerce marketplaces. In each episode, we talk with Brands, Agencies, and Sellers about Amazon news, new features, policies, brand policies, logistics, marketing, issues, and challenges, among other topics.
To watch all Planet Amazon Podcast episodes, visit our YouTube channel.
To learn more about Phelps United, visit our website.
Welcome to the Planet Amazon podcast with Adam Schaefer, where we explore the world of Amazon and other e-commerce marketplaces. Join us as we delve into the latest strategies and tactics for successful selling on the world's largest online marketplace.
Speaker 2:Hello, I'm Adam Schaefer and welcome to Planet Amazon, where we talk about all things Amazon related. Today we have a great guest. We're going to be talking about advertising, which we haven't really talked that much about, but it's a huge part of the Amazon ecosystem and it's a really important way to grow on Amazon. But doing it right is the hard thing and it's complicated and it's, again ever changing as everything is on Amazon. So I want you to introduce our guest today, sammy Oktar, and Sammy Oktar is from Regrow Media and, sammy, thank you very, very much for joining us today on the podcast. We're excited to have you here. It would be great if you could tell the audience just a little bit about yourself and also where you're located.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Adam, thank you so much. I'm really excited for the podcast. Thank you so much for having me today. My name is Sammy Oktar. I'm joining straight from India today, so a quick introduction about me. I started as an Amazon seller in the year 2017 and I ran my first brand for almost two to two and a half years, scaled it to almost $600,000 a month and exited from it and finally turning into Amazon Rising Agency. That is what we are doing right now.
Speaker 2:That's great. And you're doing this all from India, which is interesting because so many of the Americans and we're focused mostly on North America we work with so many folks that are offshore and I think there's sometimes a fear oh, I'm working with somebody in a different country. You know what's it going to be like. We could be able to communicate the time zones. What have you seen? Because I think there's always the should I or shouldn't I? Obviously, you get to say we should, but what are the benefits of working with somebody in India?
Speaker 3:Yeah, actually that is kind of opposite. Because I am high on caffeine always because I have to wake up at night, sometimes because the time zone is so much different, right, because here right now it's around 8 pm in the evening, but I think it will be in the morning time in your place. So it is always kind of that kind of difference. But it's always excitement to work with someone who is abroad and talking to them, listening to their problems, solving that. And obviously I think staying abroad on a different time zone is not going to be a after all. It is about solving problems and staying on top of it, right.
Speaker 2:And you see, you know again, culturally, amazon is Amazon right. So I think that's what people have to get beyond, because people say, well, how are they going to understand the American market? And really you're looking at things on Amazon to help you along the way. It's not. Oh, you know, people in America like this and people in India like this and people in this country like this. You're looking at keywords and buying behavior.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think Amazon. You know, when we started on the year 2017, obviously the marketplace were different Right now. If you look at Amazon especially, amazon is expanding globally to so many countries right now. But when you look at the algorithm, it is same. Right, it is same in Amazoncom, or we talk about Amazonin. It is similar everywhere there is keywords. The system works the same. You have to rank for keywords, you have to make sure you're getting sales, you have to make sure you have good reviews. So all those systems, all those algorithm friendly and all those still works everywhere the same way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I mean, I agree, and we work with people all around the world. So we, you know, once you're on the Amazon platform, the platform is a platform. So you know. I think that the listener base has to really understand that it doesn't matter where you are. It's what your Amazon experience, your experience on the platform, so wholeheartedly agree with you there. Now, when it comes to advertising, you know it's become so important, such an important part of Amazon where I think sellers, you know historically, when they came on the platform, we're saying, hey, I just need a really good product and good content and it'll sell. But that's not necessarily the case now. So you know what's it like for a new seller coming onto the platform and what's it going to have to get, you know, prepared for on the advertising front.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I would like to share one story here. You know I was reading this book and this book there was something that was really exciting. So you know oysters, okay, so I'm a big fan of that. Oysters. It says oysters open their shell fully when it is full moon and crabs crabs waits there until oysters opens their shell fully and as soon as it opens their cell, crabs throws a stone so that the oyster cannot close their shell again and during that time the crab goes and eats their flesh because they love it. So what I think is right now, whoever is starting, they want to just start and they have the assumption that they are going to start making money as soon as they start selling right, and they're waiting as a crab.
Speaker 3:But in general, everything is not so straightforward when it comes to Amazon. It is a proper business and you have to build a proper brand, addressing a problem and solving the problem. So when we talk about Amazon business, how far has it changed? It has changed a little bit, but again, the fundamentals, the basics, they are still the same. When you talk about Amazon launching into different marketplaces, right now they are expanding and what we are also seeing is sellers first starting in Amazon, in one marketplace, scaling the brand to a certain height, then expanding to other global marketplaces. Maybe they're going for Dubai, maybe they're going for Japan, maybe UK, all these marketplaces. But again, first obviously starts with one product. But before you go with the product you have to make sure that the product you're selling that has some unique points to it. It is addressing a group of people and it is solving a group of people's problem.
Speaker 3:There was a product that we have developed under a brand name as Tooth O'Keeer. By the name you'd understand the product is in dental care niche. So we went for a product research and we found that there is a keyword called ultra soft resume that has really high surge volume and we found that, okay, this is something really interesting because the seller is getting really high sales whereas the brand or the product is not so brand dominated. That means the product that is getting high sales has very less branded keywords, which got our attention. Then we deep dive into the product and we found the problem that the product was solving was actually targeted to a specific market. We took the A sign, we did a reverse A sign and we got few keywords. The keywords was like this ultra soft toothbrush for bleeding gum. Ultra soft toothbrush for gum problem. Ultra soft toothbrush for soft gums.
Speaker 3:Now we know that the problem is with gums. So now we identified that who are the group of people who gets these problems? Who has bleeding gum, whose gums become softer. Now we know that in India, right now, the patients who are suffering from high blood sugar level generally suffers to this problem where their gum bleeds. So now, from that keyword, we got to found the audience, that is, the people who are having diabetes. They are the problem the people with high blood sugar level.
Speaker 3:Now you know, we are the only brand or that brand under tooth care. Ultra soft toothbrush is solving the problem for that group of people, whereas if you look at normal toothbrush category, there will be Colgate, sensodyne, who will be probably the biggest names, and they are addressing a broad market. They're not particularly addressing a small group of people, whereas there is one small brand which is addressing only a small group of people, right, that is selling ultra soft toothbrush. Now we identified that, okay, this is a group of people that we are going to target. The first product, obviously, ultra soft toothbrush. Now, the audience is going to love it because we are the only person that is addressing their problem. Now, from that we can launch our second product, third product which can relate to that niche. Obviously, we can launch our organic toothpaste, we can launch our toothbrush, all those kinds of things. So that is what is happening right now.
Speaker 3:You have to figure out what is your target audience, then build products based on solving the target audience problem.
Speaker 3:And what we have also seen in terms of advertising is because right now advertising market has changed a lot, because previously direct response market used to work a lot.
Speaker 3:Right, we used to get sales at 10% a cost, 20% a cost, even if the product was completely new, with zero use. But right now, if I give you an example of this particular category, tooth care we'll see clicks can go from $10 to $15, whereas the product is selling for, let's assume, $20 or $19. So to get one sale it may take double the amount of cost the product is selling for. Now you may ask how we are going to recover the money, right? So the recovery of the money happens to the LTV, the lifetime value. We have to calculate what is the lifetime value of that particular customer who we are bringing on in that brand? How many products can we sell, cross-sell upsells and how many times that customer is going to buy from us. So now we know that, yes, what is our lifetime A-cost over a period to get that sale? And that is how I think advertising gear has changed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I mean first of all, outside of the flesh eating crabs, which I didn't know, they threw the rock, so, thank you, I didn't know that. But then there's the bleeding gums, which is another great visual in my mind. You found an important niche. So it wasn't like let me think about advertising. It's what is a product that's going to work on Amazon because there's a need for it? You found that there's a lot of search words, a lot of people searching for certain things and they need a solution to a problem. You went deeper to understand the customer and now you're really targeting that customer where the mass marketers really aren't touching. That. You are focused on that, which is brilliant. I love it. But now you got it.
Speaker 2:But you're going to spend a lot of money on advertising, but you're saying, through other products you're selling and subscription, maybe you're going to get that money back over a certain amount of time. So you're going to go in the hole. At the beginning, potentially doesn't mean you have to, but you might and you're going to sell and make more over a period of time. Got it? People have to understand that's the old direct marketing philosophy is like how much do I have to spend to acquire. And then what am I going to make from that customer in their lifetime? Or the lifetime is a year or two years, whatever you want to call it, which is great, that's awesome. And so your company owns that product, or you did that for another company.
Speaker 3:No, we did that for a client. We don't own it right now.
Speaker 2:OK, that's great, Awesome, and so they're still doing well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think they are doing really well right now. They have launched a couple of product groups right now and doing really good.
Speaker 2:So when you found them, did they come to you with like we have this product. Or did they say hey, can you help us come up with a product? How did that work out?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So we had a client who was trying to get into this market and we did the research for them that this is something really interesting that we are looking into right now and I think this is something that is going to fit you really well. So we first found the keyword demand. Then, following that keyword demand, we found the product. And after the product, when we did the keyword research, we found the problems that the product is solving and that is how we got into this niche.
Speaker 2:So, sammy, they didn't come to you with the product and say, hey, can you help us figure this out? They said, hey, can you help us figure out what product we should sell?
Speaker 3:Yeah exactly.
Speaker 2:I mean, that's awesome and so that's great. And what tools are you using to figure that out? Are you using that Helium 10 or Jungle Scout? What are you using?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think there are a lot of tools right now and for that particular case, we use Helium 10. Then we use Data Dive to further analyze about the keyword demand and all. But I think, Petra, it was this two tools so we have been using for a long time and they are giving good results as well.
Speaker 2:That's pretty cool. Ok, well, that's a really interesting story and thanks for telling us about it. Ok, so changing the topic a little bit, what I've been reading a lot about and I still am trying to figure it all out is this chat GPT thing. Like, I think you've talked about it and you've written about it a little bit. But how does chat GPT work with Amazon and Amazon Advertising? What's the story on that? Because I use it to write articles, but I don't know how does it work with advertising.
Speaker 3:We did one program about chat GPT, in that how we use chat GPT is not really in advertising, but we found a really good product out of it. The product was B-UX Raps, so these are those raps which are used to cover sandwiches, and all right.
Speaker 2:So we asked that you used chat for finding a product. It wasn't actual. The PPT advertising OK, got it. No.
Speaker 3:So we asked chat GPT that tell us the hot niches right now in Amazon. So it suggested a few hot niches. Then we further asked them, by selecting one niche, that what are the good selling high demand, low competition products in this niche? Then by that, after coming and filtering down, we got into a keyword or a category. Then we use Helium 10 to further analyze that category to find which products are going good in that market and by that we found B-UX Raps and then we use other tools like Data Drive to further analyze whether this product is good to launch or not. So that is how we use chat GPT Right now. We are not using chat GPT so much for advertising. Yeah, I think that was the answer.
Speaker 2:I didn't realize that, but I keep on saying oh, use chat GTP for PPC advertising. Maybe it's going to help you find keywords faster. I don't know. It's kind of a stolen mystery to me, but I've been reading about it, I've been taking a few courses on it and I'm trying to understand all the different applications for this and other AI. But you use it to accelerate your product search.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you were trying to uncover new products.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly, I think as you told about keyword for us and advertising keywords, I think for relying on chat, gpd for giving us keyword is hard for us, because we rely really on the data. Because for us to know the relevant keywords before starting our ads is really important. Because when we are starting ads on a product, maybe the product is in launch phase and during this phase we have to know which are relevant keywords, because we need to train the algorithm that this is the keywords we know are good for this product. Because what happens is a lot of sellers. What they do is they start with automatic campaigns and at the next stage they start with broad match campaigns which generally don't have the data about your product, because Amazon is blind when you add a product to their algorithm system. So they need to know what are the relevant keywords for it.
Speaker 3:So how we train the algorithm is just by creating a few exact and phrase match campaigns with the first relevant set of keywords that we get. Maybe we can deep dive into the keyword research part later on as well, but at first, the first seven to 10 days, we train the algorithm to listen. This is the ASign or the product that we launched and this are the relevant keywords, and we send clicks of that relevant keywords to the product. That is how we train the algorithm and then after that, followed by seven to 10 days. So we start with maybe automatic campaigns divided by targeting, by placement, and then broad match. Broad match comes very late because broad match usually spends a lot.
Speaker 2:So that's pretty interesting. What about this thing about non-branded keywords? What's the difference between branded keywords and non-branded keywords?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so how we generally understand a product's competition is by knowing how much percentage of their keyword distribution is divided into branded keywords. Now, when I call branded keywords, what do I mean by branded keywords? I was talking about a brand Colgate, right. So when you talk about toothpaste or toothbrush, so customer go and search for Colgate toothbrush or Colgate toothpaste, right. And whenever we go and do a reverse and if we see they have a lot of keywords with their brand names suffixed to it, that means that is a branded keyword for which customer calling with their brand name. Let's say, example of a different box, so our lunch box. So in lunch box in India we have a very good brand called Tupperware, so Tupperware. They will have keywords like Tupperware lunch box, tupperware lunch box for kids. Those will be branded keywords, whereas non-branded keywords or generic keywords will be those keywords which are not affixed with any brand names. They're more descriptive. Yeah, that's more descriptive and that's more broad to the market. That means that is not specific to a brand.
Speaker 2:So when you're working with a client and they don't have a well-known brand, but there are well-known brands in their category, are you trying to go after those branded words and have them show up where the branded products are? Is that what happens?
Speaker 3:No, generally what we have seen is generally we love to see the data, how the data is coming, and make the decision based on the data. So let's say we were running ads for two, three months and we have enough source terms in our reports that we can check out. And we go, we find out those keywords which have our brand name affixed to it and that have got more than one or two sales. Now for a brand name we can go as low as one or two sales because that is obviously our brand name. And those keywords we separate out or we just copy it out in a separate sheet and name it as this is our branded keywords. And also we figure out those keywords which have got three plus conversions or sales, those we call it warm keywords or hot keywords. So these two keywords behaves the similar way because this will have less cost per click and less a cost. So how we do the branding is we generally call it omnipresence. So in this we make sure for this.
Speaker 3:Keywords first let's talk about the branded keywords. We have to make sure for this branded keywords. We are taking as much placements as possible, starting from the top, the headline search ads or the store spotlight ads with the custom image, then we are followed by the sponsored product ads, then we have the organic listing, then we have the video ads. Now video ads takes two positions. Right, it appears very big when you see in the mobiles. Now, if you're looking from the top to the bottom, you will see more than 70 to 80 percent space in the search page is being covered by our brand product, and the more they can see your product, the more conversion it is. So that is about branded keywords.
Speaker 3:And the second stage is of this omnipresence strategy is warm keywords, or the converting keywords, or what we also call it graduated campaign or graduated keywords. So in this, what we look at is what are those keywords that have given us three or more sales and in which we are ranking organically in the first page? Now we have to rank organically in the first page to make sure this strategy works. Now we know that, okay, this is the first 20 or 30 keywords in which we have got three plus sales in the last 30 days, and in this we are also ranking organically in the first page. Now there are a lot of tools that can give us the ranking data where we are ranking organically right Now we have to make sure the same strategy, omnipresence we use for this set of keywords and we have seen a really good a cause in this because our organic listing is already there, we are already converting for that keyword and our cost will be really good in this.
Speaker 2:That's pretty cool, and so when you most of the projects you work on, are they products that are reasonably new and need to be launched, or are you picking up clients with products that have good velocity already?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's kind of mixed because if it is a well established brand already, they also need to launch products. So we are working with both of them, whether it's comes to a product launch, new product launch or whether it comes to a product which is already selling good to just optimize their ads. So, yeah, we are working with both of them and obviously, yeah, obviously, when it comes to a new product launch, you will see the graph. It is really at the top right. The cost will be high at the starting. Then obviously it will take time to come that down with more reviews, more optimization, but slowly the cost comes down. If your product has good search volume and your product is differentiated, if the product is differentiated and targeted to a particular market, then we have seen the curve drops really quick.
Speaker 2:Okay, really quick, because I mean we've launched products and it takes a while. I mean it's not. Again, people think it's overnight. I don't know if it's how that relates to the crab and the stone thing, but it could take. It could take a while and and you have to have some staying power to do it I mean it's, it's not a one-and-done.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna play, I'm gonna spend a lot of money this month on advertising and then Next month I'm gonna cut it in half or cut it down to zero and it goes away. So you got to stay with this thing for a while. We found that anyway, but I Think that's pretty standard. But you know, spending 30, 40, 50% Acos on advertising is tough, especially with the margins these days. But, like you said, that lifetime value is huge, you know. But what, what's your advice to People in general that are selling? So there's like 2 million sellers on Amazon and you know maybe there's a few hundred thousand that are super active. What's your, what's your advice on Advertising in general? What do you think that they're missing on what's? You know what's your words of wisdom for the, the other sellers out there on PPC advertising?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think you know, for ads. The job of ads is to bring traffic right. Ads is not going to make your traffic convert into sale. It is your listings job to convert to a sale. So we have seen few problems. Are there with advertisers, right? First thing, what we call is we call CTR, or click through it as a doctor of ads. Okay, so CTR can tell what is wrong with your product or what is wrong with their ads or listing. Now how that works is let's assume your CTR is coming very low. By no, I mean it is coming below 0.4 percent, which is normal during launch phase. But when it comes to a mature product with good reviews by good I mean more than 500 reviews and that case, if your CTR is low, that means you have to go and check few things which sellers don't check. They blame the ads that it's not working. So let's assume your CTR is not working. Ctr is a first thing. Then is a CVR conversion, it, which we are going to talk about later on.
Speaker 3:First let's talk about CTR. When you talk about CTR, there are only few things. That is responsible. That means if your CTR is low, your CPC is going to be higher. Cost per click is going to be high, because now Amazon has to show to a lot more people. Then they will click and that will bring on the CTR high, right? So how this happening is if your CTR is low.
Speaker 3:Basically, you have to look at few things. First is a main image Whether, by looking at a main image, your potential customer can identify what they are going to get in the first three to four seconds or not. If they are not, that means you are missing out opportunity here. Second thing is your reviews and ratings. Now, because Amazon is also showing if it is a 3.6 star rating, it shows 3.6, right. Previously it wasn't like that. So reviews and ratings. The second thing.
Speaker 3:Next comes a price of your product, the placement where your ad is getting, whether in that placement, the other products or the companies, products which are placed there. Are the prices similar or you have a very higher price? Because if you have a very high price and you are placing your ad somewhere where the other competitors prices are lower, that means you will get very less chance of getting good clicks. Next is your delivery time how fast the product can be delivered. That impacts are really high when it comes to CTR. Next coupons. If you're running in digital coupons, that also impacts the CTR a lot.
Speaker 3:Now, this are few things that comes to your own hand. You have control of it. There are other things which you don't have control of it. That is, if your computer is changing something in their listing, whether that can be a main image, whether that can be the prices, or if they are accumulating some higher number of reviews at some shorter period. All this impacts CTR a lot. One thing I miss out is targeting to a relevant audience. If your ads are not targeted to a relevant audience, your CTR drastically drops down and that impacts your ads overall score as well, because advertising is, after all, good Right, it loves himself.
Speaker 2:So if so you're saying number one is that you got to make sure you're targeting right. Yeah, that's, that's key. Yeah, that'll screw you up, but so it's, it's, it's targeting. But number one you're saying you got to make sure that image. If you're you have a low CTR, you got to make sure your content is good, so your image has got to be great. And then you're saying, okay, I got my image, it's awesome. But now I need to make sure that if I have bad reviews or I don't have many reviews, that's gonna hurt. Yeah, so that reviews and ratings is a big, big deal.
Speaker 2:Then is your price way out of whack. Now there's always a good, better best. You know, do you want to be the premium guy or the opening price point guy? But if you're way, way out there, it might not be that helpful in your CTR. So you got to understand that. Then if you're not shipping prime and if you take days and days and days to get the product, you'll find that things that ship faster usually I better click through. And Then you're gonna say, okay, I have my image, I got good ratings, I have, I think, a fair price. It's right in there with everybody else. I'm prime, I'm targeted. I Should be okay, I should. It should help my click through rate. I yeah, definitely, okay. Okay, so good, that's good. That's really helpful. We should definitely spend more time on that. And then you're talking about the conversion rate or the CBR, so give us the breakdown there. That's good stuff.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think conversion is a very important metric, not only during ads, but it is also very important metric when we talk about scaling your ads, because a lot of people, a lot of sellers, wants to know the strategies on scaling, but rather they need to ask when is the right time to scale right? So, when it comes to conversion rate, because you have brought in the traffic in your listing, now you need to make sure that the traffic is converting to a sale. So now, starting from your images, the rest images that you have, lifestyle images, infographics, how well they are curated, whether you're using a video or not, because that impacts a lot. Adding a video to your listing really impacts your conversion rate a lot.
Speaker 2:So now you're really refining your content, is what you're saying.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly, you need to refine the content right now, because the customer is right now in your listing and you have to make sure they convert well. So, starting from all this, then you have a brand story, a plus content. All those things needs to be proper in order. Comparison chart, where we talked about increasing your lifetime value, increasing your cross selling and upselling right. So comparison chart is really important now. Premium A plus content you get the opportunity to get premium A plus content, for which Amazon is to charge a lot back then right.
Speaker 3:If we talk about so right now. They're offering it for free, so I'm not sure how long they are going to offer it, and if you're getting the opportunity, you should use it right now. So all this Q&A section Q&A section is really important. So Q&A section not only impacts customer behavior of purchasing, but it also adds up in your listings SEO, which a lot of sellers don't talk about. So make sure all this are optimized the first page reviews as well, in order to get a good conversion rate.
Speaker 2:I mean so CTR, cbr. You got to have click through to get conversion and then you need higher conversion rates and that content. You talked about the premium A plus and it is. It's amazing that it's free, but you need to have certain stats, like you need to be for a brand. You need 16 A plus pieces of content out there in X months or something Like. It's not a slam dunk that everybody can get it, but I think if you can get it, you should use it for sure. So that's pretty cool. And so we talked about CTR, talked about CBR. What else could brands be doing to promote their product? Are you doing off Amazon, because that's what we hear a lot about these days is off Amazon advertising. Is that a waste or is it important? Would you focus more on the Amazon advertising first? What's your, your philosophy?
Speaker 3:Yeah, actually, what we have seen is Amazon loves signals from different sites, right, they want you to bring on traffic of your own and they are rewarding now as well for that. Amazon have launched their brand referral bonus program as well, which, if you're bringing traffic to Amazon and that is converting, amazon is going to give you an average of 10% back to you. Now what we have seen is we have tested a lot of things, starting with TikTok ads, starting with Facebook, google ads, but so far, google ads converted the most because it is obviously, again, the search intent by right. So we use a couple of tools. Lastly, I think we're using not sure exactly amped. I think yeah, so, yeah. So that tool really helped to connect all those, the backend of Amazon plus Google ads.
Speaker 3:And how we did was each keyword for each campaign and those keywords will be the first relevant set of keywords that we identified as the most relevant.
Speaker 3:So how we identify the relevant keyword is just by figuring out okay, if these are our top 10 competitors and these are the keywords, then minimum computer, I mean we have to check out how many competitors are ranking for that keyword in the first page and if we see more than three to four competitors are ranking for a keyword in first page which has a good search volume, that would be a relevant keyword for us. We figure out those relevant keywords. Each Google ad campaign will have only one keyword because we have to make sure which campaign is driving seeds and amped, connects with the backend and tells you which how much conversion you're getting at two cars. All this metrics which are really important and we have seen really good results because we also set up tracker in helium, tend to check out how much it is impacting the ranking and, trust me, it is really helpful when we launch a product. And also, if you want to continue, if you're getting good rewards through your ads, obviously you can continue to bring the ads.
Speaker 2:So when you start a product, would you start with Google, would you start on Amazon, or are you just doing both?
Speaker 3:Yeah, we have to do both. We have tried both I mean at the same time and that gave the best result. Because Amazon's traffic is the highest converting traffic and the only reason we are bringing Google ads traffic is to show Amazon that, listen, we have different signals that we are sending to this product and this product is really relevant. In order to make sure that in the launch phase we get enough juice from Amazon also, we tried running Google ads as well. Same time we run Amazon ads targeting the similar kind of keywords.
Speaker 2:So there is a benefit. Amazon loves that outside traffic, right, so they're going to reward you. You know it's important and people just like, oh, I don't want to spend more, it could be low conversion and it's like you kind of need to do it these days. It's not like a like to, it's kind of you need to and I don't know, it starts to get expensive after a while. But I think the goal is, if you have a great product and you could get the traffic and get the growth, that cost to advertise will come down over time, which is, you know, the goal with everybody. You know it's pretty cool. And then you know you know we talked earlier a little bit before we got on about reports and advertising reports and that people don't really go ripping through this to understand the results. So what's your advice on the reporting you can get from Amazon and other tools and how it can help you and why you should be looking at it?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think reports is something that is boring and obviously that is really important to us as well. So a lot of seller they are right now at a position where they are looking to scale more. Right, they are looking for opportunities where they can scale. And the first few reports that they need to look at is for source or impression share report, because what that report tells you is where is your position right now. So it gives all the keywords in which you are running ads for and what is your impression rank out of all the computers who are running ads for this particular keyword. Where are you based? Basically it calculates all the impressions you are getting and where are you ranking right now.
Speaker 3:Let's assume there is competitor A who is getting 50% impressions and you are getting less than 30% impression.
Speaker 3:The third one is getting 20% impression and you will be ranked or your impression rank will be 2. And it also gives you a cost. You can calculate your conversion rate and that is how you know that if there is one keyword where your impression rack is maybe fourth and fifth or sixth or seventh, whereas your A cost is good, and then you can figure out OK, this is a keyword where I'm converting good, but my rank is not at the top. So there you can find out in which campaigns that keyword is being used and simply increase the impression of that keyword by increasing the bits. Now, because your listing is already converting, you have a good A cost, your CTR is good. Obviously you are going to get more impression out of it. That is the first thing of scaling that we have seen and obviously when you start scaling a campaign, you have to make sure your listings conversion rate is good, because without a good conversion rate in a listing, if you start scaling, it will cost you more than you have assumed.
Speaker 2:So can you just tell us any minute report again? Yes, we want to put that in the notes so people click to it. So what's the name of that report?
Speaker 3:The report is called Source Time Impression Share Report.
Speaker 2:Source Time Impression. Ok, awesome, we'll include that. Thank you, that's awesome. Keep on going.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there is another report called Category benchmark report, because a lot of sellers ask how am I performing amongst my competitors? Right, so we obviously got a new set of data search query performance dashboard, which is really good data sets that Amazon is providing where we can check out our category level conversion. We can check out our ASI conversion, which keywords are converting for each ASI, which is really good, because Amazon is giving you these are the keywords, this is the your conversion rate that you are getting, this is how much purchases you are getting. That is really valuable data.
Speaker 3:But when we come to ads dashboard, the report the one report that we love really good is category benchmark report. So in this category benchmark report, what Amazon does is it divides your competitors in three peers top peer competitors, medium peer competitors and bottom peer competitors and it also gives how much impressions they are getting, what are their e-cores, and it also gives you your e-cores and your how much clicks you are getting. Now you can compare yourself that OK, where I am placing myself, whether I am at the top, whether I am the bottom or where I am the medium. So all this data you can figure out and by checking all this data, you can arrange or make changes to your ads because now you know you are at the bottom so you can improve based on looking at the other competitors. This report is available for sponsored brand ads because obviously it is brand focused. But this is really good report that Celest can use, so that's cool.
Speaker 2:So we'll mention those reports for people, because I think that people just don't know they exist. And if they do, like you said, it's boring. But it's not boring, it's really data mining. It's really important.
Speaker 3:Yeah, actually the 100% agree on that. And also there's another report. I think that is called Purchase Product Report, because Amazon now we have this option right where we can showcase our other products, so I think it is called as. Not sure exactly what it's called, but it comes right at the position where it's frequently brought together was there? And what Purchase Product Report gives you is it tells you that in this ASIN you were running ads for, customer have clicked on that ad and, instead of buying that ad, which product from your catalog have they bought? It might be your variation, it might be other product. So in that report you can get all these details and it also shows you how much they have bought and what is the order value. All this so you can basically Does it show you?
Speaker 2:does it show you if they click on your product and they bought something else but it's not your product? Is it tell you that too?
Speaker 3:No, it tells you it only tells you if it's yours, yeah from your own catalog.
Speaker 2:yeah, okay, got it, got it. But that's what I wanna know is like, why didn't they? They bought somebody else's, they didn't buy mine, but I'm sure there's other ways to figure that out. So here's a self-serving question for you, sammy, but try to be as down the middle as you can here. If a seller wants help with the things we talked about, whether it's PPC, ppc off Amazon, ppc on Amazon, helping you get ratings, helping you launch a product what should they be looking for? There's so many different agencies out there. What are the red flags? If they're talking to an agency and an agency says X, you would say, ah, I don't know, I'd be careful about that. So, and then tell us what you should be looking for.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think the first thing they should look at how they are checking your data. I mean they should know how your account was performing before and what are the aspects they can improve, because they can't see a brand from outside and tell that, okay, this is going to scale to this amount. They need to know the data right and that is why we give really importance to reports and seller has to give importance to reports, because report tells everything about your account so it can give you all the data right. So, by looking at the, every agency should look at the data first, that what are the listings conversion rate? Because now search query performance dashboard is there which tells you exactly what is the listings conversion rate on the base. Because search query performance doesn't give you all ad types data. It only gives you sponsored products data and organic data.
Speaker 3:So, first, checking out all the reports, how the account was performing, what are the aspects that needs improvement in account right, because each ASI they can only grow if the conversion rate is good and, trust me, every agency wants a client with really good conversion rate and it is hard to get to right Because they have to constantly optimize it.
Speaker 3:Suggest the client that listen, this is what is not working and we need to make sure this is changed so that we can get a better conversion rate. Because ultimately, for ads agency, we, or for a media buyer, we can buy the traffic, but it is your listings job to convert. So we have to make sure we suggest the client that what changes needs to be done in that particular listing. So staying on top of what is working right now in Amazon is really important for agency and also Amazon has their own programs right. Amazon have their catalyst programs where they rate agencies based on their performance and case studies and which I think they are called partner programs, something like that. And yeah, so that is really important because if Amazon is rating someone as the winner or the second winner, that is really important because Amazon they do all the cross calculations right. So all these things are available right now for sellers to cross check whether that agency is going to help them or not.
Speaker 2:But a big red flag would be you're talking to a prospective agency and they say, hey, we'll manage your stuff, we'll help you grow your business, but they don't want to really look at your data to start with, they don't want to do the audit. That's kind of a red flag because possibly what do they get to improve upon?
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3:So looking at your data is really important and if you can't suggest that these are the points of improvements, right.
Speaker 3:I think our audit should be like this way that, okay, we have audited this account from the ground and these are the points of improvement that needs to be done in order to get to this goal that you're looking at. And what is a reasonable goal? Because when we started, we have worked with a lot of clients which were kind of just starting out in Amazon, and their mindset is completely different from a seller who is already established, because they know how ads work. So talking to them versus to establish a seller, is completely different. So when you're talking to an established seller or a brand who is well-present in Amazon, we have to make sure we talk about the data. What are the things missing on this account, what are the things needs to be added in order to get to your goal and what is the possibility of getting to a goal, Whether the target that you're setting is reasonable or not? So those are things I think, if you're not getting from a agency, that is a red flag that you should look at.
Speaker 2:I mean that's great because, again, I think there's so many different agencies out there, some that are very specific PPC, some are specific Amazon, some are we do it all. And I think the biggest thing is, if we need help with our advertising and we're trying to get it better without looking at that information first and just saying, hey, I know we're going to sign you up when we want to export it to sales, maybe you should go the other way. It's my thing. Yeah, definitely, that's pretty cool, and so with that, I think we got to start wrapping it up a little bit because we're going to run short on time.
Speaker 2:But so what are some other things that you want to leave our audience with today about advertising and Amazon? Because, I mean, we love Amazon. It's friend or foe sometimes, because Amazon is this incredible platform. $600 billion of merchandise goes through it. It gives you an opportunity to market, has a huge audience, but it's complicated and it's hard to navigate and people like you and people like our company help brands navigate that landscape. So we love it and we could talk about it all day, but give us something to maybe close on some helpful hints.
Speaker 3:Yeah, obviously. So what we have seen lately is there is this digital coupon, right? Digital coupon that if we check it has, like, say, a five person offer, say $5 off that thing. So if you have that thing on your listing or your ASN and a customer jumps to that listing and without purchasing they go back, then that product shows on your Amazon homepage whenever the customer lands back to Amazon. And we have seen that only works when you have a digital coupon on your listing. So make sure if you want to use free traffic by Amazon.
Speaker 2:So if you want to be promoted by Amazon, if they clicked, have a digital coupon. If they clicked it but they didn't buy it, amazon's gonna push it in front of them on a regular basis. That's brilliant, man.
Speaker 3:I didn't know about homepage yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:No, that's great, I didn't know that. I don't want to tell people I didn't know that. I didn't know that. That's good information, thanks. But I do see it, because I click on a lot of stuff and I'm like why did they put that? And that's something else, and you're probably right, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I can tell you you are a frequent shopper because I can see all those goodies at the back of your studio.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, no, I know it's depressing, I get in trouble for that. There's an app that tells you how much you've spent on Amazon, and I deleted it. I don't want to say it, so that's awesome. So if anybody wants to get in touch with you, what's the best way to get in touch with you, sammy? Because I mean, I definitely want to talk more after the show, because we definitely would be interested in working with you on some stuff. But tell us, I want to engage, I want to talk to Sammy and talk about advertising. How do they get you?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm mostly available in LinkedIn. You can search Sammy S-A-M-M-Y-A-K-T-H-A-R. Sammy, I'm available in LinkedIn. I have a YouTube channel by the same name Everywhere. Just search on Advertisement. Sammy, I'm available everywhere you can. You want to work with us? You can find out Regrowmediacom. Yep.
Speaker 2:Cool, regrowmediacom. I'm going to go there after this. This is great. I'm so happy to have met you and I know again, you could talk about this for days and it's awesome. So if people want to learn more, talk to Sammy, you know, seek them out. With that, we're going to wrap it up. Thank you very much for joining us today. I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thank you so much. I'm really excited for the podcast. Thank you so much, Cool thanks.
Speaker 1:Thank you for watching another episode of the Planet Amazon podcast, where we talk all things Amazon. If you want to learn about how to accelerate your sales on Amazon, visit PhelpsUnited's website, phelpsunitedcom.
