Are you an Amazon seller looking for ways to drive more external traffic to your listings?
If so, then this article is perfect for you!
With the right strategies and tactics, driving external traffic to an Amazon listing can have powerful results.
In this article, we’ll discuss the most impactful methods that Amazon sellers can use in order to drive traffic and maximize their sales.
We’ll go over each method in detail, outlining its advantages and disadvantages so that you can make an informed decision about which one is best for your business.
Let’s get into it!
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What does external traffic mean?
External traffic is traffic that comes from other platforms outside of Amazon.
For instance, if you run a Facebook ad and the call to action is to click through to an Amazon product listing, this would be driving external traffic to Amazon.
This is in contrast to internal traffic that you might generate on the Amazon platform through methods such as Amazon SEO or Amazon sponsored ads.
Why is driving external traffic to Amazon a good strategy?
Driving outside traffic to Amazon listings is a strategy that has become increasingly popular in recent times for a number of reasons.
1. It can help improve organic ranking
Amazon has chopped away at a range of methods sellers have historically used to rank products (giveaways, rebates, and search-find-buy to name a few).
As such, sellers have sought new ways to launch and rank products on the platform and as a result, found that driving external traffic to Amazon tends to boost organic rankings and as a result organic sales.
Understandably Amazon is very favorable of sellers bringing in new traffic from outside the platform to help them reach new audiences.
To incentivize this it seems conclusive that its A9 ranking algorithm is configured to give extra ranking love to products receiving a proportionately higher amount of external traffic than its competitors.
So, by sending external traffic to Amazon you’ll often see a healthy boost in ranking for relevant keywords, and as a result, more sales velocity.
2. Amazon will offer you a bonus
In case you were wondering if Amazon is really that interested in external traffic, let me introduce you to something called the Brand Referral Bonus.
Launched in 2021, the Brand Referral Bonus gives brand owners a 10% bonus on sales coming from external traffic.
Simply send traffic to Amazon from external channels and when that traffic converts, Amazon gives 10% of the sale price back to you as a bonus.
This is a huge incentive for brand owners to develop non-Amazon marketing efforts and helps both you and Amazon reach a wider audience.
3. It can help reach new audiences
Whilst Amazon is an eCommerce monster consuming roughly one in every two dollars spent online in the US, there are still plenty of people who don’t default to the platform.
By generating external traffic you are reaching customers you wouldn’t otherwise if you rely solely on Amazon traffic.
This can help you grow your brand, generate repeat purchases, and help on your path to building a valuable eCommerce asset.
On the Brand Builder Show, we recently sat down with MaverickX founder Ben Faw to talk about why they launched an entire company whose sole focus is driving external traffic to Amazon.
How to drive external traffic to Amazon listings
So we know there are huge benefits for sellers who drive external traffic to their product listings.
But what are the best strategies for doing so? Let’s look at your seven best options analyzing each one at a time.
1. Amazon DSP Advertising
Amazon DSP (Demand Side Platform) is an advertising platform that can be used to drive external traffic to Amazon listings.
These Amazon Sponsored Display ads work by bidding on inventory from external websites and apps across the web and then targeting customers based on their interests and behaviors.
Advantages
Disadvantages
2. Google Ads
Google Ads are one of the most common options that Amazon sellers turn to when looking to drive targeted traffic to the platform.
Whilst Google Shopping ads can be a great option for driving traffic to your website, Google Search ads are the best bet for directing traffic to an Amazon listing.
This is because you have a lot of control over keywords and bidding, and the overall process will feel familiar to any seller who has already tried their hand at Amazon PPC campaigns.
Related: Check out our complete guide on running Google ads for Amazon products.
To find keywords to advertise on you can either use the same keywords from your Amazon keyword research or use Google’s free keyword planner that is part of your Google Ads account.
Advantages
Disadvantages
Create, launch, and optimize your Google Ads in a much more user-friendly environment with the innovative Ampd tool.
3. Facebook Ads
Facebook Ads are another popular option when it comes to driving external traffic to an Amazon listing.
Whilst Facebook ads may not drive quite as many conversions as Google Search, they are still a powerful tool for driving external visitors.
Facebook’s audience targeting features are still some of the most detailed and flexible in the industry giving you the ability to find the right customer at the right time.
Advantages
Disadvantages
4. Organic Social Media
Whilst the reach of organic social media content has declined in recent years it remains to be a solid option for building overall brand awareness.
By committing time and energy to creating content on social media platforms you can build rapport with your audience and encourage them to click through to your Amazon listings.
The key here is to create engaging, shareable content that will entice people to take action.
This could be anything from creating lifestyle images related to your product, creating informational content related to your niche, or even running giveaways.
Wondering which platform to focus on? Here are the ones we’re seeing our Brand Builder University members have the most success with:
TikTok
Whilst not everyone’s favorite platform, TikTok has organic reach like no other social channel.
It’s the channel that appears to be rewarding content creators the most with views, likes, follows, and on some occasions, incredible virality.
Plus, you don’t have to be young, trendy, or in touch with every latest trend.
Some of the fastest-growing brand accounts on TikTok are simply sharing the journey of bringing their products to market.
If you’re looking for some inspiration to get started with TikTok, check out our podcast with Oren Schauble who is a master of using the platform to drive huge amounts of targeted traffic.
Instagram is still one of the most powerful tools for brands looking to drive traffic.
It’s a great platform to show off product images and lifestyle shots, but you can also drive qualified external traffic through your organic content.
Instagram users are programmed to head to the link in your bio for more information on your brand which presents a great opportunity to include links to your Amazon listings using a service like Solo.to.
YouTube
YouTube is another great option for sending potential customers to your Amazon store.
You can easily repurpose short-form TikTok content to create YouTube shorts for quick audience growth.
Then you can also add into the mix some longer-form videos that either show you product in yours or around content that relates to the niche your products are in.
The beauty of YouTube content is that, unlike social media posts, it keeps on compounding over time and can continue to drive traffic months and even years after you publish it.
One of the brands using YouTube the best right now is BeardBrand with over 2 million subscribers driving 50% of their revenue. Find out how in our interview with founder Eric Bandholz on the Brand Builder Show.
Sure, the organic reach on a Facebook page… ain’t what it used to be.
But don’t sleep on Zuckerberg – Facebook is still the largest social media platform by user base and well worth re-purposing content from other platforms here.
Overall, organic social media is still a great opportunity for Amazon sellers to build a brand whilst also reaping on-Amazon rewards too.
So, we’ve looked at the popular social media platforms, but what are the pros and cons of Amazon sellers using them to drive traffic?
Advantages
Disadvantages
5. Influencers
The rise of influencer marketing has been astronomical in recent years.
It’s almost impossible to open Instagram or TikTok without seeing so-called ‘influencers’ showing off their latest favorite purchase.
With more attention than ever being given to social media stars, this gives brand owners an opportunity to get their products in front of potential buyers with an endorsement from a personality they already know, like, and trust.
There continue to be exciting developments with initiatives like TikTok Shop which allows influencers to promote products and receive a commission whilst buyers can checkout directly in app.
This is a great way to expand your brand off-Amazon, but if you’re looking to drive external traffic to Amazon your best option is to add a PixelMe link to your bio and send them there.
Advantages
Disadvantages
6. Email Marketing
Email marketing may not be the sexiest of channels but it is a great way to drive external traffic to your Amazon listings.
When done well, email campaigns can drive significant amounts of revenue for Amazon sellers.
The key here is targeting high-value customers and using personalization to maximize their buying potential.
For instance, using dynamic content to drive customers back to Amazon with a personalized product recommendation based on their past purchase history on your online store.
Advantages
Disadvantages
7. Bloggers
Search for any popular product on Google and you’ll likely see results on the first page that have been created by bloggers.
There are a huge number of websites that create long-form written content about topics related to any particular niche and within that create product review content.
For a quick example, take a look at this data inside the popular SEO tool SEMRush:
I did a quick search for the keyword ‘yoga mat’ and then filtered to only include phrases including the word ‘best’.
As you’ll see, there is significant search volume for these keywords that have a high purchase intent.
Here’s what the first page of search results looks like at the time of writing:
Whilst you may struggle to get through to the Wall Street Journal or New York Times editorial teams, there are a number of smaller publications highlighted that you could easily reach out to and ask for your product to be included in their review roundup.
When reaching out to bloggers, offer an additional commission for any conversion attributed to them.
This is easily trackable with their Amazon Associates tags and this way they are incentivized to promote your products more.
If your focus is to drive traffic to your Amazon listings you could also send customers from your own website to Amazon.
However, if you are looking to build a genuine brand over the long haul having customers transact with you on your website is a huge asset and this should be protected at all costs.
Where should I send the external traffic?
As we’ve covered, there are a number of external traffic sources you can lean on. But where exactly should you send that traffic?
You’ve got a few options.
Your Amazon listing
The common option most Amazon sellers default to is sending traffic directly to an Amazon listing.
The benefit of this approach is that it brings the customer right where they need to be to make a purchase in as few clicks as possible.
However, the downside is bringing external traffic directly to an Amazon listing tends to have a lower conversion rate which can in turn impact organic ranking.
To overcome this challenge, you have a couple of other options.
Your Amazon storefront
Brand Registered sellers have the opportunity to create a branded storefront with its own unique URL.
You can design this page to look and feel the way you want (with some Amazon restrictions, naturally), and gives you an opportunity to showcase your brand to new customers.
Then, if customers do click through to your listings they will be more likely to convert.
The better your conversion rate is, the more chance you have of the Amazon algorithm ranking your products on the search engine results page.
An Amazon offer landing page
A great in-between option is to create a ‘buy x get x’ offer on Amazon – e.g. buy 3 get 10% off.
When creating such an offer on Amazon, it will generate for you a promotional page like the one UGREEN is using here:
You can send traffic to this landing page which is primed for higher average order values and improves overall traffic efficiency.
A custom landing page
Similar to sending traffic to your Amazon storefront, you can also send them first to a custom landing page in order to qualify them and sell them on your products before clicking through to Amazon.
Given you have full creative control over this page you can use any copy, imagery and graphics you need to fully convey the benefits of your product and make sure customers click through to Amazon with high purchase intent.
To create these pages you have a few easy options:
- Use the Portals tool by Helium 10 to quickly create pages without needing a website
- If you are on Shopify, use a page builder like Shogun or GemPages
- If you have a website on WordPress/WooCommerce, Kadence Blocks is the perfect option
This will take a bit of setup, and as such sending traffic directly to an Amazon listing is the easiest way to get up and running and see some quick results.
So, if you’re unsure about other routes, just get started with this option.
However, if you’re looking to tap into some of the benefits of driving traffic to your Amazon store or a custom landing page it can be well worth the effort.
At the end of the day, like any strategy in eCommerce, you will need to test different options in order to find which works best for you and your business.
One thing you must do however is to prepare for more traffic coming to your Amazon listing.
Things to do before driving external traffic
I can already tell – you’re pumped about driving more traffic to your Amazon listings and want to get started, like, right now!
But wait!
Before you do, there are a few things you need to make sure of to ensure you’re not just pouring water into a leaky bucket.
Take a stock check
First up, inventory management.
There’s no use in driving hundreds or thousands of new potential customers to your Amazon listing only for them to arrive and discover you’re out of stock.
The tactics we’ve discussed in this article all have the potential to cause large spikes in your traffic so my advice (speaking from painful experience) would be to ensure you have buffer stock ready.
Get some extra stock made and shipped to your 3PL just in case things get wild.
The first fully customizable Amazon inventory management and forecasting software that helps you stay in stock and operate an efficient supply chain. Used and loved by us!
Optimize your Amazon listing
Spending money to send extra traffic to an under-optimized Amazon listing is a terrible waste of resources.
Before turning up the dial on traffic you should really do everything you can to ensure your listing is as optimized as possible.
Maximize average order value
Any time you spend money on traffic you really want to make sure that your average order value is as optimized as possible.
Each visit to your listing or landing page will be costing you a certain amount of money, and increasing your average order value is a great way of making those costs more efficient overall.
So explore multi-buy offers, increase prices, and ensure your customers are spending as much as possible in each transaction.
Set up for retargeting
Finally, to really wring out every last drop of value from the traffic you’re driving, make sure you are gathering customer information at some stage in the journey.
This could either be by offering something of value on a landing page in exchange for your customer’s email address, or by using a pixel service like PixelMe.
PixelMe allows you to embed a pixel – a short piece of code designed to analyze customer behavior – in a customized link that forwards the customer straight to the destination link.
So it doesn’t impact the customer experience, but it gives you the ability to build audiences that you can then retarget with social media marketing, for example.
Create, launch, and measure ad campaigns on Google, Facebook, and TikTok to maximize organic growth on Amazon whilst also capturing a retargeting audience for future campaigns.
How to measure the performance of different external traffic sources
With so many options available to you for driving traffic to Amazon, you may end up running a few options together at the same time.
If you do that though, how can you tell which platform is performing the best?
For example, is it the Facebook ad that’s moving the needle or the Instagram ads?
These social media platforms aren’t able to track the sales taking place on Amazon like they can on your website and for a long time, this created a big gap in understanding external traffic performance.
Thankfully though Amazon Attribution was born.
Amazon Attribution allows you to set up campaigns with unique links for any number of promotions or external traffic campaigns.
It’s imperative you get Attribution set up before you drive external traffic to Amazon in order to get the best results possible.
As a perfect companion, PixelMe also helps create, track, and measure the performance of social media ads sending traffic to Amazon.
Wrapping Up: Sending traffic to your Amazon listing
In conclusion, driving external traffic to your Amazon listing is an incredibly important part of any successful Amazon seller’s strategy.
Whether you drive that traffic through social media ads or some other method, it’s essential that you have a clear plan and understand the pros and cons of each option before investing time or money into them.
It’s also imperative that you maximize average order value by exploring multi-buy offers and increasing prices to ensure your marketing budget is used as efficiently as possible.
Finally, make sure to set up tracking & analytics with services like PixelMe so you can get even more value from the traffic you’re driving.
If all this sounds daunting but exciting at the same time then why not join us inside Brand Builder University?
Our team of experts will help guide you every step of the way on how to drive success with external traffic strategies!
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