Competition on Amazon is stiffer than ever, and simply relying on PPC is hardly enough to maintain a competitive edge nowadays. 

So how do you solve the problem of getting more eyes on your listing? 

You’ll need to increase your external traffic. 

External traffic is any traffic that comes from outside Amazon, for example, through:

• Social Media Marketing
• Content Marketing
• Blogs
• Websites
• Email Marketing
• QR Codes

Gaining external traffic falls under the umbrella term of “marketing,” and over the years, I’ve tried just about every marketing trick in the book to increase traffic and hit healthier margins, with many successes and failures along the way. 

Here’s my list of inside tips and tricks to help you hit your sales goals faster.

Understand the Game

Increased external traffic is a win-win for both sellers and Amazon. 

Sellers benefit by upping their chances of making sales, and Amazon benefits from the added customer base and profits from that traffic. 

But here’s the really interesting part. 

Based on our data, external traffic is “worth more” in the eyes of Amazon. As a result, they rank you higher. And a high organic ranking leads to increased exposure and sales. 

Therefore, it makes sense to spend more time and resources on finding an external traffic source that works, even if it means braving the world of TikTok or Instagram. 

Analyze data to see what’s working best, then double down on that traffic source, and focus less on the poor-performing ones. 

Start Strong on Social Media

Here’s a little secret. 

YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok love new accounts and often shower the first couple of uploads with love in the form of abnormally high views.

Why? My best guess is it helps keep us addicted by winning the proverbial slot machine. 

But here’s how we can use this to our advantage.  

Your first few organic videos should be high-quality content that dazzles your audience and uniquely showcases your product. Think of it as making a great first impression; and if viewers are receptive, i.e., you receive likes, comments, etc., there’s a higher chance the algorithm gods will push your content to the masses. 

It’s also a good idea to have a handful of extra videos edited to upload in case you gain some momentum. 

Use Attribution Links 

Tracking data is key to understanding which external traffic sources yield the best results. 

Luckily, Amazon makes this super simple with Amazon attribution links, which are used to measure the impact of your off-Amazon marketing methods. 

They’re effectively unique product links that can be pasted anywhere you choose. 

Here’s how they work:

Let’s say you release a product pitch video on YouTube and TikTok, the same day you send out a marketing email. Using attribution links, you could use three separate links for each effort. At the end of the month, you should have enough data to understand which approach is working the best. 

This does away with the problem of blindly spending marketing dollars. 

Sign Up for the Brand Referral Bonus

Amazon’s brand referral bonus allows sellers to receive a certain percentage back from qualified sales when customers buy from custom-generated URLs (links). 

Let’s say you use a brand referral link to make a sale off Instagram (you’ll use the same attribution links mentioned above). After two months, Amazon will credit your account with the bonus, which is then subtracted from your total Amazon referral fees (the fees Amazon takes from each product sale). 

The bonus percentage will vary based on categories, but averages around 10%. And since Amazon takes a whopping 15% of every sale, the bonuses can add up quickly and have massive impacts on margins. 

Stay on Brand

Pushing external traffic means that you’re going to be using social media platforms, email campaigns, and other means to increase brand visibility and exposure. 

And with that much content, it’s important it all looks the same to your audience. 

This means fonts, colors, and the general tone of your marketing should stay consistent everywhere. Failure to do so can create confusion and lead to a lack of trust and brand credibility. 

I recommend creating a branding kit before releasing content; branding kits are usually just a PDF with all your branding info, colors, fonts, etc. They’re great for content consistency, especially if you outsource or work on a team. 

This doesn’t mean your content has to be boring, but consistency should play a big role in your external traffic efforts. 

Be Concise

Not getting to the point fast enough is one of the biggest mistakes I see in Amazon marketing (really, marketing in general). 

This goes for video content, blogs, emails, ads, you name it. 

Here are a few key pointers to keep things concise, and to the point:

• Focus on the hook. Whether it’s the first 3 seconds of a video, an email subject line, or the first paragraph of a blog; your content’s initial impression is key to engagement. 
• Keep short-form content under 30 seconds, and edit out any pauses or blank spaces. 
• Avoid repetition in content
• Use bullet points and lists to make the material more easily readable 
• Use tools like Grammarly to check for spelling and grammatical errors
• As a general rule, you should communicate using 5th-grade-level words and phrases

That’s a lot, I know. The mantra less is more really comes to mind. 

Repurpose Content 

Repurposing content across platforms is a great way to optimize time 

For example, the beautiful thing about short-form video content is that it can be reused and recycled across different platforms. Nearly every major social media platform allows vertical-style videos, so one video could hypothetically be uploaded across ~10 different websites. 

Additionally, blogs can be turned into video scripts or emails, long-form videos can be cut up into shorter-form content for social media. 

Here’s a few general content strategy tips to get started:

• Make a calendar and try your best to stick to it. 
• Prioritize videos, as they perform the best. 
• Quality Over Quanity: Make sure sure content is value-driven. 

Don’t Pay for Traffic/Clicks

Services exist that allow you to pay for views and subscribers/followers. 

For example, pay X amount for 500 YouTube subscribers and 1,000 watch hours. It’s also possible to pay for website clicks, blog visits, etc. 

But do yourself a favor and don’t take these shortcuts. Social media’s algorithms are advanced, and can flag accounts that it thinks are up to no good. This can be a nightmare if you already have an established following, and rely on those platforms for audience nurturing, 

Avoid it all costs. 

Use Tools

Selling on Amazon is more competitive than ever. At the same time, nearly every business on the planet is fighting for eyeballs and clicks through digital marketing  (which is why you see more ads than acquaintances on your social media feed.) 

So your external traffic efforts can’t be boring. 

Embrace creativity, and don’t be afraid to think outside the box. That said, don’t go about it blindly either. Here’s a handful of trusted resources I use to guide my marketing efforts. 

• Hootsuite’s Blog – This website’s blog/resources page is great for getting inside tips on social media marketing. I especially love their social media experiments feature. 
• VidIQ – This is a great tool for helping with YouTube SEO, as well as title and tag recommendations. 
• Google Trends – See what folks are searching for
• Chat GPT – Amazing for idea generation. I’ve basically started using this as a Google alternative. 
• Reddit – Googling “_________ + Reddit”, and sifting through the first few results gives you valuable insight into the opinions, thoughts, comments, and concerns of actual people (and not just those trying to sell you something). It’s a great learning tool for learning about your target audience. 
• Semrush – Tons of great marketing information here. 
• Canva – Amazing tool for content creation, posters, flyers, and visually appealing resources and presentations. 
• Think Media YouTube Channel – Great all-around resource for creating content
• OneLook Thesaurus – I admit, ChatGPT’s giving this resource a run for its money, but it’s been a standard for years, so it gets an honorable mention; great thesaurus for blog writing and social media captioning. 

This is of course, is just the tip of the iceberg. I’m constantly on the lookout for any tips, tricks, tools, and data that helps create more Amazon sales. 

Keep checking back for future updates! 

How Do I Get Started Selling an Amazon Product?

My Amazon Winners Academy (AWA) mentorship guides you through the entire Amazon FBA process and provides a community of support with others on the same journey. 

You’ll get hands-on support from experienced sellers with your same goals and aspirations. 

AWA gives you a much-needed safeguard from costly mistakes, dead ends, and failed product investments to efficiently reach your passive income goals. 

So whether it’s solving issues with your Seller Central account, creative approaches to product research, scaling to new markets and niches, validating product ideas, customer service issues, and more, we’ve got you covered. 
Learn more about it here.