I see a mistake in the Amazon FBA world that keeps happening & happening…
It is causing people to waste thousands and thousands, and if you fall into the same trap you could destroy your Amazon business before it really even starts.
This mistake is not correctly understanding how to use Amazon PPC (Pay Per Click Advertising) while first starting your product, and not knowing what ACTUALLY makes product launching successful.
As we know, Amazon PPC can be a great tool to help us get our first initial traffic and sales for our product when going live on the platform.
Where people get it wrong is when they think Amazon PPC is the be all, end all, of launching your product.
With common thoughts like “If I just master PPC (Amazon Ads), I will run a profitable Amazon business.”
In reality and for most cases, this is not true.
When most start their PPC campaigns they end up keeping them on for wayyy too long and waste so much money trying to make their product launch successful.
Below, I am going to tell you a better way to go about PPC and launching your products so you don’t have to blow thousands of dollars and make Jeff Bezos even richer.
That way you don’t have to obsess over every little thing in your campaigns, micro-manage your launch, and have to keep tweaking every thing because nothing is working.
The 1st thing we will talk about is how you can use PPC the right way.
Then 2nd, I am going to show you the other methods to launch your product, as they will be used in tandem with your PPC to make it even more successful OR replace PPC all together if it is just burning your money away.
So the first thing you need to know is…
PPC is just a tool.
That is all it is.
It isn’t a lifeline to your product sales and it shouldn’t be seen as that.
Okay, just like any tool…if the user of the tool sucks then it won’t work…
For example, if I keep pounding my finger with a hammer and missing the nail…is that because the hammer isn’t working? No, it’s me the user and that I suck, not the tool.
So in this case the user is your product…and if your product sucks..the tool is not going to work.
Make sense, so far?
Quick Recap: Amazon PPC (Pay per click) is a tool. If the user of the tool (your product) sucks, the tool will not have a chance.
If you know this, the best thing you can do is to understand what makes your product suck, and then avoid those things to have the edge with Amazon PPC.
Now, let’s talk about 2 reasons how Amazon products can suck:
1. Product & Supplier
- In a bad market or niche
- Blends in with all other products in that niche
- Provides no extra value or the wrong type of value for that consumer
2. Listing Assets
- Title lacks SEO & Correct Framing
- Bullets, Product Description, A+ Content are not strong enough copy to get the consumer to take action
- Photos are low quality and do not show proper benefits
- No reviews or low review rating
- Price point is off
If your product fits into 1 or more of these categories, you will be at a disadvantage with PPC and the tool will not work 100% efficiently…
For example, if you fit into the product & supplier category of sucking, then the market you are in won’t have enough demand or you will not stand out vs the competitors.
Same thing for listing assets, if your product is higher priced, has terrible photos, title is clunky, and you have no reviews WHILE there is another competitor that is lower priced, good photos, title is smooth, and has good number of reviews…who’s ad is the customer going to click on? Exactly.
So if your PPC isn’t working you need to look at all those first…
Next, since PPC is a tool…you need to identify your goal for that tool.
Just like a hammer it can pound a nail into the wall, it can also remove a nail from the wall. It has different functions depending on your goal!
In my head PPC can have 2 different goals…
1st Goal: Profit (10-20% ACOS)
You get here when your product is well established. If you have 300 reviews, your listing is awesome, and your product fits the market, this will be easily achievable.
2nd Goal:
Which is where most fit into at first…
Launching
Where you are using PPC, to get your first sales, get initial ranking on keywords, and to ultimately get reviews (to build up your listing assets).
For this goal you could be in the 40-100% ACOS range.
*ACOS means Average Cost of Sale. This is a standard measurement of how much money you are spending on ads vs how much in sales you have with those ads. [ Ad Cost / Ad Revenue * 100% = ACOS ]
You will be in this range because you will have very low reviews & keyword rankings.
Now you may be saying, Camron…what the heck man. I don’t want to spend $10 in ads to get a $10 dollar sale (100% ACOS), I will lose money that way!
That is true, you will most likely lose money on every sale during this time.
BUT, I see this as an investment for sales and then ultimately reviews.
As I keep skyrocketing my sales and reviews, PPC will just get cheaper and cheaper, because the more reviews I have, the higher conversion rate on my listing.
Plus, the more sales I have, the higher I will rank organically, thus I get more full price sales with 100% margin. Which is the goal of launching your Amazon product and where we have a real business that can pay us out.
You see how this turns into a giant flywheel over time??
Understanding these 2 different goals will help you plan much better budget wise for PPC, and frankly, help you sleep better at night.
If you know you are gonna be unprofitable then you will probably feel less crappy about it when it happens and know that this is an investment for the long term.
That covers the 1st Part on how to use PPC the right way.
Next week I will move on to part 2, where I am going to show you the other methods to launch your product, as they can be used in tandem with your PPC OR replace PPC all together if you don’t want to use it!
Stay tuned, and I hope you enjoyed Part 1.
