How can a winning optimization campaign help you to improve your Amazon ranking position?

Amazon is the world's largest online retailing platform. When most users search on Amazon, they think they are buying from Amazon. However, the third-party sellers on Amazon retail more than 45% of all inventory. It means that a lot of ecommerce sellers can raise their fortune on Amazon or use as an additional marketplace for their brands.  

Each Amazon seller desire to attract more shoppers and make them paying customers. However, it can be rather complicated especially in a condition of high competition which is provided on Amazon. That is why sellers are looking for the tips and tricks to improve their Amazon rank and boost sales. 

Amazon optimization campaign encompasses more than just listing improvement. As the Amazon A9 ranking algorithm assumes factors outside your listing text such as click-through rate and conversion, you also need to include these factors as well as keyword research and their correct placement into your Amazon optimization campaign. 

In this article, I will explain you how can you improve your Amazon rank to raise conversion and click-through rate of your Amazon products. 

Amazon SEO basics

The first thing you should remember about Amazon SEO is that all about increasing purchase likelihood of potential customers. It serves to make customers, as well as sellers, bring revenue to Amazon system. What comes to Amazon SEO, everything is simple and clear. All users who come to Amazon have a buying intent and want to buy the proposed inventory. In their term sellers wish to sell their stuff, preferably in bulk and at a high price. Amazon wants to get a high revenue from it in the form of sales commissions. Everything you need is to play by Amazon’s A9 algorithm rules if you're going to boost your ranking positions and make your inventory visible for Amazon sellers. 

To determine a product rank, Amazon takes into account two primary groups of factors:

• Performance factors

Performance factors show how popular a product has been so far with customers. This factor takes into account such metrics as CTR (click-through rate), conversion, and overall sales. 

A conversion rate is a metric that shows the quality of product presentation. It takes into account the quality of uploading images, the descriptiveness and relevance of bullet points, and description, as well as the number of organic reviews. 

Click-through rate (CTR) is more about product conditions. It takes into account title relevance and optimization, pricing policy including FBA, (free shipping), Best Seller rank, and Amazon Choice label. Click through rate is determined on a keyword basis, so comprehensive keyword research can positively affect CTR. 

• Relevance factors

Relevance factor shows how a product description matches user’s query. It is mainly calculated by keyword usage and positioning. Factors you should think over to increase your Amazon relevance include selection, location, and matching degree.

Ways to improve your products click-through rate

 Amazon products are not measured according to one universal CTR, but each search term has its own ranking. That is why CTR is always explicitly determined for search terms and rankings for these search terms. A high click-through rate for a particular search term implies better rankings of a product. 

As I have mentioned before factors that have an impact on CTR, include title, pricing policy, and Amazon Best Seller rank. Let us have a closer look at these aspects and learn how to improve them. 

• Title and brand

Product title is the first thing customers may observe in a search. Reading product title, they decide whether they need to click on listing to get more detailed, or should return to the search. Product title serves to provide customers with valuable information that can't be seen immediately in the picture. That is why you need to make sure your title includes a lot of targeted search terms as well as relevant information about your product, not your company, or vendor.

• Pricing policy including FBA

You should keep your Amazon price competitive and in balance with other niche seller proposals. The lowest price does not always mean that you will win a lot of sales. It may look unbelievable, mainly if you are selling on a competitive market where other merchants sell 2X higher than you. Most customers connect high price with a connotation of high quality. That is why you need to have an average selling price on your products with (10% and 25%) discounts. Moreover, it is always reasonable to provide your customers with free and fast shipping using Amazon Prime or FBA services. 

• Ways to boost your conversion rate

A conversion rate is calculated on an individual keyword basis. You can get a clear percent of your products conversion rate by dividing the number of shoppers who purchase by the number of product page visitors. The higher conversion rate you have, the higher purchase likelihood of your products. If you have a high bounce rate (it is when shoppers click on your page, spend here less than a minute and click away without making a purchase), Amazon ranking algorithm will notice it and start ranking your products lower for these search terms. 

Factors that affect Amazon optimization and raise your product's conversion rate include:

• Images

Product images are especially important on e-commerce platforms where users cannot check the selling products in reality. That is why images serve as a significant deciding factor, raising product click-through rate and cause conversion. Remember that images are huge influencers on customer decision to buy. That's why they should be bright, quality and relevant. Amazon allows sellers to upload up to seven different images. Do not lose your additional opportunities to sell, and upload as many pictures as you can. Make sure you follow Amazon image optimization guidelines to make your photographs more relevant and well-ranking. Have at least several images with a decent resolution to enable zoom function, and at least three lifestyle pictures to show customers how they can use your inventory. If you can’t depict your product’s benefits in the picture, including some short writing on your image to make things clear for your shoppers.  

• Reviews and feedbacks

Amazon reviews are essential for your products boosting. In our days, product reviews are not used for Amazon optimization like they were. All incentivized and spammy reviews are forbidden. When generating not organic reviews, sellers are risking to lose their ranking position or even be removed from search. However, organic reviews are still a valuable part of Amazon optimization as they can improve product conversion rate. Moreover, reviews serve as a public prove of products quality. Before making a purchase, customers skim through reviews section to check what other shoppers think over the quality and relevance of the specific item. That is why the number of negative reviews should be reduced to the minimum. If some negative feedbacks appear on your product page, you should respond them immediately to minimize the effect of “scaring away” your future customers. 

• Bullets

Amazon bullet points is a list of your product primary features and benefits. It is essential to strategically include your search terms into your bullets to make them well-converted. It is reasonable to keep your bullets between two and three lines each not to make them too overloaded. Moreover, you can use HTML formatting to make your bullets separate and attractive.

• Sales

Amazon uses sales as a performance indicator, that is why they also affect your product ranking position. The more frequently you sale your products on Amazon, the more popular your brand seems to your customers. Amazon ranks higher those products that have more sales as they have higher purchase likelihood and may bring more revenue to Amazon in future. In other words, Amazon ranking system serves like a self-perpetuating loop where higher-ranked items sell better attracting more and more converted traffic. 

Those Amazon sellers who recently established their business on this competitive ecommerce platform may feel frustrated toward how they can increase their ranking position if they do not have any sales. Fortunately, Amazon optimization measures in this case. To raise your purchase likelihood, you need to focus on promotional giveaways, deals with discounts, and running pay-per-click advertising.  

The most proven way to boost your sales is to win Amazon Buy Box. Whenever a shopper conducts research, several results come up. When a seller clicks on one of the search results, the page that comes up is the Buy Box. 

According to industry figures, more than 78% of all deals are made through the Buy Box. That is why it is your chance to raise your conversion and improve brand awareness. An effective way to win Amazon Buy Box is to provide the lowest price on your inventory including shipping fee. If your product description page is well optimized and you have the lowest price on the market, your stock will go in the Buy Box ahead of other competitive sellers. 

Moreover, you can win Amazon Buy Box providing your potential customers with something unique that no one else can offer. Since you are the only seller in your niche, you will have the Buy Box every time. It works when you are selling your private label products. 

And finally, to win Amazon Buy Box, you can use a bundling policy to create your unique items or sets of items. If you want to stand out from the crowd of your niche competitors, you should think of creative ways to create a unique product bundle. It will help you to win the Buy Box every time your potential customers insert the right queries in Amazon search box. You can also combine different items to create one unique product. However, you should be aware that media items cannot be combined into a bundle.