increasing your product discoverability on the amazon serp

Increasing Your Product Discoverability on the Amazon

SERP

I nc re as ing Produc t D i s cove rab i l i t y on Amazon the SERP

Logistics

• Submit Questions In the Chat Box to the Right

• Session Recording Will Be Sent Next Week

• More Resources In the Handouts Section to the

Right

T O D AY ’ S S P E A K E R S

Pat PetrielloSenior Marketplace StrategistCPC Strategy

Jeff ColemanDirector, Account ManagementCPC Strategy

OVERVIEW

•Founded in 2007

•Recognized as an Official Google Shopping Partner

•300+ Active Retail Clients

•Top 50 fastest growing company in San Diego 3 years

CLIENTS

About CPC Strategy

SOLUTIONS

• Retail-focused Paid Search (PPC)

• Google Shopping Management

• Shopping Channel Management

• Amazon Sales Acceleration

Pat PetrielloSenior Marketplace Strategist

Former member of Amazon Seller Services Team Former professional seller on Amazon.co.uk, eBay, Buy.com Lead architect for CPC Strategy’s Amazon Sales Acceleration Program Engineered & directed million dollar revenue stream on Amazon

Jeff ColemanDirector of Account Management

7+ years experience in retail search space Oversees the Structured Data Department at CPC Strategy Oversees the CPC Training Program Founded CPC University

(An advanced program dedicated to the education of retail search strategies)

Poll For The Audience…Which describes you best?

A. Third Party Reseller

B. Third Party Brand Manufacturer

C. Vendor to Amazon (Access to Vendor Premium Services)

D. Not currently selling on Amazon

Overview

• Amazon’s Motivations & Goals Positioning Products on the SERP

• What Factors Drive Organic Ranking on Amazon’s SERP

• LIVE Amazon SERP Walkthrough

• Actionable Steps to Increase Product Discoverability

• Live Q&A

Amazon’s Motivations & Goals Positioning Products on the SERP

Amazon A9 Product Search

Amazon’s Goals

- It's Amazon’s goal to be Earth's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything online

- Create the best possible buying experience for their customers

- Surface the most relevant and thoroughly vetted products on the SERP

- Optimize Amazon.com for conversion

- Customer-centric = Seller agnostic

- Build consumer trust

Source: http://www.amazon.jobs/


If You’ve Done a Search on Amazon, You’ve Used the A9 Product Search Engine

[Amazon’s] work starts long before a customer types a query. We've been analyzing data, observing past traffic patterns, and indexing the text describing every product in our catalog before the customer has even decided to search.”

Source: http://www.a9.com/whatwedo/product-search/


Understanding the Customer

The better [Amazon] understands the meaning of a query, the better we can help customers find the products they want. So we focus on the words and the intent behind those words. When a customer tells us they are looking for "Harry Potter in books", we distinguish in their query the title: "Harry Potter" from the category information: "in books".



Results and Ranking

One of A9's tenets is that relevance is in the eye of the customer and [Amazon] strives to get the best results for our users. Once we determine which items are good matches to the customer’s query, our ranking algorithms score them to present the most relevant results to the user.

Our ranking algorithms automatically learn to combine multiple relevance features. Our catalog’s structured data provides us with many such relevance features and we learn from past search patterns and adapt to what is important to our customers.


Factors Driving Organic Ranking on Amazon’s SERP

Factors Driving the Amazon SERP

Conversion Factors

- Price- Fulfillment Method- Reviews- Sponsored Products- Parent-Child relationship- Product Images- Product Titles- Product Bullet Points- Product Descriptions

Factors such as degree of text match, price, availability, selection, and sales history help determine where your product appears in a customer's search results.

Relevance Factors

- Product Titles- Product Search Terms- Product Bullet Points- Product Descriptions- Brand- MPN / Product ID

Source: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/10471/ref=pt_10471_cont_30081


Action Item

You don’t want to “race to the bottom”, but price does have a direct impact on where products show up in the SERP. Focus on your most important products and your top target search queries to identify how the price of your product compares to competing products. Consider a temporary sale to reduce the price and measure how it impacts your product ranking.

Conversion Factors


Relevance Factors



Action Item

Products that are offered via Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) tend to rank higher than those which are merchant fulfilled. Make sure your best selling ASINs have FBA inventory and are not at risk for stocking out. Be proactive to ensure you don’t have gaps in inventory coverage.

Conversion Factors


Relevance Factors



Action ItemProducts with positive (4-5 star) and a high volume of customer reviews relative to competing products will rank higher than those with low quality and low volume reviews. Use feedback solicitation tools such as Feedback Genius and Snagshout to increase the volume of reviews.

Focus on your most important products and your top target search queries, use the average number of reviews from your competitor products as a baseline.

Conversion Factors


Relevance Factors



Action Item

Sponsored products are one the most powerful tools on Amazon for driving incremental sessions and sales. Make sure that 100% of your products are included in at least one sponsored products campaign, that you are leveraging both automatic and manual campaigns, and that you are bidding on the search queries which are most important.

Conversion Factors


Relevance Factors



Action Item

When variations of a parent product (ex: size, color) are linked together, they will get found more often and generate more sales than if each variation is separate. If you have products which are variations, make sure to group them together using a parent-child relationship. When a shopper finds one product in the family, they’ll find the whole family.

Conversion Factors


Relevance Factors



Action Item

Zoomable images have proven to enhance sales. Images must be at 1,000 pixels or larger in either height or width to enable zoom functionality. Multiple high quality images give shoppers the confidence to make a purchase decision and proceed to checkout. Make sure you have zoomable images and multiple images for each product you are selling.

Conversion Factors


Relevance Factors



Action Item

Each individual word in the Product Name (Title) is searchable on its own, meaning a concise and relevant title will drive traffic to your product. Make sure to include the brand, material, size, color, product type, and descriptive keywords in your product title for all of your products. Optimal title lengths are between 80 and 100 characters, although this does vary by category, and are being policed more aggressively by Amazon.

Conversion Factors


Relevance Factors



Action Item

Information provided in the product feature bullet points are searchable by customers. You have a 500 character maximum length for bullet points. Make sure your bullet points are detail rich, include keywords you want to rank for, and highlight crucial product features to give customers the confidence to make a purchase decision. Be certain your bullet points are describing the product and are not seller specific.

Conversion Factors


Relevance Factors



Conversion Factors


Action Item

Information provided in the product description is searchable by customers. You have 2000 characters to enter rich product detail to differentiate your product from competitor products. Make sure you are fully leveraging the product description field for each of your products to provide in-depth details about each of your products. The more rich your descriptions, the better your products will convert.

Relevance Factors



Conversion Factors


Relevance Factors


Action Item

Product search terms do not appear on product detail pages but are indexed for search by Amazon. Sellers have 5 fields of 50 characters each, or 250 characters total worth of search terms. Many Sellers aren’t fully utilizing all of their search term space, make sure that you are. The best search terms are synonyms and common abbreviations customers might enter into the search box. You should also be using your sponsored product campaign data to inform the selection of keywords.


Conversion Factors


Action Item

The brand of our product is indexed for search by A9. Many customers are looking for specific brands when they are searching for a product on Amazon. Make sure that you have accurate and properly spelled brand names for all of your products as this will help products get found more through both search and browse. You should also include your brand as the first word in your product title.

Relevance Factors



Conversion Factors


Action Item

A products’ manufacturer part number (MPN) and product ID (UPC, EAN, or ISBN) are indexed for search by Amazon. In verticals such as electronics, automotive, computers, and appliances, it is common for customer to search for specific MPNs or UPCs. Make sure you have added the MPNs and product IDs for all of your products which have them to make sure you are relevant for these searches.

Relevance Factors


LIVE Amazon SERP Walkthrough

SERP Walkthrough

SERP Walkthrough

- Example: “High Protein Dog Food” SERP

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=high+protein+dog+food&rh=i:aps,k:high+protein+dog+foodhttp://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=high+protein+dog+food&rh=i:aps,k:high+protein+dog+food

SERP Walkthrough

Key Takeaways

- There is no one silver bullet factor for ranking high on the Amazon SERP

- Pick specific search query targets to go after

- Best seller rank and organic search rank are different, BSR ranks products by Amazon category, organic search rank is by search query

- Organic search rank is always changing, it’s not a one time optimization

- It's Amazon’s goal to be Earth's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything online

Live Q&ASubmit your questions in the chat box on the right

cpcstrategy.com/amazon-evaluation

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Pat PetrielloSenior Marketplace StrategistCPC Strategy

Jeff ColemanDirector, Account ManagementCPC Strategy