Amazon is working on two exciting programs that will make it easier than ever to incorporate influencer marketing into your Amazon marketing strategy: Amazon’s Influencer Program and Amazon’s Attribution Program. These services provide a means to track and attribute influencers impact on brand awareness and sales.
Amazon’s Influencer Program
The Influencer Program is an expansion of Amazon’s Affiliate Program. Available since 2017, it allows individuals with large followings and strong engagement on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube to create personalized storefronts on Amazon.
“With the Influencer Program, you get your own page on Amazon with a URL to showcase the products you recommend to your followers. This gives you an additional way to direct traffic to Amazon, which is especially useful where hyperlinking isn’t possible (e.g. Instagram captions or video content.)”
– Amazon Influencer Program FAQ
Examples of Current Influencer Storefronts:
As you can see in the examples above, each influencer storefront has a vanity URL – amazon.com/shop/influencername.
The vanity URL allows influencers to direct traffic to their storefronts. Any product listing navigated to through the influencer storefront has a unique tag attached to the URL, which is used to attribute page views, sessions, and sales.
Currently, the storefront customization is fairly limited, but per AdExchanger, Amazon is currently working on a means for influencers to import content from their social media pages to the storefront, creating an aesthetically rich, personable experience. You can read more about crafting great personalized experiences in our blog post on behavioral economics applied to marketing.
Benefits of Influencer Storefronts
The influencer storefront is a mutually beneficial feature for influencers and their brand partners. For brands, the ability to attribute traffic and sales allows them to measure the results of their influencer marketing dollars, which was previously quite difficult.
For influencers, the storefronts allow them to provide a curated selection of products for their followers, reinforcing the personalization that draws their audiences to them. Influencers attract followers because people like their personality and put stock in their opinions. The storefront provides a convenient, centralized location for influencers’ followers to view the products that they’re willing to put their weight (and name) behind.
Amazon Attribution Program
The second of the two programs that will enhance social media marketing is Amazon’s Attribution Program. Currently in beta, the Attribution Program allows US brands enrolled in Brand Registry to utilize a cross-device, 14 day, last-touch attribution system for promotions on non-Amazon sites.
That’s a mouthful, so let’s break it apart.
Attribution for Off-Amazon Promotions
Starting with the last part, “promotions on non-Amazon sites:” The Attribution Program allows brands to create unique tags for each of their off-Amazon marketing promotions. The tags can be for campaigns, products, ad-groups, keywords, channels, or any combination of them.
Once a tag is created, brands attach it to a link for their product listing or brand store. When this link + tag is used in its respective promotion, brands can isolate the results driven from each promotion.
For example, a brand could create a tag for a giveaway hosted on their Instagram, then create a separate tag for the same giveaway hosted on their Facebook. Even though the link might be identical, the tags differ, allowing brands to isolate attribution.
Cross Device Tracking
“Cross-device” means that the program will track a shopper’s journey across multiple devices. If a shopper clicks a Facebook ad while on their phone, then purchases the advertised product two days later from their laptop, Amazon will attribute the sale to the mobile Facebook ad. Pretty neat.
14-Day Window
If a shopper clicks a link that has been tagged through the Attribution program, Amazon will attribute any page views, purchases, or sales to that promotion if it occurs in the next 14 days.
Last-Touch Attribution
The caveat to the 14-day window is that Amazon attributes page views, purchases, and sales to the point of last touch. If a shopper clicks Ad #1, then a day later clicks Ad #2, then a week later makes a purchase, Amazon will attribute the sale only to Ad #2 because it was the most recent point of contact.
According to an Amazon spokesperson, Amazon will still attribute the sale to the last-touch promotion regardless of whether the sale occurs through the brand store or through the product listing and vice versa. If a promotion links to a listing, but the customer converts in the brand store, Amazon would still attribute the sale.
The spokesperson also states that in 2020, Amazon hopes to move to a multi-touch attribution system.
Influencer Marketing Potential
Influencer marketing has been building momentum for years. With Amazon accounting for 38% of online sales in the US, these efforts to enable a data-driven approach are big news for the industry.
Kaspien has utilized influencer marketing to drive Amazon sales for over two years. You can view the results of our services in our Influencer Marketing Overview.
We can run influencer marketing on your behalf as your retail or agency partner. Get in touch with us to start utilizing our service.
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