All ecommerce sellers recognize the importance of placement on Amazon’s search results page. But recognizing the importance and understanding the factors behind a product’s placement are two very different things.
In ecommerce, the factors that determine a product’s placement are summarized in the word “relevancy.” A product with high relevancy is much more likely to place on the first page of the search results. Some factors are entirely in a brand’s control, while others require time or resources that can be obtained through a trusted partner.
What Factors Influence Relevancy?
Sales Velocity
When your product sells well, Amazon’s algorithm determines that the product is relevant for shoppers. The faster you sell, the higher up the SERP you’ll move.
How do you increase sales velocity?
Marketing. When executed well, marketing creates a cycle: it increases visibility and drives traffic to listings, where shoppers convert. As more shoppers convert, sales velocity increases, which boosts organic visibility. Soon enough, it creates a snowball effect, growing your sales and accelerating your velocity.
The best marketing strategies connect your brand to consumers at multiple touch points, on and off Amazon. At Kaspien, we use social media marketing and influencer campaigns to reach shoppers where they’re already at. Once we’ve attracted shoppers to Amazon, we use sponsored product ads and sponsored brand ads to capture on-platform shoppers’ attention, boosting your products’ visibility and drawing shoppers into listings. In the final stage, we rely on top-notch images, product videos, enhanced content, and persuasive copy to convert browsers into buyers.
An impactful marketing strategy requires coordinating efforts and actionable data. Reach out to learn how Kaspien can help you revamp your Amazon marketing strategy.
Seller History
A seller’s size, age, and seller rating are all significant factors in how Amazon’s algorithm prioritizes placement. A household name brand that has been on Amazon for the last decade has a distinct advantage over a seller whose been on Amazon for half that time. If a seller with a strong pedigree launches a new product on Amazon, that new product is likely to place pages ahead of a similar product introduced by a mom and pop business that just launched on Amazon.
For a newer or smaller brand, heritage represents a significant disadvantage when competing against established brands. To negate that disadvantage, new brands must work extra hard to improve their organic placement (where you place without the use of sponsored ads).
The takeaway here is that working with an established seller that has a high seller rating can be an enormous advantage for smaller or younger brands. In Kaspien’s 11+ years of selling on Amazon, we’ve earned over 670,000 seller reviews, with a lifetime average rating of 99% positive. Get in touch today to partner with Kaspien and enjoy the benefits of our seller history.
Keyword Relevancy and Density
As a customer-centric platform, Amazon strives to place the most relevant products in front of shoppers, and it does that by using keyword relevancy. Amazon’s algorithm audits each listing within the category, using frontend and backend keywords to assess how likely your product is to match the shopper’s interests. The more keywords in your listing associated to the product or features described in the shopper’s search query, the higher your listing will place on the SERP.
Naturally, this mechanism leads some sellers to pack their listings with keywords, writing listing titles, bullet points, and product descriptions that are nonsensical strings of keywords.
While keyword packing is not penalized by Amazon’s search algorithm (yet), shoppers organically penalize such strategies. When a shopper clicks into a listing, they’re looking for information about the product before they’ll commit to purchasing. If they cannot find the information they need within the photography or copy, they’ll back out and view other products.
As a best practice for driving higher conversions, keep the customer top of mind, and then edit the copy to include keywords. From numerous tests, we’ve found that Amazon weights the title and bullets the heaviest within their A9 search algorithm, followed by the product description. A+ Detail pages and EBC pages are not currently indexed by Amazon.
Customer Reviews
The number and rating of customer reviews can affect your SERP placement. This factor is especially significant for products new to Amazon because they need help gaining traction. We advise enrolling in Amazon’s Early Reviewer Program. At a rate of $60/ASIN (variation listings count as one), Amazon will randomly select consumers who have purchased the product and offers them a small credit to their Amazon account if they leave an honest customer review. Only listings with fewer than five customer reviews are eligible for enrollment. The program lasts for one year or until five new reviews are generated.
While there is no way to guarantee positive reviews, one of the best methods to prevent negative customer reviews is by providing accurate product information through images and copy. If you can set accurate customer expectations at the start, you’re less likely to have customers who feel misled and write negative reviews.
Learn More
If you want to learn more about Amazon strategies, download our free whitepaper, The State of Amazon Marketing. If you have any questions, drop us a line through our contact form.
