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Real People, Real Results: Why authenticity trumps AI on TikTok, Instagram, and beyond
Is the Cohley blog becoming a broken record? “COVID-19 accelerated buyer trends 2-5 years…” and the new shopping habits are around for the long haul. We are shopping online, demanding social proof, and demanding video. Even the major online retailers are experiencing a shift. Where traffic once originated on Google, now 56% of US adults now go straight to the source and ‘search’ on Amazon. This results in 78% of Amazon shopping queries starting without a brand name.
The best way to show up organically is to ensure that you’re driving traffic to your product page or brand store. The Amazon algorithm will pick up when TikTok (or another platform) is driving traffic to your page, and will rank your page higher based on these visits. Lacking Amazon traffic? With this new buyer behavior, it’s more important than ever to ‘play the game.’ That’s the ‘pay to play’ game, unfortunately. Amazon has Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Products, Sponsored Display, and soon to be Sponsored Posts. Amazon loads 10 to 15 sponsored products per page, and you have to bid to show up. That’s bidding on keywords, your competitor’s brand name, and most importantly your brand name. This ensures that you don’t lose out on the buyer once you finally get them to your product page. Keep the competition off with a product targeting campaign, and bid accordingly.
Another way to drive traffic to your PDP? Amazon Posts are still in their infancy on the site, but are increasingly showing up in Inspire (Amazon’s newest social shopping feature on mobile) and search results. Amazon recommends tagging at least 3 products per Post and to add at least 10 Posts per month. Posts also give the added benefit of asking shoppers to ‘follow’ your brand. Followers get emails for new product launches and you’re then more likely to show up through the buyer journey. Cohley just unlocked Video Posts for a handful of brands, and early results are extremely promising:
Whether shoppers got to your page via organic search or paid media, you don’t want to lose them. The first step is to make sure that your page is ready. Why spend money to advertise if it’s not going to convert? The readiness factor looks at three key items:
More reviews = more traffic. Another win for organic growth. What’s important on Amazon is consistent with Cohley’s 5 KPIs. Shoppers need reviews in the last 3 to 6 months for recency, at least 20 reviews, and a 4 star average is ideal. Each product page has an entire section of products that are 4 stars and above. That is your chance to steal brand share!
Amazon differs from other retailers when it comes to review generation as they are not a part of any review syndication network. Brands must rely on direct purchases from Amazon to get their products reviewed. This can be challenging for a new product launch as how do you get your first handful of purchases if you have 0 reviews? This is where content shines. Use your video and images to sell your product and help you stand out amongst the competition.
Other real estate on your listing that is accessible by the competition? The video carousel:
With at least 5 videos tagged to your product, shoppers will have to scroll before clicking off your product page to a competitor. Videos can be added by you, Amazon influencers, shoppers, or even Cohley! Highlights should be educational. These are hooks that are performing well on your social media as well as your marketing materials. A Cohley Customer Success Manager, Sofia Salinas, explains to her brands that “giving them the content they need right on the Amazon PDP avoids them leaving to go find more reviews or competitors.” Just be sure to remember that you haven’t won this customer yet - video #1 should not be the assembly video but instead focus on why this product will be game changing for the shopper. While reviews can highlight a product is ‘easy to build’, the video should focus on why I should purchase - not a demonstration on how to build it (post purchase).
And finally, the images. The hero image drives the overall CTR and is what helps the product stand out amongst the competition. Amazon still requests for the main image to have a white background, but make sure the product fills the frame, is vibrant, shows depth, and ideally confirms that the product is what the user searched. For the secondary images, test various UGC to see what resonates best with your shopper and optimize it to match the current season. While we recommend adding at least 7 based on Helium’s Listing Quality Score analysis, companies have reported a 38% increase in conversion when optimizing the page from 5 to 10 images.
Looking to work with Amazon Influencers or to create content specifically for Amazon? Cohley is here to guide the way.