Appeal to the Human Eye: 3 Overlooked Ways to Optimize Your Products on Amazon

With 300 million users and titled the largest eCommerce company globally, there is no question that Amazon is a force to be reckoned with. However, while most digital companies focus their energy on optimizing for Google, this untapped monster lurks in the background. For all the necessary traffic that Google brings, there is a significant difference between Google and Amazon. The latter focuses more on the customer experience and selling products – a priority most companies should focus on.

“Google has search data, and Facebook knows interest levels, but Amazon has real power because it knows what people are buying and how they’re doing it.”

—Shareen Pathak, Digiday

Google built a search engine so they could sell ads. Amazon created a search engine so they could sell products. Instead of just optimizing for search engines, optimize for the customer experience, helping them find and buy your product. If you have a paid focus on Google, it’s time to reevaluate your spending to include Amazon, with customer experience as the primary goal. Based on a survey of more than 2000+ US customers, 89 percent of buyers agree that they’re more likely to buy products from Amazon than other eCommerce sites. Keeping this in mind, here are three ways to rank higher in Amazon search while helping customers find a great product.

Optimize visual space

As is the case with any product feature, ad, or website page, having engaging visuals is one of the best ways to draw attention (and hopefully purchase).

A rule of thumb is to make sure you have more than one image. Most people visiting your page on Amazon have already decided to purchase a product and are looking for the best option. Having several photos allows them to see details, ensuring confidence in their purchase. On average, it’s a good idea to have five to six photos highlighting your product from various angles.

It’s also essential that you follow all of Amazon’s Product Image Requirements. This includes technical requirements, such as file types and sizes, and standards like what the image can and can’t be off.

Beyond basic guidelines, it’s important to remember basic visual rules when selecting product photos, like:

• Accurate representation
• Utilizing whitespace
• Lighting

Focus on product reviews

Because Amazon is a platform focused on customer satisfaction, product reviews go a long way in either convincing or deterring a buyer from pulling the trigger on purchasing your product. What’s a genuine marketplace without honest reviews from buyers? Amazon ranks its top 100 sellers every month. While five stars are ideal, the goal should be to obtain as many positive reviews as possible while mitigating negative reviews, with four stars minimum. How? Here are a few tips:

• Provide a positive buying experience
• Be honest
• Ask Amazon “Top Reviewers” to review your product
• Sell a great product

Negative reviews are just as important to pay attention to as positive reviews. Just as customers will pay close attention to positive reviews, they will notice negative comments. Several ways to handle a negative review are to:

• Rectify the situation, resulting in a revision or removal of the negative review.
• Petition Amazon to remove the review if it is unfair or untrue.
• Comment on the review publically, addressing the customer dissatisfaction while bringing confidence to potential buyers.
• Respond to questions and concerns within 24 hours. According to Amazon, responding to customer messages within 24 hours can result in 50 percent less negative feedback.
  

Keeping positive reviews up and negative reviews down takes time and constant monitoring. To be successful, you’ll need internal staff focused on this effort or consider hiring a third party, like a digital marketing agency (wink, wink), to help ensure online comments are respected.

Warning: Amazon monitors customer reviews closely to ensure that product manufacturers and sellers aren’t leaving false positive reviews and negative reviews on competitors’ products. 

Promote your product page

Like any other product advertising, a great way to drive internal traffic to your Amazon product pages via Amazon is advertising on social media and Google AdWords. Many sellers use the below strategies to drive traffic:

• Ads on Amazon Listing
• Ads on Pre-Sell Page to Amazon Listing
• Email opt-in ads on squeeze pages that deliver single-use discount codes
• Ads on Product Sales Funnel

Another way to drive traffic is through launch services. Launch services create a “natural” spike in sales that move the product ranking up. Although the rank is not guaranteed to last, the idea is that the product will be more visible for some time, driving demand.

A seemingly obvious way to promote your products is through maintaining a clean, informational, and branded landing page on Amazon. Some ads on Amazon, like Headline Search Ads, direct users to a landing page. This page should have a clear call-to-action, engaging visuals, and clear branding that sticks with a visitor.

As an Amazon seller, you can’t forget who you are selling to humans. Making your product page, including visuals, reviews, and promotions, an excellent experience for customers is the key to successfully engaging buyers on Amazon.

Partner with Pyxl

Amazon is a difficult beast to take on by yourself. Create a well-thought-out eCommerce and Amazon strategy with Pyxl.  Contact us today!

Updated: Jun 06, 2022