Amazon is one of the biggest marketplaces in the world, and it is believed to be the first marketing platform that has introduced an affiliate marketing program (called Amazon Affiliates at the time) to the online community.
Marketing on Amazon encompasses drop-shipping schemes in such verticals as e-commerce, nutra, and digital products. From the affiliates’ perspective, this platform is one of the toughest to conquer because Amazon heavily guards its reputation and employs rigorous testing and approval procedures. In this article, we will take a look at approaches that will help you enter this marketplace and grow a consistent traffic flow.
Amazon Associates
According to Amazon itself, once you have registered with Amazon Associates, you can grab a bunch of affiliate links and start posting them everywhere and make money. The ad formats include text links and banners of different sizes.
You don’t need to be a webmaster or developer to take advantage of our tools. Simply cut-and-paste to link.
The affiliate program has been designed for publishers, blog owners, and content creators in general. Currently, there is a separate affiliate program for influencers. To get started with Amazon Associates, register an account here and wait for the approval.
The payout model is RevShare with a fixed rate that depends on the product category. Here are some basics:
Amazon also has special commissions and bounty events that have different terms, you can check the details out in the guidelines. The campaign flow is relatively simple with this program: the users are not required to finalize the purchase, all they need to do is put the product you promote into their cart within 24 hours after hitting your affiliate link.
Amazon Ads
Amazon also has a DPS (demand-side platform) that allows for promoting offers from outside the marketplace. The available ad formats include display ads, video ads, and audio ads, while the ad placements cover Amazon and IMDb as well as third-party inventory exchanges (web, in-app, and video pre-roll). Your campaign flows can take the users to a pre-lander, a product page, a store, or any third-party website. To get started, you simply need to create an account with Amazon Ads.
There are two options for working with Amazon DSP: self-service and managed. With self-service account, you have total control over your campaigns and pay no extra fees, the managed version comes with a $50,000 minimum spend threshold.
In addition, such Sponsored ads options as Sponsored Products, Brands, and Display ads are available under the CPC payment model, Audio ads — CPM. Pricing of video ads depends on the format.
Amazon Live
Amazon Live is a relatively new option with more engaging ad formats. If you have a store (which you can register on Amazon Ads for free), you can promote products with shoppable livestreams.
These streams are available for users on Amazon, the Amazon app, and on Fire TV. In addition, if you opt for collaborative work with Amazon video team (that comes with a minimum required spend), these ads will also appear on the Amazon home page, event pages, and category pages.
Amazon FBA
The FBA program or Fulfilment by Amazon is a drop-shipping option when you act more like a reseller than an affiliate, even though it is dubbed online arbitrage. With this program, you purchase goods from a third-party and then ship them to Amazon which takes care of the logistics while you run the store and think up the best approaches to listings and creatives. You will also have to communicate with customers, deal with complaints, replenish the stock in time, and yada yada yada.
Amazon Follow
Over the years, Amazon has gradually introduced the Follow feature for authors, stores, and livestreams. Users can hit the Follow Button and receive notifications from your store or Amazon Live. This option increases your visibility and allows taking advantage of deals, special offers, and prime sales without straining your budget with extra ad spend. Moreover, the followers form an already hot slice of the target audience that you can use for more elaborated ad campaigns, for instance for remarketing.
Growing your following has a similar importance to social networks like Instagram, the more followers you have — the better for your marketing activities. The practices that bring new users into your fold can be considered universally applicable.
- Use CTA buttons on the store homepage to let users know about the Follow feature they might have overlooked. It is also a good idea to remind them about following during livestreams if you hold any. Additionally, you can add CTAs to your media gallery, this section traditionally draws much visitor attention.
- Take advantage of Amazon Posts: your subscribers see a varying number of notifications depending on how often you post. Three to five posts per week are optimal for maximum exposure.
- If you concentrate your efforts on running a store alone, consider investing in sponsored ads as well. These will bring more users to your homepage, where you have a better chance of persuading new visitors to become followers.
Takeaway
Amazon is a giant marketplace with vast advertising opportunities. You can find different options of working with this platform: from literally shipping goods to simply posting affiliate links on your blog. The choice is yours. However, bear in mind that Amazon is not about easy money: the marketplace has strict community rules and vets the vendors and marketers thoroughly.
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