How do Amazon choose the products they highlight? (and how to get yours to the front of the queue)
On 11 October, Amazon updated the factors they use to identify which products buyers might be most interested in.
As always when change is afoot, now’s a great time to revisit your listings and give them any tweaks they need to boost their prospects against your competition – so join us on a mini-dive into the ins and outs of Amazon product visibility.
About Amazon Product Visibility in 100 words or less…
There are lots of ways that customers discover and shop for products on the marketplace, including:
- Specific search box queries
- General search box queries
- Browsing selections in each department
- Browsing similar products grouped together
- “You might also like” suggestions in product listings
- “Most wished for” highlights in section headings
- Through Amazon ads
- Alexa/voice shopping
- Looking for a Google comparison/ price comparison (other search engines available)
And there are lots of ways that Amazon can give your product visibility, including:
- Featured Offers
- Featured Results
- Badges (e.g. Amazon’s Choice, Best Seller, Deal of the Day)
- Sponsored Brands
- Sponsored Products
So how do you get to the front of the Product Visibility queue?
Some of the factors that Amazon bases its decision on are tied to sales volume and past performance – good news for established listings, not so good for new brands and challengers entering a sector.
But what everyone can do is to make sure to play their best Amazon A Game.
To be in with a chance of a boost, Amazon says you should:
- Price competitively
- Manage your stock efficiently to enable quick shipments
- Fully optimise your product listings to provide as much accurate, relevant and up-to-date information about your product as possible.
We would add strong reviews and positive customer service too.
These best practice principles won’t just give your product/s a chance to be featured now, they’ll build a brilliant foundation for your brand to move forward and achieve growth on Amazon for years to come.
Our experts can help you hit your Amazon A Game, all of the time. Click here to chat.
How *might* Amazon highlight your products? We count the ways…
The ways that Amazon can boost your products’ visibility are many and varied. Join us as we take a quick look at some of the most effective, including our expert advice on maximising your chances to feature…
Featured Offers
There can be one, multiple or no Featured Offers for a product – and first, you need to be eligible, with a professional selling account, a valid tax ID, a good record of on-time fulfilment and customer service and good Account Health with Amazon.
From this pool, Amazon then chooses its Featured Offers based on factors that include your pricing, delivery speed and seller performance – so it pays to be competitive on all fronts.
Featured Results
Amazon’s algorithm is always looking to serve the best product for the search – so they choose which to showcase based on two key elements:
- Past customer action (how often someone’s bought your item in the past)
- Keywords and search-relevant information in your listing
Here, while strong historic sales can stand long-term listings in good stead, newer products have a good chance of featuring if the listing is optimised to the highest standard.
Again, a strong reviews collection strategy is a must from the date you hit publish – a rising, high-star review count is a great positive for your listing.
Our optimisation experts can take your products’ potential to all new heights – get in touch today
Easy-win badges
There are some badges a brand can gain from program participation, from the obvious Prime badges to initiatives like the Small Business and Climate Pledge Friendly badges.
Our experts suggest that, if your products are eligible, these easy wins are a must.
Deals and Promotions Badges
- For Lightning Deals, Amazon will favour top-performing listings with strong reviews, good conversion rates and high rankings.
Our experts’ advice?
Don’t promote anything with less than 4 stars, make the deal good enough but not too good (you don’t want buyers to question the normal price!) and make sure your margins stay strong – your discounted listing should be something that usually sells close to MSRP with wiggle room for reduction.
- “Amazon’s Choice” is awarded to top-rated, competitively priced items that are in stock for immediate shipment
- 7-day deals will receive a “Limited time deal” badge in the search results – a great visual urgency trigger
- Deal of the Day is a bit tougher. Brands are invited to submit a deal with no guarantees and deals are chosen by Amazon’s own team. Ensuring best practices and consistently strong sales are important factors to put your listings in the running for this prominent promotion.
- And, last but not least in our list, the coveted “Best Seller” badge…
Primarily based on sales volume, Best Seller can seem out of reach for newer listings – but it’s not always so.
Amazon does consider sales both recent and historical, so your strongest performers could still be in with a chance.
Again though, it’s Amazon’s pick, so from a Seller or Vendor point of view, the best thing to do is just stick to your Amazon A game all the time.
“Help! We need expert guidance to hit our Amazon A Game!”
Arbitrary Highlighting
Because Amazon showcase the products it thinks a customer might be interested in, there are a number of more arbitrary highlights your listings can achieve, including:
- If your product is related to a product being viewed
- If your product is relevant to a season, or occasion (like Halloween or Back to School)
- If you’ve got strong reviews, you might win “Customer’s Most Loved”
Here, a good keyword strategy is a great way to make sure that Amazon can pick your listing out and show it against other searches when relevant.
Paid-for Highlighting
And, as with any good e-comm strategy, all those organic efforts can and should be supported by a smart ads strategy that targets all your brand’s key objectives.
When it comes to product visibility, although clearly labelled as ads, the clever placement of Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Product ads means that buyers often click and engage on these listings.
How do Amazon choose which ads to highlight?
They look at:
- The keywords you’ve bid on
- The amount of your bid
- Anticipated interest, based on information about your offer, similarities between your offer and other brands and historical sales.
Put yourself at the front of the ads queue with our expert Amazon Ads guidance – click here to speak to the team
The Shape of the Homes Sector on Amazon
Home shoppers looking for more, for less have been heading to Amazon in droves for a while, but there’s no doubt that this dynamic sector can be a cut-throat environment.
The biggest sector on Amazon, low barriers to entry mean that there’s high competition in almost all sub-categories – but all is not lost!
Prepping our latest Insights piece, we found lots of niche opportunities waiting to be grasped for new entrants – plus some key optimisations that many are missing, but which will reap rewards for more established players.
Head over to our blog to learn more, including a deeper dive into three subcategories with promise for profits, versatility and growth potential!
Want to put the insights on offer into action for your brand? Get in touch with the team!
Running Podcast Ads on Amazon DSP? Better targeting is here…
And not a minute too soon! Make better use of your Podcast Ads budget with these new options…
Amazon has announced it’s offering Amazon Audiences in the UK and Europe, bringing simpler demographic and location-based targeting to advertisers in the region.
What options are coming?
- Demographic targeting based on factors like age range and gender
- Location targeting, allowing brands to better focus on building their presences in selected localities
- Preference targeting which allows brands to target listeners based on their podcast listening preferences (genres and categories)
And when will they be available?
You should be able to access these new options for the UK and Europe right now!
Want to explore how best to maximise any of these opportunities for your Amazon business?
