A successful product launch on Amazon is not easy. At the beginning, you have no sales and also no reviews on your product, which leads to a poor ranking. But without a good ranking, you won't get sales and reviews either. You really need to break out of this vicious cycle for your product launch to be successful on Amazon. Here you can see one way to do this:
In this article, we will explain to you what is important for a product launch, what you absolutely have to consider and how to ensure that your launch will be a success.
A quick warning in advance: When you launch a new product on Amazon, it is normal that you make some losses at the beginning and that the product is not profitable right away. At the beginning, it is important to improve the ranking - profitability and returns will come afterwards.
Amazon's algorithm A9
Let's have a look at the Amazon algorithm A9 first to understand how Amazon ranks products and what you need to consider. The algorithm takes various factors into account when ranking, with the probability of a sale and the actual number of sales being the most important for Amazon. In addition, the reviews your product receives are very important - because Amazon wants satisfied customers who will continue to use the platform.
Factors that the algorithm also takes into consideration and that should definitely be taken into account are related to the product listing. We will go into more detail about product listing optimization later.
In 7 steps to the perfect product launch
1. Analyze the market
If the product you want to launch is not yet decided, then you should definitely analyze the market before deciding on a product. Here are a few tips that can help you make a decision.
Important: You don't necessarily have to meet all criteria for your product to be successful - if your product is really good, it will be successful. In addition, of course, it always depends on what goal you are pursuing with the product.
#1: Avoid products with many competitors
If there is no competition at all for a product, this is a sign that the product is not really popular among customers - which is why you should avoid these products as well. On the other hand, if a product has a lot of competitors, the top rankings on Amazon are fiercely contested. Especially big competitors, with a high advertising budget can make your life very difficult. If you decide to sell a product with many competitors, then it is imperative that you do something better than your competitors - be it offering a better product or a better price. But you can also try to find a market niche for a popular product.
#2. Avoid seasonal products
The problem with seasonal products is quite obvious. Products that you can sell exclusively at Christmas or Easter are not a steady source of revenue. However, if this is not your primary goal, seasonal products can be very successful.
#3. Avoid restricted product categories
Amazon has very strict rules for certain product categories, such as alcohol or erotic items. Therefore, find out in advance which rules apply to certain products so that Amazon does not ban your product.
2. Optimize your product listing
The product listing includes the following topics:
- Product title
- Product images
- Bullet points
- Product description
You should definitely optimize your product listing before launching your product on Amazon. With an optimized product listing, you'll also improve your click-through rate (CTR) and conversion rate (CR), which will ultimately have a positive impact on your product's ranking. Learn how to successfully optimize your product listing in our blog article.
3. Guide external traffic to your product page
Driving external traffic to products is especially helpful during a product launch. There are several ways to generate external traffic:
#1. Mail lists with exclusive discount codes
If you run your own online store, then you can email your customers exclusive discount codes with a link to your product. This increases the chance of first sales enormously.
#2. Facebook
There are several ways to interact with customers on Facebook. One way is to post to groups whose members might be interested in your product based on their activities or hobbies. When you find such a group, you should post a link to your product as well as a discount code.
Another method are paid ads on Facebook and eventual follow up in Facebook Messenger. The open rate in Facebook Messenger is 70-80%, which is extremely high.
You can do this as follows:
- Place ads on Facebook for your product
- Now either link to your product page or send people into a Facebook Messenger conversation
- Offer a discount in the chat to increase the chance of a sale
If this is too time-consuming for you, you can also set up a Facebook Bot that automatically generates an interactive conversation with customers.
Using a Facebook Bot could look something like this:
#3. Influencer Marketing
You can also use influencer marketing to drive external traffic to your site and create a gateway to your target audience. For example, you can provide influencers with discount codes that they can share with their followers. Collaboration and payment must be negotiated individually with the respective influencer. Of course, this can be relatively expensive - so you should think carefully in advance how much promoting your product is worth to you.
What you should pay attention to when looking for a suitable influencer:
- The influencer's target audience should be similar to your target audience
- The influencer should match with your product and company to be trustworthy
- On Instagram, the engagement rate should at least be 5%
- Avoid influencers who buy followers or likes
4. Generate reviews
Products that have already been positively rated by others seem more trustworthy and give buyers a certain amount of security. In addition, positive reviews show Amazon that your product is well liked by customers. For this reason, PPC campaigns for products with reviews usually perform much better than for products without reviews.
Positive reviews on Amazon are essential for the success of your product. However, getting customers to leave a review is not that easy. Learn how to get more positive reviews without violating Amazon's policies in this blog article.
5. Amazon PPC
In the beginning, it can make sense to promote your product more aggressively. Profitability, as mentioned above, plays a secondary role here, since you first have to make sure that your product becomes visible and gains reach.
Our recommendation: Use Amazon PPC Ads.
For a detailed instruction on how to effectively create ads on Amazon, please check out our PPC Guide.
Tips especially for the product launch
#1. Use high bids and high budgets in the beginning to make your product visible
This point is pretty self-explanatory. To generate reach and be seen by many potential buyers, you need to start with high bids and budgets in the beginning.
#2. Placement bids
You can use so-called placement bids in your campaigns. This is possible for placements in the first search results as well as for product detail pages. When ads compete for the corresponding placements, bids can then be increased by up to 900%. Especially placement bids for the first search results can be very helpful for a product launch, because your product is displayed at the top and therefore seen by many people.
#3.Dynamic bids
Since 2019, Amazon has three different bidding strategies for Sponsored Product Ads (SPAs). In addition to fixed bids, there are two dynamic bid strategies that can be selected in Seller Central. These are the strategies "Dynamic bids - decrease only" and "Dynamic bids - increase and decrease". When you use dynamic bids, you allow Amazon to change the bids depending on the customer's likelihood to buy. As you can already see from the name, the bids are either lowered only or lowered and increased.
In general, we recommend the strategy "Dynamic bids - lower only". For a product launch, however, the strategy "Dynamic bids - lower and increase" is more suitable, since the focus is on making the product known rather than making it profitable.
#4. Cross-Sell or Upsell through an already established product on Amazon
Another method for a successful amazon launch is cross-selling or upselling. Cross-selling is an attempt to sell other related products in addition to the item in demand. With an upsell, the goal is to sell the customer a more expensive product instead of the item they actually wanted.
The difference becomes clear in this picture:
So in a cross-sell you are trying to sell your new product in addition to an already established product. In an upsell, you try to sell your new product instead of a cheaper product.
In both cases, of course, you need to make sure that the products match each other, otherwise this method will not work.
You can use A+ content for cross-selling or upselling, among other things. Here you can show alternative products of your brand in a comparison table, which are compared based on different features.
But you can also work with Sponsored Display Ads or PAT campaigns and target your own products.
#5. Target competitor products
Instead of targeting your own products, you can of course also set competitor products as a target. If your product is cheaper or better in some way (functionality, prime shipping, etc.) than the competitor's product, there is a high chance that customers will change their mind and buy your product.
6. Build up a brand with loyal customers
Of course, this step does not only refer to a single product launch, but has to be done continuously and should rather be seen as a long-term goal. However, your product launch will be much easier if you already have loyal customers who trust your brand.
Tips for building a loyal customer base for the long term
- Create a brand voice that is likable and connects with your target audience.
- Create social media accounts for your brand and post regularly.
- Provide a great customer experience and offer warranties on your products.
- Read your reviews on Amazon regularly. If you see an increase in negative comments, adjust either your product or your product description.
- Provide great customer service.
7.BidX can help you with your perfect product launch!
In the BidX tool, there are several ways to make a product launch efficient.
For example, you can use our "Boost" feature to temporarily increase bids and budgets and have the option to return to the initial values afterwards.
In addition, you can create rules in our tool that increase the bids when no impressions are generated. Tip: Set a maximum condition for a bid (condition: bid < 1.11€ for example).
You can also set the intensity of the automations in our tool. During a product launch it can make sense to set "dynamic" adjustments. This ensures more sensitive and also stronger increases of bids in the initial period.
In addition, BidX's customizable dashboard helps you to closely monitor your product. You can create a chart in our dashboard for the product to be launched, showing CTR and impressions at a glance. This way you can check if increases are needed or if the product is already performing well.
