Selling and advertising products on Amazon is a full-time job in an extremely competitive space that requires attention to detail, numerous tools and technologies, and plenty of know-how.
And chances are, you’ve considered bringing in an Amazon marketing agency so you can focus on other aspects of your business worry-free.
Read on to learn more about the ins and outs of hiring an Amazon advertising agency from Ignite Visibility’s resident Amazon expert, Marisa Duffy.
What We’ll Cover:
- Absolute Must-Haves When Selling on Amazon
- What Types of Services does an Amazon Agency Provide?
- How to Find the Right Amazon Agency for Your Business
- Why Work with an Amazon Agency
There are more than 310 million active shoppers on Amazon with over a million new sellers joining the platform every day. However less than 10% of the currently active sellers were able to achieve $100,000 in yearly sales, and only 1% achieved $1 million in sales.
With Amazon being such a competitive marketplace, brands selling on the platform need to take every step necessary to make sure they will stand out from their competitors. Luckily, there are a ton of opportunities to make your products discoverable and drive value to your business.
But as Amazon continues to evolve its advertising options, brands face challenges trying to keep up with the trends and algorithms. This is where an Amazon marketing agency comes into play. These agencies have become complete game-changers for Amazon sellers.
Before we get into that, let’s break down some useful tips for selling on Amazon.
Absolute Must-Haves When Selling on Amazon
With an ever-growing seller pool, you need to differentiate your brand right from the get-go if you want to become (and remain) a successful Amazon seller. While Amazon agencies can help take your business to the next level, make sure you have these things squared away before passing the baton over to the experts:
Expertise
There are many factors that contribute to a brand’s success when selling on Amazon. These factors should always be top of mind; but, if you’re not familiar with the industry, it can seem like everything is stacked against you. By partnering with an Amazon agency, you’ll be able to hit the ground running—immediately launching campaigns and working towards increasing revenue and rank all while learning more about the marketplace from Amazon experts.
Many agencies use in-house technology to help them remain competitive and optimize their campaigns as the bids need to be constantly adjusted. However, technology alone doesn’t mean your campaigns will run smoothly. You also need a combination of human knowledge, expertise, and intuition to supplement your overall strategy.
Process
When selling on Amazon, brands need a structured, goal-oriented process to work towards and measure results to glean from. This way, brands can better understand how to target their customers and build long-term relationships with them on Amazon. Agencies understand the importance of this and create custom timelines and processes for each brand to keep things on track.
Creative
With Amazon placing a bigger emphasis on brand-building, it’s crucial that vendors and sellers take advantage of every opportunity to boost brand awareness and grow their following. If you don’t have an in-house full-service creative department or the capacity to create this for your brand on Amazon, make sure the agency you partner with has a team that can create this for you. Check out the storefront and A+ content Ignite Visibility recently created for a client.
Time
It takes time to create optimized product listings and launch and manage campaigns. And since Amazon differs from the rest of the digital marketing world, it presents both a challenge and an opportunity for brands to maximize their potential on the site.
Amazon is also constantly changing and rolling out new features that you want to take full advantage of as Amazon is known to reward early adopters. At Ignite Visibility, we prioritize testing and constant learning to guarantee our clients are up to Amazon’s selling standards. Because the Amazon landscape is so complex and intriguing, having a team to advise you and run your advertising, not only saves you time but also allows you to learn more about the industry.
What Types of Services does an Amazon Agency Provide?
With an Amazon advertising agency, you can make more time for tasks that demand your attention and that the agency can’t fulfill for you. That way, you can promote your brand all while maximizing the rankings and sales of your products. Here are just a few of the services Amazon agencies offer:
SEO and Listing Optimization
Many agencies will write and audit product descriptions and optimized titles that zero in on things like relevancy and conversion rates. They’ll also make sure these listings have all the necessary information and are retail-ready.
Keyword Research
A good Amazon agency will be hyper-focused on finding keyword opportunities. Not only will they identify which keywords are necessary to include in your product listing to improve rankings, but they’ll pinpoint the ones needed to outperform competitors.
Paid Ads
Paid and promoted ads are huge when it comes to your reputation as a third-party seller on Amazon. There are several agencies that offer specialized in-house technology to ensure you are running fully optimized campaigns.
Creative
To really make an impact on the Amazon platform, you need to entice prospective buyers with compelling creative. It’s no wonder the best Amazon marketing agencies provide an array of creative solutions spanning photography, written content, designing storefronts, and A+ content.
Ultimately, no matter how profitable your business on other channels, an Amazon agency will be equipped with the staff, experience, and software to catapult your Amazon business to new heights.
How to Find the Right Amazon Agency for Your Business
As I’ve previously mentioned, successfully selling on Amazon is no easy feat. For this reason, you need to find the right Amazon agency that will address your specific pain points.
After all, not all agencies are the same. Some have larger in-house teams, while others are only made up of a few consultants. These are some key factors to consider when it comes time to make a decision:
- Define your goals: What do you want to achieve? Technology integration? Advertising campaigns? Supply chain management?
- Know your budget: How much are you willing to allocate to Amazon advertising? You want to work with an agency that understands the platform and makes honest recommendations regarding where you should and shouldn’t invest your money.
- Ensure the agency specializes in your main help areas and provides the services you are looking for. Remember—some might focus more on SEO and listing optimization, while others may focus on organic search placement.
- Make sure trust is a priority for both you and the agency.
Why Work With An Amazon Agency
If you want to increase your conversion rates, boost your orders, and bring your listings to life, partnering with an Amazon marketing agency is a no-brainer. Not only does it take some work off your plate, but you’ll still maintain full ownership of your inventory. Let’s take a look at the top benefits of working with an Amazon agency:
Cost Savings: When you join forces with an Amazon agency, it’s typically much less expensive than having an internal Amazon team. Plus, with the latter, you can’t be sure you’re working with bona fide Amazon experts. This is really the most cost-effective way to improve your Amazon sales and make your business more profitable, faster.
Giving Up Control: This is where trust comes into play. If you trust the agency you partner with, you will see all the benefits come through with the partnership. At Ignite, we want to be an extension of your team so you don’t feel out of control. We want to achieve your goals and position your brand in the best way possible and save you time while making you money. To build this trust, agencies provide brands with weekly performance recaps and quarterly reporting calls, prioritizing transparency and realistic expectation setting.
Creating a customized solution for your brand: While Amazon agencies have a variety of services, you can choose which ones you’d like to take advantage of—A+ content, paid advertising, case management, brand and IP management, etc. Based on your goals, the Amazon experts will guide and adapt to whatever your brand needs to succeed on the platform.
Wrapping Up
If you are interested in selling on Amazon or are currently selling on the marketplace, consider partnering with an Amazon agency to allow your brand to reach its fullest potential on the platform.
Learn more about Ignite Visibility as an agency and reach out to us to schedule a free account consultation!