Many brands apply their successful Google strategies Google to their Amazon business.
Amazon is a different animal.
Understanding the differences between Amazon and Google helps you build a solid foundation for your Amazon business.
Let’s take a look at the four game-changing differences.
First, the most obvious … Amazon is a transaction engine. Google is not.
How often do you do a search on Google? 100 times a day? 200 times a day? How often to make a purchase on Google? Once a week? Twice a week?
How often do you go to Amazon? I bet most the time your visit ends with a purchase.
On Amazon, brands reach exactly the bottom of the funnel buyers everyone is looking for. It turns every marketer into a genius.
Second, Amazon is a zero-sum game.
Let’s say you’re selling teddy bears. Almost every day, there are between 10,000 and 15,000 stuffed animals sold on Amazon. If customers are not buying your teddy bear, they’re buying another brand. To increase your sales, you need to take sales away from someone else.
You can’t take sales away from a competitor else unless you understand who they are and what they’re doing.
Third, data. On Google, you know which competitors are on any given SERP page, but you don’t know how much they’re selling.
On Amazon you do. Using this data helps you target the right competitors and set achievable goals.
And finally, Advertising.
Many years ago, Google made an important strategic decision to separate church (SEO) from state (PPC). This decision was critical to Google’s growth because it reinforced their brand as a provider of unbiased search results.
But Google provides information. Amazon sells products.
Amazon doesn’t care if a click is paid or organic. A click shows interest. And Amazon rewards interest with high organic positioning.
So, it makes sense to use ROI as evaluate success on Google PPC.
Amazon advertising, however, allows you to increase your visibility and ultimately improve your organic rankings.
In fact, in many cases I find that a strong ROI is a sign of a weak Amazon advertising strategy.
So how do you apply these differences to your Amazon business?
Here are four quick strategies to optimize your Amazon business …
- Focus on selling not building your brand – Brand-building efforts on other channels like Google and Facebook will increase your Amazon sales. But not vice versa.
- Know who your competition is – Just because a brand dominates brick-and-mortar sales doesn’t mean they dominate Amazon.
- Leverage the data on your competitors – “Following the money” is the best Amazon strategy. Discover who’s making money and make sure you are where they are.
- Use advertising to increase your visibility – That means prioritizing keywords you want to rank for over keywords that you already rank for
