The Ultimate Seller’s Guide to Amazon Promotions 

To set them up, you typically need to go to the “Advertising” menu on the top of Seller Central. One of the sub-menus will reference multiple types of promotions:

• Free Shipping
• Percentage Off
• Buy One – Get One
• Giveaway

We’ll detail how each of these can be useful later on.

There are two major categories of promotional deals on Amazon:

• The Amazon Lightning Deal
• An Amazon Coupon

The two fulfill similar needs but have different effects. Below we will discuss each in further detail.

The Amazon Lightning Deal is a flash sale that lasts up to seven days. When done correctly, you’ll find it alongside other products on the Amazon Deals Page. Some circles call this the Goldbox.

Prospective buyers are constantly looking for better deals, making the Goldbox an incredibly popular page. Amazon recognizes this, which is why they charge a fee to use the service.

Why is it called Lighting? Two reasons:

• Lightning doesn’t strike twice, so these deals are seen as exclusive
• Lightning comes and goes quickly, creating a sense of urgency

This feature is the only case where you would say, “I want to be struck by lightning.” Sellers can use it to create an effective sales strategy.

Creating an Amazon Lightning Deal follows a similar process to what’s above. You’ll need to address the following sections:

• Selection of Products – What ASINs you would like to include
• Product Variations – Product variants might differ based on size, color, or style. Amazon typically requires you to have a minimum of 65% of variants included. Adding additional variants later might compromise your deal.
• Deal Schedule – Deals can run from four to twelve hours. You might also select special seven-day deals.
• Deal Price (Discount) – The maximum price suggested from Amazon. This is based on a percentage off typically and may change depending on overall changes to the suggested listing price.
• Title – The title comes from the ASIN’s current title. If you change the deal title, you’ll need to change the product title.
• Quantity – The number of products that qualify for the deal.
• Image – The image must follow standard product image selection guidelines. It must be on an all-white background without logos, watermarks, or other text.

On this page, you will also receive information related to the status. If you fail to meet any of the requirements mentioned earlier, your deal may be suppressed. A suppressed deal will need to be addressed at least two days before the scheduled start date.

It typically takes about 15 minutes for your deal to be approved. You’ll receive an email notification once your sale is approved, so don’t worry too much. If you want to cancel the deal, you typically need to give Amazon 25 hours notice (bare minimum)

The standard fee for having an Amazon Lightning Deal is around $150. However, this price is likely to go up as Amazon continues to grow. The costs of being on the “Today’s Deals” page fluctuate depending on website traffic. If the current traffic is incredibly high, you could spend much more. Think of it as your standard PPC campaign. The price you bid to appear in the best positions is much higher than other lesser-known positions.

• You need to have some sales history
• Your overall quality rating needs to be at least three stars
• Your product needs to be Prime eligible (in all regions)
• You cannot promote used products
• No inappropriate products
• You cannot run multiple promotions on the same products

You could not run a deal on the product if you made another deal 28 days ago

Amazon Coupons are similar to Lightning Deals but lack the front page appeal. Instead, you are on a list of discounted items, but you won’t be on the Today’s Deals page.

What Types of Coupons Can I Offer?

Amazon allows for a variety of coupon types. Here’s the shortlist:

• One-time Use Promo Codes – These coupons are only good for a single-use and can be shared through any means. Once costumes use the code, they cannot be re-used. These are great for complementary products in product inserts.
• “Extra Savings” Coupons – Amazon’s latest coupon clipping craze is located on the product description page. Amazon shoppers can “clip” them to provide additional discounts. Clipping involves clicking on a check-box referencing the deal.
• Discounts Provided by Amazon – The Discounts Provided By Amazon Program happens when Amazon is trying to draw customers by providing sale prices on an item. If it happens to be your item, Amazon entirely funds the discount, meaning you still get all the money for the thing.
• Social Media Promo Codes – These codes are under the “Create A Promotion” section of Seller Central. They create unique landing pages you can use to promote a variety of products. These codes are great for coordinating with influencers.

Start by going under the “Advertising” tab and select “Coupons.” From there, select “Create a New Coupon,” where you can choose to create a single coupon.

The menu on the left side of the screen reveals products that you can apply with the “Add To Coupon” button. The “Show Variations” allows you to select or exclude different product versions.

The maximum and minimum discounts are 80% to 5%. You can stack lightning deals on top of coupons.

Your coupon budget will allow you to establish an overall threshold for items. Amazon stops when you’ve reached 80% of your coupon budget.  For example, a $200 coupon budget with each product getting one dollar off results in 160 items receiving the discount.

The following sections will ask you to submit a title, start date, and end date for your coupons. The promotion ends when the budget is met, or the end date passes.

Once a coupon is established, you can make modifications up to seven hours prior. Once the six-hour mark is up, you are locked in, so be sure to double-check your settings. You can not make modifications to coupons once they are active.

Amazon allows you to create bulk coupons through excel spreadsheets. Start by downloading the template file. You should break down the spreadsheet into columns, organized like this:

1. A: should contain 200 parent ASINs or 8 thousand child ASINs. Parent ASINs will already heaven excellent all associated child ASINs.
2. B: dictates percent or money off.
3. C: Percent off value (blank if the deal is money off)
4. D: Money off value (blank if the deal is percent off)
5. E: Contains the title (80 character limit)
6. F: Coupon budget (minimum $100)
7. G: Coupon start date (must be within 180 days)
8. H: Coupon end date (must be within three months of start date)
9. I: Limit redemption (type “Yes” if it’s one per customer. Type “no” if buyers can redeem it multiple times
10. Targeted segment (you can limit visibility to prime members or all customers)

The template is in a .xls format. Amazon will not be able to process your spreadsheet if you choose another file type.

Selecting products can be an intensive process. If you are running a promotion, you should use these stats to choose suitable products:

• Does the product need exposure? Products already making a decent number of sales don’t need as much exposure. However, if you feel there’s potential for more deals, run the promotion.
• Is the product close to your break-even point? If your product is already cutting it close to earning a decent profit, use PPC over promotions. Coupons and Lightning Deals aren’t helpful if you aren’t making a profit.
• Is the product early in its life cycle? If the product is young or in the middle of its life cycle, promotions and sales are great. If you are near discontinuing a product, you might use coupons to sell all remaining products quickly.

Are you at the top of your niche? If you are already the number one seller in your niche, a deep discount heavily cuts your profits. If you are already number one, focus on quality efforts to maintain that rank. If you feel like someone is coming close, reconsider that approach.

Other than the types of coupons and discounts you can create, Amazon also allows you to select multiple promo types. Those types come in the following forms:

Giveaways are an excellent way for you to spread the word about your product. This essentially means giving your products away for free, so you won’t want to do too much of this.

Amazon Giveaway used to be an official system. However, most of Amazon’s giveaway features are limited to Prime Day specials.

While Amazon doesn’t have any specific support for giveaways, you are still encouraged to participate through other channels. Below are a few ways you can create your giveaways:

• Have a social media presence that encourages people to share your posts. Having regular giveaways of smaller items is an excellent way to engage people on social media.
• Use Multi-Channel Fulfillment to start giveaways on Shopify. Many Shopify applications allow you to giveaways. Just look on the app marketplace!
• Reach out to influencers to see if they can create giveaways on your behalf.

“Percent off” and “Money off” are the two most common promotions created. While people will always appreciate free shipping, Prime delivery makes that offering a bit weak.

Both lightning deals, promotional discounts, and coupons all include these two options. But which one should you choose for your eCommerce platform?

Percent Off comes from the value of the current listing. That means it fluctuates in response to changing Amazon stats. This area is vital if you are in a competitive price field.

Having a percentage of your price off typically looks more impressive with lower-cost items. A 50% off $2 product is more impressive than $1.

Choosing a “Money Off” option is typically more impressive-looking with expensive items. Using the same logic, $100 off a $500 product is more impressive than 20% off.

Money also has that firm tactile sensation. Customers don’t typically like to do the math. Instead, they want to know they are saving cash. Customers don’t care about saving fractions.

It’s a diminutive form of marketing manipulation but unusually powerful. On Amazon, you’ll want to do everything you can to take advantage of the situation while remaining compliant with the TOS.

We mentioned social media codes briefly in the previous section, but we will detail these codes here. Social media promotion is perfect for you if you want to promote beyond the product.

The power of social media promotions on Amazon comes from the creation of a custom URL. You can share this URL to affiliates, influencers, and everyone in between to draw attention to an entire product line discount.

The URL is active for 30 days, starting four hours after the creation of the promotion. This code is great for creating brand awareness, as it can feature logos, products, and chosen influencers.

Much like other discounts, your rate must be between 5 and 80% of the current price. Unlike Lightning Deals, there is no featured page directly on Amazon. Instead, the sole location of the unique landing page from the URL is through that link.

It’s a powerful tool when gaining social awareness. It also has the power to retain customers and encourage them to become part of your email list. Skillful placement of product inserts alongside this can create lifelong customer loyalty.

Buy one, get one free (BOGO) is a staple of almost all modern customer service. If you’ve ever stepped foot inside of any grocery store, you’ve most likely seen something like this.

These offers typically are already built into the product listing. Sometimes, you’ll see it as a frim part of a product listing’s title. Items with a bulk appeal (soap, supplements, etc.) fit the bill.

Most times, you’ll see a similar tactic on some product listings. You can create bundles and get discounts for adding complementary products to the cart. While it isn’t technically BOGO, it still hits a similar mark.

The idea behind BOGO is to convince the shopper that you are providing them increased value with an additional item. Buying “smart” speakers leads to buying “smart” subwoofers, which leads to buying surround sound systems, and televisions!

Providing continuous value through integrated product systems is an impressive strategy to take. That’s why you don’t see stuffed teddy bears combined with frying pans under bundled items!

None of these promotions add to your Amazon promotional credit balance. Still, these options are powerful when used in the right hands. We’ve already touched on strategy in a few sections, but here are some extra tips to help boost your product promotions:

• Offer email subscribers exclusive previews and testing rights to upcoming products. You can’t do this one on Amazon, but off-site promotions can be compelling.
• Write a blog post on your website announcing a promotion you have on Amazon. This can be associated with your latest prime day deals or just for fun!
• Host an event where you and your team show how excellent your product is. This also allows you to address any concerns live.
• Work with public relations firms to announce your product in your local area. People love to buy things owned by a local business.
• Don’t forget about the power of PPC advertising. You can use Facebook, Amazon, and Google for a good marketing mix of targets.

These bullet points are just a few of the examples you can use for your business. It’s important to diversify when it comes to promotional strategies.The same goes for your promotional material, as a consistent brand message will attract the right target audience (no matter where they are!).

Amazon offers powerful tools that can complement your on-site and off-site efforts. While coupons or promotional tools aren’t a substitute for quality service, they can bring great sellers to the next level.

The next time you look at these promotional tools, we hope that this blog will provide you with a good reference of ideas. When it comes to being number one in your niche, spare no expense.