Improving the Three Metrics That Define Success On Amazon

If you’re an Amazon seller, then you’ll know that growing your business is all about improving all-important numbers. But what are the most important numbers you need to be optimizing?

In this article, we’ll take a data-driven approach to improving three of the most crucial metrics in your business: impressions, clicks and conversions. By understanding which factors influence these metrics the most, you can focus your efforts in the right places and see real results. Let’s get started!

The Most Important Metrics In Any Amazon Business

Whilst there are hundreds upon hundreds of different metrics you can track, analyze and improve, there are three metrics that are arguably the most important to an Amazon business: impressions, clicks and conversions. Each one is an important step along the customer buying journey, so let’s start by taking a look at exactly what each one is.

Impressions

An impression is the first stage of any customer discovering your products. Impressions are the number of times a product’s listing is displayed in search results. More impressions mean more potential customers are looking at your product, which can translate to more clicks and eventually sales.

Clicks

Clicks refer to the number of people who click on your product listings when they show up in search results. In other words, it’s the number of people who take interest in your product and decide to investigate further.

Conversions

Conversions are the final step; they refer to the number of people who actually complete a purchase when clicking through on your listing. It’s one thing getting more impressions and clicks, but conversions are what really count when it comes to making sales.

How to Increase Impressions for Greater Visibility

When it comes to optimizing for impressions, the first and most important thing you can focus on is keyword optimization. This means doing thorough keyword research and using as many relevant phrases in your listing title, bullet points, product description and A+ content.

It’s important that you don’t cut corners with keyword research but instead work hard to filter your options down to the most relevant keywords as this will help with clicks and conversions later on.

Once your listing is keyword optimized, the focus should then be on driving as many sales as possible to improve your organic ranking. The more keywords you can appear on page one in the search results on Amazon, the more impressions your products will naturally get.

Whether a product is brand new or just needs a bit of a boost, there are a number of things you can do to boost sales over a short period of time to give an organic lift. Things like:

• Running a steep discount for a short period of time
• Driving external traffic with Google or Facebook ads
• Gifting products to influencers and having them post about your product

Anything you can do to drive an increased volume of sales will help you rank higher for more of the keywords you’ve included and as a result drive more impressions. Once you’re getting the impressions, it’s time to work on getting more clicks.

How to Improve Click-Through-Rate for More Traffic

Click-through rate (CTR) is the rate at which impressions turn into clicks. For example, 50 clicks from 1,000 impressions would be a click-through-rate of 0.5%, slightly above what has been quoted as the average on Amazon at 0.41%.

A high CTR is of course a positive thing because it shows that customers are drawn to your product in search results. But what if you want to improve your click-through rate? Here are a few fundamental tips to get you started.

Use Engaging Main Images

Your main product image is often the first thing potential customers see when they come across your listing. Make sure you have a striking and engaging image that stands out from other listings to draw customers in.

Whilst you do have to abide by Amazon’s terms of service and only feature the product on a white background in your main image, you can get a little creative. Be sure to make the product as big as possible without too much white space around it, and if you have any colorful elements such as packaging, make prominent use of those too.

Optimize Your Listing Title

Your listing title is another key factor in increasing your click-through rate, as it’s one of the first things customers see when they come across your product. Make sure you include relevant keywords so a customer can quickly and easily see your product meets their search intent. Your title should be both descriptive and keyword optimized, but without getting too long or sounding spammy.

Combine Pricing and Promotions

Using pricing and promotions can be a great way to increase interest in your product. Consider offering discounts or running periodic sales, as well as making the most of Amazon’s price-comparison feature to ensure customers are getting the best deal possible. Amazon loves to feature products running promotions, so even if it’s a small discount, regularly offering something to entice customers will help attract more clicks to your listing.

Generate More Reviews

Another great way to get customers to click on your product is through customer reviews. The higher both the number and the rating of your reviews, the more likely customers are to click on your listing and take the plunge. So, in order to create more social proof around your products, make sure you are including a product insert that engages your customer in an ongoing conversation, and that you are also requesting a review in follow-up to the purchase.

It’s also important to keep track of any negative reviews and address them promptly as this will show potential customers that you care about their experience. Once you’re getting more impressions and more clicks, it’s time to drill down into improving your conversion rate.

How to Improve Conversion Rate For More Revenue

Conversion rate (CVR) is the percentage of customers who visit your listing and ultimately make a purchase. For example, if you had 1,000 visitors and 50 of them purchased your product, then the conversion rate would be 5%. As with impressions and clicks, Amazon loves high conversion rates as it plays into its bottom line by increasing revenue. Improving this metric is ultimately what will bring more revenue to the business. Here are a few tips on how to do that:

Use Images to Tell the Story of Your Product

Having good images of your product is a great way to not only attract customers to your listing but also increase the likelihood of them actually making a purchase. Make sure you have plenty of product shots that show off different angles and features, as well as lifestyle images that bring the item to life in context. Remember, your product needs to solve a problem in the eyes of the customer. So use every image slot available to you in order to tell the story of why your product best meets their need.

Write Benefit-Driven Copy

Your product copy is another crucial component of a successful listing. Rather than focusing on the features of your product, make sure to focus on how it can benefit the customer and what problem it’s going to solve. Remember: a feature explains what the product does, and a benefit explains what the product does for the customer.

Focus on the “why” behind the purchase and highlight any unique selling points that set your product apart from the competition. Ultimately, if you’re able to effectively build a story around your product, customers will be more likely to hit the buy button and make a purchase.

Utilize Amazon’s Brand Tools

Amazon offers a variety of tools to help brand owners increase visibility and generate more sales. One such tool is A+ content, which helps you create professional-looking product descriptions that stand out from the competition. Use this additional Amazon “real estate” to further drive home the quality of your brand and the benefits of your product to improve overall conversion rates.

When enrolled in Brand Registry you can also take advantage of Amazon’s video content capabilities and upload a short video further demonstrating your product. As most consumers are visually oriented, adding a video to the existing images can help to add another bump to conversion rate. As your listing matures there are a range of other aspects like pricing, image order, and product description changes that you can split-test in order to gradually nudge conversion rate higher.

Optimizing for Increasing Profits

By taking a data-driven approach and focusing on improving these three key metrics — impressions, clicks, and conversions – you can take your Amazon business from good to great. The reality, though, is that the work of optimization is never completely finished.

The key is to continually test and monitor these metrics, experiment with different strategies and always be looking for ways to improve in order to find what drives the best results for your business.