Amazon is notoriously bad at reporting sales data. However, you can use Amazon ads data to determine whether your listings are optimized for maximum conversions.
More specifically, if your ads have high impressions and high sessions, but low conversions your listings are not optimized.
You should continually test your listings to make sure they are fully optimized for conversions. The more you test, the more likely your listings will be optimized, and the more sales you will make.
As private label sellers on Amazon, we sometimes can't stand Seller Central. It drives us crazy! We are sure we are not alone.
Seller Central, and Amazon in general, is notoriously bad at reporting data to its sellers. There is no way to see which keywords are driving organic traffic to your listings. There is also no way of knowing real time sales data.
However, with Amazon ads, you can see which keywords people used to find your listing.
This is one of the the only places you can find this type of data. Amazon does not report this anywhere else.
This is very powerful data to have not only to help you optimize your ads, but also to help optimize your listings for conversions.
The first step in listing a product is to find money keywords. These are the keywords that will drive the most traffic to your listing, and are usually your most profitable keywords.
There are many ways to go about finding your money keywords. We like to start out by brainstorming about our products, because we know our products better than anyone else.
We have spent months researching niches, products, manufacturers, logistics, and out all the potential products, we chose this one. We know, consciously or subconsciously, keywords that will work.
The same goes for you. If you have spent time to research and source your product, you already have a good idea of what keywords will be your money keywords.
We suggest first brainstorming your product, and coming up with a list of at least 10 keywords.
Next, you can look at what your competition is doing. For each one of the money keywords that you brainstormed, search them in Amazon and look at the top sellers on the first page.
You can just look at the first few sellers on the first page, or you can use a tool like Jungle Scout to find the best sellers.
Then, go to their listing and read through their entire listing including their title, product features and description.
Can you find the keywords they are using? Are they similar to the keywords that you brainstormed? Are they different? If you find a few unique keywords, add them to your list.
After you pull a few money keywords from your competitors, you can enter your new list of keywords into the Google Keyword Planner tool to get even more keyword ideas.
This will give you a list of similar keywords, and you can sort this data by search volume to find the most popular keywords.
You can also check the search volume of your original money keywords to make sure they have enough search volume to be considered money keywords.
Granted, Google is a different platform than Amazon, and the search volume in Amazon is going to be slightly different than the search volume in Google. However, Google planner is usually a good guide to how popular a keyword is in Amazon.
You can also use other tools like MerchantWords as a good search volume guide.
Now that you have a pretty big list of money keywords, you are going to put these keywords into your listings and your manual Amazon ads campaign.
Let's take some time to talk impressions, sessions and conversions, and what they are telling you.
If your impressions are high, but your sessions are low, your keyword is likely not related to your listing, and is not a good keyword.
Think about it. Your ad is getting good impressions (people are seeing your ad) likely because your bids and daily budget are high. In addition, your keyword might be related to your listing.
However, your sessions (people who are clicking your ad and going to your listings) are low. This is likely because the keyword you are advertising for is not relevant to your listing.
People are searching for a certain product, and when they see your ad they are not clicking on it. This is likely because it is not relevant to what they are looking for.
Now, there may be other reasons why people are not clicking on your ad, including poorly written titles or bad images, and you can test to see if these are the reasons behind the low sessions.
However, if your sessions are really low, it's usually an indication of a poor keyword choice.
However, if your ad has high impressions and high sessions, then congratulations, you found a good keyword.
People are searching a keyword, and seeing your Ad. When they see your ad, they are clicking on it, because it relates to what they are looking for. It relates to what they are looking for because the keyword you chose matched your customer's buying intention.
In addition, something is catching their attention to click on your ad – maybe your title is captivating or your lead image is eye catching.
But, what if, despite these ads having high impressions and high sessions, you conversions are low. Well this is a great indication there is something wrong with your listing.
Again, it's likely not the keywords. These keywords are exactly what your customers are searching for because they see your listings and they are clicking on it.
If keywords were the problem, then your impressions might be high, but your sessions would be low also.
For example, let's say you are selling luxury coffee machines, and let's say, your lead picture is a coffee machine and your title is about your super cool luxury coffee machine.
And let's also say, for simplicity sake, one of your ads were for "coffee grinds." Well, if your bids are high, and your daily budget is high, you may get a large number of impressions. However, if people are searching for coffee grinds, they are likely not going to click through to a listing that is clearly selling a coffee machine.
Your picture has nothing to do with coffee grinds, and your title has nothing to do with coffee grinds. Therefore, your sessions would be low.
Now obviously, there may be a few clicks to your listing, because your listing may catch the eye of a few casual buyers, or maybe some buyers think you are bundling your machine with coffee grinds.
However, your conversions would likely be very low for this keyword, because people that are putting in the keyword "coffee grinds" are likely looking to purchase coffee grinds and not a coffee machine.
Now, let's say you optimized your listing with the keyword, "coffee machine". Well, now your sessions should increase, because the keyword you are advertising for is extremely relevant to your listing.
Your title has the keyword people are searching for, and your lead picture is an image of that keyword. The people that are searching for coffee machines, are looking for exactly what you are selling.
But, what if the above is true, but your conversions are low? That means people are finding your ad, and consider it relevant to their search because they are clicking on it. However, something is making them run away before they purchase anything.
This is a strong indication that there is something wrong with your listing.
Customers are seeing your ads, and are clicking to your listing, but something is making them click away before they buy. Why?
All of these reasons should be tested constantly. You should be testing these reasons at least monthly until you start seeing an increase in your conversion rate.
Pricing is especially important to test, as improperly priced items can cause a large number of your potential clients to click back.
Another big issue might be your writing style. The way you write your listing can persuade people to buy, or it can persuade people to click back. Continually test this until you see an increase in conversions.
Similarly, you can, and should, be testing your pictures until they are fully optimized. Pictures speak a thousand words, and if your pictures are not optimized for conversions, you may be losing out on sales.
Amazon has notoriously bad reporting on sales data. However, you can use Amazon ads to determine if your listings are optimized.
You can do this by looking at your impressions, sessions and conversions. High impressions and high sessions, but low conversions, means that people are finding your ads and clicking on them, but are not buying your product.
This indicates that your listings are not optimized for conversions. You should continually test your listings to make sure they are fully optimized for conversions.
The more you test, the more likely your listings will be optimized, and the more sales you will make.
What about low impressions, high sessions, high conversion?