When Amazon Giveaways Fail

Richard Morgan
February 2, 2018

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Paul Harvey joins to talk through when Amazon Giveaways Fail and what you can do about it. Danny speaks of not being able to polish a turd – if the product is poor then no number of giveaways will make it stick.

Factors that can lead to failures

Make sure you are completely ToS compliant
Amazon loves discounts – if you’re sending lots of discounted traffic to Amazon they will be happy so long as it’s
If Amazon were against discounts they wouldn’t offer discount codes
If Amazon was against high discounts were against ToS they wouldn’t allow 90%, 80%, 70% off offers and we determine the amount of discount given

Sticking points are

Storefront URL – Amazon has left it there and all the launch services use them
People who get suspended say they did giveaways and got suspended but there’s usually something else and find they have been putting sale info in the bullet points and cut and pasting or quoting reviews in the listing
It’s usually other factors that are impacting the listing and cause suspension not the giveaways

Avoiding suspension

Using review funnels – people look for an angle
People are doing giveaways and then buyers are coming in and giving you reviews that explain they got a great discount and these get picked up by Amazon – unintended consequences!
If you setup a review funnel you could get an Amazon employee come into your funnel too
Usually there’s a few incursions before Amazon triggers a suspension – they all add up
Paul has not heard of anyone getting a ‘single’ incursion that got them banned
Paul has had inserts in a product that blatantly asked for a review – Amazon sent him an email asking him to stop – so he did!
He was using the wrong Amazon Logo in his ads for a while before he realised
When you run the normal FB newsfeed ad it appears in the user’s newsfeed
In the image it has the normal Amazon Logo and has 5 stars in it
Using amazon’s logo is breaking Trademark
If you go into the Amazon Affiliate site – they give you an image you’re allowed to use on your website and the ads
Amazon are happy for you to use this image – it is allowed

Amazon employees are Buyers (and Sellers) too – beware

Nothing stopping an Amazon employee signing up to your funnel
Paul knows o lots of amazon employees who have Seller accounts
Amazon doesn’t make it clear on what the rules are – they make it pretty vague on purpose

7 Day Training Period – to Avoid Amazon Giveaways Fail

Most important time in your product lifespan is the first few weeks that it’s live
The success trifecta to ensure Amazon knows all about your product:
- Have a Keyword rich title
- Be sure the Amazon Ads are targeting the right keywords keywords
- Facebook ads use keyword targeting on your Storefront URL
Using all three aspects tells Amazon you are relevant to these keywords
With these three working together you can leapfrog to page one
Minimum 3-7 days is a sweet spot to rank
As soon as you rank DO NOT turn off your promos and ads
Keep them on until organics kick-in
You have sales and pending sales to consider too

Success factors

The amount of promos and giveaways your looking to provide is key also – avoid seasonality which pushes up the sales
Don’t be cheap on giveaways – give 90% discounts to stimulate and give value
Workout how many days you need to be giving away for to rank – this is a key metric
Keep your offer simple and disrupt their attention giving value for money
Don’t get frustrated with 50% and 60% – just go for 90% and stimulate it
It’s a risk you take and every Amazon Seller takes
We know giveaways are not against ToS as the services would not be using it
Amazon is very protective over their customers and the integrity of reviews
Be compliant with ToS always

Preventing an Amazon Giveaway Fail – planning

Don’t scrimp on discounts – do 90% don’t do 80% as your conversion rates will be different and it could take you longer and prolong the giveaways sending less units but costing you more in promo costs
Leave in 7 days trailing plus one day to really get an understanding of what’s happening
Find a way to close the loop on:
- Amount of units you’re giving away
- Amount of units per order
- Average unit order is key
- Check these against your discount codes versus organic sales – you may be able to reduce your giveaways against the rising organic sales (saving you money)
Running Facebook ads – make sure your coupon codes can’t go viral (absolutely key) – 30/40% have made this mistake, one seller sold thousands in half an hour at 99% off!
Build in the cost of the Facebook Ads before you source – you can run up costs and not be able to re-order as it is not viable