When Amazon Giveaways Fail


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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

Outside Amazon Strategies

  • Very few people are using outside Amazon traffic
  • Everyone IN Amazon has the same tools
  • Give yourself an edge with outside Amazon tools (FB ads, Adwords, etc)

Final Thought

  • When you first start running Google Adwords or FB Ads – YOU WILL SUCK
  • Be aware of this and STICK AT IT to realise the rewards

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