Know Your Numbers
THEY WILL GUIDE YOU HOME!
Knowing your numbers is one of the most powerful things you can do as an Amazon Seller.
… And I don’t just mean your sales figures either.
This statement is pretty obvious for veteran Sellers. So I’m talking to you new guys!
Just recently I reworked a listing, along with providing a list of crucial ranking factors. But within 5 days the client came back and said “I’ve made no sales”. That’s it. That was the entire message to me.
So, I went and had a look through the marketplace, and he’s not even in the first 10 pages. I can’t see him coming up for any sponsored listings. So I have to just assume that he put the new listing up, but didn’t deploy the other advice given.
(… we may never know, I’ve asked for some metrics so I can help find the sales leak but he’s gone AWOL)
So here’s what his sales problem is. He’s not being seen. It’s pretty simple right? You can’t sell things, if no one has seen your listing.
But here’s the rub. He thinks he has a conversion problem, when in fact it’s a traffic problem. We could re-optimize the hell outta that listing. But with no eyeballs, he still won’t get any sales! If he looked at his numbers, he’d be able to methodically walk through this. And I’d be able to help him! But we will never know. His mistake is your lesson today!
Dear New Seller, It’s All In Your Numbers!
The first thing you need to do when you start selling is to get very familiar with your Business Reports and your PPC Reports. And get familiar with tools like Helium 10 index checker, that tells you if you’re even being indexed! It is here in these places where you will find the answer to the question “Why am I not selling?”
Impressions (PPC reports): Do you have any? Do you have impressions for the keywords that are guaranteed to generate sales? Do you have the maximum impressions available, or are you only “buying” 10% of the total impressions? If you’re not making sales, first of all find out if you’re being seen. And make sure you’re targeting the right traffic. This also includes off-site traffic ie: instagram.
Indexing (Helium 10). Are you indexed at all? Which keywords and phrases are you indexing for? Are they the ones that guarantee sales, or are there other keywords that need to be indexed? To be found on Amazon you need to be indexed. So check your indexing.
Clicks: Are people clicking on the listing? How many? For what keywords? To boost your clicks try changing your title or your main image. Don’t rule out price. They may not be clicking because your price is outrageous. Or maybe your price is too good to be true and people don’t want to risk buying a bad product. Who do you show up next to in sponsored ads? Who you show up next to can influence if you get clicked, or them.
Conversions: Once people click, how many are buying? If your impressions are great, indexing is on point and clicks are awesome but they’re not buying then you have an in-listing issue. Check your product description and images and make sure you’re selling your product properly. Check your reviews and make sure the stars are good! If you’re getting lots of 3-stars or less then your conversion problem may be a product problem!
And then you have the business reports to look at - Page Views, Session Percentage etc! And other cool things on Helium 10 - like the keywords your competitors are actually making sales from. A Helium 10 Diamond Account is required to spy at this level, but it gives you solid data on whether you’re targeting the right keywords or not.
There are many other things to consider if you’re not making any sales. Are you selling a Fidget Spinner? They went out of fashion years ago so it’s a product problem! And you’d find this out by spying on competitors selling the same item. If they’re not making sales either, then it’s the product as a whole. Is your product like the “worst house on the best street”? Your competitors may be stealing sales from you.
Are your expectations misaligned? I had a client who made it to position #2 in a very tough market. There was no way he was going to knock the #1 guy off. This was as good as it gets! Unfortunately his desired sales volume wasn’t what he wanted it to be, due to the fact he’d spent so much cash pre-launch and at launch. Guys, if you overspend on your first product, and if you enter a tough market for your first rodeo, don’t expect shoppers to magically make the situation right for you. Spoiler alert, he’s on track to bring in $400k sales in his first year. This, from a man who used the line “no sales” regularly to me.
BUT, ONE CHANGE AT A TIME!
Now that you’ve followed your numbers to find where the sales leak is, you need to make some changes.
BUT you must only make ONE CHANGE AT A TIME!
Was impressions the issue? Try increasing your bid, changing your keyword targeting or discuss with a PPC expert other strategies that can improve your impressions. Then, wait a few days - did more impressions increase the sales? If yes, great! If no? Then there may be another sales leak.
Was Indexing the issue? Ensure your listing is fully optimized for indexing. Particularly indexing the phrases that you want. Wait a few days and check your indexing, and monitor your sales.
Were Clicks the issue? The listing is being seen but not clicked. Try changing title. Then wait a few days. Then change your main image and wait. Did any of those things increase your clicks? Here’s something else to try - look at your PPC keyword targeting. Are you losing clicks because the keywords aren’t relevant? Try different PPC targeting and find which phrases get clicked.
Were Conversions the issue? You’ve got great impressions, great clicks but they’re not buying! Find out why by reading reviews and Q&A. Make sure your listing informs. Is it a product issue that needs fixing? Assess your place in the market - are you double the price of someone else? Maybe that’s why? Regardless of what you find, make your change one at a time and then wait 3 days.
Did you have an expectation problem? Go and follow your data and make an objective judgement call.
Aside from looking at these few things, every time you make a change also pay attention to the other metrics. If you did a listing update and some of your keyword rankings fell, you may want to check whether you accidentally removed some crucial SEO.
Overall, following your data will help you make solid decisions instead of just sitting there grumping that you made “no sales”.
