With so many ambitious sellers on the Amazon Marketplace, it’s becoming more and more challenging for smaller brands to obtain decent keyword ranking. Though sellers have come up with several solutions over the years, they are often nixed by Amazon before they have much of a chance of showing success.
For example, the keyword stuffing strategy that you may have seen on Wish and other platforms was quickly terminated on Amazon when sellers attempted to use it to manipulate the search algorithms. While the termination of these strategies adds a new layer of complexity when it comes to getting your brand noticed on Amazon, there are still ways to succeed.
What is Rank Manipulation?
Because there are several gray areas when it comes to legitimate rank improvement, the difference between technical rank manipulation and actual rank manipulation is often unclear until a tactic is used, evaluated, and then deemed legitimate or manipulative.
In simple terms, rank manipulation can be defined as any action taken by a seller to make their sales look organic. Unless a customer has searched, found, and purchased a brand’s products on their own, any suggestion or incentivizing on the seller’s part is technically rank manipulation.
However, technical rank manipulation and actual rank manipulation are discovered and treated differently by the Amazon platform. The technical aspect of influencing sales ranking is where sellers can find an opportunity to improve their keyword ranks without running into negative consequences.
Search, Find, and Buy (SFB)
The Search, Find, Buy strategy differs from rank manipulation tactics for a simple reason: it creates an organic clickthrough rather than imitating one. This means that, unlike super-URLs that include faked search terms in an address shared with customers, SFB actually provides shoppers with a way to find your products on their own.
This is done by prompting your customers to search Amazon themselves by keying in certain keywords and following a set of directions presented to them in order to find your products organically. For example, an SFB strategy might ask customers to look under “fox head planter” and scroll down the page until they have located a vase priced at $24.90 with a picture that depicts a fox vase with a succulent plant in it.
Customers would search under the given term and follow a list of instructions until they reach the desired product. Instructions may include the product’s price, the main photo associated with the listing, the full title, and the current page the listing is on. By having the customer locate the product this way, he or she has told Amazon’s algorithms that they’ve reached this listing organically.
Chatbots to the Rescue
Because employing the Search, Find, Buy strategy can be time-consuming and require several steps to succeed, business owners may rely on chatbots to instruct their customers throughout the search. Facebook Messenger is already a familiar application for most Facebook users, so receiving written instructions from a sophisticated chatbot will be easier for the customer to follow than redirecting to a bot on your personal website.
Through Facebook Messenger, you can support a large number of customers through a product search at the same time without spending countless hours at your keyboard shifting back and forth between chat boxes.
Much like any other marketing bot your company has designed on your ManyChat dashboard, a direction bot can provide your customers with clear, concise directions so that they’re not searching long enough to feel inconvenienced and decide to shop elsewhere.
Incentivizing Shoppers
Because you’re essentially asking your customers to put work into locating your products, you have probably determined that they’re going to want some sort of incentive that will make their search worthwhile. Some sellers might choose to run a promotion and offer a discount code to shoppers who correctly locate the product in question, while others decide to provide rebates for products purchased.
Both methods are good ideas, however, it’s important to remember that Amazon views any sort of incentive as sales rank manipulation, which may impact your ability to improve your ranking. Fortunately, Amazon does not treat every incentive the same way so there is room to be creative with your plans. For example, Amazon cuts the ranking power when high-value discount codes are used rather than when smaller sums are discounted.
It’s important to evaluate carefully the incentives that you plan to provide your customers if they reach your products. While they’re going to want something that will make the process worth their while, if your goal is to improve your Amazon keyword rankings, it’s wise to carefully consider your options before you choose an incentive to offer.
If you’re considering the use of Search, Find, Buy to improve your Amazon keyword ranking, you’ll find that the process is relatively simple and straightforward when you utilize Facebook Messenger, your chatbots, and your ManyChat dashboard.
And as always, we are always a click away if you’d like to perfect your strategy.
Here at Automated Dreams, we’ve worked with large and small e-commerce and Amazon-focused brands for their Messenger Marketing, and of course, helping them perfect their Search, Find, Buy strategy. Our bot campaign for Yes To Skincare recently received a runner-up award at ManyChat for the most dynamic bot of 2019.
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