How do you get to page one in Amazon’s search results? Especially today, when everyone and their cousin is competing for that precious first page? Amazon FBA expert Tatiana James says it all starts with understanding Amazon’s ranking algorithm. So when someone does a search, clicks on a product, and actually buys it, that tells Amazon: okay, this product is relevant for that search. Like Google, their job is to provide their users with only the most relevant results for the word or words they type in.
Then, just in general, if a large number of people are buying a product on Amazon, that tells them that a product is of good value, right? So that alone (consistent sales) will help a product climb to the top of page one. This can be tracked through a metric called Best Seller Rank, or BSR for short. The closer the BSR of a given product gets to number one, the better it’ll rank on the Amazon search engine. This presents a catch-22, doesn’t it? You need sales to rank, but you need to rank to make sales.
Well, you’ve got a few options that are within Amazon’s terms of service. Tatiana likes doing rebate-based launches with a solution like Rebaid. Customers pay full price, confirm their order, and get a rebate check. You can also text them to ask for reviews, which helps you rank higher as well. Another thing that’s an absolute must is you gotta fully optimize your product listing on Amazon. Lots of great photos, the right keywords, competitive pricing, maybe even a coupon.
Now what most six and seven figure Amazon FBA sellers do, from here, is they slam the gas by running Amazon pay per click (PPC) ads. Think about it. You’re making Amazon even more money because you’re paying them to show your product in the sponsored section at the top of page one; of course they’re gonna like that. But then, as your sales (and thus, BSR) improve, they’re gonna reward you by inching you closer and closer to page one. And then, once you’re on page one, closer and closer to the top.
Due diligence is key here. You have to figure out all the exact match keywords your ideal customers are searching for. Throw ’em in a Google Sheet and organize them by number of searchers per month. Then you’ll wanna spy on your competitors. Look at everyone who’s already ranking on page one and reverse engineer the keywords they’re ranking for. Take a look at everyone who’s running PPC ads. What keywords are they bidding on? Now narrow it down to the top forty to fifty phrases.
Those are what you’ll tell Amazon you want your product to show up for, in the sponsored section, when people search. You can set your budget wherever is comfortable. But before you hit go, you absolutely positively have to round up some reviews. Otherwise, when you send paid traffic, it’s not gonna convert. One top FBA seller says he’ll never launch a PPC campaign without having at least seven five star reviews. Most people have their family and friends hook them up, but just so you’re aware, that does put you at risk.
From here, you wanna let things run and monitor everything carefully. Make sure your PPC ads are actually converting clicks into buyers. Make sure your rebate strategy is working if you’re doing that. Reviews should be coming in organically now. Keep an eye on inventory. Last thing you wanna do is shoot yourself in the foot by running out of stock. It’s so hard to build momentum on Amazon; once you hit your stride, you have to hold a steady pace. But yeah. That’s the mile high overview of getting a new product to page one.
