The Entrepreneur Forum | Financial Freedom | Starting a Business | Motivation | Money | Success

Welcome to the only entrepreneur forum dedicated to building life-changing wealth.

Build a Fastlane business. Earn real financial freedom. Join free.

Join over 80,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.

Free registration at the forum removes this block.

FBA growing organically but not enough?

magnificent

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
71%
Jan 15, 2013
79
56
Los Angeles
Hi guys,

My FBA is growing organically. I'd like to break the $1,000 mark but I always seem to peak at $650 at most.

Although I've played with their sponsored ads.... ads (cpc, ctr, etc.) are absolutely my weakness.

I'm currently working on getting new-er photos up on my product page at the moment. I also re-did the descriptions, so I think it's fine at the moment.

Does anyone have any recommendations or advice?

snapshot2.PNG
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.
Last edited:

amp0193

Legendary Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
444%
May 27, 2013
3,638
16,157
United States
Hi guys,

My FBA is growing organically. I'd like to break the $1,000 mark but I always seem to peak at $650 at most.

Although I've played with their sponsored ads.... ads (cpc, ctr, etc.) are absolutely my weakness.

I'm currently working on getting new-er photos up on my product page at the moment. I also re-did the descriptions, so I think it's fine at the moment.

Does anyone have any recommendations or advice?

View attachment 14631


Well, you need to be running ppc ads full out. This is one of the best ways to get initial traction on Amazon.

What have you done so far with ads?


New pictures can definitely improve your sales a lot. They 10x'd my sales overnight, back when i was getting started.
 

QDF

Gold Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
401%
Jan 1, 2014
363
1,454
Well, you need to be running ppc ads full out. This is one of the best ways to get initial traction on Amazon.

What have you done so far with ads?


New pictures can definitely improve your sales a lot. They 10x'd my sales overnight, back when i was getting started.

+1

1. Optimize your listings for the highest possible conversion rate. Top notch photos. Clear benefits. Rock-solid Guarantee. Targeted title and description. Etc.
2. Decide on the highest traffic and most targeted keywords for your product - the ones you want to rank for. You likely already have.
3. Lower your products price temporarily (optional), and run manual PPC campaigns for these exact search terms, even if it's only $5 a day. Don't worry about if they're profitable - that's not what this is for. This gives Amazon specific data (CTR, conversion rates, etc.) that's critical to their ranking algorithm for these search therms, allowing you to rank faster. Lowering your price just boosts your conversion rate temporarily until you rank higher. You can turn off the ads after it boosts your rankings if you want.
4. Set up a great follow up email sequence with your customers to accumulate great reviews. Reviews make a huge difference in converting more customers. I send 3 emails offering to help with any problems, and asking for feedback/reviews.

Do all of these things, and I'd be extremely surprised if you didn't hit the $1,000 mark easily. If not, I'd recommend switching to a larger market if you've been at this one for a while, taken the necessary steps, and don't see a lot more sales.
 

magnificent

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
71%
Jan 15, 2013
79
56
Los Angeles
@Valor @amp0193

Thanks for the input guys!

So here's what I did.

I tinkered with ads a few months back and then for a couple days recently (a few days ago)

I have two brands under my belt. Brand A is new, brand B is old

I recently lowered the price on brand A (putting it on sale), which is actually selling more than usual.

Brand B is what I ran the ads for and here are the results (lifetime). Ran on manual with 10 keywords. Looking to definitely lower the ACoS.



snapshot3.PNG

Do you guys use a specific tool to see which keywords are doing well? Also, they're both in pretty huge markets.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.
Last edited:

Roli

Platinum Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
160%
Jun 3, 2015
2,061
3,301
@Valor @amp0193

Thanks for the input guys!

So here's what I did.

I tinkered with ads a few months back and then for a couple days recently (a few days ago)

I have two brands under my belt. Brand A is new, brand B is old

I recently lowered the price on brand A (putting it on sale), which is actually selling more than usual.

Brand B is what I ran the ads for and here are the results. Ran on manual with 10 keywords. Looking to definitely lower the ACoS.



View attachment 14634

Do you guys use a specific tool to see which keywords are doing well? Also, they're both in pretty huge markets.

I use Keyword Inspector, I think you can get a free trial and thereafter you can spend £20, dollars or Euros depending where you are for, I think 30 credits or you can sign up for that amount monthly.

Also if your product is of a decent value, work on getting 10 4-5 star reviews up. Obviously mine your pool of family and friends first (many will be happy to pay full price) then check out some of the review sites out there. Amazon don't allow for "gifted reviews" so you'll have to keep it external.

Get into using one keyword per ad group, so much easier when it comes to making changes and remembering where you're at with them.
 

magnificent

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
71%
Jan 15, 2013
79
56
Los Angeles
I use Keyword Inspector, I think you can get a free trial and thereafter you can spend £20, dollars or Euros depending where you are for, I think 30 credits or you can sign up for that amount monthly.

Also if your product is of a decent value, work on getting 10 4-5 star reviews up. Obviously mine your pool of family and friends first (many will be happy to pay full price) then check out some of the review sites out there. Amazon don't allow for "gifted reviews" so you'll have to keep it external.

Get into using one keyword per ad group, so much easier when it comes to making changes and remembering where you're at with them.

Thanks! I do have 8 reviews up, of which 6 are verified, and also a follow up e-mail asking for a review.

For Keyword Inspector, are you referring to the reverse ASIN search? Is that what determines which keywords are used that my sales consisted of?
 

Roli

Platinum Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
160%
Jun 3, 2015
2,061
3,301
Thanks! I do have 8 reviews up, of which 6 are verified, and also a follow up e-mail asking for a review.

For Keyword Inspector, are you referring to the reverse ASIN search? Is that what determines which keywords are used that my sales consisted of?

Exactly, so if you run reverse ASINs on your competitors, basically the top sellers, you'll see the keywords they're ranking for and what KI suggests you should be using.

It's a nice tool, to be honest, I haven't used its full potential yet. That's great that you have the reviews up, my other tips would be:

Make sure the description doesn't sound like an infomercial.

Make the bullet points as keyword rich as possible, whilst still making them make sense.

Make sure the title has the main keywords first, before the make/brand.

Make sure you have a minimum of 6 nice images.

Try and get a demo video in there, if relevant.

Use promos to bleed sales in; 300 sales in a day is not as good as the same amount spread over a week/10 days, as far as the ranking algo is concerned.

Other than that, it sounds like you should be giving me advice :p
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

magnificent

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
71%
Jan 15, 2013
79
56
Los Angeles
Exactly, so if you run reverse ASINs on your competitors, basically the top sellers, you'll see the keywords they're ranking for and what KI suggests you should be using.

It's a nice tool, to be honest, I haven't used its full potential yet. That's great that you have the reviews up, my other tips would be:

Make sure the description doesn't sound like an infomercial.

Make the bullet points as keyword rich as possible, whilst still making them make sense.

Make sure the title has the main keywords first, before the make/brand.

Make sure you have a minimum of 6 nice images.

Try and get a demo video in there, if relevant.

Use promos to bleed sales in; 300 sales in a day is not as good as the same amount spread over a week/10 days, as far as the ranking algo is concerned.

Other than that, it sounds like you should be giving me advice :p
Thank you so very much.

When you refer to demo video you mean to email it right? I have a demo video that I recently started to send out through emails recently. And since it can't be embedded in the description, I thought this was the right way to go.

Meanwhile, I'll give KI a go and do all the mentioned above.

Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk
 

Roli

Platinum Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
160%
Jun 3, 2015
2,061
3,301
Thank you so very much.

When you refer to demo video you mean to email it right? I have a demo video that I recently started to send out through emails recently. And since it can't be embedded in the description, I thought this was the right way to go.

Meanwhile, I'll give KI a go and do all the mentioned above.

Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk

When I mentioned video, I meant for your Facebook ads, plus I'm sure I've seen them on Amazon, I might be getting confused with a review video though. Basically it needs to be seen by as many people as possible, people are sold on a good demo video, I recently bought a product after seeing an amazing demo video. I quite literally couldn't click on the ad fast enough!
 

amp0193

Legendary Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
444%
May 27, 2013
3,638
16,157
United States
@Valor @amp0193

View attachment 14634

Do you guys use a specific tool to see which keywords are doing well? Also, they're both in pretty huge markets.


Amazon provides a report that gives the data breakdown for customer search terms. You can find it in Seller Central here:

Reports --> Advertising Reports --> Search Term Report


You're clicks per impressions (CTR) are incredibly low. You may be pulling in lots of high volume searches that aren't all that relevant. Perhaps you're bidding on a 1 or 2 word broad match keyword.

The search term report will tell you what customer searches are matching the keywords that you're bidding on. If there are some that are really irrelevant, then you can add them as a "negative search term" on the campaign, so your ads don't display for that term.


Also, your campaign says "10 ads". Are you advertising for 10 different products for the same keywords? This will take much much longer to have any achieve any traction in rank, as Amazon is spreading sales over 10 products. At most, you should be running ads for only as many products as Amazon will let you show on the same page of search results. In my experience, this is typically 3 ad spots, occasionally 4 spots.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

magnificent

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
71%
Jan 15, 2013
79
56
Los Angeles
Amazon provides a report that gives the data breakdown for customer search terms. You can find it in Seller Central here:

Reports --> Advertising Reports --> Search Term Report


You're clicks per impressions (CTR) are incredibly low. You may be pulling in lots of high volume searches that aren't all that relevant. Perhaps you're bidding on a 1 or 2 word broad match keyword.

The search term report will tell you what customer searches are matching the keywords that you're bidding on. If there are some that are really irrelevant, then you can add them as a "negative search term" on the campaign, so your ads don't display for that term.


Also, your campaign says "10 ads". Are you advertising for 10 different products for the same keywords? This will take much much longer to have any achieve any traction in rank, as Amazon is spreading sales over 10 products. At most, you should be running ads for only as many products as Amazon will let you show on the same page of search results. In my experience, this is typically 3 ad spots, occasionally 4 spots.

So I literally followed this: https://www.junglescout.com/blog/amazon-ppc-best-practices/

Most of all my keywords are "broad" - I haven't filled out negative keywords yet. I will look into adding negative terms into the ad.

I have 10 ads because it's a variable product. Say I'm selling a single shirt but there's different colors such as blue, red, black, brown, etc... totaling up to 10 different colors. Do you suggest I advertise only 1-3?
 

magnificent

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
71%
Jan 15, 2013
79
56
Los Angeles
When I mentioned video, I meant for your Facebook ads, plus I'm sure I've seen them on Amazon, I might be getting confused with a review video though. Basically it needs to be seen by as many people as possible, people are sold on a good demo video, I recently bought a product after seeing an amazing demo video. I quite literally couldn't click on the ad fast enough!

Oh, thank you. I'm not on FB ads yet but I am getting on it!
 

amp0193

Legendary Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
444%
May 27, 2013
3,638
16,157
United States
So I literally followed this: https://www.junglescout.com/blog/amazon-ppc-best-practices/

Most of all my keywords are "broad" - I haven't filled out negative keywords yet. I will look into adding negative terms into the ad.

I have 10 ads because it's a variable product. Say I'm selling a single shirt but there's different colors such as blue, red, black, brown, etc... totaling up to 10 different colors. Do you suggest I advertise only 1-3?


What top level category are you in? Clothing? Sports? Baby? Do each of your SKUs have their own individual Best Seller Rank? Are all 10 products on the same product page?

Variations and search rank are treated differently depending on what category you're in.

Pending the answer to those questions, my tentative advice is: Advertise only the one which sells / converts the best. You are sabotaging yourself otherwise.


Regarding the jungle scout link:

1. It's good to know how to figure out your profitable ACoS, but I'm ok with this being break even or even unprofitable while launching/ranking new products for the top 3 to 5 keywords that I know I want to rank for. The reason being, is that improved search rank will increase your organic sales. So what appears to be an unprofitable ACoS, may actually be very profitable in the long-term. The article did not take organic sale benefits into account. Also, I turn on "Bid+" on every campaign to help nail down that #1 spot all the time.

2. The article is outdated. It says that Broad match is the only kind of match available. Yikes... that hasn't been true in a long time.

I run 3 versions of each of my keywords, in a tired bidding structure.

Hotdog Buns [broad] - $0.80
Hotdog Buns [Phrase] - $1.00
Hotdog Buns [Exact] - $1.20

The resulting effect is that most of my traffic comes from exact, and it converts better too. I get very few sales from broad match on my longer running campaigns.

3. He only makes a passing remark about negative keywords... but these are essential to cleaning up your campaigns. Pull a search term report, and find any irrelevant customer search term and add it as a negative. If you're not sure if it's relevant or not, then leave it in until you have enough data to see if it's working or not.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

magnificent

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
71%
Jan 15, 2013
79
56
Los Angeles
What top level category are you in? Clothing? Sports? Baby? Do each of your SKUs have their own individual Best Seller Rank? Are all 10 products on the same product page?

Variations and search rank are treated differently depending on what category you're in.

Pending the answer to those questions, my tentative advice is: Advertise only the one which sells / converts the best. You are sabotaging yourself otherwise.


Regarding the jungle scout link:

1. It's good to know how to figure out your profitable ACoS, but I'm ok with this being break even or even unprofitable while launching/ranking new products for the top 3 to 5 keywords that I know I want to rank for. The reason being, is that improved search rank will increase your organic sales. So what appears to be an unprofitable ACoS, may actually be very profitable in the long-term. The article did not take organic sale benefits into account. Also, I turn on "Bid+" on every campaign to help nail down that #1 spot all the time.

2. The article is outdated. It says that Broad match is the only kind of match available. Yikes... that hasn't been true in a long time.

I run 3 versions of each of my keywords, in a tired bidding structure.

Hotdog Buns [broad] - $0.80
Hotdog Buns [Phrase] - $1.00
Hotdog Buns [Exact] - $1.20

The resulting effect is that most of my traffic comes from exact, and it converts better too. I get very few sales from broad match on my longer running campaigns.

3. He only makes a passing remark about negative keywords... but these are essential to cleaning up your campaigns. Pull a search term report, and find any irrelevant customer search term and add it as a negative. If you're not sure if it's relevant or not, then leave it in until you have enough data to see if it's working or not.

Hey man, thanks, and yes, all 10 products are on the same product page.

I just looked at the individual best seller's rank, and realized just right now that they do in fact have their own rank (I didn't even know this). I thought it was all under one umbrella!

Regarding your ads, you have 3 manual ads running with broad, phrase, and exact keywords right? Or did you kill broad & phrase because [exact] was converting significantly better?

On a side note, I surpassed my stubborn $650 peak two nights ago which totally caught me by surprise. And it was all organic, without ads.
 

amp0193

Legendary Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
444%
May 27, 2013
3,638
16,157
United States
Hey man, thanks, and yes, all 10 products are on the same product page.

I just looked at the individual best seller's rank, and realized just right now that they do in fact have their own rank (I didn't even know this). I thought it was all under one umbrella!

Ok, definitely only one run ad. Probably for whichever one normally displays in the search results.

Regarding your ads, you have 3 manual ads running with broad, phrase, and exact keywords right? Or did you kill broad & phrase because [exact] was converting significantly better?

I have one campaign per product. I run all keywords in one ad group, and each keyword has 3 different forms with 3 different bids.

I never stop them, it's just that as I add more and more negative keywords broad and phrase come up with less search matches.

I'll add high performing search terms from broad match to phrase and exact keywords. This is another reason for my sales filtering up to the exact match keywords.

On a side note, I surpassed my stubborn $650 peak two nights ago which totally caught me by surprise. And it was all organic, without ads.

Glad to hear it man, now get to 1000
 

magnificent

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
71%
Jan 15, 2013
79
56
Los Angeles
Ok, definitely only one run ad. Probably for whichever one normally displays in the search results.



I have one campaign per product. I run all keywords in one ad group, and each keyword has 3 different forms with 3 different bids.

I never stop them, it's just that as I add more and more negative keywords broad and phrase come up with less search matches.

I'll add high performing search terms from broad match to phrase and exact keywords. This is another reason for my sales filtering up to the exact match keywords.



Glad to hear it man, now get to 1000

Thank you so much.

Is it alright if I message you sooner or later when I hit a road block?

I recently changed up the descriptions and that seems to rack in sales, and I haven't put up new photos yet.

Currently working to get to 1,000. Not too far a reach I'm hoping.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

amp0193

Legendary Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
444%
May 27, 2013
3,638
16,157
United States
Thank you so much.

Is it alright if I message you sooner or later when I hit a road block?

I recently changed up the descriptions and that seems to rack in sales, and I haven't put up new photos yet.

Currently working to get to 1,000. Not too far a reach I'm hoping.

Message me anytime.

I like to help "do-ers" which you seem to be!

Changing up bullets/description/title can help with search rank for relevant keywords, which might be the cause of your increase in sales.

You could always look at the daily reports and see if you either got an increase in traffic or an increase in conversion rate, to know for sure.
 

magnificent

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
71%
Jan 15, 2013
79
56
Los Angeles
Message me anytime.

I like to help "do-ers" which you seem to be!

Changing up bullets/description/title can help with search rank for relevant keywords, which might be the cause of your increase in sales.

You could always look at the daily reports and see if you either got an increase in traffic or an increase in conversion rate, to know for sure.

Really appreciate it.

Been pretty much 0 for a few days. Just got the ads running up right now at $10/daily budget with exact keywords.

Regarding the daily reports, it says it's "currently unavailable" and to check back later after a minutes, but still I get the same message. Is there a way around that?
 

amp0193

Legendary Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
444%
May 27, 2013
3,638
16,157
United States
Really appreciate it.

Been pretty much 0 for a few days. Just got the ads running up right now at $10/daily budget with exact keywords.

Regarding the daily reports, it says it's "currently unavailable" and to check back later after a minutes, but still I get the same message. Is there a way around that?

Are you hitting that $10 each day? I'd increase it if you want to get data and optimize faster.

Not sure on the reports. If it persists call seller central and get them working on it.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

magnificent

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
71%
Jan 15, 2013
79
56
Los Angeles
Are you hitting that $10 each day? I'd increase it if you want to get data and optimize faster.

Not sure on the reports. If it persists call seller central and get them working on it.
Fixed the reports. Surprisingly, turns out Chrome wasn't compatible in fetching the reports.
I just checked - and no, I didn't hit $10. The ad had spent only $8.83. Here are the results (just yesterday alone though)

shot4.PNG
 
Last edited:

Post New Topic

Please SEARCH before posting.
Please select the BEST category.

Post new topic

Guest post submissions offered HERE.

New Topics

Fastlane Insiders

View the forum AD FREE.
Private, unindexed content
Detailed process/execution threads
Ideas needing execution, more!

Join Fastlane Insiders.

Top