Many sellers on Amazon don’t have a strategy around their promotion and discounts.
However, if used correctly, tools such as coupons and lightning deals can help you move inventory quickly, increase organic ranking, and increase your net profit quickly.
Today, we’ll talk about how to best use coupons and deals to drive an increase in marketshare and net profit.
In this Tips edition, I’ll cover
- What are Coupons?
- Benefits
- How to incorporate these tools into your marketplace strategy
What are Amazon Coupons?
Coupons on Amazon are a great way to stand out in search results. When browsing search results, you will see a green banner at the bottom of certain listings. This indicates a coupon is running on these products.
When you click through to the listing, the coupon will appear underneath the price. Note that customers have to click to apply the coupon.
This is important because many customers will NOT click the coupon. But you’ll still get the benefits of the coupon badging in the search results.
For each coupon you create, you have to set a desired budget. Amazon charges sellers $0.60 for every coupon that is redeemed.
Benefits of Coupons
Coupons are a great way to
- Increase Click Through Rate in search results
- Increase Conversion Rate once on the listing page
Because both of these factors help influence organic ranking on Amazon, coupons can be a great tool to supplement your advertising strategy.
Coupon Strategy
The first question you should ask when using coupons is whether you should use a dollar off or percent off coupon.
Dollar vs % Off
Through extensive testing, I’ve found that dollar off typically works much better than % off coupons.
Think it through from the customer perspective – don’t make them do math about how much 6% off is.
Just say “Save $9 today using this coupon”.
Using Coupons to Improve Organic Ranking
Because coupons improve click through and conversion rate of your listing, you should be using coupons regularly to improve your organic rank.
I’ve found that coupons work particularly well in conjunction with Amazon PPC ranking campaigns on key terms.
In your Amazon Ads, focus on 3 – 5 core keywords that you want to increase organic ranking on. Bid highly and aim to drive a lot of sales through those specific terms for a period of 2- 4 weeks. Do not expect to be profitable on these campaigns
At the same time, put a coupon on the listing to increase conversion rate.
If you drive enough volume through the ads and your listing converts well, you WILL see your organic ranking increase.
Using Coupons Ahead of Big Sale Days
One of the best ways to use the above strategy is to use coupons and ranking campaigns ahead of big sales moments. This is best illustrated with an example.
You want to rank well for the competitive term “weighted hula hoop” ahead of Prime Day.
To do that, 1 month before Prime Day (important)
- Start a ranking campaign aimed at the term “weighted hula hoop” designed to drive maximal sales through that keyword.
- Set an AGGRESSIVE coupon on your listing to increase your conversion rate. I’m talking a 20-30% off coupon (in dollar terms)
In the weeks ahead of Prime Day, you will see your organic ranking increase. Continue running these campaigns until you’re in the top 4 – 8 spots for this keyword.
Then, once Prime Day arrives, turn off your ranking campaigns and reduce your coupon drastically.
This approach is incredibly powerful and can be used ahead of any event or sales day. I’ve seen especially powerful results from using this ahead of specific holidays or Q4.
2 Actionable Takeaways
Here are actionable takeaways that you can apply to your business today:
- In competitive categories, a regular coupon strategy is essential to expanding marketshare against increased competition.
- Use coupons in conjunction with ranking campaigns to increase conversion rate and organic ranking on key terms.
