How to expand your reach by driving offsite traffic back to Amazon

To ensure you have a holistic Amazon ads strategy you need to run ads both on and off Amazon. In doing so, you’re able to reach customers across their shopping journey and ensure your products get maximum visibility. Amazon’s Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands are great PPC ad types but are limited to placements on Amazon only. And while Amazon has a lot of real estate with tons of free space, even a very big property can get crowded eventually. When you feel like there is no more space left in your segment, it might be time to move to off-Amazon traffic to generate more visibility and capture new customers for your brand.

Why you should consider off-Amazon traffic

Amazon has the biggest market share in the retail eCommerce space (38% of all online purchases done in the US by mid-2022); however, a significant amount of shoppers still start their online shopping journey outside of Amazon. Recent data suggests that around 50% of shoppers in the US actually don’t use Amazon as the starting point of their online shopping journey. So where are they starting their shopper journeys? Many shoppers look for products in three places: search engines, other retail or brand websites, and social media.

While shoppers may not always start their journey on Amazon, a large number of shoppers still make their purchases there, with over 4.5 billion items sold on Amazon in 2023 alone. And with many shoppers ending their journey on Amazon, off-Amazon strategies that drive back to your product listings on Amazon are more important than ever.

4 off-Amazon strategies

To understand what off-Amazon strategies are the right fit for you, it is important to highlight that the best off-Amazon strategy for your product will vary according to your market, category, segment, and audience, and having a clear understanding of the strategy’s goals and success metrics is key.

The Amazon DSP

Advertising with the Amazon DSP is a powerful tool to run alongside your PPC strategy and a great way to start advertising off-Amazon. The Amazon DSP allows you to programmatically buy ads to reach audiences both on and off of Amazon, directing traffic back to Amazon pages. 

Although the Amazon DSP works similar to Sponsored Display, it offers the ability to target a much wider, more incremental audience, making it a fantastic choice for those looking to boost their brand presence, test new advertising strategies and audiences, and gain market share.

Why the Amazon DSP is a great off-Amazon tool

Amazon DSP advertising runs both on Amazon and off of Amazon placements. The five main inventories are Amazon Desktop, Amazon Mobile, Mobile App, 3P inventories, and Amazon Publisher Services.

With around 50% of the shoppers in the US not using Amazon as the starting point of their online shopping journey, the Amazon DSP is able to target those shoppers who are likely beginning their shopping journey on other search engines.

The Amazon DSP is also able to target shoppers who are at any point of the sales funnel, from the Awareness to Loyalty stages, using the audience segments that are most likely to drive conversions. Some of the main audiences used on the Amazon DSP from the top to the bottom of the sales funnel are:

1. In Market - Targeting customers who are shopping “In Market” for specific categories; for example Beauty products, Kitchen products, Home Office, etc.

2. Competitor Conquesting - Targeting customers who are viewing your competitors' product pages

3. Contextual Targeting - Targeting customers who are actively browsing similar products and categories to your promoted product

4. Cross-Selling - Targeting customers who have purchased one or more of your products, but have not yet purchased the promoted product

5. Retargeting - Targeting customers who have viewed your promoted product page, but have not yet converted

6. Remarketing - Targeting customers who have purchased your product previously, trying to interest them in other products in your catalog

We recommend using the Amazon DSP to narrow your targeting, extend your advertising reach, and drive efficiencies.

Editorial recommendations

Editorials allow advertisers to display their products on third-party publishers. The most common type of Editorial article is a product review, where an author usually compares different products within the same segment, highlighting the pros and cons of each competitor, and ranking them according to different parameters. Having a product featured in an Editorial piece helps build brand credibility and awareness. It is a great way to introduce a new audience to your brand, highlight product features, and of course, drive external traffic back to your Amazon listing.

Social media

Social media platforms (Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, etc) are powerful advertising tools and influencer marketing has transformed the way many brands promote their products. Because of their ability to make content “go viral” and target custom audiences, social media can exponentially increase the reach of a brand within a niche market, introducing it to many new shoppers. Influencers have credibility among their followers and in certain cases, an engagement rate that will surpass other marketing channels. Attribution tags allow advertisers to track the impact of the traffic that influencers send to Amazon listings.

Search engines (Google Ads)

Google is by far one of the most popular search engines, and where many people start their online shopping journey. Running Google ads helps you capture shoppers that went to Google with buyer intent. While most social media users don’t necessarily log into a platform with the desire to buy a product, many Google users do. Amazon advertisers can drive Google ads traffic back to Amazon listings by enrolling in Amazon’s Brand Referral Bonus program.

Final thoughts

The benefits of driving external traffic to Amazon go beyond capturing a broader audience, building brand reputation, and getting new-to-brand shoppers. One of the key results of running off-Amazon strategies is improving your listing reputation on Amazon. When you drive traffic back to your listings and drive conversions, you’re signaling the relevancy of your product to Amazon’s algorithm, and can help boost your organic rank. As a result, you can increase the exposure of your listing twice: by promoting it outside of Amazon (Amazon DSP, Editorials, Social Media, and Search Engines) and increasing your organic rank, gaining broader visibility to shoppers. 

To learn more about how to drive growth with off-Amazon strategies, reach out to us at hello@perpetua.io.