Thanksgiving is this week, and you know what that means: Black Friday and Cyber Monday—a day on which shoppers spent $3.45 billion in 2016!—are right around the corner. Hopefully, you’ve been following the tips we posted here to ready your Private Label Amazon store for the holidays. If you haven’t, don’t panic! All hope is not yet lost. Here are 4 last-minute tips to help your store flourish this Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Sponsored Products
Amazon’s pay per click (PPC) program is called “Sponsored Products.” Sponsored Products allows your listings to appear on page 1 of search results as well as within individual product listings pages. With all the competition for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, this is especially beneficial to your store. Even if you don’t normally participate in PPC, now is a great time to run a Sponsored Products campaign: According to Amazon, for every $1 spent on a Sponsored Products ad campaign from Black Friday to Mid-December 2015, an average of $12.67 profit was generated. (If you need an overview of how to maximize the efficiency of your Sponsored Products campaign, see our previous posts here and here.)
Keywords and Search Terms
When running your Sponsored Products campaign, it’s very important to check (and double-check!) your keywords and search terms to make sure you aren’t overspending on clicks that don’t convert. To run this report from the Seller Central dashboard, navigate to Reports→Advertising Reports→Search Term Reports:
Check the performance of each keyword, like how many clicks were generated, and how many clicks were converted into sales. Get rid of any keywords that are irrelevant to your product, i.e. generating many clicks, but low (or no) sales.
Lightning Deals
Lightning Deals are time-sensitive (usually, 4-6 hour) deals advertised on the Amazon Deals page. Customers will be specifically checking the Amazon Deals page for Black Friday and Cyber Monday special offers, so it’s a great idea to participate if you have eligible products in your store. To see which of your products are available to list as Lightning Deals, navigate to your Seller Central dashboard. Under “Advertising,” select “Lightning Deals.” On this page, a list of Amazon recommended products from your store will be displayed. Take note: Not all products are available for listing as Lightning Deals. In addition, only Professional Sellers are eligible to create Lightning Deals.
Think Mobile
Everyone nowadays has a smartphone, and there’s no doubt shoppers will be using their smartphones to partake in the Black Friday and Cyber Monday festivities. In 2016, $1.2 billion in mobile revenue was generated by Black Friday shoppers, so make sure you check to see that your listings are properly displayed on mobile as well as on your desktop display.
It’s not too late to get a crash course on Private Label sales so you don’t miss out on this year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday revenue! Our 5 Day Fast Track Bootcamp to Private Labeling Training Series will put you on the path to success just in time. You can also sign up for our private Facebook page, where you can pick the brains of like-minded entrepreneurs, or just get some encouraging words if you’re feeling stressed in the Private Label journey to success. We want to help you this holiday season, so come join us!
