Imagine you are selling pre-workout supplements on Amazon.
And you've thrown some cash at two Facebook ads to get people to buy your stuff.
The appeal of the first one is 15% OFF, while the second is saying PAY 15% LESS.
But here's the kicker: one ad might be raking in the sales, while the other's just burning through your budget like it's nothing.
Problem is, you've got no clue which is which.
We've been there, throwing money at ads and just hoping for the best.
Amazon Attribution?
Think of it as your own digital detective.
It's this tool that Amazon rolled out to help sellers like us figure out exactly where our sales are coming from.
But what's the real deal with Amazon Attribution? Why's it a game-changer?
It basically lets you peek behind the curtain to see the magic—showing you which of your ads is the MVP, turning every dollar you spend into a smart move.
I'm gonna guide you through what Amazon Attribution actually does and spill the beans on seven slick ways to use it in 2024.
The idea is to stop gambling with your ad budget and start investing it where you know it'll pay off.
Like flipping on the lights in a dark room and finding the path to the treasure chest mapped out for you.
Amazon Attribution could totally flip the script on how you advertise and help make sure every cent you spend is working as hard as you are
What is Amazon Attribution?
Amazon Attribution is a powerful analytics and measurement tool that provides brands and advertisers selling on Amazon with detailed insight into how their marketing strategies across various non-Amazon channels are performing.
Not only does this provide you with valuable insight into your business, but it also allows you to make empowered decisions around what marketing channels you choose to invest in.
Where before you only knew if the traffic came from Amazon PPC or not, now you can see how much traffic your Amazon Facebook Ads, emails, blog posts, Amazon Google Ads, etc drive to your page.
With that information at hand, you can see which channels are worth proceeding with, which ones are worth optimizing, and which ones to discontinue.
Ultimately, Amazon Attribution is an analytical tool that provides insight into how effectively non-Amazon marketing channels drive external traffic to Amazon.
This is a tool that sellers have been waiting years for but why? What can Amazon Attribution do for you?
Who can use Amazon attribution?
Amazon Attribution is currently available for:
- Professional Sellers Enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry: This refers to sellers on Amazon who have registered their brand with Amazon's Brand Registry service to protect their intellectual property and have access to enhanced marketing tools.
- Vendors: These are businesses that sell their products wholesale to Amazon, which then resells them to consumers. They are part of Amazon's retail program.
- KDP Authors: Authors who use Kindle Direct Publishing to publish their books can use Amazon Attribution to understand how their marketing strategies outside Amazon contribute to their book sales on Amazon.
- Agencies with Clients Who Sell Products on Amazon: Marketing or advertising agencies that manage campaigns for clients selling products on Amazon can access Amazon Attribution to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns for those clients.
Amazon Attribution vs Amazon Brand Referral Bonus Program
Amazon Attribution and the Amazon Brand Referral Bonus program are two initiatives by Amazon that both aim to help sellers and brand owners drive and track traffic to their Amazon listings, but they serve different purposes and have distinct benefits.
Here are the differences between the two:
Amazon Attribution is a measurement tool that allows sellers, authors, and agencies to understand the impact of their off-Amazon marketing efforts.
Amazon Brand Referral Bonus program incentivizes brand owners to drive external traffic to their Amazon listings.
By using the Amazon Attribution tags in your non-Amazon marketing campaigns, you can not only track performance but also earn a bonus (a percentage of the sales generated from the attributed traffic).
Amazon Attribution is primarily a tracking and analytics tool, whereas the Amazon Brand Referral Bonus program is an incentive program that financially rewards sellers for driving external traffic to Amazon.
While both involve using unique tags to monitor traffic and sales, the primary difference lies in the financial bonus offered by the Brand Referral Bonus program—this is not a feature of Amazon Attribution itself.
However, Amazon Attribution is a necessary tool for tracking the success of campaigns that can qualify for the Brand Referral Bonus.
How advertisers can use Amazon attribution
Here are five killer ways to use Amazon Attribution to boost your advertising game.
1. A/B Testing Ads
Example: You've got two ad creatives for your latest kitchen gadget.
Ad A shows a professional chef slicing vegetables with ease, while Ad B features a busy parent quickly preparing a healthy lunch.
Using Amazon Attribution, you assign unique tags to both Ad A and Ad B.
After a month, the data shows Ad B leads to a higher conversion rate. It turns out busy parents are your goldmine. Now you know which direction to steer your ad creative!
It's like hosting a mini-competition between your ads, and the winner takes all - all the clicks, that is.
Tailor your creative approach, swap out headlines, test different images, and figure out what really makes your audience click 'add to cart.'
2. Sifting Through Influencers
Example: You partner with two influencers; one is a well-known food blogger, and the other is a rising star on Instagram.
Both post about your gourmet spice range.
By providing them with unique tracking links from Amazon Attribution, you notice the Instagram influencer drives 50% more purchases despite having a smaller audience.
It's clear who's seasoning your sales correctly, so you decide to invest more in the Instagram partnership.
3. Make Bezos pay Zuckerberg for your ads
Blend Amazon Attribution with the Amazon Brand Referral Bonus Program.
The goal?
To get the most bang for your buck and increase what you earn from your investment.
Here's how it works: when you push ads for your products on other platforms like Facebook, you're essentially directing more traffic to your Amazon listings.
Now, when you throw the Amazon Brand Referral Bonus Program into the mix, you're looking at bagging a bonus of up to 10% on the sales your ads generate.
So, let's say you drop $100 on a Facebook ad for your gourmet coffee beans, and that ad pulls in $1,000 in Amazon sales.
Bam, you've just earned yourself a $100 bonus.
It’s like having Zuckerberg foot the bill for your ads while Bezos tops up your earnings.
Use Amazon Attribution to keep a sharp eye on how well your external ads are doing, tweak your ad strategy as needed, and rake in that bonus.
4. Which platform brings in more conversions
Example: Your trendy shoe brand launches a new sneaker line.
You spread your budget across Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok.
By setting up specific Amazon Attribution tags for each platform, you identify that Pinterest is surprisingly driving the highest number of views on your Amazon listings but TikTok is leading in actual conversions.
With this insight, you refine your strategy; focusing more budget on TikTok and rethinking your Pinterest content to improve conversions.
5. Optimize Your Funnel Like a Pro
Example: You're selling a weight loss supplement and notice through Amazon Attribution that although your sponsored search ad is getting clicked on, they're adding the product to their shopping carts, but they're not taking the final leap to purchase! What's the deal?
You investigate further and realize that the listing lacks compelling images and detailed product benefits. After optimizing your listing with attractive graphics and clearer benefits, you witness a marked improvement in conversion rates.
Amazon Attribution swoops in to clue you in on this crucial stage - the cart additions.
Seeing the gap between cart additions and purchases, you hypothesize there might be a trust issue that's causing cold feet.
Time to infuse some confidence.
You decide to sprinkle your ads with a healthy dose of social proof.
Testimonials from credible sources, endorsements from nutritionists, and real-life success stories start featuring prominently in your campaigns. You're not just selling a product; you're building a community of trust and success.
Soon enough, those carts aren't just getting filled; they're rolling all the way to checkout.
The added layer of social proof in your ads has provided just the right nudge, giving customers the assurance they need to complete their purchases.
6. Sharpen Your Targeting with Demographic Data
Imagine you have a vegan makeup line that's as kind to animals as it is to the skin. You're seeing sales, but you know they could be better. How do you get your cruelty-free foundation into more makeup bags?
That's where the demographic data from Amazon Attribution come in.
By delving into the data, you uncover a goldmine of insights:
- your buyers are predominantly city-dwelling women
- aged 18-34, and
- a hefty chunk of them are first-timers to your brand.
Armed with this knowledge, you craft ads that speak their language.
You create content that features urban backdrops, use models that resonate with the millennial mindset, and promote introductory offers targeted at newbies.
Your ads now mirror the lifestyles and values of your core demographic—because what's the point of ads if they don't connect on a personal level?
7. Mapping the Customer Journey Within Your Amazon Store
Example: So, you've got a store on Amazon full of kitchen gadgets.
You're driving traffic to your store's product tab through well-placed ads, but the big question is - what exactly happens after the click?
Here's where Amazon Attribution plays its part. It’s like having a bird's-eye view of your store, letting you see the customer journey unfold. Let's say you've made an attribution tag that directs customers to the 'product' tab of your store.
A curious cook clicks on your ad, lands on the tab, but doesn't add it to their cart right away.
Instead, they browse around, check out a couple of other gadgets, and eventually circle back to that garlic press.
Will Amazon Attribution catch that 'Add to Cart' action even though it happened through the product page and not directly from the product tab?
The answer is a resounding "Yes!"
The magic of Amazon Attribution’s 14-day, last-touch model means that as long as the purchase happened within 14 days of the click, and there wasn't another ad clicked after yours, you'll see it reflected in your reports.
Remember, though, no system is foolproof.
There might be some cart additions or sales that slip through the digital cracks.
But for the most part, Amazon Attribution gives you a pretty darn good look at customer behavior after they land in your store - all the way from initial curiosity to finally hitting 'Buy Now.'
You can observe how customers move through your store, which items catch their eye, and what ultimately convinces them to make a purchase.
What Are Amazon Attribution Tags?
Attribution tags can be a helpful tool in identifying what advertising channels your customers are responding to, among other things.
Amazon defines attribution tags as “parameterized URLs that measure click-throughs and attribute conversions and sales of their product on Amazon”.
All of that technical speak just to say that Attribution Tags are links to your product page that Amazon can track.
In order to take advantage of these tags you simply generate the URL in your Amazon Attribution account.
Then you place that URL in your blog posts, on your social, in your ad, email or any other avenue you use to drive traffic to your page.
Once a customer clicks on that URL, Amazon is then able to track all of their moves, providing you with valuable metrics to help run your business effectively.
Once you have set up your Amazon Attribution account, it is pretty simple to begin generating URLs. It’s as easy as:
- Choosing the advertiser name you want to generate the URL for
- Select “New Order”
- Select “Upload a File” if you are creating a Google Ad, then follow the instructions. For anything else, select “Set up and Order”.
- Select the product you are linking to from your list of products.
- Proceed to scroll down the page and give the order a name and ID to make it easily identifiable then select “Continue to Line Items”.
- From the drop-down menu, select where you want to place your link.
- Select “Click-through URL”
- On your Amazon page, copy the URL for the specific product you want to advertise and paste it in the Click-through URL box.
- Hit the “Create” button and a URL will be generated for you.
From there you simply copy the URL and past it into whatever channel you previously selected in the drop-down menu.
Now you can track all the traffic that comes to your page!
What Does Amazon Attribution Track?
Once you have your Amazon Attribution tags in their respective places (ie: paid ads, social, email, blog posts etc.) you can begin tracking valuable information including:
- Detailed page views. This is the number of people who have visited your Amazon page through that specific link.
- Add to Cart. Know how many of those visitors added something to their cart, whether they bought it or not.
- Purchases. Know exactly what each customer purchases and where they were directed to your page from.
- Impressions. This shows you how many times your ad was viewed, even if it was not clicked on.
- Purchase Rate. Understand which of your products sells the best and how often customers are buying.
This information is so important to help you know which off-Amazon marketing ventures are worth continuing and which to discontinue.
For instance, if you begin noticing that a lot of your customers are being driven through your Facebook links but not so much from your email marketing links, this might be a sign to discontinue your email marketing channel and optimize your Facebook ads.
Creating a positive ROI on your off-Amazon marketing efforts is the best way to positively affect your business through Amazon Attribution.
How to Set up Amazon Attribution?
Now that you understand all the ways that Amazon Attribution can help grow your Amazon business, you are probably wondering how much does it cost and how you can take advantage.
Well, good news for small business owners as Amazon Attribution is currently being offered for free!
You can get started here by filling out a signup form.
Once you have been approved for Amazon Attribution you can get started creating tags and using them to track movement on your page.
Benefits of Using Amazon Attribution.
If for some reason, you still don’t see how this tool can help your business, let’s review some of the most obvious benefits.
First, Amazon Attribution helps you identify which of your off-Amazon marketing channels are the most valuable, and which are not worth investing in.
In the past, it has been hard to calculate your return on investment for your external marketing channels, especially if you have more than one.
Attribution gives you a clear picture of which ones are profitable, which ones may need some tweaking, and which need to be eliminated.
Another benefit to using Amazon Attribution is that it allows you to better optimize your existing campaigns.
If you notice that your traffic is coming from one demographic more than others, you can use that information to optimize your other marketing channels to appeal to the easily convertible demographic.
Finally, when you are able to direct your marketing channels in the right directions, this inevitably converts to more sales, which is kind of the point in the first place!
Conclusion
Operating your Amazon page with blinders on is a thing of the past now thanks to Amazon Attribution. It used to be that you could make use of every external advertising avenue possible but you were never sure which ones were paying off, so to speak. Now, not only can you see where your traffic is coming to your page from, but you can see what they are buying, thinking about buying, and much more
Now that you’ve seen how easy Amazon Attribution is to use, all the ways it can benefit your business, and how it can help increase profitability, all that’s left is for you to sign up and take advantage of all these benefits while it’s still free!
