Amazon FBA Case Study: How To Scale A Flatlined Listing

Has your Amazon FBA product flatlined? Do you want to know how to bring a flatlined listing from $0 sales back to life? Our in house experts recently resuscitated a flatlined Amazon product using the latest listing optimization techniques and PPC strategies. Our experts Jon Tilley (CEO ZonGuru) and Stefan Ratchev (CTO ZonGuru) spearheaded the Amazon FBA case study challenge, and we documented the entire process for your education and benefit.

The challenge is set! Follow along with this four part video series as we cover:

1. Will it sell? What to look for when validating a product niche
2. Data optimization analysis & expert recommendations
3. PPC architecture and optimization strategies
4. Results review PLUS a surprise twist!

There is SO much information in this series, you won’t want to miss a minute! Check out video one right now or read on to see just some of the knowledge bombs our experts share that you can apply to your own Amazon FBA business. Enjoy!

How To Know What To Sell On Amazon FBA?

Identifying what to sell on Amazon is the crucial first step to FBA success. However, what happens when you already have a product, but it’s underperforming? Don’t panic. It doesn't instantly suggest you’ve picked a dud product. However, just like any struggling business venture, it’s vital to take an honest look at the current situation before investing time and financial resources into its recovery. 

For an FBA seller, this involves taking an analytical look at your product and validating the product niche. Are you selling a high-quality product that meets customer expectations? If not, let me stop you right there… You probably don’t have a product that can be ‘saved.’ Your time and resources are more likely better spent finding a niche and developing a product that will wow your customers. In this case study, our experts were able to confirm the quality of the product by its excellent ratings and customer reviews. In other words, they had a great product, but it got lost in the Amazon jungle. If you want to find out what the product is, you’ll have to keep reading!

The Must-Know Metrics For Product Niche Success 

Once you’ve verified your product’s quality, the next step is to validate the product niche. Jon and Stefan used the main buyer keyword to take a deep dive into must-know-metrics such as buyer demand, competition opportunity, investment requirements, and revenue potential. The ZonGuru Niche Rater tool made light work of this hefty task and quickly provided crucial information.

Jon and Stefan were excited about the high buyer demand (77%), revenue potential (80%), and happy to see a viable average price. An issue became apparent with the competition opportunity. This is a tightly held category with high reviews; however, on the flip side, it offers a tremendous amount of revenue potential if they engineer the listing to rank for related keywords. It is undoubtedly a difficult niche, but Jon and Stefan determined they were up for the challenge as the data confirms the product category is viable. 

Why It’s Important To ‘Health Check’ Your FBA Listing

Amazon FBA success stories all share one thing in common...they do things right! There are no cut corners or half-done listings. Care and attention to detail are taken to ensure the Amazon seller central tools available are taken advantage of and applied to maximum effect. 

In our FBA case study example, our experts did a health check on the current listing and quickly found areas for improvement:

• Is the product listed in the correct product category? 
• Does the product have a keyword-stuffed title?
• Is the brand name at the front of the title?
• Has bullet space been effectively utilized? 
• Does it feature high-quality photos at maximum resolution?
• Does the launch price cover the break-even cost?
  

Click here to find out what the case study product is and the pro tips to look out for when health checking your listing! 

Keywords: An Amazon FBA Sellers Best Friend!

Now it’s time to get serious about moving the FBA needle! So what are keywords, and why are they so important? Essentially keywords are how buyers will find your listing; they are signposts to the product and allow the listing to be discovered by your ideal customer. 

Our experts jump into ZonGuru’s supercharged Keywords on Fire tool to start curating a list of keywords for our product. Jon and Stefan recommend running two Keywords on Fire sessions to ensure a wide net is thrown, and all relevant keywords are found. To do this, they start with the most common search phrase and select relevant strong competitor listings as well as listings with higher reviews.  

Keywords on Fire provides an incredible amount of data; rather than going too far down the rabbit hole of analysis, Jon and Stefan rely on the ZG Score. The ZG Score is an algorithm combining main data points and shows how valuable a keyword is to your listing. In short, the ZG Score is your expert insight into a keyword’s relevance, and learning to trust this metric is an enormous time-saver. Using filters to refine search results, our experts swiftly curate a list of killer keywords containing high ZG Scores with only one competitor ranking in the top 25 for each keyword selected.

Why FBA Listing Optimization Is Make or Break! 

At the risk of stating the obvious, listing copy is SUPER important! This is your chance to win over a customer who may be considering purchasing your product as well as increasing the number of eyes that discover your listing in the first place. With the right know-how and tools, comprehensive listing optimization can quickly take a listing from zero to hero! 

Jon and Stefan send their keyword list to the ZonGuru Listing Optimizer tool and automatically upload the products’ current listing copy. Crafting listing copy is a soft skill that takes finesse. The experts give great tips for getting the best results from keyword placement:

• Always keep the customer front of mind
• Avoid unnecessary repetition of keywords
• The strongest keywords should be included in the title
• Back end search terms are the perfect place for residual keywords
• Check-in on your optimization score

Follow this link to understand how our pros develop a killer keyword list and craft the perfect copy to convert shoppers into buyers! 

Project PPC: Play The Long Game

Once your listing is up to scratch, it’s time to get serious about increasing the number of eyes that see your listing.  To help with this, you can use PPC: pay-per-click advertising available within your Amazon Seller login. Amazon uses an auction-style format to decide which PPC ads appear, and you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. You can find out more about the specifics of PPC and how to set up your campaign here.  

Jon and Stefan agree on one simple concept: in PPC, you’re playing the long game. When first launching a Private Label product, expect to take a loss or break even at best. This can be a hard pill to swallow at first. However, the dividends of a successful PPC campaign will far outweigh the cost long term. 

As you start converting on PPC campaigns, the algorithm will take note and begin to rank you for winning keywords organically. Remember, Amazon is there to make money, and if they see you’re consistently selling for a particular keyword, they are more likely to display your product organically. 

Are Manual or Automatic Amazon PPC Campaigns Better?

There are two different ways to target keywords: manually and automatically. Automatic keyword targeting is where Amazon scans your ASIN and comes up with its own set of keywords to target. While this saves time and may throw in keywords you didn’t think about, it doesn’t give you much control. That’s where Manual Targeting comes in.

With Manual Targeting, you import your keyword list you want to target. Using Keywords on Fire, Jon and Stefan were able to compile a list of promising keywords based on data points such as average PPC bid price, search volume, and more. Here are  the main benefits of this approach:

• You have exact control over which product niche you’re trying to rank up in by targeting keywords specific to it.
• You can target long-tail keywords A10 may have missed, helping you organically rank up thanks to The Halo Effect.
  

Should I Do Amazon Sponsored Product Campaigns?

With so many advertising options, are Sponsored Product Campaigns the best approach? To answer that question, we need to understand what Sponsored Product Campaigns are.

When a person searches for something on Amazon (let’s say “yoga mat,” for example), the first few products that appear have a small “sponsored” badge above the product name. These are Sponsored Products. That means that in exchange for paying Amazon a fee whenever your ad gets clicked on, you get top billing when someone searches for “Yoga Mat.”

Now, back to the question: are Sponsored Product Campaigns the best approach? Our experts confirm that they can target highly specific long-tail keywords and direct shoppers to a particular product by combining Manual Targeting and Sponsored Products. Let’s say that someone searches for “Thick Non Slip Hot Yoga Mat.” That means they know exactly what they want, and they’re more likely to purchase the first thing that fits their needs. With Sponsored Products and Manual Targeting, you get a much higher chance of reaching those types of customers. 

The Nitty Gritty of PPC Setup: Broad, Exact & Phrase

This step is where many beginners make a mistake, so listen up: make sure you optimize each keyword for each match type. There are three main ways Amazon matches PPC keywords:

• Broad matches are when words from a keyword phrase appear anywhere, in any order, in a listing
• Exact matches are the same keyword phrase and nothing else
• Phrase matches are identified by exact matches or close variations (such as a few words before or after the phrase) of the exact match
  

Our pros highlight that if you just throw all of your keywords into one campaign, you can’t identify how A10 identifies each keyword. To counteract this, Jon and Stefan make sure each keyword match type is separately accounted for in a separate PPC campaign; this gives them complete control to make data-centric decisions and adjust the campaign as needed.

Amazon FBA Case Study Results: Success or Stagnation?

So, this all begs the question, how did Jon and Stefan’s strategy work? And what on Earth is the product? For these answers and much more, be sure to watch the entire video series. This case study has a VERY unexpected twist in video four, we can’t tell you too much but it’s certainly a hot topic… talk about a cliffhanger! One thing we can say is there are learnings galore as the Amazon case study takes Jon and Stefan on an unplanned wild FBA ride. 

It’s not every day you gain access to top 7 figure sellers who are willing to share their learnings. Remember, ranking up isn’t an “overnight” thing. It takes time, patience, and dedication to analyze the data. The ZonGuru team is here to give you the right tools and know-how to streamline the process and get your listing back on track faster. 

Watch the complete series here. We’ll even throw in a bonus gift. When you sign up for the whole series, we’ll give you Stefan’s in-depth, step-by-step guide for crafting your PPC campaigns that get results! Head on over now.