Amazon Holiday Success: Boosting Sales with External Traffic

The holiday season is the most important time of year for many businesses, and Amazon is no exception, with the holiday season accounting for a significant portion of the company’s annual revenue.

Make the most of the most wonderful time of the year by driving external traffic to your Amazon listings and watching your profits fly through the roof (sorry, Rudolph). 

Why is Driving External Traffic to Amazon Important?

Driving external traffic from Google, Meta, or TikTok benefits your Amazon product listings primarily because of Amazon’s own algorithms and how they weigh the value of traffic from outside sources. In addition, external traffic drives some of Amazon’s most valued internal metrics. Here’s how:

Amazon Pays More Attention to Off-Amazon Traffic 

Amazon prioritizes off-platform traffic. When Amazon sees people clicking on your ads and links from outside Amazon, it takes that as a signal that your products are popular and relevant. It’s similar to how Google ranks content, in part by establishing value based on who is linking to the piece, as well as the overall site structure in which the piece is embedded.

Off-platform traffic can therefore get your products featured in more prominent places on the Amazon website.

Sales Velocity

Driving traffic from sources outside Amazon also has the potential to greatly increase your sales velocity, which in turn helps your product’s ranking.

Amazon defines sales velocity as the number and dollar amount of transactions during any given month. The Amazon algorithm takes this into account when ranking products, meaning the higher the sales velocity, the higher the rank.

External traffic is essential for increasing organic and paid sales velocity.

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New Audiences & Retargeting 

Beyond raw sales, building your volume of external traffic also helps attract new audiences and broaden your customer base..

During the holiday season in particular, people are shopping more than at any other time of the year. Going after off-platform traffic takes you beyond the Amazon ecosphere, to reach a wider audience of potential customers for your product – before, during, and after the holiday season.

Similarly, driving customers from external sources allows you to build a database that can be retargeted later from multiple sources including Google, social media ads, and more. 

Finally, if you’re using paid advertising to bring in new audiences, make sure to optimize those ads for conversion. This will help you attract interested customers, which is especially crucial during the holiday rush. Tools like PixelMe allow you to optimize for conversion instead of clicks, helping your business intentionally target relevant customers and make more efficient use of your ad spend.

How to Drive External Traffic to Amazon

There are a number of ways to drive external traffic to Amazon. Here are a few of the most effective methods:

• Google Ads Campaigns: Google Ads is a critical way to drive traffic to your Amazon listings. You can create targeted ads that appear when people search for products like yours on Google.
• Social Media Ads: Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok are also steady and demographically varied traffic drivers to Amazon. There, you can create lookalike and retargeting audiences for ads to appear when people who are interested in your products are scrolling through their social media feeds.
• Content Marketing: Creating content that is relevant to your target audience can also be a strong way to drive traffic to your Amazon listings, as part of a strategy that includes short term gains in clicks as well as longer benefits through organic SEO. This content can include blog posts, infographics, videos, and more. Want to learn more about how this works? Carbon6 has a library of resources touching on each of these topics. 

RELATED: Amazon Announces Return of Holiday Peak Fulfillment Fees for 2023

To maximize these strategies,, you’ll want to make sure your Amazon listings are highly optimized. This includes using relevant keywords, writing clear and concise product descriptions, as well as uploading high-quality images.

Off-Amazon Traffic: Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Maximizing your external traffic efforts means avoiding the things that can derail their effectiveness.

Here are a few to keep in mind:

• Not targeting your ads correctly. When you’re running Google, Meta, or TikTok ads, it’s important to target them correctly. This means targeting shoppers who are actually interested in the products you're selling, and avoiding keywords and audiences that offer high traffic but low conversion. 
• Not using the right keywords. When optimizing your Amazon listings, take time to research and use the right keywords. This means keywords that people are actually searching for when they're looking for products like yours. Tools like SEMRush can help. 
• Not having enough inventory. You’re driving more traffic to your listing, so make sure you’re prepared. Remember that all-important Sales Velocity? Run out of inventory and see how quickly that drops. Make sure you have enough inventory to meet demand.

TIP: Avoid stockout and overstock with a free 30-day trial of SoStocked, Carbon6’s industry-leading intelligent inventory forecasting tool. 

• Not offering competitive prices. People are more likely to buy from you if you offer competitive prices. Make sure you’re pricing your products competitively so you attract and retain customers.

By following these tips, you can drive external traffic to your Amazon listings and boost your sales during the holiday season.

RELATED: Your Amazon Super Bowl: 5 Tips for Amazon Sellers for Mastering Prime Day, Holidays, and Beyond

Give Yourself the Gift of Sales This Q4 

When it comes to the holidays, why not give yourself the gift of more sales and more profit? Here’s how you can make the most of this and every Q4: 

1. Start Planning Early
   The holiday season is a busy time, so it's important to start planning early. This will give you time to create your campaigns, optimize your listings, and get your inventory ready. How early? Every company is different but a good rule of thumb is to be ready by the time the kids are back in school.

2. Track Your Results
   It’s important to track the results of your campaigns so that you can see what’s working and what’s not. This will help you optimize your campaigns and get the most out of your investment. Remember that new audiences you create through these efforts will become the basis for hyper-efficient retargeting campaigns in Q1. 

3. Be Patient
   The holiday season is a busy time, and things can sometimes go wrong. If you’re not getting the results you want, make adjustments as needed, keep at it and be patient. The important thing is to stay focused on your objectives.

Making changes like these will be the gift that keeps on giving after the holiday peak and into the new year.