The Amazon Honeymoon Period: Making the Most of the First Four Weeks of Your Amazon Product Launch

Amazon sellers know that the first four weeks of any new product launch are an important — perhaps the most important — factor in determining the long-term success of the product.

The honeymoon period won’t necessarily make or break your launch. But it will set the tone for what’s to come. With a strategic approach to keyword selection and optimization, however, sellers can make the most of this critical window. 

That was one of the key takeaways from a recent workshop led by Tim Jordan, CSO of Carbon6, and Brandon Young, CEO of Seller Systems. In the Launch & Scale Profitably in 2023 workshop, these two Amazon experts shared game-changing insights on launching products the right — and the profitable — way. Check out the full workshop video at the end of the article!

What is the Amazon Honeymoon Period?

The honeymoon period is the unofficial name for the first four weeks after a product’s launch.

And it’s an extremely significant period of time, according to Young. During this time, he says, Amazon determines where your product belongs among your competition.

The marketplace behemoth considers several performance metrics, including click-through rate, conversion rate, and total revenue, during the honeymoon period to figure out how your product and sales initiatives stack up against your competitor’s listings.

How do they decide who to compare you to? 

That depends on what your listing looks like. The way you write your title, bullets, and description, as well as how you use keywords to boost your listing, all establish your relevancy to who Amazon views as your competition.

How To Make the Most of Your Amazon Product Launch

Because Amazon’s competitor comparison during the honeymoon period matters to your listing rank beyond the first four weeks, it’s vital to be as prepared as possible. Let’s take a look at some of the ways you can be ready. 

Conduct Keyword Research — Before You Launch

Your listing’s aesthetics certainly play a role in driving conversions, but your keyword strategy is what drives customers to your product.

Young is a strong advocate of good keyword research — and not just at the listing creation stage. He ensures keyword research drives every decision: “Good keyword research is the foundation of everything that we teach and do because we do everything based on data. It's a binary system that says you either do it or don't.”

Conducting keyword research before you buy into a product can tell you:

• How many competitors there are within your category.
• Where there are gaps in keyword rankings.
• Where opportunities exist for beating the competition.

The key to optimizing your listing keywords during your product launch? Finding the right keywords well ahead of the honeymoon period.

Always Be Optimizing

The honeymoon period is all about building momentum to ensure your product stays successful through months two, three, and beyond. 

That’s why it’s critical, Young says, to use the honeymoon period to continually monitor and tweak your listing.

Figure out which root words and sub-root words are performing better than others, then apply these learnings to your listing to maximize your growth potential.

Constantly work on your product listing by developing new content, A/B testing different main images, experimenting with price points, and more. Determining which tactics work now will prepare you for when the honeymoon period is over. 

Keep an Eye on Your TACoS

One of the best metrics to monitor during your honeymoon period to gauge success isn’t revenue or cost, but your Total Advertising Cost of Sales, or TACoS.

Why? 

Young says that cost is a less-effective metric because monitoring it forces you to turn off campaigns and try to reach profitability, which is a surefire way to slow down organic growth. If left to run on their own, those campaigns could be propping up keyword ranks.

TACoS, on the other hand, compares your total marketing spend against your total revenue to give you a percentage. The lower the percentage, the better.

A low TACoS is ideal, Young explains, but during a launch, you should aim for an almost untapped TACoS, since marketing — not organic ranking — is the only way to build initial growth. 

His suggestion? Shoot for less than 60% TACoS, depending on how aggressive your niche is and how much you’re spending within it.

What To Do When You Missed Your Product Launch Window

Have you already started your product launch? Did your launch not go to plan? Have you missed the Amazon honeymoon period entirely?

All is not lost!

While the honeymoon period is the easiest time to build ranking and gain a foothold, it’s not the only way to succeed. 

After the first four weeks, you can still make impactful changes to your listing’s ranking by optimizing for the right keywords and making adjustments to lower your TACoS percentage. It might take a month or more to see results, but the time — and the ad spend and possible FBS storage fees — will be worth it.

ICYMI: Brandon Young and Tim Jordan Talk Profitability