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Amazon Attribution: A Great Idea with a Crucial Flaw
When the beta version of Amazon Attribution was released in April 2021, any brand registered third-party or first-party seller could sign up to gain access to crucial data on their off-Amazon-to-Amazon marketing. By implementing attribution tags on external ads, sellers could discover full-funnel advertising analytics with metrics including clicks, detail page views, Add to Carts, and sales.
This sensational tool has helped sellers optimize their off-Amazon advertising by learning which ads get click-throughs and conversions.
Unfortunately, there was one critical flaw in the system: when shoppers clicked an ad that sent them to your product listing, Amazon would show products from your three biggest competitors at the top of the page. This severely hurt conversions; sellers were furious to find out that they essentially paid for customers to buy somebody else’s products.
It wasn’t long before sellers noticed that sending traffic to their Brand Store page avoided the competitor suggestions. This workaround was far from sufficient, though.
Shoppers who clicked an ad for a specific product were sent to a general page which might not show that product anywhere near the top, nor would that specific item stand out from the rest of the products on the page. Ultimately, conversions still suffered by not being able to send people to the product listing they were most interested in.
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A Game-Changing Update to Attribution
On August 9, 2022, Amazon sent an email titled “You’ve asked, we’ve listened- Detail Page enhancement beta live now.” Here’s what they had to say:
They were serious; Amazon absolutely listened and they made things right.
From now until the end of the year, you can push traffic directly to your product pages with zero competitors at the top of your listing. Not only does this incentivize shoppers to become your loyal customers, but conversions should go up, which should lower your ACOS for off-Amazon traffic.
It gets even better for sellers. The email goes on to say:
Currently, Amazon US is the only marketplace that offers the 10% Brand Referral Bonus. Other marketplaces like Canada, Mexico, and EU have the tracking capability, but no bonus as of this writing. Still, with America being such a massive market, sellers have every reason to go all-in on Google Ads attribution links for the rest of the year.
Utilizing Attribution Tools for External Campaigns
Amazon Attribution is an invaluable tool because it lets you know what shoppers do once they get to Amazon from your ads. Of course, this is only one piece of the total picture that sellers need to judge the success of their external campaigns. That’s why top sellers have relied on PixelMe’s attribution technology since before Amazon Attribution even existed.
With this software at your fingertips, you can create, launch, and optimize ads for Google, Facebook, and TikTok, all in one easy-to-use platform. Most importantly, PixelMe lets you create retargeting audiences from everyone who clicks your link - data that Amazon desperately wants to keep for itself.
Combining the insights from Amazon Attribution and PixelMe will empower sellers to create high-ROAS campaigns and product launches by targeting high-intent shoppers.
What Does the Future Hold for Amazon Attribution?
Sellers have been questioning if Amazon Attribution is here to stay. Even though it is still in beta, Amazon is improving its features, and they have been genuinely interested in making it a tool that sellers want to use.
The effort spent on incentivizing sellers to bring off-Amazon traffic is a very wise idea on Amazon’s part, and suggests that Attribution is indeed going to become a permanent fixture.
There’s a minor disappointment that the Brand Referral Bonus only applies to the US market, and there is some concern that it may also lower to 5%, or even 0% eventually. Still, we are hopeful that they will bring a BRB to more marketplaces, rather than removing the one they have. This would show their interest in driving continuously more off-Amazon traffic from more parts of the world.
As Amazon sellers, it has never been more important to bring off-Amazon traffic to your listing, and it has never been more profitable. It’s been proven to increase your on-Amazon organic ranking, leading to many more on-Amazon sales. The people who adopt this earliest will win the most.
