Amazon is crowded with sellers. There are more than 2 million SMBs selling on the platform. On top of that, the largest online marketplace added nearly 3700 sellers daily in 2021.
From this, we can imagine how fierce the competition would be on the platform.
To put things into perspective, check out the number of products ranking for a simple search:
Gaining discoverability for your ASINs when the competition is as dense as this can be tough.
Product discoverability is an essential requirement for success on Amazon. And since more than 90% of Amazon SMBs are profitable, we can assume as tough as it may be, gaining product discoverability is not impossible.
All you need is the right set of discoverability-driving strategies, and you should be good to go.
In this blog, you will find out the two paths that can bring your products discoverability on Amazon. But before that, let's talk about what discoverability is and why you need it so bad.
ASIN Discoverability and Its Importance
Discoverability defines how easy it is for your product or brand to get found on Amazon.
Visibility is one of the critical requirements for success on Amazon. And discoverability brings visibility.
Understanding why discoverability is important is pretty simple.
You won't get any sales unless your product is visible – discoverable – on Amazon.
75% of shoppers come to Amazon to discover new products. But these shoppers mostly stick to the first two or three search engine results page. And therefore, your products or brand needs to appear there in order to be discoverable.
Apart from visibility, product discoverability also drives consideration, traffic, and sales.
Therefore, a lack of discoverability may bring with it a drop in page/store traffic, a decline in sales, and stagnation of your inventory. These are the perfect ingredients for revenue loss and potential business failure.
So, while you work on creating awesome products to sell on Amazon, you also need a strategy to drive discoverability for these ASINs so they can be found by your prospects and generate an ROI.
We talked about the why of discoverability. Now let's talk about the how.
How to Improve Your Product Discoverability on Amazon?
Discoverability comes when your products are visible where your prospects are looking for them. In our case, that's mostly Amazon SERP or relevant product pages.
There are only two possible ways to get your products or brand to appear in these places. And we will discuss them both below.
Amazon Discoverability Path 1: Amazon Advertising
Amazon has a diverse advertising ecosystem. From running your typical PPC ads to driving more complicated DSP campaigns, the platform empowers you to choose how you want to advertise your brand and products on the platform.
Amazon sponsored ads function like your typical PPC ads. There are two core types of such ads that can help drive ASIN discoverability on the platform. These include Amazon sponsored product ads and sponsored display ads.
Sponsored product ad:
Sponsored display ad:
Sponsored product ads help your products appear in the highly-visible spaces on the SERPs. Sponsored display ads, on the other hand, drive ASIN discoverability by serving display ads to a relevant audience on and off Amazon.
Amazon DSP advertising helps you serve programmatic ads in numerous Amazon-native and non-Amazon digital spaces to drive brand awareness and consideration.
PPC and DSP, both types of ads, can be extremely helpful in making your products more discoverable on the platform.
A children's apparel brand used sponsored product ads to boost sales for its newly launched products. These ads drove excellent visibility, because of which the brand experienced a 2x increase in sales and 1900% more ROI.
However, Amazon advertising needs a monetary investment. And if you are not looking to add to your ad spend at the moment, consider going the other path.
And the other path is:
Amazon Discoverability Path 2: Organic Ranking
66% of people shop on Amazon because they can find everything they need on the platform. Part of the credit for such product discoverability goes to Amazon's exceptional search algorithm.
Search is one of the most common ways people look for products on Amazon.
Searching for something on Amazon brings back SERPs filled with a mix of sponsored and organic listings. If you don't want to go the sponsored route, you will have to gain ASIN discoverability organically.
Here's how you can go about doing that:
Prioritize Keyword Research
Amazon's organic product search is largely reliant on keywords.
Keywords are these phrases relevant to your products that help Amazon's algorithm find relevance between your ASIN and the users' search term.
And since relevance is one of the key Amazon ranking factors, having the right keywords for each product in your portfolio is important.
You can start looking for the right keywords using Amazon's search box. Just type in your seed keyword (this could be what your product is like water bottles), and Amazon will come up with suggestions.
Then you can use a keyword research tool to gain data on these suggestions and build a finetuned list of product keywords. Just make sure you use a tool dedicated to Amazon keyword research. This will help you have reliable and relevant data to support your keyword list.
It is often recommended to go for short-tail keywords when looking to drive ASIN discoverability because they have a high search volume. But these keywords also have higher competition. So they may be difficult to rank higher for.
In this case, you can go for long-tail keywords with lower search volume and low competition but promise higher conversions. Higher sales can eventually influence your organic rank.
Check out the drastic drop in number of products when we switched from short-tail to more specific, long-tail keywords:
Apart from these front-end keywords, find backend keywords and include them in your product listing as well.
Backend keywords are not directly visible to human buyers, but the search algorithm sees them. So they can help build relevance with the search terms.
Be sure to go through the search term guide before including them in your listing.
Product Listing Optimization
All the effort you make during keyword research is so you can optimize your product listing better.
So, knowing how to perform product listing optimization is critical to make sure your keyword research efforts and chances of discoverability aren't destroyed.
A bunch of core areas that matter when it comes to optimizing your product listing. These include (but are not limited to):
Listing title
Product description
Product images
Include relevant keywords in your product title. But don't overstuff. Make sure your product title reads naturally and is enticing enough to get clicks.
As for the product description, make sure it includes detailed information about your product and sells it in the best light. Sprinkle relevant keywords throughout the product description while maintaining good readability.
Also, work on including A+ content on your product listing. Amazon claims it can increase sales by 3-10%. And more sales mean better organic rank.
Don't forget to work on your product listings' key features or bullet points.
Finally, your product listing would be incomplete without product images. Upload high-quality product images to your listing. Make sure these images show your product from all angles and uplift the user experience.
Work on Getting More Customer Reviews
70% of global customers trust online reviews. But apart from building trust and driving conversions, customer reviews also directly influence your organic rank.
Therefore, you must prioritize gaining customer reviews when building ASIN discoverability.
Easier said than done? We know.
Gaining customer reviews is tricky. Especially when launching new products. Here are a few ways you can start collecting Amazon ratings:
Use the "request a review" button to reach out to customers who have purchased your products.
Build an email automation sequence to follow up with your buyers and request a product review.
Sign up for Vine. Amazon Vine helps brands get their products reviewed by customers. But you may have to pay a fee, and your product must have fewer than 30 reviews to qualify for Vine.
Ensure Stock Availability
Amazon inventory tends to have an impact on organic ranking because the platform ranks products that are in stock.
So, as you work on gaining ASIN discoverability organically, ensure you have enough product inventory.
Final Words
ASIN discoverability defines how findable your product is on Amazon. Gaining visibility, whether organically or through ads, help drive product discoverability. However, it is important to note that discoverability is just one part of the Amazon success puzzle.
Therefore, while you focus on gaining discoverability by making your products or brand more visible, don't forget to work on other aspects of your Amazon business, like product quality, marketing, and an efficient supply chain.
At Accrue, we help businesses like yours build effective product and brand discoverability through paid or organic routes, whatever fits the brand best and work on strategies that promise to uplift your business as a whole.
Ready to discuss your marketplace growth strategy? Talk to us now!