In this episode, Amazon algorithm expert Mark Casey shares insights on how sellers can optimize product rankings. He explains the importance of shopper behavior, external traffic, and consistent sales for Amazon’s algorithm. Mark discusses effective product launch strategies, including leveraging a shopper network, running PPC campaigns, and the significance of the FBA “honeymoon period.” He also offers tips for reviving older listings and highlights the tailored services provided by his company, House of AMZ. Listeners receive exclusive discounts on product launches and listing optimization services.

Chapters:

Introduction to Mark Casey and House of AMZ (00:00:00)
Host introduces Mark Casey, his background, and the founding of House of AMZ.

Amazon Algorithm Overview (00:01:09)
Mark explains key factors Amazon’s algorithm considers for product ranking, focusing on shopper behavior and engagement.

FBM vs. FBA Launches & Honeymoon Period (00:03:26)
Discussion on launching via FBM versus FBA, the impact on conversion rates, and the Amazon honeymoon period.

Case Study: Launching a Competitive Supplement (00:05:17)
Mark shares a case study on launching a premium supplement, emphasizing branding, graphics, and shopper feedback.

Shopper Network & Feedback Loops (00:06:41)
Explanation of using a shopper network for feedback, image testing, and optimizing listings before launch.

Long-Term Launch Strategy & Consistency (00:07:31)
Mark details a 15-30 day launch strategy with consistent daily sales and external traffic for sustainable ranking.

Combining External Traffic, Shopper Network, and PPC (00:10:07)
Discussion on integrating external traffic, shopper network purchases, and PPC campaigns for optimal product launches.

Three Actionable Takeaways for Sellers (00:10:58)
Host summarizes three key strategies: building an audience, leveraging surveys and external traffic, and revitalizing old listings.

Revitalizing Old Listings & Review Management (00:14:09)
Advice on rejuvenating older products, merging ASINs, relaunching, and managing negative reviews.

House of AMZ Services & Special Offers (00:15:29)
Mark describes House of AMZ services, special discounts for listeners, and how to contact the company.

Podcast Closing & Contact Information (00:16:41)
Final remarks, website details, and encouragement for listeners to connect with House of AMZ.

Links and Mentions:

Tools and Services
PickFu
Post Purchase Pro
ASIN Doctor

Websites
House of AMZ

Podcast Episode
Ecomm Breakthrough Podcast’s Episode with Kevin King

Transcripts:

Josh 00:00:00  Today, I’m excited to introduce you to Mark Casey. For the past seven years, Mark has studied the Amazon algorithm to understand how it works and how we can work along with it to rank products. He has traveled the world to speak and share these techniques with the largest sellers worldwide. Mark’s personal background is marketing and branding. Having brands of his own, along with his Amazon knowledge working under the nine figure brand, combining those together is how House of arms was born. Where Mark can help is to optimize your products and brand not only for the outside world, but mainly on Amazon, which is its own ecosystem in itself. So welcome to the podcast, Mark.

Mark 00:00:41  Thank you very much. Yeah. Good morning. How are you?

Josh 00:00:44  Hey, I’m doing great. Thanks again for joining me. And I apologize for my voice, both to the listeners and to yourself. I lost my voice coaching, hockey practice and yelling, shouting at the kids. because there’s multiple teams on the ice. So you have to speak relatively loud.

Josh 00:01:03  And, it did my voice in, that’s for sure. So I apologize about that.

Mark 00:01:07  Oh, good. Yeah. No worries.

Josh 00:01:09  Mark, you’ve studied the algorithm for seven years. You I would argue you would consider yourself an expert when it comes to ranking products on Amazon. So tell us, you know, can you break down the Amazon algorithm to our listeners and tell us what you are seeing that Amazon cares about when it comes to ranking products today?

Mark 00:01:31  So if you have another six hours, I could do well, I could go in depth. no. But so yeah, there’s a lot I mean, well, first of all, a lot of things change within the Amazon algorithm. Many, many things like it’s always changing, evolving and growing and it’s there’s so much to it. But what I always like to break it down and explain to people in a very simple way is that every little thing that the shopper does, Amazon takes into account, and what that means is every little thing from how you clicked and how you even got.

Mark 00:02:02  How you even got to Amazon, you know, backing up all the way there, how you got to Amazon, what keyword you search when you got there, how long like every little point in detail. So really. So we we really broke it down and saw okay. So someone goes on the listing onto Amazon. Where do they come from. Do they come from a Facebook ad. Do they come from a referral from let’s say, WhatsApp from their friend? and then once they once they’re on Amazon, what what keyword do they type in? Once they type in the keyword, how long were they on the results page for? Once you’re on the results page, what listings did they click? So meaning did they just click on yours and others? Do they go on others and then yours? Or was it just yours now and on the listing. Right. So let’s say I type in sports water bottle and I click on your listing. Now how long are you on the listing for. Is it just you saw it and you add it to cart right away and you’re done.

Mark 00:02:51  It was an instant purchase. or was it something that you engaged with the listing. So Amazon looks if they engage with the listing and they looked at the reviews and the pictures and they really invested five minutes under the listing to look at it and do everything and added it to cart. That’s where you’re going to get the success because Amazon sees that you really invest the time. So all these small little details app is what Amazon takes into account with their algorithm. And that’s what gives you kind of like the power. But there’s a lot obviously a lot more to it. But just just to break it down for you on kind of what it insists.

Josh 00:03:26  Yeah, I love that. Let’s go back to. You mentioned launching your product first via FBM, and that you’re saying that the honeymoon period doesn’t really start until it goes into FBA. So my question with that is, you know, I guess you have data to back that up. Is that true?

Mark 00:03:45  Yeah, we’ve tested it out and we’ve saw that once it hits FBA and it’s available to be shipped, then that’s when Amazon’s going to start pushing your listing.

Mark 00:03:53  Right now if it’s FBM they’re not going to push your listing. They want they want to show the results which are the people that they can click and order right now. And it’s going to get to them in two days or less.

Josh 00:04:03  Okay, so when you launch via FBM, is your conversion rate lower during that time? Because people aren’t being aren’t able to get their product in two days, right?

Mark 00:04:14  Probably would be lower, yes. Because everyone looks for that prime badge where they can just order it and get it. You get spoiled. Even me, like I get spoiled. Like, whenever I see something even like three day shipping now from, like a regular website or something, like you’re like, no, I want two days, you know?

Josh 00:04:28  Yeah, yeah. So but you’re saying that Amazon disregards all of the FBM data, right? So if you’re live on FBM for let’s say 2 to 3 weeks and then you go to FBA, you’re saying that Amazon isn’t looking at that historical data where you do have a lower conversion rate?

Mark 00:04:50  Not as much.

Mark 00:04:51  I would say. The main thing, like what we’ve seen is like once it hits FBA, that’s when we, you know, we see the honeymoon kind of take into effect. That’s what we’ve seen. Again, there’s no real data. There’s no like coming. Amazon comes in and even says, I don’t even think Amazon talks about the honeymoon period. This is all things that people can get together. So there’s no there’s no set data. But based on our experience we’ve seen that once it hits FBA, that’s kind of the golden time, you know, that we’ve seen.

Josh 00:05:17  Okay, that makes sense. so why don’t you share maybe a couple of case studies of brands that you’ve worked with or products you don’t have to share specific names, but people that came to you guys, they wanted to launch a new product. Tell us about the process you walk them through and what were the results that people saw?

Mark 00:05:36  For sure. So there are a lot of different every for every category. We always come up with different strategies, you know, based on there being competitive and not competitive.

Mark 00:05:45  I would just I’m trying to think like which ones specifically that I could, I think on top of my mind, or for example, the supplement brand, some supplements could be really competitive. But I always say when it comes to supplements, once you once you do your marketing and your and your branding and you have the right strategy, then you can be really good, you know, and that kind of feel. So they approached us with a brand new product. It was, I don’t know if I should say exactly because I respect your privacy, but it was a supplement which was in a pretty competitive field, but it had a more premium, version of it, so. Well, first of all, it’s harder because they wanted to charge a lot more than I went out. So what my idea was, is to really go strong on the graphics and on the infographics, a plus content, to kind of display that this is a more premium product and explain why. so we’ve done a very good job at doing that because we’ve gotten feedback from regular shoppers and regular people.

Mark 00:06:41  So just to add in, one of the things that I’ve created, back when I worked at the other company and I still have it now, is a shopper network, right? So when whenever we wanted to do a launch, we have a whole network of people where we can tell them, hey, buy this product, and then they’ll buy it and then we’ll reimburse them or whatnot. So part of having that, you know, that, network was really, really like, big for us was we can go back to them and ask them for feedback. based on what they think. So it’s kind of the same idea as pick foo. And we even use big for now. But like even before, pick foo kind of became a thing where I was just doing this, I’m like, hey, which image do you think is better? Which one would you click on and why? So that’s the idea. So kind of going back to the case study. So we’ve done a lot of research and kind of launched it the right way where we brought this product to market.

Mark 00:07:31  and you really have to educate the consumers. So we weren’t really strong on the graphics. displaying that properly, even the main image and whatnot. and then we started with a lot of outside traffic, and that’s a whole nother discussion which we could have, which is what Amazon looks for nowadays is 100% outside traffic. So our approach was to do whatever I mentioned before, as I gather a couple of reviews. also through vine and whatnot. once the reviews were there, we really hit the ground running, generating sales, showing Amazon consistency that every day we’re getting sales with specific keywords and building that up. So I let many people have this idea of doing 300 giveaways within eight days. Anything that’s going to launch your product, Amazon’s not stupid. Amazon knows that within eight days of products. And then day nine you’re selling 20. You know it, right? It just doesn’t make sense. What we did was more of an organic approach that was more long term. And this is kind of what we do for launches now is, is we do more of like a 15 or 30 day, kind of idea where every day we’re doing 5 to 10 pieces, but we’re we’re doing it for 30 days in a row.

Mark 00:08:39  So Amazon sees a consistency. So let’s say with this product it’s obviously not a collagen. But let’s say we do collagen. So we wanted to kind of target those keywords. So we will do five sales a day with the you know that keyword collagen. and then every single day for 30 days. And then Amazon sees kind of that consistency. And it’s not that it was just for eight days. And then you got your little, you know, time to shine and then you’re going back down. One of the big things a lot of our strategy was doing that. And on top of that, doing outside traffic, combining it together. So Amazon sees hey, you’re getting traffic off of Amazon is going on to Amazon. And you’re getting these conversions for sales that we’re able to generate. and both of those both of those together, we’re we’re pumping them up all the way to the first page and actually staying there because we thought of a more of a long term strategy as opposed to a short term like do this and, you know, and like get there within a couple of days and then you fall back down.

Josh 00:09:34  Makes sense. Makes sense. So to make sure I’m clear on your strategy, you’re reaching out to your shopper network to generate those five sales a day over, you know, 15 to 30 days. Right? So it’s a prolonged, steady influx. Is that correct?

Mark 00:09:53  Exactly. Five a day for 15 to 30 days at minimum. We have clients now that do it for 180 days. Like they just keep it rolling because they see that the long term is the way to go, and not just doing a short lunge and then just falling, and then that honestly just ruins your listening.

Josh 00:10:07  Okay. And then you’re also driving external traffic separate from the the shoppers list. Right.

Mark 00:10:15  100%. Yeah. That’s that’s also what’s like the cherry on top of the cake because that works. That works really, really well. Amazon likes it. They reward you for okay.

Josh 00:10:24  And then your sellers are conducting their own PPC as well to kind of boost the product at that time. Is that right?

Mark 00:10:32  They’re doing their own PPC as well.

Mark 00:10:33  Yeah. A lot of the times which what we found, which is really interesting, was we’ll do we’ll have our shoppers. Obviously usually they don’t, but we will tell them to purchase through the sponsored ad. And then Amazon sees that, you know, first of all lowers your cost. And second of all they see great results. And Amazon sees that there’s a lot of conversion coming through your PPC. So that’s another cool strategy and another cool idea that we’ve done. And people have some great results with.

Josh 00:10:58  Cool. Mark, this has been amazing. You’ve shared a lot of knowledge with me. My mind’s already expanded. I’ve got some notes, some takeaways for our team already. I like to kind of sum up what we learned today with three actionable strategies that people can go and implement in their business today. So here are the three takeaways that I noted. Mark. Let me know if I’m missing something. Number one, when you’re launching a new product, I think driving external traffic from multiple sources are going is going to be your key, especially in the world of 2023 that we’re living in right now.

Josh 00:11:41  you need to be able to obtain an audience that you’ve been able to develop, right? Like building an audience has probably got to be your action. Step number one, to be honest with you. and if you need help with that, Kevin King’s episode, here on the podcast, you can go check that out. That was released on October 25th of 2022. You can go check out that episode. he talked a lot about, you know, inserts and how to obtain a list off of Amazon. and then you also mentioned here on the podcast today, Mark, post Purchase Pro is a service that people can reach out to to help them kind of formulate their product in search strategy, creating a mafia offer that people are excited to join your list. So I would say that’s probably action. Step number one is you’ve got to build an audience action. Number two is then kind of leveraging your audience, your shoppers list in combination with external traffic. And what I love I think the big knowledge bomb that you dropped here for us today, Mark, is that you don’t have to just use your shoppers list or your audience to just, you know, run a promotion and say, hey, my product’s 20% off.

Josh 00:13:00  Go buy it today. What you’re doing is you’re implementing surveys and coordination with that. So it’s asking a little bit more from your audience. And I think you’re only doing this with specific people, but you have them go through do a survey. They’re looking at the images, the videos. They’re spending time on your listing, which is what Amazon wants to see. And then they’re ultimately converting. And so it’s providing a lot of ranking juice for you. And then outside of that you’re generating external traffic. And you’re doing this over a prolonged period of time. I think long gone are the days, like you mentioned, of, hey, I’m going to drive a lot of traffic over the next seven days, and then we’re going to stay ranked here for the next forever, right? Like you’re saying, 30 days and beyond. And some of your clients are doing it for 180 days. Correct? Yeah, exactly. And then I would say our third takeaway is that if you have an old product, an old listing that maybe needs a little bit more life, rejuvenated into it.

Josh 00:14:09  Mark shared a lot of different actions that you can take. you could utilize the service of ASIN Doctor to kind of merge that into a brand new ason. you could also create or duplicate that ASIN and go through seller support to kind of merge that as well and experience a new honeymoon period. Or if your reviews are, you know, 3.7 or below, it might be time to reconsider just relaunching from scratch. But with with revitalizing an older product, you need to double your efforts compared to, you know, a new product that you’ve just launched. So I think that’s great feedback that everybody should take away from this. And then we also talked about, you know, using that, new feedback service or review service that can help you, remove those reviews that customers leave that are against terms of service because they’re including, you know, maybe it’s foul language. maybe they’re talking about, you know, things that they can’t be talking about in that review and that I will find those for you, help you open up cases and get those reviews removed.

Josh 00:15:21  Mark, is that a fair summary of our conversation today?

Mark 00:15:26  Short summary. Yes. So quite a lot of things today.

Josh 00:15:29  We we did. You shared a lot of knowledge so I appreciate that. Tell us more about House of AMZ. What are the services that you offer. and tell, you know, our audience how they could reach out to you. And I think you also have a special offer that you wanted to share with our audience, for sure.

Mark 00:15:45  So we do more like marketing and SEO. So all the listening creation, design, optimization, creative, like all that kind of stuff is what we do. We also help with launching products with these rebates and everything that I, that I mentioned, in our very own way. So it’s not like a copy and paste. We’re really involved with every project and everything that we do. the special offer was I think gave two, but I don’t remember. But I will give two. there’s one that your your first launch will be 50% off.

Mark 00:16:14  So you can totally try and see, like, you know, what we’re talking about in regards to launching your product is it’s 50% off. And then if the your listeners want to, also optimize your listings, we will give them an extra 15% off of any package that we have as well.

Josh 00:16:30  Amazing. And where where should people go to claim these offers or to reach out to you?

Mark 00:16:36  Yeah for sure. Very simple. It’s very easy to remember. Amazon seo.com.

Josh 00:16:41  They can’t get any more simple than that.

Mark 00:16:43  Exactly. That’s what we do. And and yeah. So you can find this. They’re also on LinkedIn. But, we are House of AMZ.

Josh 00:16:50  Awesome. Mark, thanks so much for your time today. I definitely encourage our listeners to go check you out, but thanks for joining me on the podcast.

Mark 00:16:59  Thank you. Yeah for sure. It was great being here today.