In this episode, host Josh interviews Ashley Kinkead, founder of Private Label Mastery and Amazon FBA expert. Ashley shares advanced strategies for Amazon private label success, including using QR code insert cards to build email lists, effective PPC advertising, and data-driven product launches. She emphasizes the importance of brand registry, product differentiation, and resilience in entrepreneurship. Listeners receive actionable tips on optimizing listings, managing PPC campaigns, and knowing when to pivot. Ashley also offers resources, including her book “Million Dollar Ecom Secrets” and her podcast, to help sellers grow their Amazon businesses.

Chapters:

Introduction to Ashley Kinkead (00:00:00)
Josh introduces Ashley Kinkead, her background, and achievements in Amazon FBA and private label selling.

Insert Cards & QR Codes for Email List Building (00:00:32)
Ashley discusses using simple insert cards and QR codes to drive customers to email lists and instructional content.

Promotions via Email List (00:02:02)
Ashley explains offering coupon codes and promotions to customers who join the email list via insert cards.

PPC Strategies and Outsourcing (00:02:37)
Ashley emphasizes the importance of PPC, suggests outsourcing or using software, and highlights the need for a sufficient budget.

PPC as a Launch Strategy (00:04:38)
Discussion on using PPC for product launches, the evolution of launch strategies, and current best practices.

Budgeting and Patience in PPC Launches (00:05:19)
Ashley shares advice on budgeting for PPC launches, being patient, and using early data for campaign optimization.

Analyzing Conversion Rates and Data-Driven Decisions (00:06:36)
Josh and Ashley discuss using conversion rates and category averages to evaluate product performance and make data-driven decisions.

Resilience and Learning from Failure (00:08:53)
Ashley highlights the importance of resilience, learning from failed products, and moving quickly through unsuccessful ideas.

Actionable Takeaways for Amazon Sellers (00:09:37)
Josh summarizes three key action items: product differentiation, brand registry and A+ content, and implementing PPC strategies.

Resources and Where to Learn More (00:13:05)
Ashley shares where listeners can find her book, website, and podcast for further learning and support.

Closing Remarks (00:13:54)
Josh and Ashley wrap up the episode, recommending Ashley’s podcast and thanking her for her insights.

Links and Mentions:

Amazon Seller Central: “00:07:49”
A+ Content: “00:10:45”
Million Dollar Ecom Secrets: “00:13:05”
Matt Altman’s Episode: “00:06:36”
Destaney Wishon’s Episode: “00:06:36”
George Meressa from Clear Ads Episode: “00:11:59”
Instructional Videos for Product Use: “00:00:58”

Transcript:

Josh 00:00:00  Today I’m super excited to introduce you all to Ashley Kinkead. No other woman in the industry has worked with more six and seven figure sellers than Ashley Kinkead. She is the founder and CEO of Private Label Mastery. She has personally launched over 15,000 products on Amazon, and has generated $2.2 million in Amazon FBA sales. So with that introduction, welcome to the show, Ashley.

Ashley 00:00:25  Well thank you, Josh. It’s a great introduction, very humbling, and I’m excited to be with you and excited to be on your show today. Thank you so much, Ashley.

Josh 00:00:32  Are there any like, advanced strategies or cool tactics that you’ve seen in terms of how people have used insert cards or a QR code on a product label to allow them to grow their brand? An email list off of Amazon?

Ashley 00:00:47  Sure. I think QR codes are great. We do a lot of QR codes as well as, you know, just a simple link. It can be a real simple link. You want to make it simple. I would say that’s the most advanced but also simple tip.

Ashley 00:00:58  Just make it really simple and clear for people what to do on the insert Insert card. Sometimes I open insert cards on Amazon products and it’s not really clear what to do. Have a little guide, have a little downloadable. Have a little video that people need to click on to be able to use your product. Just make it simple. Make it simple. And that’s going to drive enough traffic to your insert card. So I like really simple insert cards. I mean our insert cards can literally be a white card with a black QR code. That’s it. Like hey, click this link, watch a QR code and get a video on your product. So ideally it’s something that people need to watch to use your product. Some kind of instructional video or kind of fake video I think is really, really key. As long as you make it simple and make it just key to the usage of the product, you know? Watch this simple walkthrough video. It can be very, very simple, but the more simple it is, I think the more conversions you get on the insert card.

Ashley 00:01:50  That’s what we’ve seen.

Josh 00:01:51  Right, right. And then before they watch the video, they have to enter their email address and name. I like that. And then what type of promotions are you sending them if you. Once you have them on your list.

Ashley 00:02:02  Well, we’ll do really simple things. You know, it can be. Come back for your next order. Coupons we do mostly coupon codes, so if you come back, you know you get 50% off your next order. you know, buy one, get one free. So we love to give coupon codes for their next order. that’s what we’ve done. Typically with our insert cards is the coupon codes.

Josh 00:02:21  Awesome. Makes a lot of sense. Very good. Let’s move into this third strategy. You talked about PPC being fundamental in allowing businesses to continue to grow and succeed on Amazon. So tell me more about some of the PPC strategies that you see working today.

Ashley 00:02:37  Well, again, I’m really an advocate of having someone else do do it for you.

Ashley 00:02:42  So a lot of times I see Josh, my opinion sellers kind of make the mistake of like trying to learn everything about PPC and run it themselves. Most of our students who are like in the 7 to 8 figure realm, they either have an external agency that managers of their PPC, or they use some kind of software to help them automate PPC. So I think you really need to understand a, you need a bit more of a budget with PBC today. Like, you know, the days of three cent clicks I think are a little bit past us. So you need to have more of a budget to launch a PPC product on Amazon. And also you really need to, you know, invest in someone to help you, whether it’s training from you guys, Josh, whatever training or course or programme you want to take today in 2023, you have to have an understanding of PPC. So I would just encourage people to educate yourself and to be maybe, maybe look at someone to help you manage your PPC so that you can focus on building your brand, you know, doing product research, things are going to move the lever.

Ashley 00:03:39  But, there’s so many different strategies. Josh, you know, we have different ways that we instruct our students to set up their campaign. But personally, you know, for our ads, I have someone else manage it for us and send us a report. So it ultimately just comes down to like knowing it’s really important, having that budget and then also investing in either your education or for someone else to help you. I do think today, like PPC, is a bit more advanced and you have to really, you know, hone that in a bit more.

Josh 00:04:07  Yeah. I completely agree that PPC is not something that you can turn a blind eye to. PPC is vital, and Amazon is becoming much more of a pay to play type of platform. And so if you think you can just, you know, hide under the your bed covers and pull them over your head and ignore PPC and still have a thriving business on Amazon, you’ll be sorely disappointed when other sellers that are more sophisticated are running targeted ads on top of your product details page.

Josh 00:04:38  And you, you know, you just start to lose organic ranking over time because you don’t have those PPC sales to continue to support it. with that being said, Ashley, one thing, you know, a lot of people have started using PPC as a primary component of their launch strategy. And so I know since 2015, the launch strategies on Amazon have changed a lot from search fine by giveaways and things like that. Are there any things that are working for you and your private label clients to launch their products that has been working well to help them get ranked quickly?

Ashley 00:05:19  I think just, you know, having the funds upfront is key. We like to have at least like $100 a day budget for a PPC launch. So having those funds and also just, you know, key setup, you know, having your campaign set up correctly and having the right targeting, set up all of those things, I think set up on the front end is just pretty important. And our PPC coach at our company always just talks about it’s okay to break even.

Ashley 00:05:41  You know, it’s okay to not have a profitable campaign. So don’t give up too early. Don’t give up too early when you’re launching your first PPC campaign and, you know, give it some time. It can take about 30 days to really, you know, build out a good, solid PPC campaign. But don’t worry if you don’t make money on the front end. If your PPC campaign isn’t very profitable in the beginning, we often will see, you know, campaigns kind of break even or not be that profitable. Don’t give up. Like Trust the process. And, you know, recognize that you’re testing a product. We do a lot of product testing. You’re testing a product. You’re getting that valuable data that you can then use to optimize your campaign as you go.

Josh 00:06:18  Yeah, actually, I want to echo exactly what you talked about there of like when you launch, make sure you utilize that advertising data as your testing data. Look at it and learn from it. Okay. there’s a couple good podcast episodes that I want to point people towards.

Josh 00:06:36  so Matt Altman, who is on the podcast, go check out his episode, because what he talked about in his launch strategy is how important that conversion rate is. And so when you launch on Amazon and you start running your ads from day one, from that first week, you should have a clear indication as to whether, like, hey, there’s some room to run with this particular product. Let’s keep going. Even if I’m losing money on the front end of PPC, you can be confident if you have a conversion rate for your product that is higher than the industry average or that category average. and Destiny wish on at better AMS. She was recently on the podcast as well, and what she had talked about is using the inside of Seller Central in your advertising console. If you click on one of the reports or insights, it’s brand metrics. If you pull that report up, you’ll be able to see it a category level. What is the average conversion rate for everybody in this particular product category? And then you’ll know take your product conversion rate for those PPC orders.

Josh 00:07:49  Compare that to the category average if it is higher. Keep pouring gasoline on that fire. If it’s not and you’re only a couple percentage points off, maybe there’s some listing optimizations you could do which goes back to talked about A+ content videos, adding secondary images. The copy. Right. and if you’re way far off from that average conversion rate, maybe that’s one of the products that you just need to kill. Because like myself and I think actually with your experience launching thousands of products, I’ve had a lot of losers along the way. At the same token, and not being married to an idea just because I love it and I’m going to force it to work, I think is one of the most important things that everybody needs to take away is don’t be married to something. Let the data prove stuff out and just keep testing. Create new product ideas, launch them, see what works, kill the ones that don’t work and don’t worry about them. Learn from those mistakes. Figure out why they didn’t succeed, and move on from there.

Josh 00:08:51  Is there anything else you would add to that? Ashley?

Ashley 00:08:53  I completely agree. I think you have to be willing to kind of move fast and break things, so to speak, and be okay with failure. I think a lot of people who are new to entrepreneurship, Josh, think of a bad product as a failure. And if you can just overcome that mentally and see that it’s all a part of the process, you’re going to have some duds. I’ve had a lot of duds, you know, products that didn’t work out or weren’t profitable on Amazon. it’s just part of the process. And the people I see, you know, Josh, who I work with, who have 7 or 8 figure Amazon businesses are just really resilient in that mentality you just described. So they’re always testing new products. They’re thinking of, you know, long term play with, you know, going through lots of different products and just moving fast through the ones that don’t work out and sticking with the ones that do.

Ashley 00:09:36  So.

Josh 00:09:37  Yep, I completely agree. Well, Ashley, this has been such a fun conversation. I love to leave the audience with three actionable takeaways from each episode, and here are the actionable takeaways that I’ve noted. Ashley. Let me know if you think I’m missing something. But number one, when you’re coming, when you want to build a brand or generate sales on Amazon, the first thing you have to focus on is product differentiation. So my action item here is for people to do the simple exercises that we just walk through, which is a use a particular keyword and then go search that exact same keyword across many different retailers online. And secondly, actually go to physical retail stores. Go walk down the aisles and see what stands out to you. Compare that to what you are seeing on the online marketplaces today, and see if you could bring something new and innovative to those, because that is where you’re going to have greater success than when you just create another meta product. Action item number two is in creating a real brand from the get go.

Josh 00:10:45  And I see getting brand registry is number one across the board. If you’re just starting out, like you’ve got to get brand registry because it’s going to give you access to unreal amounts of data that you’ll need to continue to pursue your journey. But implementing A+ content and a storefront? those are some of the biggest opportunities where you’re going to take up more real estate on your Amazon detail page, which is going to push competitors further down the page, which is going to help you in your conversion rates as well. But then there’s a there’s a console or a section within A+ content where you can feature your other products from your product category. And so go ahead and promote your other related products with inside your detail page. And then that will link them to more products, can link them to your storefront where they can shop more. They stay more within your product detail pages rather than spending time on your competitors. That is super important. And then the last step would be your third action item is implementing PPC strategies.

Josh 00:11:59  And like you said, Ashley, either you need to do this yourself or you need to find a partner that can execute on these strategies. we had Jorge Morales From clear ads on the podcast recently. And again, he shared a lot of great knowledge as to number one, how to vet different PPC agencies, what you should be looking out for, and then secondly, some of the strategies you want to make sure that those agencies are actually following to see if they know their stuff when it comes to PPC. So if you want a better understanding of how to kind of vet experts, because anybody can claim to be a PPC expert, but the proof is in the pudding. He gave you a really good checklist to walk through and and better understand that. So go check out George’s episode and it’s just a couple prior to this one. Now Ashley, where can people go to learn more about all the amazing things that you have going on? Tell us more about Private Label Mastery and where people could reach out to you and learn more from you.

Ashley 00:13:05  Sure, well, anyone can go get my book. It’s like $0.99 on Amazon. It’s called Million Dollar Ecom Secrets, but I’ve also got a free copy of my book for your listeners if they want to head to our website, it’s ashleykinkead.com forward. Ashley Kinkead welcome. There’s a free copy digital copy you can download. My book is cool because it’s really short. You can read the whole book in about an hour, and it covers all of my private label brands, photos and everything. So if you want to see behind the scenes, you can check out my book. I’ve also got a Pretty Little little podcast too. It’s called the Private Label Mastery Podcast, where a top ranked podcast for Amazon sellers. So the Private Label Mastery Podcast, iTunes, Spotify, as well as my book, we’d love to bring you in through either of those two channels and ultimately just bring you really good training and education. So I would head over to our podcast.

Josh 00:13:54  Awesome. Everybody loves to hear another podcast recommendation.

Josh 00:13:59  it’s always my favorite. I’m always on the lookout for another good podcast. So go check out the Private Label Mastery podcast. And Ashley, thank you so much for sharing your valuable insights and experience with us today. And thanks again for your time.

Ashley 00:14:14  Thanks, Josh.