Serious Sellers Podcast: Learn How To Sell On Amazon FBA & Walmart

Helium 10 Buzz 1/3/25: BIG Amazon Title Policy Change | Temu Banned for Amazon Sellers?

Amazon makes a big title policy change that could cause some of you to have to update up to half of your listings. Is this move that Amazon is about to make, essentially not allowing sellers to sell on Temu? These two buzzing stories and more on this episode!

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► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension

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► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft

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We’re back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10’s VP of Education and Strategy, Bradley Sutton. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10’s newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level.

New Amazon product title requirements effective January 21, 2025
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHNEJGOUZIUUs4SFBXWkRV

Amazon effectively bars sellers from Temu marketplace
https://channelx.world/2025/01/amazon-effectively-bars-sellers-from-temu-marketplace/

TikTok Shop Order Cancellation, Return and Refund Update
https://channelx.world/2025/01/tiktok-shop-order-cancellation-return-and-refund-update/

Prime-exclusive discounts are moving to the Price Discounts tool
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHQzRCMkFMNkdLNTZSRVNT

Mexico unveils new tariffs, popular e-tailers like Shein, Temu may be in crosshairs
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/mexico-unveils-new-tariffs-popular-e-tailers-like-shein-temu-may-be-crosshairs-2024-12-31/

APEX – An Alternative Patent Resolution Procedure on Amazon
https://natlawreview.com/article/apex-alternative-patent-resolution-procedure-amazon

Get more details on image issues with Compliance Issue report updates
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHODdFWE1BQ0pTREVCQVpG

The Year (2024) in Amazon vs Walmart, and a Look Into 2025
https://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2024/the-year-in-amazon-vs-walmart-and-a-look-into-2025/

Lastly, we share insights from Helium 10 on product misclassification alerts and provide upcoming training tips on how to use our Amazon Inventory Heat Maps to maximize your e-commerce success.

In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley covers:

• 01:19 - BIG Amazon Title Policy Update
• 08:48 - Amazon BANS Temu?
• 11:24 - TikTok Shop Refund Change
• 13:56 - Prime Exclusive Discounts Moving
• 14:50 - New Mexico Tariffs
• 16:32 - Amazon APEX Procedure
• 18:11 - Image Compliance
• 19:03 - Amazon V Walmart
• 20:56 - Helium 10 New Feature Alerts
• 23:23 - Training Tip: Amazon Inventory Heat Maps

#627 - Amazon Ranking Strategies

In this episode, let’s talk about Amazon’s A9 algorithm with Brian Johnson and all the details about how to rank on Amazon based on his research.

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► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension

► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup  (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life)

► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft

► Watch The Podcasts On Youtube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos

What if understanding Amazon's A9 algorithm could transform your Amazon-selling game? Join us in a captivating conversation with Brian Johnson, Co-Founder and CPO at DeepM AI, as we unravel the secrets to mastering Amazon’s search rankings. Brian shares the essential strategies sellers need for maintaining and regaining their positions in Amazon’s fiercely competitive marketplace. Discover how data-driven approaches can offer powerful insights into tackling ranking challenges.

Explore the nuanced world of Amazon's A9 algorithm and the myriad of factors that shape product search rankings. From sales velocity and inventory issues to the surprising influence of TikTok-driven search term trends, we cover it all. Brian provides a deep dive into the phenomenon of search term bleed and how emerging platforms shift consumer behavior. Learn how to leverage these insights to stay ahead of competitors and adapt to shifting marketplace dynamics.

Finally, we discuss practical tactics for optimizing your Amazon listings and advertisements to boost sales and profitability. Understand the critical metrics—like click-through and conversion rates—that drive success. With a focus on competitive analysis and innovative metrics like "tacos sauce," we highlight how to comprehensively monitor and enhance your e-commerce performance. Whether you're a seasoned seller or just starting, these insights will empower you to optimize your strategies and thrive on Amazon.

In episode 627 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Carrie, Kevin, and Brian discuss:

• 00:00 - Ranking on Amazon Algorithm Strategies
• 02:39 - Decoding the A9 Algorithm
• 06:31 - Improving Amazon Search Rank Control
• 09:36 - Factors Affecting Amazon Search Rank
• 11:46 - Influencer Impact on Search Terminology
• 14:02 - Amazon Search Rank Factors Analysis
• 15:45 - Understanding A9 Algorithm Factors
• 21:47 - Amazon Ranking Algorithm and Conversion Rate
• 25:28 - Amazon Search Ranking Optimization Strategies
• 28:59 - Product Profitability Analysis Strategy
• 33:54 - Commitment Required for Amazon Success
• 38:37 - Analyzing Past Ad Performance for ROI
• 40:21 - Competitor Monitoring and Metric Analysis
• 42:29 - ACoS Sauce Concept and Visibility 

#626 - Why YOU Should Be Selling on TikTok Shop

What is the hottest marketplace in the world right now? TikTok Shop. In this episode, we bring one of the world's foremost experts on TikTok Shop success to help you get started on the platform.

► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast

► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension

► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup  (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life)

► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft

► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos

What if exploring the latest trends on TikTok Shop could redefine your business strategy? Join us as we unpack the secrets of thriving on one of the world's fastest-growing marketplaces. We welcome a top-tier expert in TikTok Shop success, Michelle Barnum-Smith of TTshopsellers.com who lays out a complete roadmap for navigating this dynamic platform. From leveraging powerful tools like Helium 10 to hearing firsthand success stories—like a couple whose sales soared after adding TikTok Shop to their go-to online marketplaces—you'll gain insights that could transform your approach to e-commerce. Plus, we tackle the buzz around a potential TikTok ban, sharing insider reassurances to keep your mind at ease.

Our discussion takes a strategic turn as we explore the mechanics of integrating TikTok Shop with platforms such as Shopify and Amazon. Discover how to tap into the "halo effect" where viral TikTok products can boost sales on Amazon. We also highlight the importance of abiding by TikTok's community guidelines, especially when it comes to directing users to Amazon, to ensure your shop's integrity. Listen closely as we share content strategies that don't rely on going viral but instead focus on crafting engaging, quality content that resonates with your audience and amplifies your brand's presence.

And if you're wondering how to spark impulse buying, we've got you covered. Learn the art of balancing ads with organic content and the power of influencer partnerships, which can yield substantial returns. We offer practical advice on starting with small-scale affiliate efforts and building robust creator networks that align with your brand's ethos. With tips on aligning your marketing efforts with trending events and using AI tools to supercharge your outreach, this episode is packed with actionable strategies designed to elevate your TikTok Shop success. Tune in and revolutionize your approach to this exciting marketplace!

In episode 626 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley and Michelle discuss:

• 00:00 - TikTok Shop Success Strategies
• 01:30 - TikTok Ban Not a Concern?
• 03:44 - Rapid Growth on E-Commerce Platforms
• 08:31 - Steps to Start TikTok Shop
• 11:43 - Navigating TikTok Shop Strategies
• 12:50 - Impact of TikTok Virality on Amazon
• 18:07 - GMB Max for Ads Optimization Strategy
• 24:32 - TikTok Shop Sales Strategies
• 29:57 - TikTok Shop Affiliate Strategy Tips
• 37:30 - Content Performance Metrics and Strategy

Helium 10 Buzz 12/26/24: Top 10 NEW Amazon Strategies To Use in 2025

In this episode, we discuss the top 10 newest strategies for leveling up on Amazon, including one brand-new one that maybe only 10 people have used so far.

► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast

► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension

► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup  (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life)

► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft

► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos

We’re back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10’s VP of Education and Strategy, Bradley Sutton. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10’s newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level.

In this week’s episode, Join Bradley as he explores the latest strategies and features designed to supercharge your Amazon selling experience. This special episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast highlights the top 10 innovative strategies and tools released by Helium 10 in the second half of 2024. We kick things off with a groundbreaking PPC strategy that can enhance your campaign management by focusing on optimizing auto, broad, or phrase campaigns. By negative matching keywords that generate clicks without resulting in sales, you can prevent unnecessary spending and ensure a more efficient budget allocation. This approach is not limited to Helium 10 users, as even those employing other tools can benefit from these actionable insights.

As we continue, discover how Amazon influencers can seize new opportunities by leveraging video reviews to earn affiliate commissions. By utilizing Helium 10's Chrome extension and influencer tool, content creators can identify chances to get their videos featured prominently on product listing carousels. Additionally, we delve into the revamped keyword tracker that offers advanced features like heat maps and keyword harvesting. These tools, along with Cerebro, allow sellers to track competitor keywords and optimize their listings effectively, saving time while maximizing sales potential. With these insights, you can uncover valuable market dynamics and boost your Amazon performance.

Finally, explore the exciting updates from Helium 10 that enhance product analysis and sales estimation. With features like keyword sales estimates for European Amazon sellers and detailed insights into sales at both parent and child item levels, you can strategically target high-converting keywords and identify top-performing variations. Learn about the reintegration of Adtomic into the Helium 10 Diamond plan, which offers AI-driven advertising capabilities to streamline campaign management. With accurate sales estimates and superior competitive analysis, Helium 10 equips sellers with powerful tools to navigate the ever-evolving Amazon landscape. Don't miss this opportunity to gain practical strategies and make the most of the latest features available to you.

In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley covers:

• 00:45 - Top 10 New Helium 10 Features
• 06:19 - Automating Helium 10 Adtomic Strategy 
• 08:55 - Amazon Influencer Program and Profitability Calculator
• 14:17 - Keyword Tracker for Competitor Analysis 
• 19:23 - Keyword Value Comparison in Amazon
• 23:15 - Helium 10 Sales Estimates Accuracy
• 29:11 - Amazon Brand Analytics Key Features

#625 - Off-Platform & Amazon PPC Strategies

In this episode, our expert guest answers your Amazon PPC questions. Learn how a seller scaled from $200K to $4M during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Get actionable tips to optimize holiday sales and achieve remarkable growth!

 

In this episode, our expert guest answers your Amazon PPC questions. Learn how a seller scaled from $200K to $4M during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Get actionable tips to optimize holiday sales and achieve remarkable growth!

► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast

► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension

► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup  (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life)

► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft

► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos

What if you could transform your holiday sales from hundreds of thousands to millions? Destaney Wishon of BTR Media, our expert guest, reveals the art of crafting your own demand and skyrocketing sales with strategic off-platform investments, such as TV and video ads. We dissect the tactics that took one brand from $200,000 to a whopping $4 million, focusing on differentiating branded and non-branded sponsored product campaigns, and structuring these campaigns based on search intent to maximize their impact.

We also break down Amazon advertising strategies for those looking to boost performance and profitability. Discover how to make the most of tools like the Search Query Performance report and Amazon Marketing Cloud for comprehensive insights into conversion rates. Learn to balance profitability with traffic through dual campaigns, explore the potential of DSP for bigger budgets, and navigate the nuances of keyword targeting. With Destiny's insights, you'll be equipped to optimize your strategies using metrics like TACoS and tools like Helium 10 Adtomic for periodic assessments.

As we explore the intricacies of Amazon PPC campaign optimization, we cover everything from keyword volumes to match types. Learn how to effectively manage budgets with keyword volume, and understand the importance of automatic and manual campaigns, especially for new product launches. We also touch on the importance of influencer collaborations and product targeting to improve conversion rates in high window-shopping categories. Join us as we conclude with a special Q&A, where Destiny continues to share her expertise and engage with our community.

In episode 625 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Carrie and Destaney discuss:

• 00:00 - Strategies for Amazon Holiday Sales Success
• 00:35 - Welcome to TACoS Tuesday
• 06:17 - Optimizing for New Product Launch Strategies
• 10:26 - Optimizing Amazon PPC Campaigns for Higher Sales
• 16:56 - Amazon PPC Campaign Optimization Strategies
• 17:57 - Optimizing Keyword Match Types in Campaigns
• 21:14 - Influencers and Organic Sales on Amazon
• 27:02 - More Q&A and Follow-Up Questions

Transcript

 

Carrie Miller:

In this week's episode of the Serious Sellers podcast, we have expert Destaney Wishon with us and she's answering all of your questions, and we're going to be talking a little bit about Black Friday and Cyber Monday and how one of her clients actually went from $200,000 to $4 million this holiday season. This and so much more on today's episode of the Serious Sellers podcast. 

Bradley Sutton:

How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think, think. Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers podcast by Helium 10. I'm your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show. Well, that's a completely BS-free, unscripted and unrehearsed organic conversation about serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world, and this episode is our monthly live TACoS Tuesday show, where we talk about anything and everything Amazon and Walmart PPC and advertising related with different guests, and today's host is going to be Carrie Miller. So, Carrie, take it away. 

Carrie Miller:

Hello everyone, Welcome to TACoS Tuesday. We have our expert guest here, Destaney Wishon. Thanks so much for joining us, Destaney. 

Destaney:

Happy to be here. Very excited. I mean the chaos of the holidays Black Friday, Cyber Monday, what better time to get all your questions in? 

Carrie Miller:

Yeah, exactly. 

Destaney:

On our end, almost across the board, we saw Amazon's extending this holiday period, you know, taking some pressure off of their shipping for two days. So for the first time ever. You know, if we're just comparing Black Friday to Black Friday, year over year, this Black Friday was a little bit lower, but the overall holiday period was up. I don't know if consumer sentiment around shopping is higher, but sales were almost incredible and I would say our ROAS was pretty in line. We had one brand go from $200,000 to $4 million in sales month over month. It's obviously a giftable item, but it was pretty crazy to see that. So it's been really strong now.

Carrie Miller:

Oh, that's amazing.  

Destaney:

Didn't run deals whatsoever. You did nothing for lead-in CPCs are up and your sales weren't that much stronger. But for the brands who leaned in, they did fantastic. 

Carrie Miller: 

That's amazing, was there a specific strategy you think that they changed, because that's a pretty substantial jump. 

Destaney:  

They did a fantastic job. And this is kind of the new topic I've been coining in my training is when you list on Amazon, you're just capturing the demand. Amazon's doing all the work. They're driving the people that are searching for your product. You're just, you know, you got a little bucket and you're capturing it. 

Carrie Miller:

Yeah

Destaney:

What they did incredible was they created their own demand, so they went off platform, they invested in TV and video and they educated their customer based on why they need to buy their product. So when Black Friday, Cyber Monday came along and they typed in their search term, they stood out in the page because the customers were already familiar with their products. 

Carrie Miller:

Wow, that's, that's pretty incredible. Yeah. 

Destaney:  

Yeah, it was insane to watch. 

Carrie Miller: 

I was. I've been curious about the tv ads and how. You know how those are going for people, so that's sounds like they. You can do a really good job with them, depending on-

Destaney:

100%. We're seeing a lot of success. It's also just like rewiring your brain. I think a lot of brands are spoiled because sponsor products are so successful. But I'm like, of course they're successful, a customer's already planning on buying you. You didn't do any work, you just fit on a keyword. Like Amazon did the work of bringing people on the platform.

Carrie Miller:

Very true, so would you like to get on and start answering some of the questions from the audience? 

Destaney:   

Let's do it. I mean, typically these run over, so we might as well start strong. 

Carrie Miller:

Well, yeah, okay, this is from Spencer, and he says What is considered best practice for branded sponsored product campaigns. Do you make a separate campaign for each SKU or do you make one campaign and put all the SKUs in it? 

Destaney:    

It kind of depends. Your branded searches aren't always the same, right, if someone's typing in Coca-Cola Diet Coke versus regular Coca-Cola, you can change your strategy. So we segment based off search intents. We almost always separate branded versus non-branded, like that is table stakes. You have to separate branded versus non-branded campaigns. But when it comes to lining up your SKUs, we depend on search intent. But also from a reporting perspective, it's sometimes nice to break out into single SKU campaigns because then you can look at your TACoS per brand and you can say you know SKU A is doing really well. Maybe I should increase my branded search investment on this SKU and increase my budget on that campaign while pulling back on my branded investment for SKU number two. Breaking out into single SKU campaigns as a whole just makes it really easy to control your budget distribution if you have good naming and good organized campaign structure.  

Carrie Miller:  

Daniel says afternoon. Is there a I think it's morning for me, but afternoon probably for you guys Is there a golden ratio of CTR to CVR for measuring effectiveness of ad campaigns?

Destaney:  

I'm not going to give a golden ratio per se because it's really dependent on category. Click-through rate's also really difficult because it depends on things like pricing and reviews. So your advertising is going to be influenced by that. Same for your conversion rate, but your conversion rate. You can figure out what your category is converting on really easy using tools in Adtomic or using the search query performance report and clearly see using brand metrics. Hey, my category is converting at 20%. You should be converting better than category average, like that's kind of the standard. If you're going to increase your ad investment, you need to be converting better than category average. That being said, again, it's also dependent on search intent. Probiotics is going to be a lot more expensive than probiotics for kids back to school, right? So you can't just blanket look at your conversion rate across the board. You have to understand intent. 

Carrie Miller:  

Awesome. Okay, let's go to Joshua. He says if you came to Helium 10 from an agency and had hundreds of their old campaigns in your account, what is the best practice? Should I delete all of the non-performing campaigns and start over? I am not sure how to proceed.

Destaney:  

Great question. No matter what software you're transitioning to or an agency you're transitioning to, we don't ever recommend just pausing everything and hard stop. It's really bad for relevancy and it's difficult for the transition. What we do recommend doing is pulling your search term report for the last 60 days. Pull out all of your keywords that are successful and build them out into the new structure that you want to move forward with using the new software and then slowly rolling those out at the same time. As your new campaigns pick up traction, you can slowly pause out your old campaigns that are maybe a bad structure or maybe they're a weird single keyword structure that you don't want to move forward with. You slowly transition them over. First thing pull all your good keywords. Second thing pause all your bad keywords. Third thing slowly launch and transition your budgets over from old to new. 

Carrie Miller:    

What are the best practices for 2025 for new product launches. What's changed? I mean, I don't know if that's in regards to that's what I would put it, as I think.   

Destaney:    

I mean I don't know if that's in regards to me, but I would put it as yeah, I think quite a few things have changed. In terms of product launches, I would say driving external traffic is still doing really, really well and something that I think needs to be leaned into. A lot of brands cannot afford the CPCs in the category on a product that has zero reviews, so any way you can use external traffic that's maybe a bit cheaper to get your reviews up before leaning really heavy into Amazon advertising is a little bit more profitable. I would also say we're seeing this transition to creative matters so much more. So, making sure your click rate and conversion rate is good with your main image, but on the Amazon advertising side, really focusing on your sponsor brands, your sponsor brands video, your headline search ads, anything that makes you stand out on the Amazon advertising side. Really focusing on your sponsor brands, your sponsor brands video, your headline search ads, anything that makes you stand out on the page, because when you're launching, you don't stand out on the review perspective, so find unique ways to stand out within the search results. 

Carrie Miller:  

My product launched in October and I'm struggling to get sales. I've been using auto and manual campaigns, spending between 30 to 50 per day on a $20 product. I've launched the product in another territory where it's selling well. So feel confident with the product and listing. Any suggestions?

Destaney:  

Yeah, so I would say the first thing is to look at the keywords and really make sure they're the right keywords. Type them into Amazon. Do you see similar products? Once you see similar products, are those products priced at the same as you or are they cheaper than you? Do those products have a lot more reviews than you? Figure out the competitive advantage that they may have over you and improve your listing in that way. On the advertising side, it's really as simple as again looking at the keywords and trying to expand the keywords in which you have that competitive advantage and then optimizing your bids to make sure you can be profitable. The biggest thing, though, I would say, is understanding that competitive advantage. When you type in your main keyword, what do your competitors look like? What's the price? What's the reviews? Is the main image different? 

Carrie Miller:  

And the next question is from an Elite member of ours. Hi, Andrew. For SB product collection campaigns we find basically all our sales come from top of search. Is that common? Also, is it worth spending time bidding on other placements for those campaigns? Great question. 

Destaney:   

In general, I would say it is common. If you think about how the search results are set up on desktop and mobile, what is the biggest ad on the page? It's the sponsored brand top of search ad. The headline ads, the sponsored brand ads on the product detail page are typically video. It's not typically product collection, it's sometimes store spotlight and video. The only other sponsored brands that show up on page one are way down in the middle of search, sometimes the bottom of search. So this is very typical, not surprising. You can bid on the other placements. It's not going to drive a huge difference. Just know that the majority of your traffic and visibility comes from top of search because that's where all of the customers are clicking and viewing before they scroll down the page.

Carrie Miller:  

All right. The next one is from Keith. He says my BSR is improving and my PPC is converting. However, the organic ranking for my main keywords are not improving much. Any advice on how to improve rank? 

Destaney:   

Yeah, the two biggest factors that you can then break down is sales velocity or conversion rate. So again, figure out your category conversion rate. That's super easy with brand metrics, insights and planning or Helium 10 Adtomic, it's Amazon given data, it's first party data. So look at brand metrics. If you're converting lower than your category, you're going to need to drive a lot more traffic to your category, so you're probably going to need to spend more in order to improve that organic rank. On the flip side, let's say that you are spending more than the category or driving more in the category. Then it comes down to again like improving that conversion rate. It's traffic or conversion. Those are the two levers you really need to consider. So again, traffic the easiest thing to do is spend more it's not always the best answer or improve your listing and convert better, so that way you can easily spend a little bit more.  

Bradley Sutton:

Did you know that just because you have a keyword in your listing, that does not mean that you are automatically guaranteed to be searchable or, as we say, indexed for that keyword? Well, how can you know what you are indexed for and not? You can actually use Helium 10's index checker to check any keywords you want. For more information, go to h10.me/indexchecker. More information go to h10.me/indexchecker.

Carrie Miller:   

Hello, 80 to 90% of my PPC campaigns coming from SBV. I see the CPC and SBV a lot lower than sponsored. I am thinking to double down on I'm assuming that's sponsored brand video and let the SP sponsored on the second plan. Would that be a good way of going? 

Destaney:

This is. I'm not going to say this is wrong, but this is really really unusual to see because on page one there's one sponsor brand video ad, so it's very limited in terms of advertising inventory. On page one there's 15 to 20 different sponsor product camp placements, so almost actually across the board. As an agency with over $100 million in spend, 70% of sales almost always come from sponsored products because they have more real estate and inventory on the page than anything else. Very unusual. Also, sponsored brands view can get competitive really fast because since there's only one placement on page one, when everyone starts increasing bids for that placement, you can kind of lose control as CPCs go up and you're going to lose a lot of your sales velocity. So I love sponsored brands video. It's a great format, but it's very, very limited in terms of advertising inventory and you should be investing more in sponsored products. That is, across the board, the highest sales driving tactic because there's so many more sponsored product placements than anything else. 

Carrie Miller:

Keith says or asks what is the best way to check my conversion rate versus competitors on keywords? 

Destaney:

I would say your search query performance report is probably like one of the easiest ways as a whole to look at search query performance. It's not specifically related to advertising. When you're specifically looking at advertising, you can't compare directly on the keyword level. You can look at it at the subcategory level but you cannot see directly on the keyword level. You have to use SQP and then overlay it with the rest of your data.  

Carrie Miller:

How can you measure the effects of having a loss leader to help bring in additional traffic into your brand or variation listing? 

Destaney:   

Great question. I would probably dive into AMC for a lot of that. AMC is going to help you understand if someone clicks on one product, do they then end up buying another product? That's the easiest way. Without that, you could probably use depending on where you're advertising the sponsor product to advertise product report to see if people are clicking on one and then buying another. That's a really easy way to justify. It's just limited to only your advertising data where, if you use the appropriate AMC report, then you're gonna be able to see all of your organic data and that's gonna help you understand much better.   

Carrie Miller:

My sponsor campaigns are doing well when I have a lower bid. Whenever I raise my bid to try and get more juice out of them, my budget gets blown and they become unprofitable. Do you know what I should do in order to make this work for me? 

Destaney:   

There's really no perfect answer here. I mean is the balance that is Amazon advertising. One of the things that we do to help this is we'll create two campaigns with the same keywords. One of our campaign will be lower bid, focused on profitability, and the other campaign will be higher bid, with focus on sales, and we'll shift our budget back and forth. You know, 70% of our budget is going to go to profitability, 30% of our budget is going to go to the high traffic. That way we're not having to constantly fluctuate our bids. This kind of allows us to move the budget from both to maximize profitability and then, when we're done with that, it's okay, we can shift more and turn on higher sales. It's just easier budget distribution. The other things that you could look at is your bid management strategy. Maybe there's a better middle ground. Are you optimizing for placements? Are you moving broad phrase and exact? Sometimes your long tail keywords are going to be a little bit cheaper from a CPC perspective, so you're going to be able to drive more profitability from your long tail keywords. All of those additional measures are going to be hugely beneficial for the strategy. 

Carrie Miller:  

The next question is what's your take on DSP and data from AMC?  

Destaney:

I'm going to start with data from AMC, because it is now available for everyone. Brian Lee asked later on in the chat who can use AMC. Helium 10 has actually rolled it out, so you first need to request your instance being set up, but you do not need to run DSP ads to get access to AMC now. AMC is basically analytics and audience platform that just gives you a ton of insights into your Amazon advertising data. If you're not incredibly familiar with Amazon ads, it's gonna be probably a shiny object syndrome and I don't recommend you dive into it just yet. But if you understand sponsor brands and sponsor display. The second part of this question is what's my take on DSP? DSP has a bad reputation in the space because agencies and or Amazon managed services haven't been running it well, but DSP as a tool is incredible. It's one of the most powerful Amazon advertising tools out there, I would say, if used appropriately. You do need to be spending at least $10,000 on DSP a month for it to make sense, but DSP is incredibly, incredibly powerful for brands that are ready for it. 

Carrie Miller:

What do you recommend for Ad campaigns when you have separate listing variations. Do you recommend to merge or manage in each campaign??  

Destaney:

Again, it depends on search intent. In my opinion, if I have a black t-shirt versus a red t-shirt, and that's how they're variated, I like to separate out my campaigns so I can create search terms based off the variations. So I can create search terms based off the variations. If my only variation difference is size. No, not size price $20 variation, $10 variation I may not segment them. I would typically put my lowest price first because that's going to have the highest click-through rate and then lead customers to my other variations. If it's flavor variations, weight variation, something with different search intent, I recommend segmenting campaigns so you can curate your keyword experience.  

Carrie Miller:

What is a good way to determine keywords that you are ranking for, then comparing them to PPC campaigns to determine which keywords you may not be advertising for? Any quick way to do this. 

Destaney:  

Quick way is the fun part of this question. So the biggest thing I would say is to 100% 80-28. We kind of look at if we're ranked in the top four. We're going to pull back on sponsored product spend and move budgets to our sponsored brand, so we're winning the top of search and showcasing our brand. That's our overall strategy. You can use TACoS correlation to do this. If you have a TACoS objective, you'll see that when you spend on a sponsored product ad that you're ranked for, your TACoS is going to increase because you're cannibalizing your organic sales. So you can almost use TACoS as a lever to push and pull. It's not a perfect solution but it will help. The second thing to do would be to dive into you know, using Helium 10 and on a monthly, quarterly basis, pulling probably those terms, that on average you're above number four, number eight on, and then we create segmented campaigns for ranking that we can turn on and off as needed. So I don't want to turn off that keyword as a whole, I just want to lower the bids. So I'll shift my budget for my ranking campaigns to my profitability campaign. So I'm still running, but I'm not showing up in the top four sponsored ad placements.  

Carrie Miller:   

Jason says what is an optimal amount of keywords per exact campaign. I started with 15 or so, but as keyword harvesting creates new targets, the list has grown quite a bit. Break them into new campaigns question. 

Destaney:

Absolutely I personally don't love harvesting new keywords into an old campaign because it's going  change the performance of your old campaign right. If you have 10 new keywords that aren't proven, then your overall campaign may stop, start performing worse. So 15 is a great number. This is one of those fun like depending on what influencer you follow in the space, you're going to get a different number. It's really dependent on your budget. You know we've had brands that are spending a million dollars a month and they're able to have 100 keywords in a campaign because their campaigns had a thousand dollar budget. So we could afford from a budget perspective to drive traffic to every keyword. If you don't have that budget and you're only at $100 a month or a day, then you're going to need a lot smaller group of keywords to make sure you're collecting data on those keywords. So start with 15, maybe go to 20 to 30, depending on how high you want your budget to be, but then always break them out to new campaigns past that point. 

Carrie Miller:  

Are exact keywords generally expensive than broad? What, according to you, is the right mix of keywords, match type within a campaign and how many can should be added?

Destaney:

This is a fun one. There's a ton of misconceptions around this. In my opinion it just depends, because it's an auction model. If someone is bidding more on their exact match term than they are their phrase match, then maybe your exact match keywords are more expensive because your competitor is bidding more. We test all three match types across the board. They all three run in a very similar ACoS or ROAS because we control the bids to what's converting best at that certain point in time. I think for us, phrase match is one of our highest selling match types right now because broad sometimes goes too broad and doesn't convert as well. Exact match typically converts the best but can be the most expensive. If we're in a category where our competitors are bidding a lot more on exact, highly recommend running all three. Later on, someone asks can you put them all in the same campaign? You can. It's not necessarily going to hurt. We break ours up most of the time. There's instances where we won't, just so I can control again where my budget's going. But we continue to test every single keyword and every single match type and then just negate and or pause or lower bids depending on the performance in the CBCs. 

Carrie Miller:

I recently launched, about two weeks ago. I'm running an automatic and manual campaign. Is there any other campaigns I should be running?

Destaney:

No, I'd say that's fine unless you have a really high budget and look at maybe video or sponsored brands. Those are going to do really well for you. It's unique advertising inventory but considering it's only been two weeks, I think an auto and a manual is good. An auto is going to be used for keyword research and data collection for you. Use your manual campaign to really control where your traffic's going and then just continue adding those automatic keywords you're finding into your manual campaign. 

Carrie Miller:

Mike says, I'm in a category where there's a lot of window shopping, so my advertising spend is high as lots of clicks, no and low sales. Long tail keywords have low traffic and the keywords with higher search volume are very general, expensive and saturated by competitors. Any other strategies to consider? 

Destaney:  

Yeah, I would say, like the home decor, apparel, puzzles those categories can be really difficult because of the window shopping. So you got to think how do you stop someone from window shopping? Video does really really well because then you're educating them on why your product's better and why they're interested. And the good thing with sponsor brands video is if they're just watching the video you don't get charged. You only get charged if they clicked, and if they click they're interested. But again, I'd put this back on you to ask why are people clicking on your listing but not buying? Like even in high window shopping categories, you need to have a competitive advantage. The second thing I would say is product targeting, sponsor product product targeting, sponsor display product targeting can do really well. Target all of the competitors who have lower reviews than you, a higher price point than you, worse reviews than you. These do really well in window shopping categories because, as you mentioned, people are looking at competitors and then clicking on other listings and other listings. So this is a good opportunity to kind of take advantage of that mentality. 

Carrie Miller:  

Would you also say influencers are probably really the best way for those particular categories. 

Destaney: 

Yeah, I think influencers do really well because they're again, it's the same as the video concept. You don't want to just capture the demand and be compared to every other product in your category by price or reviews, which is what Amazon's known for. How do you educate a customer on why they need your product before they even click? Influencers, video ads, off-platform traffic does that job. 

Carrie Miller:  

Do you think Amazon rewards or gives more ranked juice for organic sales more than PPC sales, or do they treat them the same? 

Destaney:   

I would probably say more to organic sales. This is why your big retail brands your Johnson and Johnson's, your Pepsi or Coke's can get away with having listings that maybe aren't as fantastic because their organic conversion rate is so much higher, right? Even before they were spending a ton like seven years ago when I got started in this space those brands did so well because their conversion rate was higher. Customers were searching for their brand name and buying right, so their organic is already inflated and doing much better. Nowadays, PPC of course plays a role, but Amazon knows that they're going to max out on how much PPC opportunity they can have within the search results, so I think organic is weighted a little bit heavier in terms of conversion rate and click-through rate. 

Carrie Miller:

Do you ever increase budget on a PPC campaign, even if it isn't maxing out? 

Destaney:

It doesn't hurt. I don't think it necessarily helps. It can. I've seen a few people kind of make statements like I ran a campaign at $50 a day budget and it did nothing. When I increased it to $500 a day it did something. I've never really seen that, but it doesn't hurt anything.

Carrie Miller:

Joshua says wait. So I thought it was best practice to segment campaigns, as in keywords and such, to determine the performance. So is it best practice to clump keywords together for campaigns in groups of 10 to 15? 

Destaney:  

It doesn't really matter. Single keyword campaigns are okay, they don't hurt, but they're a pain to scale. We have brands that have 500 keywords doing well, so I'm not going to create 500 campaigns when it doesn't drive that much added value. We do 10 to 15 because it's controllable, it's easy to scale, it's easy for us to build out. Because it's controllable, it's easy to scale, it's easy for us to build out. In an absolutely perfect world, single keyword campaigns could be the best solution, the most value added, because you can do your placements at the same time, but they're not scalable for most people. Most people don't have the operations to run it appropriately and the software's out there that are recommending single keyword campaigns have a really terrible bid management strategy that doesn't make sense for them. So I would say if you're a small brand, only have one product, go ahead and run single keyword campaigns if you want. Just make sure you have a good system for naming and structuring. 

Carrie Miller:

This is a good question. If you're new to Helium 10 Adtomic, what's the best place to start? I feel overwhelmed by the complexity of the system. 

Destaney:  

I would start by saying that that is the nature of Amazon and Amazon probably going to feel overwhelmed. So the biggest thing is to actually go through, like the videos that are directly within Adtomic. Like that's what I would say one of your best bets and start learning each piece individually. That's something that I kind of got overwhelmed with, like in the beginning. Keyword research and bid management that should be our core focus when it comes to advertising. So go through those segmented videos and help yourself understand the system that way. Do you have anything else, Carrie? 

Carrie Miller:

Yeah, I mean we do have kind of a PPC Academy. If you are a paid subscriber to Helium 10, you can go into that course. But Bradley also has done some. He did some masterclasses on Adtomic and then there's also kind of learn videos, like you were saying, just like watch those little videos for each different thing within the actual tools. There's kind of little training videos. I would suggest doing that. We also have it in our academy. We have videos in our academy that show you how to use Adtomic. 

Destaney:  

General, it just takes time and, to not get overwhelmed, you have to hop in and you have to test and learn. By the time you learn something Amazon will change some button or some switch. So don't get overwhelmed by like. We have incredible comments and questions that are being asked that I would say are pretty advanced here. So, like, don't get overwhelmed by all of that. Just start simple, start small and you'll figure it out as you go.

Carrie Miller:  

I think we'll do maybe one more here. I think this is a good one. I use Cerebro to extract keywords from competitors ASINs and then include those as exact and phrase match within the same campaign. As a result, my campaign sometimes ends up with 500 plus keywords. Is this approach okay, or should I create smaller, more segmented campaigns?

Destaney:  

I'm going to assume what's happening with your 500 plus keywords is only 10 of them are actually getting impressions and clicks. That is the problem with that strategy. Unless you have a thousand dollar a day budget, you cannot afford the data across all those keywords. And what I mean by that is the industry standard is you need anywhere from 10 to 20 clicks per keyword before knowing whether or not it's a keyword that can be optimized right. So let's say 10 clicks at a $1 bid across 500 keywords. I can't do that math. What is 500 times $10? Like 5000? 

Carrie Miller:

Yeah. 

Destaney: 

Please, you guys I just got the zeros. This is one of those memes I was like what is the most embarrassing thing you typed into your Amazon or your calculator this year? I was about to say you cannot afford to collect data on all those keywords. You're going way too big and you're going to have campaigns that only have 5 to 10 keywords getting clicks, because that's where all of your budget's going. Your budget's only going to go to those keywords. Amazon's not going to spread it across all of your keywords. So there's no point in doing any of that keyword research when 480 of those keywords you cannot afford to get impressions on. That is why we break them out in a segmented campaign. So I can have a $10 campaign focus on one to two keywords, collecting data. I can turn on and off as my keywords are successful versus your 500. Again, you can't necessarily afford it unless you're going to be spending 5 to $10,000 to collect data on all of those terms.  

Carrie Miller:  

All right, I think that's the last question. I think you've done an amazing job for pretty much 45 minutes straight answering questions. So thank you. And Andrew says Destaney is the GOAT. And then Cory said “Agreed, this is awesome!”. So thank you so much for joining us for TACoS Tuesday and thank you to everyone in the audience. We had lots of I mean, we still have questions we haven't answered. I'm sorry about that. We just don't have time to do all of them every single time, but if you join next time early, you can get your questions in early, right when we start and get them answered. But thanks again for everyone who joined and also Destaney. If anyone wants to reach you, where can they reach you?

Destaney:   

Facebook or LinkedIn is probably the easiest. I see a few like good questions that came in last minute. Cory Benson, like all of my content is pretty much on LinkedIn, based around your question, so feel free to follow me on either of those platforms or reach out in the Helium 10 groups. I'm pretty active in those groups, so if you have any questions that we missed, we'd love to hop in and help.  

Carrie Miller:

Yeah, if you're not following Destaney on LinkedIn, you're missing out, so you got to go go follow her there. So, all right, thank you again, and we'll see you all again next time on TACoS Tuesday.

#624 - Profitable Amazon Keywords You Never Knew Existed

Learn how to audit old Amazon listings to uncover new keywords, drive sales, and gather valuable customer data that can help in listing optimization to boost your conversion rates.

► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast

► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension

► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup  (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life)

► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft

► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos

Could Amazon listings that you haven’t touched in a while be the hidden goldmine you've been overlooking? In this episode, Bradley Sutton reveals his tried-and-true method for breathing new life into overlooked product pages and uncovering keywords that boost sales and conversions. As 2025 approaches, it's vital to stay ahead of trends and search habits to refresh your listings. Using the Project X egg trays, he demonstrates how to effectively audit and optimize your Amazon listings using tools like Search Query Performance and Helium 10. We'll explore how examining new reviews and tweaking your advertising and product images can align your listings with consumer trends, ultimately driving profitability.

Keyword optimization isn't just about throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. Instead, it's an art form, and Bradley is here to guide you through crafting a keyword strategy that resonates. With a focus on a wooden egg tray example, we'll uncover unexpected opportunities by analyzing platforms like Etsy and Search Query Performance. Discover how an overlooked keyword like "porcelain egg holder" can unlock new potential. By analyzing click-through rates and impressions with Helium 10’s Cerebro tool, you'll learn how to capture untapped markets and expand your advertising reach.

Understanding sales dynamics is crucial for any Amazon seller. By leveraging BSR history, we can pinpoint sales spikes and identify the keywords that fueled them. Bradley will show you how to use Helium 10's historical data tools to track keyword sales and ranking changes over time and outsmart competitors. It's not just about finding what works but creating a Standard Operating Procedure to efficiently manage the process across multiple products. Get ready to unlock hundreds of dollars in additional sales by strategically optimizing your keyword usage. Let's make tangible financial gains a reality.

In episode 624 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley talks about:

• 00:00 - Auditing Amazon Listings for Optimization
• 00:56 - Refreshing Product Listing for Project X
• 02:34 - Market Analysis Tools for Sellers
• 04:43 - Analyzing Keywords for Optimization
• 08:36 - Keyword Research for Wooden Egg Tray
• 14:14 - Utilizing Historical Data for Product Ranking
• 15:19 - Analyzing BSR and Keyword Data
• 17:40 - Organic Ranking Improvement Analysis
• 20:49 - Analyzing Keyword Performance Through Sales
• 25:33 - Analyzing Feedback for Product Improvement
• 28:24 - Optimizing Amazon Listings for Sales
• 28:41 - Discovering Profitable Keywords for Increased Sales

Helium 10 Buzz 12/19/24: Amazon Makes Move That Might Cost Sellers Millions of Dollars!

BREAKING NEWS: Amazon sellers are angrier than I've ever seen them before because of this move that Amazon made that could be costing sellers millions. How crazy is that?

► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast

► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension

► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup  (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life)

► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft

► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos

We’re back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10’s Chief Brand Evangelist, Bradley Sutton. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10’s newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level.

Update to the FBA inventory reimbursement policy
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHTU4yV1c1M0xMQlNKWlRB

Is Amazon's new FBA inventory reimbursement policy a game-changer or a nightmare for sellers? Recent changes have sparked a significant uproar, and many sellers feel misled and worried about potential financial losses in the millions. We dissect this contentious shift, highlighting the importance of transparency and fairness in Amazon's communication while recognizing its right to shape its own policies. The discussion also provides strategic insights into managing these upcoming changes.

TikTok Shop US Sales Surpass Shein, Sephora
https://www.silicon.co.uk/e-marketing/ecommerce/tiktok-shop-us-593031

Return Rate and Star Rating features on Voice of the Customer Dashboard
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHWEw1VEZNWTI2WFc0WTdO

Temu Leaves Amazon in E-Commerce Dust, Topping Apple’s Most-Downloaded Apps List
https://www.inc.com/kit-eaton/temu-leaves-amazon-in-e-commerce-dust-topping-apples-most-downloaded-apps-list/91067132

Account vacation settings and support for the holidays
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHN0w1UkNRQlZQR0E5SjJW

TikTok asks Supreme Court to temporarily halt a law that would ban the app in the U.S.
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2024-12-16/tiktok-supreme-court-temporarily-halt-ban

Enhanced display placement targeting features on Amazon DSP
https://advertising.amazon.com/en-us/resources/whats-new/enhanced-display-placement-targeting-amazon-dsp/

Join us for a comprehensive exploration of these pivotal shifts, equipping you with the knowledge to thrive in the Amazon space.

In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley covers:

• 00:52 - Amazon Drops Hammer On Reimbursements
• 23:28 - TikTok Shop Passes Shein
• 24:01 - Amazon EU FBA Fee Update
• 27:46 - Voice of the Customer Update
• 28:30 - Temu Most Downloaded
• 29:21 - Amazon Vacation Mode
• 29:52 - TikTok - Supreme Court
• 30:31 - New DSP Features

#623 - From Amazon Influencer To Amazon Seller

In this episode, we got the TikTok queen with 1M+ followers to share her 2024 journey as an influencer, creator, & new Amazon seller. Learn her secrets to making money this year!

 

► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast

► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension

► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup  (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life)

► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft

► Watch The Podcasts On Youtube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos

 

Gracey Ryback from Deal Cheats, the TikTok and Amazon Live sensation with over a million followers reveals her transition from a successful influencer/content creator to Amazon seller in our latest episode. Gracey shares how her initial venture into sourcing products from China provided key insights, eventually leading to a strategic pivot towards U.S.-based suppliers. Her story is not just about product sourcing, but about understanding the intricacies of e-commerce from a seller's perspective, enabling her to connect deeply with other aspiring entrepreneurs in the industry.

Forget traditional advertising methods—Gracey explains why she swerves around Amazon PPC, favoring the power of external traffic and influencer marketing to launch products organically. We dissect her strategies for breaking into saturated markets, utilizing influencers and deal sites to propel organic traffic and product visibility. With practical advice on setting lucrative discounts that draw customers while keeping profit margins healthy, Gracey provides a replicable blueprint for launching products without sacrificing profitability.

Dive into the world of influencer marketing on Amazon as Gracey discusses the tools and platforms that make content creation and brand collaboration seamless. From Helium 10 Xray’s influencer mode to utilizing other platforms, Gracey shares how repurposing content can maximize reach and revenue. Balancing the demands of being a creator and Amazon seller isn't easy, but with Gracey's insights on work-life dynamics and leveraging multiple platforms, listeners will gain valuable knowledge on how to thrive as both a creator and a seller.

In episode 623 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley and Gracey discuss:

• 00:00 - Gracey's Amazon Selling Journey
• 06:59 - Organic Product Launch Strategies
• 08:53 - Uniqueness and Potential for Success
• 13:01 - Product Promotion and Brand Expansion
• 15:10 - Maximizing Influencer Income on Amazon Live and TikTok
• 18:10 - Best Helium 10 Tools For Amazon Sellers
• 25:53 - Alternative Revenue Streams for Creators 
• 26:05 - Creator's Work-Life Balance and Platforms
• 28:48 - Daily Routine and Content Creation
• 34:10 - Influencer Tools for Amazon Success

#622 - Strategic PPC for Amazon Sellers

In this episode, we’ll discuss helpful Amazon advertising strategies, Amazon Marketing Cloud, Search Query Performance, and even some suggestions for the best Ethiopian restaurants.

► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast

► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension

► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup  (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life)

► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft

► Watch The Podcasts On Youtube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos

Join us as we welcome back George Meressa of ClearAds Agency, to the Serious Sellers Podcast, where we talk about Amazon advertising and e-commerce strategies. We discuss how tightened margins and increased competition from Chinese products are impacting sellers. The conversation covers the role of AI in leveling the playing field for non-native English speakers and the significance of external traffic sources like TikTok and Google Ads. We also examine the rising influence of larger brands on Amazon and the higher entry barriers that are discouraging new sellers. Our transition to using Pacvue for Amazon advertising and the emphasis on improving listings to enhance conversion rates are also key highlights.

In our discussion on Amazon PPC campaign optimization, we focus on strategically reducing wasted ad spend and reallocating resources for better performance. George and Bradley share insights on identifying inefficient ad campaigns and leveraging tools like the Hemingway app and Pacvue to simplify language and automate bid adjustments. We explore the importance of enhancing listings through effective keyword use and optimizing Q&A and reviews, which are crucial for ranking. This conversation emphasizes how strategic budgeting and allocation can uncover easy wins and growth opportunities for Amazon sellers.

Listen in as we explore modern advertising strategies and data utilization on Amazon. George discusses optimizing sales through effective keyword analysis and the benefits of using Amazon Marketing Cloud for insights into new-to-brand sales. We also touch on the value of Amazon's B2B reporting and the challenges of sponsored TV ads for ROI-focused clients. The conversation highlights the enduring effectiveness of sponsored product ads and the importance of maintaining advertising spend on high-ranking keywords. Finally, we share a lighter moment, connecting over a shared appreciation for unique ethnic cuisines, with a particular focus on Ethiopian food.

 

In episode 622 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley and George discuss:

• 00:00 - Amazon Advertising and E-Commerce Strategies
• 04:42 - Optimizing Amazon PPC Campaigns
• 09:48 - Automated Bid Adjustment Strategies for Success
• 14:41 - Amazon Advertising Strategies and Data Utilization
• 15:09 - Understanding Amazon Search Query Performance Keywords
• 19:03 - Advertising Strategies and Best Practices
• 21:26 - Benefits of the Amazon Bestseller Badge
• 26:17 - Shifting Focus to Organic Sales
• 29:55 - Discussing International Cuisine Preferences
• 30:29 - Exploring Unique Ethiopian Cuisines

Transcript:

Bradley Sutton:

Today we've got George back on the show for the first time in a couple years and we're going to talk about a wide variety of subjects, including general Amazon advertising strategy, AMC, Search Query Performance and even some suggestions for the best Ethiopian restaurants. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I'm your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show. That's a completely BS-free, unscripted and unrehearsed organic conversation about serious strategies for Serious Sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. And we're here in Milan, Italy, at our Avask and Helium 10 workshop, and just fresh off the stage is George. Now I'm going to be asking him a little bit about what he talked about, because I was in here recording another podcast so I didn't get to hear him. But, George, it's been a little bit since you've been on the podcast. Welcome back.

 

George Meressa:

Thank you so much for having me. It has been a while yeah.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Yes, yeah. So now you flew in here, you're still based in London.

 

George Meressa:

I am, yeah, I'm in London.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Excellent, excellent. So I'm going to need some restaurant advice. I'll be going there two times in the next couple of weeks, so you'll have to give me some great local eats.

 

George Meressa:

Absolutely, I'll give you my advice. I've been told I have horrible advice, but there's one or two winners, so then I'll get you with them.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Excellent, excellent. Now we're not just here to talk about culinary things, were here to talk about you know what, what your specialty is, which is, you know, Amazon advertising, just Amazon in general. And so I remember the last time you were on the show. You know you talk a lot about DSP. Dsp obviously has come a long ways, but just in general, what are the biggest things that have changed in the last couple of years that advertisers are dealing with now? Or you know some new feature that they have access to? That wasn't around the last time you were on the show.

 

George Meressa:

Yeah, it's a good question. So I think the biggest thing we've seen is just how margins are being tightened for sellers. So there's been costs that have increased in so many different areas, like warehouse costs. The cost per click just has increased in general, and not only that, but we've also seen a whole range of competition come within Amazon, so a lot of cheaper products coming directly from China and I think AI has had a massive impact on that where now Chinese sellers are able to have content that matches up with those who speak the native languages, like English in the US and other marketplaces and Temu has been one as well. It's just been a competition where you can find products at such a lower rate.

 

So there have been a few big components. Outside traffic as well has played a big part too. So getting viral stuff coming through TikTok, people really homing in on Google Ads they've had an impact and also the bigger brand as well. I think a lot more bigger brands are putting their products on Amazon and because they have the awareness, the conversion rates are just naturally better and they're coming in and just sweeping in and taking a considerable amount of market share. So there's a whole sea of things happening. I think one of the biggest things we've noticed, though, is there's less newer sellers, because just the barrier of entry is a little bit higher than it was when we first uh, when we last had the conversation.

Bradley Sutton:

Now you guys, uh, I know, um, in the last couple years you know, switched over to Pacvue, uh, for software, another one of our companies.

So you know Pacvue is not just Amazon, you know, it's a really a lot of multi-channel. So are you guys leveraging advertising now on other platforms at all? Are you strictly still pretty much Amazon advertising?

 

George Meressa:

So we're mainly Amazon advertising now. I think the biggest change that's happened since we last spoke is, uh, we're now working within the listings too, so leveraging some of the skill set we brought in from outside um, those who've run amazon brands and done really well and they've been able to help us to grow the conversion rate, because ultimately it comes down to the conversion rate and the sales. So and sometimes it's quite straightforward fixes it could be standing out with images, it could be keywords in the back end that most people forget to put in descriptions, titles, and just really working with that, and other times just that product is kind of hitting the end of its life cycle and that's

 

one thing we've noticed is the life cycle of products are kind of diminishing more and more since last being here.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Yeah, I imagine that's kind of a benefit for you guys, because if you're only an advertising agency, you know you can only control the advertising. But if they've got a crap listing or they don't even have the right keywords, it's a little bit hard to change things. But if you're able to go in there and help people from a to z, then it just makes the advertising, I imagine, much more effective too.

 

George Meressa:

Exactly that. So it's a kind of massive flywheel effect. When you get the listings right and you have a kind of superior product or product that stands out, it just makes everything else flow better. So you could, you know, um? On extreme examples, we've seen exceptional products of high barrier or high barrier to entry products, where they have very basic PPC campaigns, but they just rank, they just do well, and on the opposite side you have other products that are similar to what's out there and it's very difficult to get that edge. I think when I first started doing Amazon pay-per-click, you know you had the auto campaigns. Manual campaigns were just introduced. There wasn't much data. I mean there wasn't much competition, so it was easy to run it. But now I mean the data that we have access to with Amazon is unbelievable. It's unbelievable what information you can get right now and I think that is still probably the biggest edge a lot of people can have against their competitors is actually taking advantage of the data and knowing what to do with it.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Now what is one of the most common I don't know if I can say mistakes or things that you're changing like now you take on a new client and now you do have the ability to go in and modify some things, both on the advertising side of what they were doing, but both on also on the listing, you know, side or keyword side. What are some things that are like oh my goodness, like we've had so many customers who have done this wrong and this is like the first thing that we check for to change. Does anything stick out in your mind?

 

George Meressa:

Yeah, it's very simple. So we look at what can we bring down, what can we bring out? I mean, what can we bring down? What can we bring up? They're the two simplest ways of putting it. So what can we bring down?

Where in the campaigns that we're looking at is there wasted budget? Where that, where the resources haven't been allocated well right? So this could be campaigns that are getting a very high amount of clicks but not any sales. So that's a. That's just a more straightforward basic um, um kind of uh example. But on the other hand, you can also have keywords that have a decent a cost, a horrible conversion rate, and that's where most of the budget's been distributed. So the more budget and ad spend a company has when they come to us, the stronger the chances that we will find something to improve. So that's the first thing we do is okay, what can we cut back? If someone's got, you know, you know, 10 000 a month ad spend or 100 hundred thousand a month, and we can reduce it by 10%, 15%. Then we got opportunity with that additional budget to put it in places where it is working, or untapped opportunities. That is going to be an easy win. So where is the easy wins, is the quickest thing, and reducing that spend and cutting the cost is the first place we go. So that's the first thing. And then the second thing is what can we bring up? Where is there potential for growth? And this is where we kind of dig into Search Query Information. Where are certain listings organically positioned well or getting a good proportion of sales that you're just not pushing through PPC right? And when we got that information, we can then create campaigns to then test okay, what would happen if we put some campaigns behind this? Would their positions improve? And most of the time the conversion rates are strong, as strong as they and they are shown on Search Query Data. Then they move and it works well. So, from a PPC side of things, that's where we see the quick wins.

Um, on a listing side of things, it's very basic things that get missing. I mean the amount of companies we look at where they just haven't got back-end keywords and they don't have, uh, their descriptions fleshed out and their, their, um, their bullet points haven't been reviewed since they first launched the products because they've got so many products. Amazon is looking at the listings to look at what is this product relevant to what is. What is the search terms that are most likely to entice a sale. So we go a little bit further as well and kind of work on um Q and A as well. How can we maximize the, the amount of questions that are answered around the products and making sure that the type of answer that's given is what amazon's looking for. So, especially with Rufus so there's a science paper that uh was recently published where amazon actually say they, they give more um, they put more weight in terms of ranking to the questions and answers and the reviews as opposed to the product description. So really making sure that all of the content it works well.

I think one of the things I've just shared downstairs as well is um using simple language, right. So a lot of people things I've just shared downstairs as well is using simple language, right. So a lot of people forget that, just using the US as an example, the average reading age is of a seventh grader, right? So if the average reading age is of a seventh grader, why not use this much more simple language within your listings to really convey the message? Because then, ultimately, you're reaching 100% of your audience as opposed to reaching, you know, 40 or 30%. That in itself could have just tremendous impact and it has, we've seen in our clients in terms of the conversion rates. So I just spoke downstairs a really cool app to use is Hemingway, the Hemingway app. So with that app, you can just put your listing title in there and it will teach you to just use more simple language. Right, there's no, there's no, there's never any issue in doing that, and actually you could reach a much, much larger audience, especially if you're selling a complex product. That is the art. If you sell a complicated product to complicated ingredients, you know, really conveying the um, the benefits.

And just moving back to what you mentioned, Pacvue that's been a game changer. One of the big things that it's allowed us to do is allowed us to put in rules so that we can automatically make bid adjustments that humans just can't do as well, right? So just to give you a few examples, we can put in rules which say, okay, if, uh, the position in organically is X, make X change within the bids, right. So if this and if the conversion rate threshold is above this, increase the bids, right. Doing this is just one layer, right, and that's helped a considerable amount in terms of ensuring that it's done in real time. That's the first one. The second thing is doing um, increasing bids, budgets during certain times of the day and week, right.

So we found out, all of the tools we've used, patfuse being the most superior in terms of getting that right and homing in. You know, you can ask someone, a VA, you can ask a special, a specialist account manager who's been doing it for donkey's years, to manually sit there and do that, but it's not going to meet the human, it's not going to meet, uh, the tool's ability to do it at such a rapid rate. There's so many things that we do within those tools now where we're now focusing more on a strategy and we're allowing the tool to do the mundane clicking and ensuring that the campaigns are given the best possible, uh, chance of succeeding. So, um, that's kind of how we use the tool and I think, is getting to a place now.

If you're not using these tools, you're going to fall behind, like you cannot. It's not like those old days where you could just click and make the budget adjustment. Amazon is checking all of the position and ranking every time a search is made for your products, right? So you want to take advantage of that, especially if you're doing good volumes. You're getting good traffic, getting good impressions. You really want to be on top of it.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Want to keep up to date with trending topics in the e-commerce world, make sure to subscribe to our blog. We regularly release articles that talk about things such as shipping and logistics, e-commerce in other countries, the latest changes to Amazon Seller Central countries, the latest changes to Amazon Seller Central, how to get set up on new platforms like Newegg, how to write and publish a book on Amazon KDP and much, much more. Check these articles out at h10.me forward slash blog.

Now, one thing you mentioned a couple minutes ago was about the Q&A. So let's say, you know, just organically, nobody has left that many questions and so obviously that means there's not that many answers to. So does this mean that you're just getting like some Amazon customers to write some questions so that the seller or the account manager can answer them, or how do you get the right questions and answers on there?

 

George Meressa:

Very good question. So I'm going to step a bit back, Bradley. So you can use a tool like AHREF, right, and you can ask a question about a product, right, and it will give you the most asked questions on Google, right. So that's where you can do the research and be more data focused. So I'll give you an example there was some sort of nail varnish that one of our clients sold. When we put that product into AHREF how to remove the nail varnish it was the biggest question I was asked. It was getting like 20,000 to 30,000 searches a month.

 

So, firstly, it's about finding the right questions. Where is the itch right? What are people asking? Right? And then, when you find a few of these questions, then we encourage friends and family and there are some other ways you can do it. I just would need to speak to a team about how to do it, but in the day-to-day of the business. But what we find is, when you do that and then you answer the question as well, there's Amazon Comprehend. So Amazon Comprehend is a tool that allows you to ensure you answer the question in the right way.

 

So you're not neutral. So either positive or negative, and it's about being as black and white as possible, and we've noticed that Rufus picks up on this as well. So, um, you want to make sure that you're answering those questions. Um, well too. So, um, don't be vague. Um, try and be yes or no. Um, does it answer the question is this a product that removes? Uh, you know how does this product remove nail varnish easily? Yes, it does it. Does it X, does it X, Y and Z? And actually what we did is, when we actually did the research on some of these tools like AHRef, SEMrush, we found that when you go to the listing, you can actually put some visual aids of showing step-by-step how easy it is to remove it. So there's a whole range of ways you can find it but this has been really, really useful for it.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Um, you, you also mentioned, you know, Search Query Performance and I think that's just a great data point, that that Amazon. I think none of us really ever could have predicted that Amazon would, would, would give. Um, I think you touched on it. But, like, my main thing is, I'm looking at keywords where I've got a better conversion rate for purchases, that, then the overall and then yeah, you know, checking. Maybe I'm not advertising for it or maybe I'm not ranking high. I need to double down and then maybe the ones I'm not converting as well, maybe I even dial back on the spend because I know, you know, it might not help me much with my organic ranking. Uh, because I'm converting poorly for it. What other uses other than just those, those two that are using the search performance data for?

 

George Meressa:

That's a good question. So, as well as looking at conversion rates, looking at what is the potential on that keyword, if you're getting three sales a week from that keyword and there's 25 sales, is it gonna be better use of your time to go for another keyword that you may be getting free sales, but there's 400 sales a week, right, so it gives you the potential that keyword has for you to grow in it and make more sales. So that's the first thing. Another thing as well is Amazon doesn't make this clear, but there's two types of keywords that you have within search query, so you have more discovery keywords and you also have more kind of intent based keywords. Right, and you can figure out where these keywords lie by just looking at their kind of um, the click percentage share, and you can also look at it from the add to cart share as well.

 

So there's going to be certain keywords where people just are more likely to buy quicker, and so they're the keywords really good to really understand as well, because effectively, this is going to be better use of your money. So if you can find those keywords where the conversion rate is higher, then you're likely to kind of do more with that. So there's some of the ways we use search query and I know they've gone a step further with my team as well where you can actually reverse, engineer and figure out, ok, depending on how many sales there are for a certain keyword and how much competition there is. There are for a certain keyword and how much competition there is, if you get X amount of sales for that keyword per day, this is how much it's likely to cost you per click on average to see what it would look like to move you up organically. So that's what search queries can do if it's in the right hands.

 

Bradley Sutton:

What other new Amazon data points you know, like brand metrics or things like that, are you guys leveraging to help you make decisions?

 

George Meressa:

Good question. So I think one of the I was just speaking to Ben just last week and I think one of the big things we noticed recently is just the B2B reporting through the child ace and so you can see now how many sales you'll get in from B2B customers. So I think that's been interesting. So I think anyone who uh is sales on amazon and they should just apply to and have b2b pricing. So if people wanted to buy uh larger units we're still quite early on into this, but we started to see certain trends of search terms where it's more targeted towards b2b customers and really taking advantage of those search terms as well and probably spending a bit we spend a bit more on them. So uh tape, some sort of tape for plumbers we kind of saw that. Yoga supplies we saw that. So there's gonna be a lot more we can do with it, but that's kind of one of the latest things that we've seen that we've taken advantage of.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Are you guys leveraging AMC? I mean, AMC has been around for a while, but now it's kind of more getting a little democratized. It's not just for people with DSP. Have you been leveraging that at all for your clients?

 

George Meressa:

Yeah, we've been using AMC for some time now with DSP clients, so there's a whole, there's a bunch of really cool things that AMC gives you in terms of data. So the first and most obvious way is you can now start to see how many new to brand sales you get through sponsored product ads. Uh, within the interface, you can only really see that for responsive brand. So it really, especially if you have, um a consumable product, you're able to see, okay, um, which, which keywords are responsible for bringing in new purchases where, um, they've never they've never seen your product I haven't bought within a certain time period. So that's been really useful.

 

Um, and leveraging that information, um, there's been. How else have we used it? Uh, we created custom audiences as well. So, um, you could exclude. So, within dsp, you can exclude those who may have seen your product 15 times, because they're less likely to buy after 15 times across the whole account as opposed to uh, as opposed to one um. So there's yeah, there's been a few ways, and I think this is going to be really good for uh, e-commerce brands now, the fact that we have it at our disposal within seller central, because before it was, you know, you had to go for an agency.

 

Bradley Sutton:

So have you guys dabbled at all with any of your clients with a sponsored tv?

 

George Meressa:

uh well, we haven't seen it work. We have, um, it just seems to waste a lot of money, um. So most of the clients that we deal with they're kind of more ROI focused. They want to grow. We haven't really had anyone yet with us. I know Matt has his previous agency that want brand exposure and are prepared to spend 20, $30,000 a month on that. So we haven't. We haven't. We've tested, we've not seen the results. So we haven't, we haven't, we've tested, we've not seen the results. So we've kind of moved away from it.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Um, what's maybe the best kind? You know, obviously there's a million kinds of ads now before, back in the day, say, there's auto campaigns, or there's broad campaigns, and then there's ASIN targeting and then now all of a sudden there's, you know, sponsored brand headline ads and video ads and throughout different times, you know different ones have been the most profitable or drive best ROI. It's a general thing to ask, but anything like any type of ad you see nowadays in 2024, 2025, going into 2025, that are just working better than others, that you're like, hey, everybody needs to be making sure they've got a good strategy with this type of campaign.

 

George Meressa:

I think it's been sponsored product ads from the get go and I think they're still kind of the number one.

 

If you can get your ads to appear, your products to appear at the top of the search results for the right keywords, that is always going to outperform anything else.

 

So that's the first place is to kind of find those keywords that you're likely to convert better with, or you have been converting better with, and pushing them top of page placements through sponsored products. We tend to find that 70 of our budget goes to sponsored product ads and then if we start to see, okay, there's common themes across certain keywords where we do convert well through sponsored product ads, then we would take those keywords and put them into sponsored brand ads on exact match to really push them that way. So they tend to and have done so for a while perform the best. Every now and again you get ace in target campaign and category targeting. That works really well, especially if a particular product is superior across the category. So if you have that kind of product where your average rate and count is a lot higher, then that's another option as well to kind of really push and with those kinds of terms, if someone has searched for your competitor and they end up buying your product, then Amazon's gonna favor that a great deal more too.

 

Bradley Sutton:

So the question I have is kind of like, I'm not sure if there's one right answer, but everybody has differing opinions, so I just want to get yours is a common one that people have is like hey, I'm on a key keyword that's relevant to my niche, but now I'm already ranking high organically. You know, like, like, should I pull back on my, my spend? You know, like, maybe before I was always going for top of search for, for sponsored ads. But you know, like, my philosophy in the past has been I want as much real estate as possible. You know, I want to go ahead and have that sponsored brand headline ad. I want it to be the one of the first sponsored ads. I want the organic rank. You know, maybe I'll have a video on the page just because now it's pushing competitors. But you know, is it, is it possible that I'm maybe cannibalizing some organic sales because they clicked on the sponsored ad when they probably would have bought my product anyways? Where do you sit on this, on this kind of debate, I guess?

 

George Meressa:

Good question. So, um, if you have the bestseller badge, you want to do everything within your power to keep that velocity of sales up. You want to make sure that you have more sales within that category than anyone else, because when you get that badge, amazon also already knows that you are the best in that category with what you sell. So there's going to be places that Amazon will show your products that you just would not have access to otherwise. So there's a whole range of benefits that you see would not have access to otherwise, right, so there's a whole range of benefits that you see. Not only that, but when you're positioned and you have the best seller badge, you actually have a much higher advantage compared to your competitors in terms of the price you pay per click. So we tend to also find that the cost per click is lower.

 

So when one of our clients actually cuts back or when they lose that bestseller badge, it's so hard to get it back. It's really, really difficult. Effectively, what you've done is you've created a moat. So if you've got those number of sales in, you're making a profit. You do really want to work hard to keep that momentum of sales. If it's working to cut back, it could be dangerous.

 

I would probably consider encouraging people to look outside of Amazon. If it's working to cut back, it could be dangerous. I would probably consider encouraging people to look outside of Amazon to kind of compliment what they have. But I mean, there's been just too many horror stories I've heard and seen where people have, like, positioned really well, doing great sales, and then a few people with VC-backed money come in, really push PPC, run their campaigns that are lost for a while, and then, um, they take the best seller badge and they just can't get it back. They don't have the resources like some of the other companies do. So if you're in that fortunate position, you should be doing everything you can, and I think one of the key metrics you should be looking at is how many units of sales are you pushing compared to some of your main competitors? Um, just to make sure that? uh, yeah,

 

Bradley Sutton:

Somebody's just getting started and they want to start budgeting. Uh, you know, maybe it's tacos or maybe it's like, hey, how much should I put aside? You know, like because the worst thing they can do is just budget for the product, for shipping and getting started, and they have no budget for PPC. But nowadays I think the amount of advertising we kind of have to do is more than ever. But you know you can't do it to the point where you lose money. Is there a number where you're like, hey, you should budget this percent of, like, your initial order or this amount of money weekly or something for somebody so they can really make sure that they've got enough budget where they don't run out and then now they can't run advertising.

 

George Meressa:

So somebody, so they can really make sure that they've got enough budget where they don't run out and then now they can't run advertising. So what we look at, especially when someone's launching a product, is okay, what terms are you going to want to go for to begin with and work backwards in that way? So if you have a product, strongly encourage you. Well, try and get brand registry from the very, very beginning so you have access to brand analytics. Get the products in. You're doing a variation; it's going to be easier to get this information. But what we tend to do is look backwards and go okay, what are the keywords that we're going to target and what impressions and clicks and conversions do they get a week? What do we need to achieve to begin with? And then how much do we need on average, working on some scenarios, to have more of an educated guess, and we work backwards in that sense.

 

And then we have phases as. So we might have four or five phases. So at the lower end of the phases, we've got those search volume keywords. I'll get in maybe 5,000 searches a month and we start there and then we kind of go right. Here's five keywords in phase four and what we're going to do with these keywords is start off with that and we're going to have X amount of budget. So we do have a tool in-house where we kind of figure out what we, what we need to spend and then we kind of move up the phases. The moment we start to see movement in organic positioning, um, but at the beginning is going to be, you know, I mean you obviously should probably going to sign up for vine and get those reviews coming in it's going to all factor in at the beginning. If you're getting really good reviews, you're getting really good conversion rate, then then you're going to have to have some budget, additional budget, to just help you with that momentum

 

Bradley Sutton:

Another question I had was I think in the old days you know, I don't know, maybe six years ago or so a lot of, if not the majority of sellers, when they're trying to optimize their advertising, is like strictly ACoS, like hey, I have a cost goals at the campaign level, at the keyword level, whatever. Nowadays that that's not enough. You've got to be looking at ROAS and different things like that. What is your suggestions out there as far as managing your advertising in a more holistic way, instead of just strictly looking at that one ACoS metric that we did for so many years?

 

George Meressa:

ACoS is certainly an important metric to look at, but that shouldn't be your key KPI. I think the conversion rate should be ultimately right at the top and TACoS then comes in later, should be prioritized more than ACoS, because there may be some sacrifices you have to make with ACoS for the benefit of organically getting ranked better and start to get more sales. I think the biggest shift that we're seeing is more sales across every. Well, most accounts we're looking at is coming from paid ads compared to organic ads from the past. So trying to reverse engineer that where you're having more coming from organic, is going to be key because that's going to give you a stronger moat compared to your competitors, if you can master that. So and there's been some extreme examples where we've had one or two clients where they have a higher price point when it comes to their product, but the conversion rate has been um, not as good, right. So PPC they have additional margins compared to their competitors where they can rank higher than them, I mean where they can position behind them on paid ad, but organically they're not running the moment. Moment their ads stop running, their listings go down, right. There's no history there organically. So it's heavily reliant on PPC. So, and that's why ACoS can be a dangerous game, if you're constantly measuring ACoS and you're going with the terms with the lowest ACoS and you're pushing them, every ACoS is just going to continue to climb and climb, and climb and climb. And for someone who's a little bit more strategic, um, and using data to their advantage and they're focusing more on the keywords where the conversion rates are higher and they're positioning better, they're going to come in and they're going to take those positions off you. They're the ones that are going to come and start to slowly win.

 

There's one example of one client where we didn't want the main competitors to even know that we were competing for those terms. So we went for those slightly obscure keywords that get maybe a number like 20 sales a week, 30 sales a week, and we pushed those keywords to get the velocity and we started ranking and we started to understand what kind of keywords relevant to us and then we went for those core keywords that everyone else goes for, right, and then that way we were able to then easily kind of come in and take organic position and rank, and that's how you should be thinking now. So a few years ago ACOS was our main KPI. Now it's just something we look at and it's really difficult actually to share with people. That way of thinking now is such it's so short term it's not going to allow them to kind of really see this for a year good points.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Now before we get into our last questions. If people want to reach out to you to get more, information on what you do and how you can help them out. How can they find you on the interwebs?

 

George Meressa:

So clearadsagencycom is the URL. Just search George Meressa on LinkedIn. I've got an obscure last name M-E-R-E-S-S-A. I think there's no one else with that. I'll just say George Meressa, so you'll find me. Connect with me there. But yeah, that's probably the best place.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Favorite Helium 10 tool of all time.

 

George Meressa:

Cerebro.

 

Bradley Sutton:

 

 

And something that you know. Maybe you don't know if we have or not, but you're like man, I don't think Helium 10 has this. If I was in charge of Helium 10 or this is the task I would give them that would give me more value.

 

George Meressa:

I mean, you've got a Genie in there. Now we need the reverse, what helps you get money back. So that's what's, and it's free. So that's probably one I would have suggested, but you've already done it, so that's a box already ticked. I can't really think right now of anything I want. I think you've got the package. I think the data that we found has been, um, it's been so solid over the years. I think you, you're one of the very few companies who've had this data for so many years, and I think that's always been important to us. Um, but yeah,

 

Bradley Sutton:

As you know, I'm going to Ethiopia for my first time. Obviously, I'm ordering lots of injera, but what's a couple of dishes that you recommend? Maybe even a dessert? I've never had Ethiopian dessert, so what are some things I should be looking for in some uh restaurants? I can call it by name and they'll be impressed that I know.

 

George Meressa:

Okay so first, what you gotta do is you gotta find those little places where they're making coffee. There's like an old lady wearing all white and she's she doesn't have to be old, she could be young but like, um, like, and they're just making some coffee, the freshly brewed coffee. Get some of that, you're gonna love it. So that's the first place to go. And then, um, when it comes to India, the India is actually quite different to what you get in the uh, in the states and in the UK it's they use that.

 

It's that really brown sourdough. I don't know if you've had that version. It's usually kind of white flour they use in in your kind of Europe and the western world, but that's quite sour, so it's going to be interesting for you. I mean, you can take spice, right? Yeah, so I love ASAP. That's like the red sauce with the egg and the chicken and that is not my favorite, but, um, yeah, I think that's probably in Jera is like the most common thing to have there. So that's what I recommend.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Love it, love it. That's the. It's a top three cuisine for me. Like I’m all for Mexican food, Korean food and then Ethiopian food is there, so like it's always been on my bucket list to go and I'm finally going only for a day, but maybe next time I'll be able to go for more.

 

George Meressa:

That was the most random thing, though, and I think you told me three years ago. I was like George, do you have Ethiopian food? I was like yeah, and he's like I love it. And I was like what it was? Bradley was the last person food. It's like crazy. Anyway. I don't have many people that come up to me and tell me that and this is like an intimate cuisine for me, like I have it at home. I grew up with it, like growing up, and it's just there and um, and now you know you absolutely love it anyway. Crazy.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Love it, love it. I will people know I march the beat of a different drummer. I don't like to go with what's the norm and that's definitely not the norm and I love it. So if you guys look up, uh, Yelp, if you have an Ethiopian restaurant near you, and give it a try and trust me, you're going to love it.

 

George Meressa:

Thank you so much for having me, Bradley.

 

Bradley Sutton:

Thank you for being on here, and we'll bring you back next year to see what you've been up to.

 

George Meressa:

Sounds good.

 

Helium 10 Buzz 12/12/24: Chinese Sellers Struggling? | TikTok Shop, Amazon New Countries

Chinese sellers on Amazon and Temu struggling? TikTok Shop opens in two new marketplaces. Amazon is about to open in a new country. These buzzing stories and more on this episode!

We’re back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10’s Chief Brand Evangelist, Bradley Sutton. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10’s newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level.

No Black Friday windfall for Chinese sellers on Temu and Amazon as competition rises
https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3289727/no-black-friday-windfall-chinese-sellers-temu-and-amazon-competition-rises

TikTok Shop Goes Live for Spain, Ireland in Europe Rollout
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tiktok-shop-goes-live-spain-094457160.html

Countdown to Amazon.ie as businesses are invited to register and new Country Manager is announced
https://www.aboutamazon.eu/news/retail/countdown-to-amazon-ie-as-businesses-are-invited-to-register-and-new-country-manager-is-announced
Create percent-off price discounts with minimum discounted price floor on Amazon

How Gen Z Fashion Brands Shein and Temu Exploit a Legal U.S. Tariff Loophole
https://www.forbes.com/sites/gregpetro/2024/12/09/how-gen-z-fashion-brands-shein-and-temu-exploit-a-legal-us-tariff-loophole/

Amazon and Intuit expand their strategic partnership
https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/aws/amazon-seller-central-quickbooks-aws-partnership

Amazon launched new seller-fulfilled customer service quality insights on the Feedback Manager page in Seller Central.

Generative AI tools in the A+ Content Manager are now available to all Brand Registered sellers in the US.

Lastly, we discuss some game-changing Helium 10 new features for Black Box ABA top search terms and provide valuable insights into calculating profit margins on TikTok Shop with the all-new Helium 10 TikTok Shop profitability calculator. Whether you're looking to optimize your sales strategies or stay informed on the latest e-commerce trends, this episode offers a wealth of information to help you succeed.

In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley covers:

• 00:46 - Chinese Sellers Struggling
• 03:06 - TikTok Shop EU Opens
• 04:01 - Amazon Ireland Opening
• 04:40 - Price Discount Update
• 06:00 - Why Temu/Shein Are So Cheap
• 06:39 - Amazon x Intuit
• 07:11 - Customer Service Quality Insights
• 08:54 - Gen AI A+ Content
• 09:29 - Check Out Helium 10’s Latest Blogs
• 10:12 - Helium 10 New Feature Alerts
• 13:08 - Training Tip: TikTok Shop Profitability Calculator