Three ways beauty brands can optimize Amazon listings

More shoppers than ever before are turning to Amazon and other e-commerce platforms to buy beauty products.

This explosive growth is poised to continue its upward trajectory - the online share of sales made in the health and beauty sector is expected to rise from 16.5% globally in 2020 to 23.3% by 2025. However, Amazon’s beauty space is highly competitive, and brands can find the prospect of standing out from a sea of competitors daunting.

Brands looking to gain visibility and capture more users on this massive online retailer should start by considering their Amazon beauty product pages. Optimizing these product pages not only showcases a brand’s unique features but also helps their true value shine through.

When creating an Amazon product listing that drives both visibility and sales, brands should follow these best practices:

Invest in Amazon’s advertising platform
Brands need a solid advertising strategy to gain visibility across the web. One of the best ways to do this is through Amazon’s Demand-Side Platform (DSP), which allows brands to reach prospects across all Amazon-owned sites and apps, leading publisher sites and third-party exchanges.

Amazon DSP can help brands reach the right audience by leveraging data and retargeting likely buyers, as well as providing sales data that will reveal what’s working best. Brands can tap into these insights to optimize their overall campaign performance and maximize opportunities for growth.

Retargeting can help beauty brands expand their reach by targeting potential customers who browsed their items in the past but didn’t buy them. For example, Amazon’s targeting data can put an ad for a particular brand of lipstick in front of audiences are likely to be interested in it, based on their purchase and browsing history.

Brands can also drive product discovery through sponsored promotions. Amazon Sponsored Brands are cost-per-click (CPC) ads that engage shoppers as they browse across Amazon. These customizable ads feature the brand logo, a headline, and up to three featured products. Since Amazon data suggests 70% of customers never click past the first page, this is a key tactic to grow visibility in the target customer’s search results.

Target keywords to make product listings discoverable
Success on Amazon begins with understanding the shopper journey and how customers search for products. In a drug store, beauty product categories are nicely defined on aisle signs, and competitor brands sit next to each other on physical shelves.

This kind of category management and shopper journey doesn’t exist on Amazon.

Amazon is search-based, meaning brands must focus on keywords relevant to their target audience to make products discoverable. Since shoppers typically search two to four terms before making a purchase, optimizing the keyword list is key.

It’s important to study shopper behavior and think about keyword strategy in terms of real-world search phrases that customers actually use. Brands can then gather the keywords that truly matter most and craft a strategy that’s both highly targeted and measurable, increasing their odds of winning Amazon visibility.

By using distinct and targeted keywords, brands can get the most out of their budget while still driving sales. Highly specific keywords are far less competitive than broader keywords and thus will not be as expensive. For example, a vegan cosmetic brand should use specific terms such as “black vegan liquid liner” as opposed to generic terms like “eyeliner.”

Create a title that drives visibility and sales

Amazon listing titles have the greatest impact on a product’s overall performance. While it’s crucial that titles are rich in keywords, being concise with “need to know” information should ultimately be the primary focus. Product titles should be informative yet succinct, as keyword stuffing tends to overwhelm shoppers. Product listing titles should also follow these best practices:

• Structure: Since Amazon’s organic results are typically only 115 – 144 characters long, the structure of the title is crucial. The brand name and any relevant keywords need to be placed at the beginning, so they won’t be hidden behind a truncation.
• Features: Brands should take advantage of their features list. Since online attention spans are short, make sure to provide scannable content that demonstrates how the product clearly solves a problem.
• Images: Potential customers associate the quality of a physical product with the quality of its online presence. Brands should use a wide variety of high resolution images that clearly display the packaging and ingredients. Showcasing user content, such as before and after photos or color swatches can help sway customer purchasing decisions.

The days of simply listing products on Amazon Marketplace are long gone. Brands must take fresh and innovative approaches to reaching shoppers in today’s competitive online beauty space. Brands who take full advantage of Amazon’s optimization tools, and tailor their advertising and keyword strategies can grow their brand, maximize visibility and stand-out in the sea of competitors.