Have you been thinking about advertising products on Amazon through non-Amazon channels such as Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok? Or maybe even via Google search ads that go directly to your Amazon product listings? Well, now is the time! Amazon is offering a big financial incentive for these types of ‘off-site’ campaigns.
If you’re already an Amazon Seller enrolled in the Amazon Brand Registry and are using Amazon Attribution measurement tags on your links, you are halfway there! Don’t worry if you’ve found little success with the off-site campaigns you’ve tried in the past—we’re going to tell you exactly why that happened, and how you can easily and immediately adjust your campaign links to multiply your eligible sales for Amazon’s Brand Referral Bonus by two, three, or four times (or even more)!
But first, how much does the Amazon Brand Referral Bonus pay? Although it varies, the Amazon Brand Referral Bonus pays you an average of 10% of the sales price on the sales generated from any non-Amazon marketing effort. The key, however, is to measure your results not just through the Amazon website, but also through the Amazon app (most people use the app after all!).
Let’s begin by going over how the Amazon Brand Referral Bonus works.
First, you need to have an Amazon Ads account, and from there you’ll be able to sign up for the Brand Referral Bonus program. In your Amazon Ads account, look for ‘Reporting and Measurement’ in the menu to find the Amazon Attribution tools to add your measurement tags to your Amazon links.
Remember, any sale that the campaign drives but isn’t measured will not be eligible for the bonus, so that means you need to remove any and all friction from the customer’s shopping journey in order to get them to click that ‘Buy’ button.
Once you have your Amazon links with attribution measurement tags, you can use them in your off-site campaigns, but they need to be updated even further so that they can open the Amazon app (but we’ll get to that in a moment). Any sales measured from these tagged links will be eligible to receive a bonus not only on the product you promoted, but on any additional products that the same customer buys within 14 days after the initial purchase.
Now that’s an incentive!
Note that you’ll get the bonus as a referral fee credit. Think of your referral bonus as a discount on your Amazon fees that you get for driving off-site traffic to Amazon.
Important: Amazon waits two months before distributing the referral bonus credit to accommodate any potential returns.
Each product category has a different estimated bonus rate, ranging from 2-30%—depending on the volume of sales and the product category. To help you estimate your total bonus across product categories, Amazon created this Brand Referral Bonus rate table, while also offering some guidance on how to navigate the program.
So now, let’s go through the steps you’ve taken thus far. First, you’ve created your links with measurement tags (check). You’ve estimated your bonus (check). You understand the details of when you’ll receive this bonus (check). Now all that’s left to do is to start promoting your links in social media and paid search ads, right?
Hold on there for a sec—there’s one more step you need to take, which will ultimately be the difference between making or breaking your conversion rate.
It’s solving the problem that the industry calls ‘the walled garden’. We’ve all seen it—it’s that moment when you click on an Amazon link, but aren’t taken to the app— you’re taken to the Amazon login prompt instead. Friend, that experience right there hurts your conversion! In fact, it might even be a rate close to numero zero.
So, if you’ve already tried off-site campaigns with little success, then you can conclude that this is the secret culprit. No need to worry, though! We at URLgenius have crafted the solution you need for this specific hurdle!
Okay, so what is the “walled garden?” Well, it refers to the moment in which a person clicks on a link—in this case, the Amazon link to your store or product listing—but the app doesn’t open.
When a customer collides with the walled garden, the experience gets in way of both the sale and your bonus. This is what we call ‘friction’ in the shopping journey, and it is imperative that remove it from the equation.
Okay, so let’s get more specific. Let’s say someone scrolling through Facebook stumbles upon your Amazon ad, and spontaneously wants to purchase your product. So they click on the ad. Now in an ideal world, this prospective buyer is clicking a link to open the Amazon app from Facebook without any friction, so that they can learn more about the product, add the product to their cart, or buy the product then and there.
Unfortunately, the walled garden doesn’t allow this to happen—no fault of Amazon’s, might we add. (In fact, this is an industry-wide problem when linking from app to app.) Instead, your customer—even when they have the Amazon app installed— is taken to the Amazon login page within the Facebook app itself. What seems like a minor hindrance will cause the shopper to completely abandon their journey.
At the end of the day, consumers just don’t want to log in to their accounts that way. Why? Well, most Amazon shoppers use the app, so they are already logged in and may not even remember their password. In a world that runs in what feels like a hundred miles a minute, it’s enough for a person to completely click out of the window. The ultimate result for you? Decreased conversion rates. Big time.
You lose not only the sale, but also any engagement data (product detail page views, add-to-carts, etc.) that would be sent to Amazon DSP for remarketing. Even if your shoppers themselves jumped over to the Amazon app, found your product, and went ahead and bought it, your campaign would still not get that credit. And because it wasn’t tracked, you won’t get that referral bonus.
That’s where URLgenius steps in with a magical solution to this major problem: app deep links for Amazon. We’ve created a unique, patented deep link generator designed for marketers, allowing you to to generate your own Amazon app deep links within just a few minutes!
These ‘deep links’ we speak of will give your ads the capability to securely take your customer from the app they’re in (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc.) directly to the desired product page or storefront in the Amazon app. All you need to do is simply update the regular Amazon links that you’re placing behind your social media ads (or paid search, email, etc) with the URLgenius deep link—that’s it!
And we’re serious when we say we’ve made this process as simple as possible for you (no SDKs or other technical resources are needed!). All you need to do is input your advertisement link into our deep link generator’s box, and replace the link of your social ad with the deep link.
This strategy is helping Amazon Sellers earn two to four times more in sales. Plus, those sales are eligible for the Amazon Brand Referral Bonus. Check out this Amazon Attribution case study, where the brand discovered and measured a 466% increase in Amazon sales using URLgenius links in tandem with Amazon Attribution in their social media ads. URLgenius is verified Amazon partner for attribution and measurement.
Wondering how you can maximize your Amazon Brand Referral Bonus? Here are some ideas to get you started! Combine these strategies with your URLgenius app deep links to open the Amazon app from Instagram, Facebook, or any other social media app (or even from email and paid search ads).
1. Boost new product sales
When you introduce a new product on Amazon, or have a product with low sales, using non-Amazon marketing will increase discoverability and conversion. Consider putting your new product in emails to your current consumer base, or sharing it with your social media followers to get a bonus—while also making your first sales. You should also explore alternative methods of increasing product visibility, such as advertising, Vine reviews, or optimizing your product information page.
2. Reengage shoppers with Sponsored Display
Off-Amazon ads can help your products get more exposure. For example, while promoting products via non-Amazon marketing platforms, you can use Sponsored Display advertisements to reengage customers who have viewed—but not purchased—your product.
You may promote conversion on products that have already garnered views from your non-Amazon marketing efforts by reminding customers of your product as they continue to browse both on and off Amazon. This will help offset your ad cost and increase your return on ad spend (ROAS).
To help drive sales of the products you advertise through non-Amazon campaigns, follow these steps when starting a Sponsored Display campaign:
3. Incorporate Deals with the Brand Referral Bonus
Successful brands often promote their Deals in a fun, programmatic way. Try a Deal of the Day, Month, or Week through non-Amazon marketing to boost the reach and sell-through rate of deals, as well as improve their efficiency, while collecting a brand referral bonus on sales.
To drive conversion and generate urgency, try using a call to action (CTA) that cites your deal’s bargain in your non-Amazon marketing activities. For example, you could save 25% right now or shop our Deal of the Day on a specific date. Think about your audience and products in relation to shopping holidays and seasonality, and align your off-site campaigns accordingly.
If your brand is available on the Amazon website and app, but you are not selling directly from social media, you are missing significant sales and remarketing opportunities. App deep links will help turn social media into your best tool for finding new customers and driving traffic to your Amazon Marketplace product listings. So, doesn’t it make sense to build a seamless bridge between social media apps and the Amazon app with URLgenius deep links today?
We are always here to help you with your campaigns! Contact us with questions at info@urlgeni.us about Amazon app deep linking from social media.
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