They grab the headlines – and plenty of our clients’ mental space – so when a client asks, ‘do you offer Amazon services?’, you better have a good answer

Before we look at what that answer might be, let’s first answer – for any skeptics here – why your agency should be thinking about Amazon at all.

Why Offer Amazon Services?

If you work with retail brands – whether that’s in electrical, fashion, homeware or food & drink, and many other verticals – there are four aspects to Amazon that matter to your clients:

1) It’s a massive retailer – most often, an Amazon brand store will have more footfall than an owned website, so if your client is spending on web design and development, SEO or Google AdWords, they are missing a trick by not getting an Amazon store and fishing where the fishes are.

2) It’s a massive search engine – More people go to Amazon to research products (54%) than Google now (46%). So if you’re not capturing that traffic, it’s worse than if you didn’t appear in Google search results.

3) It’s a massive ads platform – While Amazon only has 7% of Global ad spend (Google has 37% and Facebook has 20%), that figure is growing at 250% year-on-year. With both top-of-the-funnel awareness ads and sales-driving ads, as well as powerful retargeting options, Amazon is a ads channel that allows clients to get the upper hand of less-savvy competitors.

4) It’s a massive ratings & reviews engine – If your client focuses on social media listening, sentiment analysis or shopper research, it’s worth noting that harvesting the insights in Amazon reviews is a powerful tool that is both fast and cost-effective compared to other insight methodologies.

What services should we be offering?

Amazon services fall into three broad buckets:

• Set-up and research

• Ad management

• Brand management

Out of those three, ad management follows a well-worn path of media optimisation and reporting for a fee. It’s recurring, repeatable business that delivers closer agency-client relationships. And, of course, this service is what digital media agencies and media-buying agencies will want to offer.

There are two types of Amazon advertising clients, those that want to test the water with Amazon ads and get started on the platform; and those that have reached the level of their Amazon ads skillset and need a sophisticated ads optimisation service (we use Amazon ads experts from diverse backgrounds, paired with advanced software).

Many clients don’t fully understand Amazon, so they will need research services first, such as an audit of their brands or their competitors, or to understand the size of the prize, as well as quick wins and long-term strategy.

Ongoing brand management can be a nice sideline for creative agencies, or if you already offer services such as social media management or web services. This can involve delivering image photography, lifestyle images or 3D product renders, developing brand stores and ‘enhanced content’, management of reviews, customer Q&As, management and SEO of listings.

How do we go to market then?

You have two options in how you offer Amazon services to your clients:

1. Hire a team of specialists

2. Ask a specialist agency like us to partner

And, of course, your client has the same two options.

The benefits of you hiring a team is you get to build your in-house capability. The challenge is that Amazon changes the rules all the time, plus Amazon hires are skyrocketing in salary costs. You will need to focus on capturing learnings internally to make sure you leverage your team’s skills.

The benefits of working with a partner agency is that you can ‘flex your Amazon muscles’ from Day One without any CapEx costs, or learning from trial and error. You also get to insource the experience of the partner agency’s team that would be cost-prohibitive to hire in.

How should we test the opportunity?

Ask your clients the following questions to assess their appetite for Amazon services:

– Do you see Amazon as a growth channel, in the UK, EU, US or Asia?

– How well are you doing on Amazon compared to key competitors?

– Do you have a Vendor or Seller relationship with Amazon, and is it working as you would like it to?

– Are you happy with how you’re managing your ads, and are you happy with your ACOS or ROAS?

– Are you happy with the images and content on your listings? Do you have enhanced content, or a brand store?