Michael Maher is Chief Idea Officer at Cartology, an agency specializing in helping brands and marketers achieve success on Amazon Marketplace. He’s also a podcaster, whose podcast, “The Longer Game,” is available on Anchor FM and also on YouTube.
Amazon Marketplace is an increasingly powerful factor in ecommerce these days, and brands ignore Marketplace at their own peril. As Michael notes, “53 percent of people go directly to Amazon to look for products,” and being a no-show there can be a very bad thing.
Our talk begins with a discussion of the love-hate relationship that many brands have with Amazon and then dives deep into tactical mistakes that brands make when building presences within Amazon Marketplace. As Michael notes, “Failing to make sure that one’s account structure properly segments keywords is a typical failing, along with failing to optimize creative for Amazon shoppers, who are prone to shopping very quickly from their mobile devices (70 to 80 percent of Amazon shoppers purchase from their smartphones). As he observes, “50 percent of people (on Amazon) are purchasing in 15 minutes or less when they get on Amazon, and 28 percent are purchasing in 3 minutes or less.” Consequently, creative must get to the point quickly, putting the product’s USP up front to quickly overcome any potential objections. Failing to allocate ad spend budget between Search and Amazon’s DSP is another big one.
I wanted to get Michael’s take on Amazon’s promotional tools that many marketers underutilize. As he notes, the use of promotional tools such as coupons must be undertaken with care, given Amazon’s tight guidelines, and so are discounts to boost sales velocity during Amazon’s multiple “special days” (e.g. “Prime Day”). Our talk concludes with a discussion of what Michael is excited about for 2023 and beyond.
I really enjoyed my talk with Michael. He conveys a wealth of practical information that will be of great value to any marketer seeking to perform better on Amazon Marketplace.
