It’s no secret that Amazon is making serious waves—and the e-commerce giant often dominates headlines in media around the world. When is Amazon launching in Denmark? How does marketing work on the massive platform?
Yes, Amazon is gaining more and more ground globally, but why not use that to your advantage and get ahead instead of fearing what’s to come?
Over the past six months, I’ve immersed myself in Amazon with the purpose of getting to know the platform better.
In this process, I’ve learned which advantages and disadvantages come with working on Amazon.
I’m now sharing that knowledge with you—completely free—and you’ll also get a number of tips on how to use their advertising platform, Amazon AMS services, easily and effectively.
This article focuses on the European market, but the structure is actually the same for Amazon US—and Amazon Japan for that matter.
Let’s get started!
Products – get started selling on Amazon
If you want to sell your own products on Amazon, there are a few key decisions to make.
First of all—does your product even belong on Amazon?
We’ll get back to that.
A prerequisite for getting started is being registered as a seller.
Essentially, there are two main options available—at least for ordinary sellers. There may be other paths for major brands, but in this guide, we’ll focus on these two:
- Seller Central
- Vendor Central
Seller Central
When registering with Seller Central, you can either create a new product listing or add yourself to an existing one (meaning you become a seller of that product).
You handle your own product sales and are responsible for shipping to the customer—at least by default. Amazon passes orders to you, and you take care of fulfillment.
You also manage customer service, returns, and order processing.
Seller Central is a great way to get started quickly on Amazon, as it requires nothing more than a product.
A significant advantage is that you only need one account to sell across the European market. You simply translate your listings within the system.
Vendor Central
Vendor Central is invite-only, meaning you need to be invited to join. However, you can apply for access.
Vendor Central comes with many benefits.
You gain access to Amazon’s ad system (AMS services), which we’ll cover later.
You also get tools like VINE, A+ Content pages, and more.
The major benefit is that you send your products directly to Amazon, and they handle the rest. This only works if Amazon approves your pricing structure. They can decline to sell your products if the price isn’t profitable.
With Vendor Central, you receive weekly or regular orders from Amazon’s warehouses and send your products directly to them, who then ship to the customer.
Focus on high-quality product listings
- Good images: Upload multiple high-resolution images. If accessories are included, show them.
- Compelling descriptions: Explain what your product does—why should people buy it? Research similar products on Amazon and look at their Q&A and reviews. Can you answer those questions in advance? What negative feedback do similar products get?
- Call-to-action bullets: Use short, benefit-driven bullet points. What does your product do? Maybe it’s eco-friendly?
A well-optimized product listing has a big impact on your Amazon ranking. Higher visibility means more sales—and more sales improve your ranking.
Amazon SEO & rankings
Ranking highly on Amazon is just as important as it is on Google. More visibility equals more potential customers.
Amazon’s A9 algorithm considers conversion rates, customer relevance, and satisfaction. Unlike Google, Amazon’s algorithm gives sellers a real chance to affect rankings through strong listings.
How Amazon evaluates your listing
Just like SEO optimization, Amazon uses a lot of factors in their algorithm – not all of which are easy to figure out – and there is also a lot that is not even published – just like Google.
However, there are some things you can work on yourself – I’ll take the most important ones below – but you can find more material further down in the article and go in depth with these points.
Keywords – Amazon SEO
Amazon does not want keyword stuffing or spam. Unlike Google, Amazon does not require you to use your product name in five different variations.
The platform focuses less on exact keyword matches and more on whether your product actually sells. Their goal is to sell products—not just show search results.
This is a core difference from Google: Google sells ads based on searches. Amazon sells products and ranks accordingly.
Price
If your product is more expensive than competitors, Amazon assumes your conversion rate will be lower—so your listing is likely to rank lower, assuming it’s the same product.
Time on page
If you haven’t fully filled out your product details—images, descriptions, features—users are more likely to leave your page.
Time on page is a major ranking factor, so make sure your listing is informative and engaging.
Amazon A+ Content Pages
With a Vendor profile, you can expand your product listings using A+ pages—enhanced content with rich visuals and detailed information.
These pages appear below the standard product description.
Here is Gillette’s A-page for one of their trimmers
It is located below the normal product text on Amazon
Costs vary depending on the model. Starting prices are around £400 if you design it yourself, or about £1,500 if Amazon builds it for you.
Amazon AMS – Advertising on Amazon
Amazon AMS is Amazon’s answer to Google Ads.
You can market your products through their internal ad platform.
While more basic than Google Ads, it’s still quite effective.
Buy Box – A must-have to advertise
To be able to advertise through Amazon’s advertising platform, your product listing must have the elusive Buy Box. It is estimated that between 82%–92% of all Amazon sales happen directly through a product listing’s Buy Box. That makes it a crucial factor for both Amazon PPC ads and organic sales.
Even if you are the only seller of a product, it’s not guaranteed that you’ll be awarded the Buy Box. It depends on how you sell on Amazon (FBM vs FBA), your seller metrics, and your customer satisfaction levels.
Amazon only provides hints about what it takes to win the Buy Box. The algorithm is confidential, so we can only speculate about the influencing factors.
If you are an FBM seller, Amazon has indicated that your seller account must be at least 90 days old with flawless metrics (sales, return rate, customer satisfaction, etc.). As a general rule, FBA sellers have a significantly easier time gaining the Buy Box.
Choose placements and targeting options
Let’s take a quick look at how to create an ad in Amazon AMS.
Step 1: Choose placement and ad type
You can choose between various placement options when promoting your product.
In general, it’s about testing which placement works best for you.
Step 2: Choose which product to promote
After selecting the placement, choose the product you want to promote—you don’t need to have created the product listing yourself. You can promote any product on Amazon that you deliver through your Vendor profile.
Step 3: Choose keywords and audiences
Here, you can select from keywords, interests, and other products.
Let’s look more closely at these targeting options.
Keywords
If you choose to market your product based on what people are searching for, you can use Amazon Search Suggest. This means beginning a search on Amazon and noting which terms their algorithm suggests—then you can target your ads based on these keywords.
Amazon Search Suggest
You can also use Google’s Keyword Planner. This tool gives you insight into what people search for on Google—it may very well reflect Amazon searches too.
As always with big data and web analytics: test, test, and test.
Interests
Another targeting option is by interests.
This means promoting your product to specific categories on Amazon.
An example might be selecting users browsing in the “men’s skincare” category—then targeting your product to that category or its subcategories if it fits well.
This is a broader audience than exact-match keywords but worth testing if you believe your product can outperform competitors—often based on price, design, and of course, reviews.
Other products
The final option is to advertise when potential buyers are looking at products similar to yours.
For example, if you sell shaving foam, you might choose to advertise on listings for Gillette’s shaving foam—but keep in mind that people often have brand preferences, so these campaigns can be more expensive.
Again, it’s worth testing—especially if you own the brand, as that gives you the margin flexibility to experiment. If the strategy works, it’s a strong win.
Tracking
As you’ve probably realized by now, it’s all about testing what works.
You’ll need to set aside a budget for extensive testing.
However, there are still far fewer advertisers on Amazon than on Google, so advertising costs are comparatively lower.
Here’s a screenshot of my AMS account showing spend, total sales, and ACOS (advertising cost of sale).
As you can see, not all campaigns are profitable—check the ACOS% column.
Those that are have a healthy ROI. As long as I keep my ACOS around 10%—i.e., 10% of revenue—it makes sense for those particular products.
Note that Amazon’s advertising system calculates in pounds.
Of course, this varies from product to product—again: not all products make sense to advertise, but I firmly believe it’s worth testing.
Here’s what my ad looks like for Razorpit
The areas marked in red are my ads—as you can see, we’re dominating that search.
Reviews are crucial
Reviews mean everything on Amazon—and therefore for your product. The only real way to differentiate your product in Amazon search is through reviews.
Take a look at the reviews for the product baKblade—pretty convincing, right?
If users search for a product category like “skincare for men”, they’ll likely choose the product with 5 stars and many reviews.
Several studies have shown that products with more than 500 positive reviews (average 5 stars) tend to experience more stable sales.
You can encourage customers to leave reviews through social media, for example—it can help, depending on the product. What’s great about Amazon is that you generally can’t fake it—if your product is poor, the platform will expose it.
New and stricter review policies
In 2018, Amazon made significant changes that made it harder for sellers to obtain reviews—especially illegitimate ones. Some sellers had taken advantage of methods such as:
- Offering 50%–80% discount codes to buyers who could then purchase the product below cost in exchange for a review.
- Refunding buyers (often with a bonus) outside of Amazon after a review was posted—making it appear as a regular sale in Amazon’s eyes.
Amazon has cracked down hard on such practices. In addition, reviews posted after discounted purchases (e.g., 70% off) now often get removed within 24 hours.
Amazon Vine
While we’re on the topic of reviews, it’s essential to mention Amazon Vine.
Amazon Vine allows you to send products for free to a group of approved reviewers who will give an objective review.
According to our login, this program costs €5,000—we are currently setting up a test.
This tool is only available if you have a Vendor profile.
Should I be on Amazon?
Advantages
The major advantage is that you can start selling in many markets very quickly. If you have a strong product (see more below), you can generate sales from day one—globally.
You also avoid the hassle of managing a webshop—Amazon handles it all for you, allowing you to focus solely on branding your product.
Disadvantages
You quickly enter a price war. Since your product will be listed alongside hundreds of similar ones, prices can plummet fast. If you want to sell, make sure your pricing strategy allows for this.
You can face setbacks if your product isn’t fully developed. As mentioned, reviews matter a lot on Amazon—if users are disappointed during the product testing phase, you may get 1–2 star reviews, which are difficult to recover from.
You give copycats a chance to duplicate your product. Many sellers from China are active on Amazon—if your product becomes popular and is easy to replicate, someone may launch a knockoff. Amazon might also develop its own private label version and undercut your price.
Is my product right for Amazon?
There’s a big difference in what types of products fit Amazon.
Brand-driven
If you run your own brand—like a skincare brand (e.g., Dennis Knudsen)—you control the product and pricing across all channels.
This works well with Amazon, allowing you to build demand through branding on social media, Google, and Amazon. And there’s only one place to buy the product—through you on Amazon.
You also skip the retail chain entirely—again, your brand is exposed to the whole world.
Volume-based
If you run a high-volume business—like a traditional webshop selling thousands of products—Amazon can be a solution. However, it requires much more micromanagement to evaluate whether your margin can support it.
It can also be challenging to create high-quality A+ pages and manage advertising across thousands of products—especially since Amazon’s ad system is not yet as sophisticated as tools like Google Ads for large accounts.
Conclusion
Amazon is undoubtedly a major part of the future. In both the U.S. and Germany, more people now search for products on Amazon than on Google. The question is simply how you’ll approach Amazon—and with what format.
Are you already selling your product on Amazon, and what’s your experience?
If you want to deepen your knowledge of Amazon, I also recommend reading a detailed Amazon guide.
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