How Does Amazon Influencer Marketing Work? [GUIDE]

Tanner Rankin
The Source Approach
11 min readApr 4, 2020
  • How does Amazon Influencer Marketing work? Amazon Influencer Marketing works to drive sales and build awareness for brands & retailers by positioning products on content known to drive sales to Amazon.
  • Step 1) Locate popular Amazon Influencer content known to drive sales like “Best Educational Toys For Toddlers”. Step 2) Follow and engage with the Blogger or YouTuber on social media for a few days. Step 3) Reach out and ask to be included on the content or upcoming similar content. Step 4) Keep the relationship going and ever so often, offer a coupon code just for their audience.
  • This is EXACTLY how Amazon Influencer Marketing works so you can drive sales, boost SEO and reduce ad costs.

Logging into Amazon Seller Central or Vendor Central and not seeing the sales you want is frustrating.

Creating your Amazon listing and running some ads isn’t enough to drive sales.

Luckily, there is a tactic that’s been working for over 20 years that can offer a ROI of 23 to 1.

Amazon Influencers drive sales, boost SEO and can significantly decrease your average cost of sale in Amazon ads.

You will get a comprehensive understanding of how Amazon Influencer Marketing works so you can use it to grow your sales and profitability on Amazon.

How Amazon Influencer Marketing Works

Amazon Influencer Marketing has been around for over 20 years because it works and it is simple.

Imagine running the most persuasive ad possible to your target customers that doesn’t go away when you turn off your campaign and also earns a recommendation from the advertising network itself.

This is how Amazon Influencer Marketing works.

Amazon Influencer Marketing works by favorably positioning products on content known to sell by sources that consumers know, like and trust.

Here is the Amazon Influencer Marketing process:

The Amazon Influencer Marketing Process:

  1. Brand & Retailers build relationships with Blogs, YouTube Channels, Media Outlets, Publications & Social Media that have large audiences of their target customers.
  2. Brands & Retailers get their products included on Blogs, Videos & Social Media Posts
  3. Customers see these recommendations from sources that they know, like and trust and purchase the products.
  4. Amazon pays the Amazon Influencer a small commission for referring the sale.

Here is how much Amazon Influencers are paid by Amazon for a sale.

Video games and game consoles

1%

Televisions & digital download games:

2%

Computers, computer accessories, DVD & Blu-Ray:

2.5%

Amazon Tablets & Kindle devices:

4%

Paper Books, Health & Personal Care, Sports, Kitchen, Auto & Baby:

4.5%

Digital Music, Video Downloads, Grocery, Handmade, Musical Instruments:

5%

Business & Industrial Supplies:

6%

Clothes & Accessories, Amazon TV’s, Echo’s & Jewelry:

7%

Furniture, Lawn & Garden, Home Improvement, Prime Pantry & Pet Products:

8%

Amazon Fashion Items & Amazon Coins:

10%

Amazon rewards brands for sending customers from OFF of Amazon to Amazon to buy from them.

Here are the benefits of doing this:

Benefits of Amazon Influencer Marketing:

  • Increase Sales
  • Prominent Visibility in Product Searches
  • Reduce ACoS in Amazon Ads

The reason why this works so well is because consumers are skeptics and timing.

Consumers are skeptical and may not trust an ad but if you are recommended by someone they already follow or that shows up prominently in Google or YouTube, they trust them.

The other critical factor is timing.

Amazon Influencers earn a commission every time they refer a sale.

That means, they focus on making content that achieves 2 things.

  1. Shows up prominently when customers are looking for ideas, recommendations or researching products to buy.
  2. Does a great job at selling the products they recommend.

This is because they have a vested interest.

It has been working since 1996 when Amazon launched the Amazon Associates Program which is their affiliate program.

Back then, referrals were mostly coming from forums, blog posts and chat rooms.

Now, the scope is much bigger at over a million Amazon Influencers and growing.

Referrals come from:

As print media sinks, large publications and media outlets like Today turn to being Amazon Influencers themselves.

Here is what that looks like:

Today earns a commission from Amazon any time anyone purchases one of the products linked from this blog post.

Amazon Influencer Examples come in all shapes and sizes though.

Here is a YouTube Amazon Influencer example TBone’s Tech.

This YouTube creator earns a commission from Amazon any time anyone clicks on one of the links in the videos description and buys a product.

What’s more, Amazon Influencers earn a commission for anything the customer buys over the next 24 hours after they’ve been referred to Amazon.

So if they were to buy one of these cameras that TBones Tech recommends, but then also go on to buy some other accessories or something unreleated, TBones Tech earns a commission on all of it.

The best part?

Unlike a social media post that is only relevant for a few hours or an ad stops producing traffic when you turn it off, this content is evergreen.

Blog articles and YouTube videos are discovered 24/7 year round.

People are always searching for things like: “Gifts for runners” or “Best camping gear” and there is no shortage of Amazon Influencers who are part of the Amazon Influencer Program making content to point customers in the right direction.

In our guide: What is an Amazon Influencer? we break down how Amazon Influencers build awareness and drive sales for brands and retailers by showing up at the most crucial times in a customer journey to help customers become:

  • Problem Aware
  • Solution Aware
  • Product Aware
  • Decision Aware

For every dollar you spend on Influencer Marketing, statistics show that you’ll average a $23 ROI. Most ROI shoots for a 5:1 ratio, so you can see just how wild these statistics really are. — Neil Patel

Amazon Influencers also discuss and demonstrate your products on live streams.

Amazon Live Influencers leverage their followings on Blogs, YouTube, Social Media & more by letting them know when they are live streaming on Amazon Live.

There, Amazon Influencers recommend products and chat with customers in real time, just like QVC, only far more personal.

So, how does Amazon Influencer Marketing work to drive sales for brands & retailers?

How Amazon Influencer Marketing Works To Drive Sales

The process of how Amazon Influencer Marketing works to drive sales for brands & retailers is simple.

This is EXACTLY what you want to do:

How Amazon Influencer Marketing Works To Drive Sales:

  1. Seek out popular content from Amazon Influencers that your customers read or watch when they want to buy things. (EXAMPLES: Gift for Runners, Gifts for Coffee Lovers, Mothers Day Gifts, Best Learning Toys for Toddlers, Top 10 Survival Gear, Highest Rated Makeup on Amazon & more.)
  2. Follow those blogs or YouTube channels on social media and engage with their content. Like, share and comment. Build a relationship with them so they will want to promote you.
  3. Then, after you’ve done this for a few days, reach out and ask to be included on the piece of content you found or a new piece of similar content.
  4. Keep the relationship going and regularly reach out to them with a coupon code or deal just for their audience.

Think about how you buy products: Put yourself in your customers’ shoes, what types of things do you search for when you want to get ideas or recommendations for things to buy?

You head to the #1 and #2 search engines in the world.

This Is the Type of Content that Drives Sales That You Want to Be Featured On:

Holidays & Gifts For…

Your product would make a great gift for someone. Who would it be? Find the recommendations driving sales.

Search Examples:

  • Gift for Runners
  • Gifts for Coffee Lovers
  • Mothers Day Gifts

Best, Top & Highest Rated on Amazon Lists

Your customers want to know what the best or top product is that will solve their problem or make their life easier.

Search Examples:

  • Best Learning Toys for Toddlers
  • Top 10 Survival Gear
  • Highest Rated Makeup on Amazon

Guides, Checklists & How To’s

Products recommended on guides, how to’s & checklists sell well because they immediately gain the trust of the consumer.

Search Examples:

  • Archery Beginners Guide
  • Camping Checklist
  • How To Set Up A Tent

Hacks, Tips and Tricks

People love quicker & easier. Products that show up on these lists sell very well because people feel like they “win”.

Search Examples:

  • Camping Tips and Tricks
  • Cleaning Hacks
  • Hiking Tips and Tricks

Discover Competitor Sales Sources

Find the content driving sales to the top ranking & selling products in your niche so they can drive sales to you instead.

Search Examples:

  • Lifestraw Review
  • Hydro Cell On Amazon
  • Blavor Solar Chargers

Buying Guides & Gift Guides

Shopping guides drive sales in droves because they make the decision making process quicker & easier.

Search Examples:

  • Camping Gear Buying Guide
  • Hiking Gift Guide
  • Holiday Gift Guide

How Amazon Influencer Marketing Works To Build Brand Awareness

The best Amazon Influencer Marketing Campaigns reach customers at the various stages of awareness.

The stages of customer awareness are:

The easiest way to think about it is that since potential customers aren’t always in the market to buy something, you want to make customers aware that you solve their problem or fulfill their desire so when they are ready to buy, they favor you because they are familiar with you.

Here’s how Amazon Influencer Marketing works to build awareness for brands & retailers.

How Amazon Influencer Marketing Works To Build Awareness:

  1. Seek out popular Amazon Influencers on the social media networks that matter most to your target customers. (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok & more)
  2. Follow them and engage with their content. Like, share and comment. The goal is to build a meaningful relationship.
  3. Then, after you’ve done this for a few days, reach out to them to ask for them to include you in their posts. This makes their audience aware of the problem your products solve or the desire they fulfill. The customer may not be actively looking to buy something at this point in time like they were in the example above, but the next time they are, they will be familiar with you and therefore more likely to buy.
  4. Keep the relationship going and reach out to them with a coupon code or deal just for their audience.

An important note here is that the tactics in the previous section also are fantastic at building brand awareness as well.

Here’s how you can take advantage of Amazon Influencer Marketing and find Amazon Influencers to work with to drive sales for your brand.

How To Find Amazon Influencers

Brands and retailers selling on Amazon can find Amazon Influencers by going where their customers live online.

As an Amazon Seller, you know your customer.

You likely know:

  • What blogs they read
  • What YouTube channels they watch
  • What they search for online
  • What social media accounts they follow

These are the EXACT Amazon Influencers you want to partner with because your audience knows, likes and trusts them therefore recommendations from them carry more weight than any ad you could ever run.

That said, the Amazon Influencer Program is over 1 million strong and growing every day.

Amazon Influencers are responsible for over 37% of Amazons traffic.

That means, there are new Amazon Influencers every day.

What To Look For:

  • Content from Blogs, YouTube videos & social media with audiences of your target customers that shows up when customers are looking to make a purchase
  • Links to products on Amazon within the content
  1. Go to Google and YouTube
  2. Type in the examples I gave earlier in this article, except for your subject matter like: Gift for Runners, Mothers Day Gifts, Highest rated makeup, etc.
  3. Go through the results, you want to make sure they are linking out to Amazon products, so click on the products in the Videos or Articles. If they aren’t linking to products on Amazon, rather maybe Walmart or Target or another retailer, then that means they are not Amazon Influencers and you need to move to the next piece of content.

You can take away 2 things from the Amazon Influencers you find here:

  • You want to get included on the exact piece of content you find
  • You want to partner with them on other pieces of content they will make because they have an audience of your target customers

Here’s how to find them:

If sifting through Google and YouTube seems like a large time investment, then Referazon may be helpful to you as it makes the process instant.

Referazon drive sales & save time by quickly finding popular content from experienced amazon influencers to get referrals from & easily manages your campaigns.

Getting started is easy, you can sign up for a free trial, no credit card required here.

You will want to make sure that your Amazon Influencers make powerful content that sells for you.

Here is what you will need…

What You’ll Need To Work With Amazon Influencers

Amazon Influencer Marketing works by showcasing your products favorably to your target customers at the times when they are looking to buy products.

To do this, you need to give your Amazon Influencers your brand influencer kit.

Here is what it is:

Brand Influencer Kit:

  • To promote you the way you deserve your Amazon Influencers are going to be making content on YouTube, Blogs, Social Media & more.
  • That means, they’re going to need to know what to say, your logo, images, videos of your products & more.
  • A Branded PDF of Selling & Talking Points
  • Logos (High Resolution PNG’s Compressed For Web)
  • Certifications, Awards, or other useful Trust Badges
  • Videos (Explainer Videos, Video Sales Letters, Commercials, Testimonials or other)
  • Images (Lifestyle Photos & Product Photos)
  • A Branded PDF containing notable Testimonials & Endorsements
  • Everything your Influencer will need to sell your product.

In my experience, the easiest way to think about it is just a folder with everything they’ll need to do a good job selling your product for you.

  • Amazon Influencer Marketing works to drive sales and build awareness for brands & retailers by positioning products on content known to drive sales to Amazon.
  • This works because Amazon Influencers create content that customers read & watch when they are looking for products to buy.
  • You want to appear on that content.
  • Step 1) Locate popular Amazon Influencer content known to drive sales like “Best Educational Toys For Toddlers”. Step 2) Follow and engage with the Blogger or YouTuber on social media for a few days. Step 3) Reach out and ask to be included on the content or upcoming similar content. Step 4) Keep the relationship going and ever so often, offer a coupon code just for their audience.
  • You will need to give your Amazon Influencer everything they need to effectively promote your product such as talking points, logos, product images, lifestyle images, videos, etc. It is called a Brand Influencer Kit.
  • Amazon Influencer Marketing can have massive ROI for companies at 23:1.
  • Referazon finds Amazon Influencers instantly, easily tracks your campaigns and tells you how many people see and engage with the content you’re featured on.

Originally published at https://www.referazon.com

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Tanner Rankin
The Source Approach

Top-Rated Amazon Consultant & eCommerce Consultant | 10+ Years Experience | Author, Speaker, Founder of www.referazon.com & www.sourceapproach.com