Amazon Is Looking More Like A Social Media Platform. Here’s How Brands Can Benefit.

If you’ve visited AmazonAMZN
.com or its app lately, you may have noticed how much real estate is now dedicated to video content, lifestyle content, and influencer content.

It was recently reported that Amazon has even been testing its own version of TikTok among employees. Amazon is starting to look more like a social media app than ever before, in a bid to keep pace with apps like TikTok in a battle for our eyeballs and wallets.

The wallet-share battle is something that’s easy to understand. Amazon is, after all, on track to become the world largest retailer. But the battle for eyeballs is arguably more important for Amazon. More eyeballs means more first-party data: an understanding of what we have been researching, buying, and pining for. Brands selling on Amazon, as well as non-endemic brands like car manufacturers and insurance companies, can leverage this audience targeting data to get in front of their ideal customer rather than wasting budgets on mass-media campaigns with a lot of wastage.

In this way, Amazon’s foray into making a more immersive, social media-like shopping experience is beneficial to brand advertisers. Here’s how Amazon is adapting their interface, and the ways that brands can take advantage of these changes to engage their own shoppers.

Influencer content on Amazon

For the past couple of months, I have noticed huge media buys from Amazon on Pinterest and Instagram, using influencer video content to drive me to the said influencer’s Amazon storefront page, where I can shop a curated selection that the influencer has compiled.

These influencers are often part of the Amazon Associates program – earning commissions on products that they successfully sell.

Interest-based content

On the Amazon app, shoppers are being served hobby- and interest-based items and content. Recently I was served “outdoor enthusiast” content on the Amazon app, and prompted to add my other interests from a selection of ~20 interest areas like camping, baking, Marvel characters, and more. This will allow Amazon (and brand advertisers) to further refine products and content that are shown to me.

On the “outdoor enthusiasts” interest page, I saw products from Wilson, Columbia, and Streamlight. Some were promoted placements, but others appeared to be organic placements secured by simply being a popular product among this cohort.

Developing and curating content around hobbies and interests could be a boon for Amazon’s “discovery” ambitions. If outdoor enthusiasts spend more time checking out gear on Amazon than on Instagram, that not only boosts Amazon’s chance of a sale, but their ability to secure more advertising dollars from outdoor gear brands.

I was surprised to not see any interests around beauty and fashion – significant categories that Amazon is trying to gain a foothold in, and in the case of beauty in particular, high repeat orders.

Live video

Amazon launched live video on the platform a couple of years ago. But results for brands have been mixed. When cruising Amazon’s live video page, its not uncommon to see the “top-watched videos” have only a couple hundred live viewers at a time. That might cause many brands to pass on the opportunity. But brands who invest in livestream placements with celebrities or beloved influencers can see great results. One influencer I spoke with said some items they have promoted in their videos have sold hundreds of units within minutes.

But brands who run their own livestream videos often see underwhelming results. Videos need an element of star-power, or a high follower count – and preferably both. Most brands lack either of these, so live videos fall flat. While it comes at a cost, leveraging an influencer’s own platform solves this problem.

Brand followers

Shoppers have the ability to “follow” brands on Amazon. Until recently, it’s been unclear as to the benefit either to the shopper or the brand to take this action. But now the use case is emerging.

Once a shopper “follows” a brand, they start seeing content from that brand while browsing Amazon.com or on the app. That content can be Posts that a brand creates, deals on products, and live videos. There is also a fledgeling capability to email brand followers new deals and product announcements – a possibility most brands could only dream of until recently. That program, with the awkward name of “Manage your customer engagement,” is still a little buggy and under-optimized. And the emails sent to the customer (pictured) aren’t customizable or particularly engaging. But new features are actively being rolled out, and the potential of this program has created a big incentive for brands to build their follower-base.

How brands can leverage these changes

While Amazon is rolling out these changes to cover more of the purchase journey, particularly the upper-funnel “discovery” segment. And this creates huge opportunity for brands who don’t just view Amazon as a distribution channel, but as a marketing channel.

1. Amazon DSP. Amazon’s programmatic advertising solution gives brands many sophisticated targeting options, particularly around purchase intent, lifecycle, and interest groups. A maternal care brand can target shoppers who’ve recently purchased prenatal vitamins for example. Or shoppers who’ve visited product pages of competitors. As Amazon continues to develop demographic, interest, and purchase profiles of each shopper, audience targeting options get more finely tuned.
2. Increase “followers”. Get in early on an emerging ecosystem of “brand followers”. Shoppers who follow your brand will start seeing your Amazon Posts, and you can also start sending them new product announcements and deals via Manage Your Customer Engagement. To boost followership, some brands are promoting their “Follow” button on their store page.
3. Build Amazon into influencer programs. Brands who are experimenting with sending paid or organic traffic to Amazon are seeing impressive results – particularly from TikTok. That may not be from immediate conversions, but an increase in branded search volume. Make sure you have adequate tracking mechanisms set up to measure results.
4. Upgrade organic content on product pages. There are many more options today for enhanced content on Amazon product detail pages than most brands are taking advantage of. Many brands are now eligible to add “A+ Premium” content to their product pages and create an immersive experience for shoppers. Study the top performers and make a plan to upgrade your visual assets and copy.
5. Sponsored Brand Video ads. This ad type, which displays in the search results for a given term, now allows much more inventive and immersive content from brands. With the emergence of video content on TikTok and Instagram Reels, consumers are engaging with video content more regularly.

Amazon is not a company to stand still. To stay relevant with both consumers and advertisers requires constant evolution. Monitoring these changes and testing out ways to engage with them is one way that brands can continue to evolve themselves.