Amazon has always encouraged off-Amazon traffic. The genesis of this can be seen in their Amazon Associates program, which allows affiliate marketers to drive non-Amazon traffic into Amazon marketplace products. For Amazon sellers, we see progressively how the Amazon A9 algorithm is updated to give stronger weights to off-Amazon traffic.
Now Amazon wants to supercharge off-Amazon marketing efforts even further with their new Amazon Brand Referral Bonus
What is Amazon Brand Referral Bonus?
The Amazon Brand Referral Bonus program allows Amazon merchants to earn bonuses from off-Amazon marketing activities.
Brands/Sellers receive an average of 10% on sales from visitors they generate to Amazon through the Brand Referral Bonus program.
This program will attribute the Amazon sale generated from off Amazon traffic from up to 14 days. The one drawback is that this bonus will not be in a form of cash, but will be a credit against their Amazon fees.
As mentioned Brands can earn a 10% bonus on their qualifying sales on average. Estimate your bonus by multiplying your qualifying sales by the minimum bonus rate in the respective product category. Your real bonus rate may differ depending on factors like additional shipping and gift-wrapping fees, which may differ amongst sellers.
The bonus applied to your off Amazon attributed sales can be seen in your weekly report. You can see the exact bonus schedule here.
So how can Amazon figure out what sales you have driven for them? You will need to set up Amazon attribution tags, more on that later.
Eligibility
Only brand-registered merchants are eligible for the Amazon Brand Referral Bonus. The IP of your brand (ie trademark/logo) must be registered with government trademark offices in the following countries to be eligible for enrollment in the Amazon brand registry:
United States, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Australia, India, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Singapore, Spain, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and the United Arab Emirates.
The official Amazon brand registry page has a list of detailed requirements.
On the other hand, If you are not a brand owner, you may be able to join the Amazon Associates program to earn commissions from sales you help generate.
Also, I need to mention that Amazon allows you to be a participant in both the Amazon brand referral and the Amazon Associates program. So you can basically “Double Dip the Chip.”
via GIPHY
How do you get Paid?
As mentioned it will not be a cash bonus, but a credit against your Amazon fees.
To allow for order cancellations and customer returns, there is a two-month wait before the credit will appear in your account. If an eligible sale was made in July, the bonus will be credited to your account in September. In September and beyond, the bonus will be utilized to deduct referral fees until the all the attributed bonus is credited.
To find the report for Amazon Referral Bonus, you can download a report within Seller Central. On the Seller Central home you can go to Brands>>Brand Referral Bonus. Every Friday, the system provides a report that summarizes the estimated bonus amount earned over the preceding 90 days.
How to Set Up the Amazon Attribution Tag
You will need to create tags with Amazon Attribution to track your non-Amazon marketing efforts. To begin creating tags with Amazon Attribution, click here, or register if you are not already a member of the Amazon Attribution program.
We have a very detailed how-to tutorial on the Amazon Attribution set up here.
Ways to Drive External Traffic and Sales
- Affliate marketing (Click bank and the like)
- Paid Ads
- Facebook ads
- Google Adwords
- Reddit Ads
- Twitter Ads
- Tik Tok Ads
- Social Media
- SEO
- Email Marketing
Create win-win Situation for the Seller and Amazon
By driving off-Amazon traffic to your Amazon product will be the ultimate win-win between yourself as a seller and Amazon.
A lot of sellers seem to lose sight of the bigger plot, and that is Amazon is in a long-term struggle with Google and Facebook for the audience’s attention. Yes I know Amazon seems, at times, very antagonistic towards its sellers. But if Amazon can win the battles against its competitors, it can only benefit the Amazon sellers as the overall pie gets bigger.
If you can create a situation where you can improve your Amazon SEO, get credit for sales, and help Amazon increase its marketplace presence at the same time then you are aligning your goals with Amazon’s. The sellers that are successful in doing this will be rewarded with tangible and intangible benefits that allow your brand to be more competitive on Amazon over time.
Conclusion
There’s a lot to think about with Amazon Brand Referral Bonus. It can be an easy approach to start making additional credit in the long run if you already have a website with appropriate content or off Amazon ads to which you can just add the Amazon attribute tags.
However, if you haven’t started driving off Amazon traffic, this new program will give you much need incentive to start your off Amazon marketing campaign.
If you have questions or insights to share, please feel free to post them via the comments section. Please also consider joining our Facebook Group where we discuss any questions you may have about running an Amazon business.
We are SellerMetrics, our Amazon PPC Software helps Amazon sellers, brands, KDP Authors and agencies navigate Amazon Advertising PPC via bid automation, bulk manual bid changes, and analytics.
