Amazon Marketing Agency
As an Amazon Top 200 seller and eCommerce Top 1000 brand from 2003 to 2019, I hired and fired every kind of agency imaginable, including Google PPC agencies, Facebook and social media agencies, affiliate agencies, SEO agencies, CRO Agencies, Branding Agencies, Product Listing and content Creation Agencies, Account and ASIN Reinstatement Agencies, and even call centers that tried to manage our customer service. Ultimately, I never trusted that any of them cared about my business as much as I did. In retrospect, many deserved to be fired, but I could have been a better client to others. I see that now, after building a successful Amazon marketing agency.
After exiting my Amazon business, I thought long and hard about my next move. I had experience selling direct to consumers on my dot com and several online marketplaces, like Amazon, Walmart, Houzz, Wish, eBay, Wayfair, Jet (bought by Walmart), and many others. After much thought and counsel, I zeroed in on the agency model. Marketplaces and ad platforms were getting more complicated with more metrics to manage and act upon. I wanted to start the kind of Amazon marketing agency I wish I had worked with as a brand.
I launched Avenue7Media in 2019 to help brands grow on the biggest and baddest marketplace of them all, Amazon. Not only was it the fastest-growing platform, but it was the most difficult for product brands to understand and find success. How difficult? For starters, Shopify won’t take your listings down, and Amazon has millions of Amabots that scan, suppress, or delist products 24/7/365. It was also home to the fiercest competition. I reasoned that if we could build the kind of agency that cared more about clients’ profitable growth than the client did on the nastiest platform around, then it would be special.
First, a personal pet peeve explained. Today’s full-service Amazon Marketing Agencies are not, in fact, “agencies” but Managed Service Providers (MSPs) of all the things needed to succeed on Amazon. It includes a very long and growing list of departments, required daily tasks, and hundreds of KPIs to monitor and manage to drive growth. Not only do agencies like Avenue7Media manage advertising strategy and execution, but they are brand builders, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) experts, Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) growth hackers, product compliance experts, listing specialists, problem solvers, researchers, and execute any freaking thing necessary (within the rules) to grow a brand. Why? Because that is what is required for success in The Amazon Jungle. So, if you ever see me bristle at being called an “agency” you know why. We. Do. It. All.
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Amazon Marketing Services
I gained my initial experience the hard way as a brand making mistakes and learning from them over 17 years. I learned early to be relentless in the optimization of literally everything related to your business. Leave no stone unturned and never, ever stop. In truth, Amazon marketing services and eCommerce were much simpler and much less competitive when I was launching my brands. The days of hiring a kid out of college to run your Amazon business are over. As our CSO, Angela Murphy, often says. It takes a village of experienced operators to win in eCommerce. Last year roughly $700 billion dollars in GMV was purchased and shipped via Amazon.com, in a total US online market of $ 1.1 trillion. Do the math, smart brands know the majority of customers in today’s world have an Amazon Prime Account. Smart brands also know that it takes a large, experienced team focused on results to succeed.
After nearly five years in the agency or, rather, managed service business, I’ve learned something powerful. The relentless work we do for brands on Amazon, and now Walmart, translates beyond Amazon. What we do for brands on Amazon makes their entire business better and translates into success on other sales channels. Why is this the case? I reason that the relentless competition and continual optimization required to become a top seller and stay there is harder than any other channel. You can’t have mediocre product photography and detail page optimization nor can you sleep on your listing health. In short, success on Amazon requires experience, and high-quality work, and an effective Amazon marketing strategy done at light speed while continually optimizing. Then rinse and repeat forever. Isn’t that what business is all about anyway?
Amazon Marketing Strategy
As a brand owner, there are a million things you must manage beyond just one sales channel. Today you may be working with your offshore factory on a new product design, while tomorrow, you may be dealing with an employee issue. No matter how much you plan, there are always surprises, and there are so many areas to cover that it’s hard to “go deep” in any one particular channel or another. While I still deal with employee issues from time to time, the agency has allowed me and our teams the ability to go deep and wide across numerous categories and master what makes Amazon tick.
We’ve developed a 7Avenues strategy that groups the seven critical areas for growth in one simple-to-use Amazon marketing strategy. In truth, I never would have been able to develop this as a brand, but having founded both a brand and an Amazon marketing agency, I have a deep respect for both. In fact, the best clients and the best marketplace managers we work with today are those with experience in both the agency world and with a brand. Each side must do their part for collective success.
For example, experienced teams can work together and understand that Ads only work if the listings are high-quality and high-converting. Sales only grow if products stay in stock and are unsuppressed without losing revenue to resellers. Sometimes, a product comes to the end of its life cycle, or a rival appears with a better product at half the price. That’s business, and each side, brand, and Amazon marketing agency must do their part to constantly communicate and adapt.
I enjoyed my time building a brand, but working with many brands in many categories is even more rewarding for me at this stage of my career. The Ave7 team and I wake up each morning with the mission to change brand owners’ and sellers’ lives. We’ve met this mission several times, and we won’t stop. If you are a brand finding it difficult to find and afford the experienced staff needed to grow your Amazon business, consider an Amazon marketing agency. Make sure you stay in stock, keep competitive prices that allow you to gain share of voice in your category with advertising, and be willing to constantly adapt and optimize. Listen to your customer and your agency before making your final decisions. A good agency should be a strategic partner and extension of your brand, and once you achieve this, it will free you up to tackle the next obstacle on your journey to becoming the next billion dollar brand.
Our Proven Process Works
Root Causes of ASIN Suspensions
The root causes of an ASIN suspension can vary widely and each scenario requires a unique approach to resolve. Primary reasons typically have to do with ensuring customer safety and satisfaction: is the product safe, and is it what the customer expected to receive when they ordered it?
The majority of listing suspensions boil down to a few things: compliance issues, quality issues, and IP infringement.
COMPLIANCE ISSUES
By far one of the most common issues we see is when customers complain that there is a safety problem with the product, and Amazon requires you to show documentation proving that the product is labeled correctly, has been tested properly, in order to ensure that it was customer error, not the product itself.
IP INFRINGEMENT
If you’re selling something that you are not authorized to sell, or presenting something in such a way that you’re using another company’s intellectual property without permission, the suspension would be a result of a complaint from the rights holder. It’s essential to resolve these quickly as failing to do so could put your entire account at risk of suspension.
PRODUCT/ITEM QUALITY ISSUES
Are you consistently receiving returns due to the product not being as expected by the customer? Has it injured someone? It’s got quality issues. Amazon uses terms like “used sold as new”, inauthentic, expired, safety incident or material difference to describe these types of problems.
Frequently Asked Questions
Amazon is very litigation cautious, and when letters come from lawyers, or lawyers get involved, the results can be a lot less than hoped for. Amazon responds better to people who use the right words in the right format, based on the SOPs that exist for those teams.
Lawyers come in handy though when you’re trying to boot hijackers off your listings, or respond to an IP infringement complaint from another company.
$1,500 for standard ASIN Reinstatement with a typical turnaround time of 3-5 days for an appeal or plan of action. $4,000 for expedited ASIN Reinstatement with a 24-hour turnaround time. If your suspension involves a product safety issue the cost is $3,000.
If you’re ready to get started you can simply pay for the reinstatement and we’ll get started on your case. If you have questions regarding your situation you can fill out the form to request an initial discovery call where we would be happy to discuss our capabilities and your case with you. Keep in mind that there are very few cases that are unique: either one of our team members helped to write the rules at Amazon, or we’ve worked on several similar cases to yours before.
No, we provide you with a unique email address to invite to your account in order to create a secondary account with limited access. We NEVER ask for or want your primary login or password.
No, we provide you with a unique email address to invite to your account in order to create a secondary account with limited access. We NEVER ask for or want your primary login or password.
Yes, we do. Please fill out the form to discuss the particulars of your situation.
The first step to ASIN reinstatement begins with scraping the account to identify the root cause OR CAUSES for an ASIN suspension. Understanding the root cause of suspension is crucial to reinstate your ASIN successfully. Amazon typically suspends ASINs for a variety of reasons, including policy violation, performance issues, catalog issues, and many others. After the cause has been identified, you need to develop a Plan of Action (POA) which states: (1) the issue that led to suspension, (2) countermeasures to resolve said issue, and (3) how you plan to prevent the issue from occurring again. After the POA has been developed, it must be submitted to Amazon via Seller Central.
Amazon may restrict a listing for a variety of reasons including internal policy violation, performance issues, catalog issues, and even legal issues. The reason why Amazon may flag or restrict a listing is to ensure that the product is not illegal or prohibited, and that it is ultimately safe for consumer use.
A: We do not offer refunds for reinstatement. We offer professional service but at times there are issues outside of our control including product safety which falls on the responsibility of the manufacturer or brand owner. While we understand Amazon well, we cannot guarantee their responsiveness or willingness to accept a request for reinstatement or accurately predict the outcome of every case.
Yes. Because Amazon is rarely clear about what they’re asking for it’s common for sellers to fail to provide Amazon with what they really need to reinstate you. We’re extremely good at finding those hidden requirements and communicating them to Amazon. It’s common that we’ll often find things that you missed inadvertently.
Typically we will provide you with a draft plan of action to discuss within 3-5 business days of signup. If a case is more complex it can take longer. It’s important that every response is prepared thoroughly and accurately in order to improve your chances of reinstatement, particularly if you were already blocked. Expedited responses promise a plan within 24 hours.
While it’s possible to write your own appeal and get an ASIN reinstated, the complexity of communicating with Amazon and providing exactly what they need in the format their looking for is best handled by someone with experience.
Jeff doesn’t actually read the “Jeff” emails. Instead, his army of assistants review them and sends them on to the correct teams. All it does is get another eye on your appeal but without the proper documentation and support, these are unlikely to increase your chances of success if your plan of action is insufficient.
Yes we do. Once you have paid for expedited reinstatement, we’ll get a plan to you within 24 hours.
To activate an inactive listing, you first need it to be reinstated. After your listing has been reinstated, you need to ensure that all elements of the listing are in line with Amazon’s policies. Although you may obtain an approval to continue to sell from the Seller Performance Team, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve resolved every key area which can block you from getting your listing available to customers. Need Support? Contact us.
A restricted item on Amazon refers to an item that either: has been prohibited for sale by Amazon, or requires approval before it can be listed.
An ASIN level Suppression means that the ASIN and all its SKUs offered under a specific ASIN have been removed and made unavailable on the platform. You are not able to search, view and/or purchase suppressed listing(s). However, it’s important to note that there are different levels of ASIN suppression, so in some cases an ASIN may only be search suppressed, but still available for purchase if a customer clicked on an affiliate link directly to the product or had it saved in their cart or list.
ASINs can be suppressed for many reasons. Understanding possible underlying root causes such as incorrect product classification, product safety, platform policy violations, and/or regulatory compliance requirements, is the first step in resolving your suppressed ASIN. In some cases, lesser levels of suppression can result from product listings that don’t meet Amazon’s policies such as titles that exceed max length or a category or a primary product image that doesn’t fit Amazon requirements.
ASIN hijacking occurs when an unscrupulous seller creates an offer on an existing ASIN unrelated to their product (typically one that has been discontinued and is no longer available for sale) and attempt to take control of and update the product detail page to showcase their product, and capitalize on the existing product ratings and reviews. This practice violates Amazon’s TOS and is often revealed by reviews that have no association with the product being sold. This can also happen to active listings which can create significant customer confusion.
The child ASIN is the actual offer with the applicable variation theme i.e. – color, size, style, etc.), whereas the parent is the placeholder that holds the related items together by said variation theme. The parent ASINs are not an actual offer and, thus, are not available for sale.
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Looking to get your Amazon Listing Reinstated, but still have questions. Fill out the form below. If you need help getting your ASIN Reinstated, fill out the form above.
