How To Drive External Traffic To Amazon Listings [GUIDE]

If one thing is true, it gets more difficult and complex to increase sales on Amazon year over year.

With the update to the Amazon algorithm, Amazon now states the importance of driving external traffic to Amazon product listings.

This was something that only savvy sellers knew from their own testing, but now, it’s becoming common knowledge.

Yet, for many reading this, the concept of driving external traffic to Amazon product listings is entirely new.

That’s why I put together the most in-depth guide on how to drive external traffic to Amazon that you can use TODAY to increase sales on Amazon quickly whether you’re an Amazon Seller Central seller, Amazon Vendor Central seller, using Amazon FBA, FBA Small and Light or selling Amazon B2B.

Why Do I Need To Drive External Traffic to Amazon?

I particularly remember conversations I used to have with my eCommerce Fractional CMO clients before driving external traffic to Amazon product listings was known to be part of Amazons’ algorithm.

Me: “The reason we’re seeing this plateau in results is that we need to drive external traffic to Amazon so we can boost our SEO and drive our Amazon PPC performance.”

Client: “Why would I want to drive external traffic to Amazon? They have enough traffic. Plus, if I’m going to use resources to drive traffic, it’s going to be to my own website because I get more customer data and our margins are better.”

I would regularly use two epiphany bridges to help each of them get to the other side where they stood to benefit immensely by driving external traffic to Amazon.

1. Same as Brick and Mortar Retail Stores: “Think of every conversation you’ve ever had with a brick and mortar retail buyer. When attempting to earn your way into their stores, they ask: ‘How are you going to advertise and drive foot traffic into our stores?’ Amazon is no different.”
2. The Rising Tide Raises All Ships: “There are over 197 million shoppers on Amazon every month, with their payment information ready to buy products. By having your products appear prominently on Amazon, you increase your legitimacy and perceived value. What’s more, consumers trust buying on Amazon more than a 3rd party website. That’s why conversions on Amazon are markedly higher than on eCommerce websites. By selling to consumers on Amazon, you earn the opportunity to get future sales on your website by providing a great product experience. It’s a far easier and cost-effective path.”

From there, it was smooth sailing and we were back to our regularly scheduled program of driving sales.

What’s more, did you know that the majority of sales for products appearing on the 1st page of Amazon search results don’t originate on Amazon?

A shocking fact that most Amazon sellers may not know is: Most Amazon Sales for most brands don’t originate on Amazon.

In other words: Customer visits Amazon’s website, types in a keyword, clicks an ad or organic result, and buys the product. That’s NOT where most of the sales for products that are selling well happen.

If you run most best-selling products on Amazon through a tool like Sellzone, you will see most of their sales originate off Amazon as referrals from blogs, YouTube & more.

Have a look at the difference in impressions between Referral Traffic and Amazon. That’s a difference of about 357 million impressions.

In other words, a major K-Cup brand can generate 363.2 million impressions each month just from their Amazon Influencer Marketing driving traffic to them on Amazon vs. only 6 million originating directly on Amazon.

The reason for this is simple. Customers visit the #1 and #2 search engines in the world (Google and YouTube respectively) to answer questions, alleviate pain points, and fulfill desires.

That external Amazon traffic path has been around since 1996 when Amazon launched the Amazon Associates Program. This is not a new concept, but its importance within the algorithm has matured:

• For years, savvy sellers noticed that when they drove external traffic to their Amazon product listings, their Amazon SEO keyword rankings improved, their CPC went down and their ad impressions went up.
• In 2018, Amazon started beta testing Amazon Attribution to track off-Amazon traffic performance, rolling it out to all Brand Registered sellers by 2019.
• By late 2020, Amazon formally incorporated external traffic directly into the A10 ranking algorithm.
• In 2021, Amazon introduced the Brand Referral Bonus Program to credit back up to 10% on qualifying external sales driven via Attribution links.

Benefits of Driving External Traffic to Amazon

For anyone on the fence about whether to drive traffic to your Amazon product listings or your own eCommerce website, the answer shouldn’t be one or the other—it should be both.

1. You Can Track Conversions Accurately

With the Amazon Attribution Program, you no longer have to guess what off-platform campaigns are delivering results. Within your Measurement & Reporting dashboard, you can track:

• Click-throughs & Total Detail Page Views
• Total Add To Carts
• Total Purchases & Total Product Sales Volume

2. You Get Up To 10% Back via Brand Referral Bonus

The Brand Referral Bonus Program offsets margin concerns when advertising off-Amazon. When you build tracking links through Amazon Attribution and utilize them in your external marketing campaigns, Amazon reimburses an average of 10% of the sales price on qualifying conversions.

3. You Will Convert More Traffic

While the average standalone eCommerce website converts around 2%, Amazon listings regularly achieve conversion rates between 10% and 15% thanks to consumer trust, Prime shipping, and friction-free checkout options.

4. You Can Still Capture First-Party Customer Data

By routing traffic through a pre-purchase Amazon Landing Page (using tools like LandingCube), you can collect customer email addresses by offering an exclusive promotional code before redirecting them to your Amazon listing with an Attribution tag attached.

How To Drive External Traffic to Amazon Product Listings

Driving external traffic to Amazon requires high-converting listings. Ensure your products have solid social proof by following strategies for How To Get Amazon Product Reviews and optimizing content via Amazon Listing Optimization.

Here are the top six channels ranked by execution impact: