Split Testing Your Amazon Listing (Dana Derricks 3 of 3)

Welcome back to part 3 of the interview with Dana Derricks of copywritingprofessor.com, author of The Amazon Listing Optimization Secrets Work Book and also another book about email marketing for Amazon sellers. Today we are talking about split testing your Amazon listing.


Split Testing Your Amazon Listing
Dana says that split testing your Amazon listing is worth it for a seller. Even if they aren’t doing millions in revenue. If you’re going to invest in this, you should test and make sure that it’s working. It’s tough on Amazon to test anything because there are so many variables. When it comes to listing optimization, one of the most difficult things is figuring out traffic quality and traffic sources. Conversions are good but they aren’t the whole story. On a typical sales page outside of Amazon, you do figure out what makes it convert. Do more of that. Then drive traffic to that page. But it doesn’t work that way on Amazon. It’s a combination of the right keywords and the right places to get people in the door and utilizing the right format and words to get them to buy and convert.

Even though it’s hard to do, Dana does recommend split testing. His advice is to limit any variables that are in your control to keep the same traffic coming. Don’t optimize your listing and then change your PPC spend, for example. Be aware of any other variables such as seasonal variations or Black Friday sales. Make sure it’s a comparable time period with very few, if any, variables. Then you can make your comparison when it comes to split testing.

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Watch the Metrics That Matter
Sometimes, when Dana re-optimizes a listing, the conversion rate actually goes down. But, if the listing has been optimized so it gets a lot more traffic or it gets indexed higher because of the right keywords or it actually gets clicked on now, then sales still go up. Or, it might be the opposite situation: the listing might get less traffic post-conversion, but it’s better traffic (as opposed to the irrelevant traffic it was getting before), so the conversion rate goes up. Either way, sales increase. At the end of the day, the metric that actually matters is sales, not conversions or traffic. Keep this in mind when you're split testing your Amazon listing.
The Book
Dana’s book, The Amazon Listing Optimization Secrets Work Book is $500. Which might seem like a lot for a book, but remember that price would be considered cheap for an online course. It’s also much less than the $10K Dana charges for one-on-one work. For someone who is serious and wants to ramp up their Amazon listings, it would be a great investment for split testing your Amazon listing.

Dana was doing this work for hire, and there was a reason he charged $10K per client: he’s very good at what he does. He had a guarantee and never had to pay back the money even once, in over 1000 clients! However, he was so overwhelmed with work and had to turn a lot of people down. Plus at the price point he was charging he knew he was also pricing people out of working with him. So instead of catching fish for people, he decided to teach them how to fish for themselves.
Learn The Process
Everything that Dana would do for a client is in this book. In his opinion, it’s better than having him do it for you because it gives the why the how and the control of the listing optimization. Plus, it gives you the flexibility to be able to get your assistant to learn the process and apply it to all your listings.

In a crowded market where there are many people taking advantage of sellers, Dana believes this is a product that finally does what the advertising says it does. He has sold nearly 700 copies worldwide now and the response has been excellent. It’s the real deal.

Michael’s advice is that it’s worth it if you’re a serious seller. If you’re just starting out, it’s probably not for you yet. At the very least,