Not only do editorial recommendations give your product a prominent spot on the results page, but it supercharges your brand’s perceived legitimacy and value.
Today, we unravel this great Amazon mystery and answer your 5 most important questions including how to get an editorial recommendation for your product on Amazon’s page:
1. What is an Amazon editorial recommendation?
Editorial recommendations are articles penned by a professional publisher about your product that show up on Amazon's first page of search results when one of your product's keywords is searched. They are distinct from organic listings and PPC sponsored listings.
In other words, editorial recommendations are attached to certain keywords from your listing.
The editorial recommendation will mention a uniquely strong quality about your product. In the above case, "Best Overall,", "Best Budget", "Best for Messy Cats." Shoppers can read the full review when they click “Read full article”.
What your editorial recommendation is not:
It's not your listing showing up organically.
It's not your listing showing up sponsored.
It's not your listing showing up as a brand ad.
But this means your product could appear four times on the search results page as an organic listing, a sponsored listing, a brand ad, and as an editorial recommendation. The more real estate you give your listing, the higher it will convert.
2. How do Amazon editorial recommendations work?
An agency sends your ASIN to the publishing house. They write the article, and it is hosted on Amazon
The publishing house manages a group of 200 publishing companies. One of them will write your article.
Note the “By Paw Tracks” part of the editorial recommendation. Paw Tracks is one of those 200 publishers. No, you can’t get editorial recommendations by contacting Paw Tracks or Amazon. You cannot get an editorial recommendation through Amazon.
The publisher may publish the article on their website.
The article about your product could rank on Google as well.
Note: there are no links on the editorial recommendation that lead the shopper off of Amazon’s website.
In this example we found the same litter box editorial off of Amazon.
The article’s main purpose is always for the editorial recommendation affiliate program. Posting editorial recommendations on their own website is merely a plus for publishers.
It’s like, “Well, we’ve got this thing that we wrote. We might as well post it on our website too and see what happens.”
The publisher promotes up to four products. The article on your product will rank for a few keywords from your listing.
In Amazon search results, three products will display by default. Customers can view the fourth product by clicking that arrow toggle or by reading the full article. You really want to be in the top three editorial recommendations.
However, this does not mean that article shows up every time a shopper searches a keyword.
Here are the editorial recommendations results that currently show up under the keyword “frother”.
However, if I open up a new browser window and try again...
This can happen. No editorial recommendations appear under this different search for the same keyword (frother). Whether or not editorial recommendations show on Amazon can be random. Just because you don’t see editorial recommendations when you search a keyword, it doesn’t mean that they don’t exist.
Amazon wants editorial recommendations on as many keywords as possible.
This means huge opportunity for you.
How do publishers get paid?
Through Amazon’s Onsite Associates Program which is an extension of their affiliate program.
When a customer clicks on the product recommended in the editorial recommendation and buys it, the publisher (like Paw Tracks) get a small portion of that sale. So, the publisher is incentivized to make your product sound amazing.
3. How can Amazon editorial recommendations help my Amazon store?
Editorial recommendations boost your product’s visibility.
Your product can appear up to four times in a single Amazon search:
- Editorial recommendations
- Organic listing
- Sponsored listing (PPC ads)
- Brand ad
Sometimes people ask me, “Seth, if I’m ranking on page 1 organically—which means that I’m not paying for that ranking like am with PPC—should I be running PPC?” And I say, “Yes.” Shoppers have this funny behavior when they see a product more—even if they know it’s due to advertising—they trust it more. They more often we see a brand, the more likely we are to trust it.
So, having an editorial recommendation makes it more likely that a customer will buy your product period.
Editorial recommendations increase consumer trust.
This can increase sales by as much as 10x.
Which of these listings has the most social trust? Which seems the most vetted among all these vacuums?
When you’re a shopper who cares about reviews, the editorial recommendations immediately seem a lot more dependable. This creates trust, which for some consumers can make the difference between buying a product or not.
Plus, you can see there “Best for Allergy Sufferers” and “Comes with Pet-Friendly Bonuses”. If either one of those is me, that immediately makes that vacuum my number one option.
Editorial recommendations are even more trusted than Amazon’s Choice because the customer has some understanding that Amazon chooses those with the Amazon’s Choice. It’s in the name. It logically follows that Amazon wants you to choose those vacuums because they’ll make more profit on them or something.
The customer also can see that Amazon does NOT choose the editorial recommendations but are instead recommended by a trusted professional reviewer.
Editorial recommendations can also help convert especially picky buyers.
Let me show you what editorial recommendations can do for your Amazon business with a real life example.
This “Best Battery Operated Milk Frother” got an editorial recommendation under the coveted search term “frother” and appeared on MomLoveBest.com. That is one of those 200 publishing houses we talked about earlier.
Editorial recommendations appeared for multiple search terms on Amazon including “frother”.
Sales exploded. At its peak, impressions increased by 1,000.
Click-through-rate (CTR) and conversion rate (CR) for keywords spiked.
The product’s revenue increased from $600/day to over $6,000/day.
This rising tide of editorial recommendations raises all ships—your organic and sponsored listing included. This brings me to point number three.
Editorial recommendations can boost your product’s organic ranking.
Guys, remember how we say here at Just One Dime that when you first launch a product that you should aggressively run PPC ads? This is why: Sales of any kind boost your organic ranking.
When you make sales, it often boosts your ranking for other keywords that you didn’t even make any sales with.
Notice the last arrow right there: "New editorial placement for higher volume keywords". This campaign did so well that the seller was able to discover new keywords to target.
Here is an example from a completely separate editorial recommendation campaign. This one was for a vacuum cleaner.
Editorial recommendations give you an advertising cost of sale of 10%.
Advertising Cost of Sale (ACoS) = How much you paid in ads to get one sale / Revenue (x 100 to show ACoS as a percentage).
Example: You paid $20 in ads to sell $100 worth of product = ACoS of 20%.
10% is a very low ACoS. An amazing PPC ACoS would be 20%. ACoS for editorial recommendations is so low because you pay 10% of the revenue made on the editorial recommendation listing ONLY when a sale is made. With PPC, you pay Amazon a fee when a customer clicks on a sponsored listing whether a sale is made or not.
Additionally, this allows you to predict your advertising cost because it is consistent. It does not fluctuate.
4. Do I qualify for an Amazon editorial recommendation?
Your product listing must have a rating of 3.8 stars or more.
Amazon doesn’t want any lower quality products getting recommended. That would defeat the point and lower customer trust in editorial recommendations.
Your product must have 100 reviews or more.
For example: if you rank on the second or first page of search results you have a strong chance to qualify.
If you’re brand new and don’t have that many reviews, set a calendar reminder and apply for an editorial recommendation when you qualify in the future.
Your product needs to be solid and selling well.
Again, if you’re not there yet, keep editorial recommendations in mind for later. Whenever you do get an editorial recommendation, Amazon will ultimately determine for which keywords your article will show up for.
Your product is in an approved category.
Categories not eligible:
Shock collars
Sex toys
Supplements (health claims)
5. How can I get an Amazon editorial recommendation to boost my sales?
Apply through Just One Dime.
Go to jod.com/er
We have partnered up with Riverbend Consulting.
You cannot apply through a publishing house or Amazon.
Take advantage of this exclusive opportunity!
The editorial recommendations program is growing!
Amazon wants to have articles on as many terms as they can. If you don’t see editorial recommendations under your favored search terms, that is a good thing! New editorial recommendation articles can replace old ones.
You will not be charged until your editorial recommendation makes sales.
Your initial fee — $1500 (After your article nets you sales)
Ongoing fee — $500 or 10% of sales, whichever is greater (This is pay per conversion, not pay per click.)
Enjoy an ACoS of 10% while your sales can grow by as much as 10x.
Your editorial recommendation will go live between 6 and 8 weeks.
- Your product will be presented to publishers.
- One of the 200 publishers may include your product in an editorial recommendation.
- Amazon has the ultimate decision making power on which articles to run.
- Articles can run for months on Amazon.
How many months? Sometimes one. We’ve seen an editorial recommendation article run for a long as nine months. Editorial recommendation articles will usually only go away if they stop making sales or if there is a replacement editorial recommendations article.
Prepare your inventory for a boost in sales.
Notice here that this seller kept growing until they ran out of stock.
Put yourself in a position to succeed. Don’t miss out on those sales!
Remember, we will teach you how to manage inventory in the Amazon FBA Mastery membership.
Observe all your data on an interactive dashboard.
Track sales made from editorial recommendations.
Track which platforms you made sales on (mobile, desktop).
You have the full power of multiple reporting options.
Apply at jod.com/er
To get your own editorial recommendation and boost your sales, go to jod.com/er.
Good luck!
