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“Information for the informed Amazon seller.”

ManageByStats This Week covers a selection of industry and Amazon news, along with updates, tips and tricks for ManageByStats.

 

FIRST WORD

Welcome.  For those of you who’ve been with us a while, you’ll notice this issue we’re introducing a slightly new format. We’ve got a new template and have revised some of our regular sections. Let us know if you have any comments.

If this is the first time you’re seeing one of our weekly letters … thank you for reading this far.  It’s only the second paragraph, sure, but in this age where we’re all moving so fast, if you’ve read this far maybe you’ll give the whole letter a look.  We do one of these each week for our ManageByStats users, and the format is entirely designed to bring you helpful bits of information and hopefully a smile or two (see the Humor section).

Whether you’re new or we see you here each week, once again Welcome.

One thing new we’ve added is the In This Issue box. Each week we’ll use that to hit the bullets for the week. We’ll also call out our featured topics here, in the First Word.

 

TIPS & TRICKS

This week we cover how to use the new Automated Bidding in your Advertising tool in ManageByStats.  In order to use Automated Bidding you also need to set your Target ACoS, or Target Advertising Cost of Sale.  We call this feature “TACOS”, and it’s available in your Advertising tool.

We’ll cover TACOS, and then the new Automated Bidding.

TACOS is what you would like your ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sales) to get to.  Starting off you may want to have this be your Profit Margin %, which would mean you are aiming to break even on your ads (spending all profit on advertising).  If your Target ACoS was less than your Profit Margin, you’re aiming to make a profit on your Ads. If your Target ACoS is set above your Profit Margin, this would mean you’re aiming to be aggressive and spend any profit and more for ranking purposes.  If you set TACOS to be the same as your profit margin on the product, the TACOS Gain/Loss column will show the approximate profit or loss on this on this Campaign/AdGroup/Keyword.

Using the “Columns” button, choose the TACOS column for the Performance section, then select TACOS Gain/Loss for the desired AS (Attributed Sales) section.  You will then see the profit or loss based on your target:

 

Automated Bidding

Automated Bidding for Keywords can be toggled on if you’ve set a value for your TACOS (Target ACoS).  See the section on setting TACOS.

If you’ve set a value for Target ACoS, the MBS system is able to automatically adjust your bid on selected Keywords.

Toggle On/Off Automated Bidding for desired Keywords here:

When On, keyword bidding changes will be done daily (as needed) to get ACOS close to the Target ACOS value.  The MBS system does this by looking at the 7-Day ACOS for the 14-day period that ended 3 days ago, then adjusting the bid by comparing TACOS to ACOS.

If ACOS is more than 5% higher or lower than TACOS, the bid is adjusted.

If ACOS is higher than TACOS, the system lowers the bid by 5%.

If ACOS is lower than TACOS, the system raises the bid by 5%.

Once again, in order for Automated Bidding to occur, a value must be set for TACOS, and the Automated Bidding for the selected Keyword(s) must be ON:

 

THE WORLD OF AMAZON

Amazon has had a fake review problem for a long time. Up until late 2016, Amazon allowed sellers to give away products in return for a review.

Then Amazon prohibited all incentivized reviews, and the problem swiftly went underground.

Fast forward to today, and a whole black market ecosystem has evolved. It’s focused on manipulating the Amazon reviews and search ranking systems, using a vast range of nefarious techniques. Amazon’s ban, ironically, has resulted in a fake review problem that makes the old behavior look quaint by comparison …

Amazon’s Fake Review Problem

 

ONGOING OFFER

Through our partnership with AMZ & Beyond, we’re happy to extend this special, limited access for our MBS users to the AMZ & Beyond coaching success mentors:

AMZ & Beyond

AMZ & Beyond helps you take your Amazon/eComm business to the next level through your own personal coaching success mentors.

 

GENERAL INTEREST

(Amazon is) a lucrative market alright, but a very tough one to enter. Not every entrepreneur succeeds, or can succeed given how many Amazon sellers are out there. So what separates the hits from the misses? There are certain traits you’ll find in every successful Amazon seller, and we’re going to look at them here …

What Million-Dollar Amazon Sellers All Have In Common

 

HUMOR

A man was driving down the road when a policeman stopped him. The officer looked in the back of the man’s truck and said, “Why are these penguins in your truck?”

The man replied, “They’re my penguins. They belong to me.”

“You need to take them to the zoo,” the policeman said.

The man tried to protest, but the officer insisted. The next day, the officer saw the same guy driving down the road. He pulled him over again, just to check, and found that the penguins were still in the truck. Only this time they were wearing sunglasses.

“I thought I told you to take these penguins to the zoo!” the officer said.

“I did,” the man replied. “And today I’m taking them to the beach.”

 

FUNNY REVIEWS

 

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.”

– Aristotle

 

YOUR THOUGHTS

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All the best,

Your ManageByStats Team

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