Amazon

Introducing Amazon Giveaway for FBA

By Tinuiti Team

Amazon Sellers may have received a notification indicating they have been selected to participate in the pilot of a new tool called Amazon Giveaway for FBA.

Amazon Giveaway is a service that allows Amazon customers to set up and run promotional giveaways. According to Amazon, this marketing tool can help sellers promote new products, drive traffic to their selection, and generate social-media buzz.

Although Amazon is calling this a “pilot” program, Amazon Giveaway has been available for about a year but today is the first day FBA products are eligible as “prizes”.

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The Amazon Giveaway Outline

 

 

 

 

 

 

Essentially, sellers can choose up to 50 items (up to $5,000 worth of Amazon merchandise) as designated prizes.

Once confirmed, those who enter the contest will see an animated Amazon box. They can click on the box to find out whether they won the prize or not.

keith-obrien“The Amazon give-away program could be an interesting way to drive some additional exposure to a product listing,” Keith O’Brien, Amazon Expert said.

“We have seen this a number of times over the last year (it always looks new) and every time the comment is made, ‘Oh my gosh, Amazon is now running promotional campaigns for reviews.’ That isn’t really what this is.”

“There are massive differences between an Amazon Giveaways Contest and a Promotional Campaign for Reviews.”

“While there are some nice benefits of the Amazon Giveaway program, such as Amazon allowing external links in messages, some new exposure for a product and potentially being able to convert contest entries into future customers, a seller shouldn’t expect a higher review percentage then they are currently getting on organic sales.”

“If the goal is to drive a bunch of new, compliant reviews to your products, there are far better solutions.”

Amazon Giveaway: A Social Media Generation Tool?

“They have had this for a while. This is a promotional game you can create for your customers. So you basically set up a contest,” Jeff Cohen, Amazon Brand Strategist said.

“The hope is that you promote the contest, as well as your customers driving outside traffic to your listing.”

 One of the most interesting aspects is that anyone who participates in the contest is required to follow the organizer on their social media platform in order to be eligible to win the prize.

According to reports, traffic to product pages for the giveaway prizes increased by more than 40 percent in weekly growth and generated over 2.8 million new Twitter followers.

But, since it’s introduction last year, the tool has acquired mixed reviews. One seller who tested Amazon Giveaway as a marketing channel shared his experience.

jeff-colemanThe seller spent $40.24 to get 1854 followers, but less than a week later, 444 unfollowed.  He started with 357 followers, and now has 1767. So roughly 24% of the followers bought were unqualified. The total cost per new follower averaged out to 2.8 cents.

“This sounds like it was designed to mimic Facebook groups where resellers (usually just individual brand advocates) will host Facebook events where they promote & sell products from the brands they’re representing,” Jeff Coleman, Director of Account Management at CPC Strategy said.

“It looks like the host (doesn’t have to be the brand) has to foot the cost of the products they offer in the giveaway. Interesting that they don’t list review collection as a way to use the tool, I wonder what their official stance would be on making that apart of the messaging. It seems like the intention was more socially-focused.”

nick-sandberg“It’s definitely missing the review generation portion, which is what I think most sellers want when giving away a free product,” Nick Sandberg, Marketplace Channel Analyst at CPC Strategy said.

How to set up Amazon Giveaway for FBA:

To activate your participation in this pilot program, in your Fulfillment by Amazon (sign-in required) settings, locate Giveaway and click Enable.

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    1. Sign in to your seller account. Under Advertising, click Promotions, and then click Create a Giveaway.

 

    1. Select a product.

 

    1. Set the rules (for example, every 10th participant wins or the first 20 participants win).

 

    1. Select the number of prizes that you want to give away.

 

    1. Set a requirement for entry (for example, have entrants watch a video, follow you or someone else on Twitter, or some other requirement).

 

    1. Create your giveaway Welcome, Win, and Lose messages. You can also include an image.

 

    1. Purchase your products (at listing price with estimated shipping and handling included). You will be automatically reimbursed for all giveaway prizes not awarded at the end of the giveaway period (a maximum of seven days).

 

    1. Receive a confirmation email from Amazon. Important: It may take up to several hours for your giveaway URL to be generated and your confirmation email to arrive.

 

    1. You will receive a second email when your giveaway is live. This email includes your unique giveaway URL. You can check the status on Your Giveaways page and under Orders in your seller account.

 

    1. To make sure people see your promotion, share your giveaway URL through multiple channels (for example, post on Twitter, on Facebook, or share by email). As soon as your giveaway URL is live, giveaway participants can click to enter and find out immediately whether or not they’re a winner.

 

Pro-Tip: All Selling on Amazon and FBA fees apply to FBA products selected as giveaways. Sales will not be reported in your seller account until the giveaway is complete. Giveaway inventory will appear as Reserved in your seller account until the Giveaway is complete.

Amazon reserves the right to remove products or offers from Amazon Giveaway, terminate a seller’s eligibility for the program, modify the terms of this agreement or terminate the program at any time.

Click here for more frequently asked questions about Amazon Giveaways.

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