#338 – BDSS 2023: Amazon Titans Share Their Top Secrets & Powerful Strategies – Part 2

#338 - BDSS 2023: Amazon Titans Share Their Top Secrets & Powerful Strategies – Part 2 Speaker 1: Welcome to episode 337 part B of the AM-PM Podcast. I hope you didn't miss part A which was released yesterday. Make sure you go back and check that out if you missed part A because there's more great content in that one from the Billion Dollar Seller Summit speakers. That's right. We have several more of the Billion Dollar Seller Summit speakers speaking today, delivering what they're going to be talking about in Puerto Rico in June, as well as delivering some actionable content that you can walk away from this episode and implement. It's some great stuff. These are some of the best of the best in the industry. If you want more information on the Billion Dollar Seller Summit, you can go to BillionDollarSellerSummit.com. It's happening June 11th to the 15th in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Or you can join us on the webinar on April 18th at 2 p.m. Eastern Time. Just go to BillionDollarSellerSummit.com forward slash webinar to sign up for that. It's totally free. Enjoy this episode. Part B. Here we go. Unknown Speaker: Welcome to the AM-PM Podcast. Welcome to the AM-PM Podcast, where we explore opportunities in e-commerce. We dream big and we discover what's working right now. Plus, this is the podcast where money never sleeps. Working around the clock in the AM and the PM. Are you ready for today's episode? I said, are you ready? Let's do this. Here's your host, Kevin King. Speaker 1: All right, we're back with the next guest on this very, very special podcast and episode. I've got Bradley Sutton from PacView slash Helium 10 now. Bradley, how you doing, man? Speaker 2: Genki desu yo. I'm doing great. I'm here in Japan and so I'm in my Japanese mode here. Speaker 1: Konnichiwa. Oregatou. Yeah, you're you're from Japan, you know, Ritu was in Japan to talk to her on the same episode and you guys were over there for the for Gary's Japanese Amazon conference. I heard that went pretty well. Speaker 2: Yes, yes. Now, she's got me beat. I lived in Japan for three years and that was like 30 years, more than 30 years ago. She lived in Japan for 17 years, completely fluent in the language. So, she's the one to definitely talk to you about. I'm probably going to have her on the Series Sellers Podcast to talk a little bit about the Japanese market. I really learned a lot from her and the other speakers at this conference that we had. It's like the Japanese Amazon market is super interesting. Speaker 1: So you're going from Japan and then I see that you're just being typical Bradley, you're bouncing all over the world, gonna be speaking at all kinds of different events and June is like a super busy month. I mean June is like just crazy with events and I know you're bouncing around from one to another, you're leaving one in Europe I think and then coming to Billion Dollar Seller Summit in Puerto Rico. Which is June 11th to the 15th in Puerto Rico. And you're having to leave a little bit early because you got to make it all the way to Bali for another one, right? On the, I think the 18th. It's so crazy times. Speaker 2: Yeah, June is going to be crazy for me. And then May, I was just talking, I might go to China for the first time in a few years. Obviously, nobody's been able to go to China, but I might be going to an Alibaba event in May. So yeah, the first few months of this year, I was kind of taking it easy. I didn't even get on a plane. The whole year until prosper like March, you know, not even having gotten on a plane for three months. That was kind of weird for me. But now this is the calm. The calm has ended up back on the road again. Speaker 1: You've been to like every Billion Dollar Seller Summits. I think either representing Helium 10 or I think usually representing Helium 10 or speaking in one way or some capacity or another. Well, there's been four in person and then three virtual. So this is the eighth one that's about to come up. But out of the four previous ones, they've all been in Austin. This is the first time we've actually taken it on the road. Which one was your favorite? Speaker 2: I mean, I probably have to say the first, not that it was like, you know, the others were not as good as it or something, but it was just that was one of my first times doing a high-level mastermind, something like that. You know, I was an Illuminati, you know, what Helium 10 Elite used to be called before Helium 10 Elite, you know, way before I even worked at Helium 10. I still kind of like give that a lot of the, you know, kind of like props as far as how I was able to kind of launch my career is even when I was new, I joined the Illuminati, but I never got to go to those Illuminati events that y'all did in like Hawaii and Mexico and things like that. So I never had that experience where I was just in a room, a literal room with like a hundred other top level people, seven, eight, nine figure sellers and the level of strategies that they were giving and then just being able to interact with them and then do all these like outings and events. Your coordinator, Mark, is always like, Really next level with all the events and activities that we do. And so that was like my first ever experience like that. And it was a culture shock in like a good way. And so I'll never forget that one. Speaker 1: What's been your favorite, like the Billion Dollar Seller Summit is different than a lot of other conferences because a lot of conferences you just go, you sit in the classroom all day and listen to people talk and then maybe there's a cocktail party or something. But we do all that, but we also take it to the next level with competitions. Because as you know, sellers, for whatever reason, are super competitive people. And so we always bring in some competition. So like in Puerto Rico, we're doing a family feud, where you're going to have teams of five, and we're actually polling. Some of you listening to this will probably see it on social media coming soon, where it's going to say 100 Amazon sellers were We're surveyed about blah, blah, blah. We're the top seven answers. And we're going to have teams of five competing in elimination rounds to actually win that. So we do stuff like that. Then we're doing, we always do some sort of kind of more physical adventure type of thing for those. And usually everybody, most everybody participates. This time we're doing, uh, think of the TV show survivor. And so we're doing something similar to like where you have a bunch of bamboo, uh, sticks and some rope and you got to make a raft out of it. And actually the whole team's got to get on it, whether you swim or not and paddle out into the ocean. One guy's got to dive down on a pole with a flag on and get something off the bottom and then come back up and then come back onto the shore and you'll have a compass and there's a hit. You gotta follow directions on a compass, which always confuses people to dig up a treasure chest and like then figure out how to unlock it and stuff like that. So it's very interactive, but those kinds of things are also create a lot of networking and they create a lot of bonding. And people tell me a lot of times that was one of the best things they got out of the whole event. They learned some cool, crazy hack, but they're like, you know what? The relationships I made when we were doing that for four hours have actually made me a lot more money. Speaker 2: Puerto Rico is going to be awesome. Speaker 1: Yeah, it's going to be cool. Speaking of that, you're speaking in Puerto Rico. What are you going to be talking about? I know you got a few things up your sleeve, but give us a little preview of what you may be talking about out there. Speaker 2: Yes that's interesting because before like i had kind of like sit like did like a mini announcement like maybe a year ago or so i was like you know what i don't want to speak at. Like high level masterminds anymore because. What was happening was every year I would do that and then it meant that I would have to hold on to some stuff and not give it out because I had to hold some good stuff for these events that I would get invited to speak at. I'm like, I don't like doing that. If I find something cool, I want to share it with at least the 18 to 10 elite members or the podcast or something. How I rationalized though this and accepted because I'm like, man, I can never turn down Billion Dollar Seller Summit is, I'm going to actually do something that's going to be an experiment in May. So I'm actually going to launch a product and test all of the old and new strategies to see what's working and what's not because what got me interested in this is because people are spreading information out there that, oh, the algorithm has changed in the last couple of months. I'm like, nobody's, I'm not seeing that, or change, like maybe three years ago or so, but there's things going on out there and I haven't launched anything like the last six months or seven months. So I'm just going to launch a product, I'm going to document every step, Then it's going to be right up until the Billion Dollar Seller Summit, so it's not like I'm holding back information to other people. I'm just going to debut it at the Billion Dollar Seller Summit, so I'm going to tell people what's working, what's not working with indexing and launch and PPC. Then the second part, I'm actually going to do something where there's some previous Billion Dollar Seller Summit speakers who aren't at this one. And you know, that's one other good thing you do is you don't have the same people speak every time. Like I haven't spoken in like the last two, I think. So this is like the first time in a couple of years I'm speaking here and you always had different people. I'm going to bring on, I'm going to pull some of the old school Billion Dollar Seller Summit speakers who aren't there. And I'm going to get like a really top level, kind of like ninja hack, kind of like you do. You know, once a month where you give your ninja hacks and then I'm going to be getting some other people's top strategies and fill and make sure that people have like a wide variety of strategies that they could learn from. Speaker 1: That's awesome. That's going to be good. I mean, have you seen the lineup of who's speaking? Speaker 2: Yeah, it's great. I'm excited to hear. The one that jumped out to me was, I've only heard him speak a couple times. Actually, the very first time I was introduced to him was on, I believe, the online Billion Dollar Seller Summit. That's Matt Altman. He always brings fire. Excited to hear him speak. Speaker 1: Yeah, he won Howard's events, Howard's Paris Mastermind last year. He beat out Leo and he's next level. I mean, he's one of the guys that was sitting around the campfire with us one night at that event where we, me and Norm and several others were out there until four or five in the morning and he was just Laying down the nuggets and it's like nobody wanted to leave. Nobody wanted to go to bed. We just kept putting wood on this this fire But yes, it's gonna be good and but also before then on next week on on the 18th I'm doing a free webinar at billion-dollar seller summit comm forward slash webinar totally free So make sure you go sign up and it's gonna be a ninja hat contest live It's one of the most popular things that we do at the billion-dollar seller summons usually on the last day and it's gonna be competing for cash prizes, so we have several the of the speakers like yourself and some people from the audience going to be competing. It's going to be some amazing next level stuff. I think you're going to be there as well, right? Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll be there. Speaker 1: Awesome. That's going to be a great event, so be sure to check that out. What's something that you're seeing right now? You're talking about you're going to speak about launches. What's something you're seeing right now that out there that people need to pay attention to? Maybe it's a new tool or maybe something that's new in Helium 10 that you're like, man, this is a freaking awesome tool, but nobody understands how to use it. Or what's something that people should be doing right now that could make a difference in their business that are listening? Speaker 2: I think something important that's on the top of a lot of sellers' minds is trying to make sure that they stay profitable, right? With rising PPC costs sometimes and more competition and shipping costs fluctuating, people are thinking about, well, man, I need to maybe scale back on my team. I need to give myself more hours. I'm working myself to death. Whatever the situation is, whatever is the motivation, people are thinking about, hey, how do I streamline my operations more? And that's something that we're developing this new tool at Helium 10 called the Insights Dashboard. Where it's only like super, super, super beginning stage, but we're having a lot of our members, especially our elite members, but everybody else is invited to give us feedback. But to tell us what could we do to give you time, because time is money too, time back in your pocket. So like, for example, the example I gave of something that is going to happen soon is one thing that people do a lot, like they may have themselves or one of their VAs or their employees run Cerebro against their main competition maybe once a month, just to make sure that there's no new keywords that the competition has discovered and making money off of that you didn't know about. And so that's, I guess, a process. Like, hey, once a month, go through all our products, run Cerebro and all that. Main competitors, see who's the main competitors, if there's any new ones, and then let me know what is the keywords, the new keywords that they're getting sales from, and then go ahead and figure out how to put into the listing. Well, we're working on it where you don't have to do that. We know your competitors. We'll just give you an alert, say, hey, did you know that this competitor is getting sales from this keyword? And you don't even have it in your listing. Would you like to maybe add it to a bullet point? And then you just click a button and then that keyword now with AI will go ahead and put that into your listing. So that's just the, you know, that's not available yet, but that's what we're working on. And a lot of stuff is already available. Like people are getting alerts now. I monitor some of this just to make sure everything's working right, where we'll tell them like, hey, do you know that on this keyword, you've spent 75 bucks over the last, you know, eight days And you got 38 clicks and you haven't got a single sale. You probably should take a look at it. I mean, this is stuff that people should be doing anyways, but sometimes these things fall through the cracks. Otherwise, it wouldn't have happened. And instead of trying to download reports or even looking at Atomic or things like that to figure this stuff out, we're just like giving you the result. And it's like, here's a button, click this if you want to take care of this and let it know. And I think this is going to be important for sellers and kind of game changing. Because we're taking tools to the next level. Instead of you have to learn and figure out what filters to use and what reports to download and then what action to take. No, no. We're just going to tell you what happened, what you should do and then a couple clicks and we'll take care of it for you. So like we're trying to give sellers a lot of time and money back in their pockets. Speaker 1: That's awesome, man. Well, Bradley, I really appreciate you taking some time today to share this and to tease a little bit and tell us your favorites about the Billion Dollar Seller Summit. Looking forward to seeing you on April 18th and also in Puerto Rico. It's going to be some good times. Speaker 2: Awesome. Awesome. Look forward to being there. Speaker 1: Cool. Thanks, man. My next guest here on this special episode of the AM-PM Podcast with the speakers from BDSS is none other than Dr. Travis. Dr. Travis, how are you doing, man? Speaker 2: I'm doing well, Kevin. Thanks for having me on. Speaker 1: Yeah, it's always a pleasure to speak with you because I always learn something. Every time I talk to you, there's always like you're so subtle and so just like matter of factly, but there's always some sort of little nugget that comes out. You know, we were just on, we're in a separate mastermind together that someone organized and just yesterday you, you got like a group of like, I don't know, 15 people that were on this call all going because you made like a little presentation, just said a few little things and it just started snowballing and like tons of like nuggets and information was coming out. And that's what you always do when you, when you do your talks, when you do everything that you do, it's always, always thought provoking. And always actionable stuff and that's probably why you've actually done so well at the previous Billion Dollar Seller Summits that you've spoken at. You've walked away with the prize a few times. A bag of coins one time and a bag of cash another time. Speaker 2: Yeah. Unknown Speaker: And I think it's because I like to keep things incredibly simple and the more simple you make things, the more that can come out of those things. And the example of yesterday's mastermind call, it was great because it was a very simple presentation, not easily executed, but then everybody chimed in on how they would do things a little bit differently. And that's what came, that's what came about. And that's when you get the brainpower going of a mastermind is when people can pick apart what you're doing and enhance it. And then you can kind of get ideas from everybody else. And then you put those ideas together and that's when magic really happens in your business. Speaker 1: It is and that's part of the magic that happens as you know at BDSS. I mean the next one's in June, June 11th to the 15th in San Juan, Puerto Rico and you're speaking at this one and that's exactly what happens. It's not always necessarily about what's being spoke at in the conference room, it's about What's being spoke at than someone else saying, Hey, did you see Travis's presentation? And I'm doing this or they're coming up to you afterwards and they're giving you some feedback or sitting at lunch or out on an excursion or something. And that's the magic that happens. And I think it happens even better. In person, you know, they say, you know, like, like therapists, you know, with with COVID, everybody was doing like virtual zoom calls, you know, for for their, their therapy treatments, whether you know, for because it caused a lot of stress. And but there's a huge difference between doing a zoom call. And, you know, doing some sort of personal interaction versus actually being there in person and feeling the energy and seeing the body movements and feeling. And I think that's what you get when you come to BDSS. For e commerce, would you would you agree with that? Unknown Speaker: I think one of the big things and I wholeheartedly agree with that and one of the big things about BDSS that's always brought me back year after year is the fact that you don't just do lectures and then networking afterwards. You have that part and that's pretty much a typical conferences, lectures and networking but what you do is you create team building activities. An example would be last year we did that Austin scavenger hunt and we went all over Austin in groups of five to six and we created a bond that you're not going to get Going anywhere else networking and this is a bond we were all on a mission to beat the other 20 teams and it created a lot of fun and then it created a lot of stories afterwards because when we gathered all together at the end and had a party, we had a lot of stories to tell and then we went out on a party boat all day and on that party boat, more stories to tell when a storm came and tried to sweep us off the party boat, but these all involves stories and stories are what really sell and you don't get that from a Zoom lecture, you don't get that from listening to a lecture even at BDSS. You get it from the interaction, from the adventures that you go on. And that's what you've done such a great job with your conferences is those you've created those adventures inside of a conference. And that's what makes it so fun. And that's why we continue to come back year after year. And I don't just come myself, I bring four of my team members. So it's not inexpensive to come to the event, but it's worth it every single time because we make great relationships there. But then we also come away with a nugget or two, of course, and that we can apply to our Amazon business. Speaker 1: Yeah, I was gonna say it's not you not just come in and speaking. You're actually your team and you bought like, like, like you said, three or four tickets for every one of the last several. I mean, I don't think you came to the first couple. But ever since then, you've been like, all right, I'm the first one is first one to sign up when you offer that early bird or whatever. Even if I don't even know if I'm speaking, I'll go ahead and buy a ticket for myself and we'll deal with it later just because you want to be there. So what are you going to be speaking about at this one in Puerto Rico? I know the competition is pretty stiff if you take a look at the lineup. There's some of the sharpest people out there and how are you going to defend this title? Unknown Speaker: I am looking forward to the competition this year because yes, it is stiff. There's some great speakers that are coming this year. And the thing I'm going to be going over is why your Amazon business might fail. And I'm going to talk about strategies to avoid that failure. And it's also going to make you happier as a result. And so we're going to bring happiness back to your Amazon business. We're going to make it so it's creating a bigger moat to build off my other talks that I've done at BDSS. We're going to build an even bigger moat around your Amazon listing to really focus on bringing more happiness into the business, but then also to increase your sales significantly as a result. Speaker 1: So one of the things you told me that when you won at the last in-person, it was two ago, right? That you actually won, or was it the virtual? Which one was it that you actually won? Unknown Speaker: So, I won the Ninja Hack contest the first time I came and then I won the best speaker at the virtual. Speaker 1: That's right. Speaker 2: And then I got third best speaker at the in-person and I got second in the Ninja Hack in the in-person. Speaker 1: Yeah, a lot of people say that I think Howard or maybe one or two other people are doing this now, but I was the first one BDSS to actually put a cash prize. On for the speakers and let the audience vote and that I think like you said I think that's elevated the level because people are not just recycling old presentations They're like I got to bring my a-game because I don't want to be I publish the rankings and I don't publish You know, there might be 15 speakers. I don't publish 1 through 15 I publish 1 through 10, but you know that if your name is not in that 1 through 10 You didn't do so well and nobody wants to be in that they want their name to be at least named somewhere in there So everybody's bringing their a-game And I remember you telling me before you won that virtual one, you actually went and like, looked or studied like some of the past ones, like what did they do to actually win this? What kind of presentation was it? And you like reverse engineered it. And that's what you kind of created, you know, with all new information, and it ended up paying off. Unknown Speaker: Yeah, Casey Gauss had won so many in the past that I just went back and watched a couple of his talks, and just really studied them and just saw how he presented and what he presented on. And then that's what I brought my first time that I won it. The second time I talked, I went out a little bit on a limb and it paid off. I still got third place, which I'm happy with. Didn't get a cash prize, but third place is still good. That means I provided a lot of content. But with this one that I'm doing this time, I believe that we can take first place again. And it's going to be both a fulfillment type talk where it's going to get you warm inside, hopefully, but then there's going to be some pretty hardcore hacks in there that are going to change the game for your Amazon business. Speaker 1: That's awesome, man. You're going to be also trying to change the game for some people on the 18th. Next week we have the free webinar, the BDSS hack contest where we have several of the speakers and a few of the people from the audience getting three minutes each to actually present some sort of a hack and then the audience is going to vote. I don't think anybody's ever done a webinar like this, a free, total free webinar. It's one of the most popular things we do at the live event. So I'm like, let's bring this to everybody so they can get a taste. Unknown Speaker: I'll be logging in and giving out some good hacks that we've discovered with the agency lately. And it's going to be involving a little bit of AI, of course, because AI is all the rage right now. But I'm sure you have not heard this hack with AI. I've got two of them actually, that I think I can get across in three minutes, that will change the game for you as far as saving you a ton of time. We all know AI has been saving us a ton of time. But I learned a little hack that I've been recently implementing. That's been a real big game changer for me. Speaker 1: Awesome, looking forward to that for sure. So, what's something that you're seeing out there right now that you deal with, you know, through Pineapple ads and your agency and talking with other sellers and other masterminds and other events. What are you seeing as something that a lot of people need to focus on or that they're missing? What's some sort of just words of advice or a tip that you, something actionable you could give that would help people listening right now when it comes to selling on Amazon? Unknown Speaker: Yeah, so this is actually based on experience from my old brand that I sold in 2021 is external traffic. If you have not started external traffic, it's been talked about for the last two years, and you really need to focus on it because it makes such a big difference for your brand. And I'm going to give you an example. And I gave this example in the mastermind yesterday, when we were acquired by our parent company, they turned off our external traffic channels, our revenue dropped by 30% on Amazon as a result of dropping our external traffic. Now, I fought with them for nine months to get it back. I finally got it back in June the following year, which was nine months later, and we got right back to where we were before we shut it off. Now, I am no longer running my company anymore. I phased myself out. I, you know, worked for them for a while after we sold it and they let their Google Ads lapse and the account got suspended because they didn't verify it. It's a very simple verification process. It doesn't take long at all. But what I've noticed is when that lapsed, 20% drop in revenue again. So 30% drop the first time, 20% drop this time. So if that's not proof that external traffic works incredibly well, then I don't know what is, but you can also watch keyword rankings. I was watching the keyword rankings drop when we of course pulled it the first time. And then the second time when we pulled it, keyword rankings dropped again. So external traffic is going to convert lower. It's gonna cost more, the ROAS is gonna be a lot lower, the return on ad spend, your ACOS therefore is gonna be higher, but the external traffic creates just a lot more magic on your listing that increases your sales, increases your rank, increases your keyword ranks, and it creates kind of this, I call it my moat around my Amazon listing because what happens is if you turn up the external traffic knob, you can usually push yourself up in the rankings, and then you can kind of slow it back down to see if you can stay up there, But that external traffic piece is so vital and we do it through Google ads, that's our main source, but you can do it pretty much through anything. Influencers, Google ads, Facebook ads, TikTok ads. There's so many opportunities for external traffic and if you're not taking advantage of that right now, you should be. And we're just really focusing on who can move the needle for you. So finding an influencer, finding somebody that you can build that relationship with to then send more traffic to your Amazon listing to then boost you up even higher. Speaker 1: Awesome advice. As always, Dr. Travis, I really appreciate you taking a few minutes out of your busy schedule today and sharing with us. I'm really looking forward to seeing you on the 18th with a really nice, beautiful beach Blue water background behind you as well as in Puerto Rico. We're going to be right on the beach in Puerto Rico. The hotel is right on the beach. Actually the conference room that we're in at the Vanderbilt Hotel there in San Juan actually has windows that overlook the beach. So hopefully that won't cause too much light noise that we can't see the presentation. We'll be able to keep those open. So it's going to be a cool vibe and looking forward to seeing you there as well. Unknown Speaker: Yeah, I think I've actually been to that hotel on my honeymoon. I don't know for sure. I don't remember what hotel but it was close to there and it is beautiful. It's a lot of fun. Speaker 1: Awesome, man. Well, we'll see you there. Speaker 2: All right. Thanks, Kevin. Speaker 1: I'm back with our next guest. Our next guest is Alina. Alina, how are you doing? Unknown Speaker: Hi, I'm very well. Thank you. Speaker 2: How are you? Speaker 1: I'm good. Now you right now you're back in Romania. Is that correct? Are you some other jet setting place around the world? Because you're going to like all kinds of conferences. Unknown Speaker: Yes. Well, for a couple of weeks now I've been home. So yes, in Romania right now. Speaker 1: So you're speaking at the upcoming Billion Dollar Seller Summit in June and this is going to be your first time speaking on the stage. So how do you feel about that? Unknown Speaker: Very nervous already. Speaker 1: Yeah? Very nervous? Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Why does this event make the speakers a little bit more nervous maybe than some other events? Unknown Speaker: I'm guessing I'm not the only one who said she or he is nervous. Well, because it's one of the top five, in my opinion, maybe even top three in the industry. It's everything about delivering value and all the people in the room are at a certain level in their business, even if maybe their revenue or their profits aren't that high yet, but their experience is. I mean, that's my perception after two in-person ones that I have attended. Speaker 1: What are you going to be speaking about? What's a little, what's some cool stuff we can look forward to? Unknown Speaker: Well, I've been thinking a lot what to speak about because we've, uh, we've been doing a lot lately that I could share, but, um, eventually I've decided to, you know, to follow your lead and do some hacks. I won't call them hacks because that's your word and, uh, I wouldn't want to Steal it from the master. I call them tricks and tweaks of 2023 Amazon and how to, you know, I'm trying to bring some actionable stuff that you can leave the room and and be able to put in practice immediately because with all our services and also our brands, we've been doing a lot of tests. We're always doing a lot of tests. And I think there's a lot of value in those tests that maybe, I mean, I'm pretty sure not all the sellers are, you know, maybe they haven't tried it yet or they haven't experienced it yet. Speaker 1: You know, a lot of people probably don't realize, you know, some of the tools on who am 10, you were you helped actually develop some of the parameters and the way that they estimate certain things based on sales and all that kind of stuff. Because for years, you've had a really good agency that's helped sellers launch new products. And you've got access to a lot of data across a lot of platforms. And you really know what works and What's working like right now, which is not what worked last year. And, and, and you do that plus you're still a seller yourself, right? You're still selling yourself as an Amazon seller. So you have your, your heavier foot in both sides of the, of the water there. So you, you've got, I'm sure those are going to be some really, really cool. Techniques. Is there anything that you could share with the audience right now? Maybe some of the people here aren't able to make it to Puerto Rico. Is there anything that they should be doing or looking out for something they can do right now that might make a difference? Unknown Speaker: Yes, I could share something that it's actually one of our most recent tests. And there were a lot of people I know in the past few months, I've seen this in the space, a lot of people, sellers asking whether the Amazon attribution and the Amazon associates, whether they can be combined some way. And get both commissions out of Amazon because, you know, the Amazon Associates works with products and brands and Amazon attribution, you have to have the seller center. So it was a little bit tricky to do that. We have found a way and I do believe it's going to be very powerful and valuable to use, especially if you're doing an outside external traffic campaign as a, for example, a press article, which we do right now. Maybe a Google Ads campaign or whatever, whatever type of external promo. And that is basically you need to set up an associates account, right? You need to be very specific. I've had this happen. Amazon shut down one of our associates account because the traffic didn't come from the source. I said it would. So if you're going to promote it on Pinterest, you need to say Pinterest. If you're going to promote it on TikTok, you need to say TikTok. Right, so set up your associates account and then go to attribution, create an attribution link, put the attribution link into the associates, generate a new link, and then once you put it out there and you start making sales on it, you're going to see commissions both ways, associates and attribution. Speaker 1: So does that work? So if I use that link, like on a attribution link, you only get it if it's on your product, the products you sell and your brand, you only get that 10%. You don't get it. If I go and buy some toilet paper or buy something else, you don't get it off of that, but on the associates you do. So if someone, so in this case, what you're saying is that by doing it this way, I can get the 10% or whatever. Some categories are a little bit different, but most of them are 10%. And then the commission's anywhere from 2 to 4% in most cases, I mean it varies by product, but roughly 2 to 4%, so I'm getting 12 to 14%. On something that's my brand from this. And then, but if I, if that person also goes and buys a TV and I don't sell TVs, then I'm going to get that, whatever it is, I don't know the exact number, but two to 4% as well off of that link versus if I don't do it this way and I just use my attribution link and they still go and buy that TV, I'm not getting any credit for that. Just Amazon's liking, loving it that they got some extra sales and didn't have to pay for it. So that's basically what you're saying is that this could because I know people that were actually I had somebody else that said that they were making more money off the associates link than the other link. Speaker 2: Yes. Speaker 1: Yeah, the attribution link. And so they quit. They did the math because of people buying other things in the cart. They said, I'm better off just using the associates link and just taking the two or 4% off of everything they put in their cart than I am just using the other link because I'm only getting credit for mine. And so they quit actually using it. But this way, you're saying you can combine them, which is brilliant. Unknown Speaker: You can combine them for your products, which I think, especially for people selling high dollar items, can be very valuable. Speaker 1: That's awesome. That's really, really good. So as you see, this is the type of stuff. We just did this in a few minutes. Alina is going to be speaking for like 40 minutes at the Billion Dollar Seller Summit in Puerto Rico. And she's going to just be laying out things like this, like you can go actually do this right now. This is not some big grand theory or a bunch of rah-rah or corporate BS. As I say, that happens at a lot of these events. This is like actionable stuff. And you're right. You know, some of the previous winners have actually reverse engineered who won in the past. They've gone back and looked at the presentations from Billion Dollar Seller Summit of who got voted best speaker. And like, they just, obviously, that's what the audience wants. They want these actionable, quick tips. And so I think you're, you're very smart in doing it this way. And I look forward to seeing what you have. And you may actually have something for us to next week on April 18. We're doing a Doing a free webinar, you can go to BillionDollarSellerSummit.com forward slash webinar and sign up. It's totally free, but it's a hacks contest where we have some of the billion dollar seller speakers competing and some of the audience competing. And there's a cash prize for the best one as voted by the audience. It's going to be really cool. And you're going to be able to make that one, too, right? Speaker 3: I hope so. Yes. Speaker 1: Awesome. Unknown Speaker: With something new. Speaker 1: With something new. That's right. That's awesome. Cool. Well, Alina, I'm really looking forward to seeing you in Puerto Rico. It's going to be an amazing time. I know June's a busy time for you. I saw you're speaking at several, several places. So you're going to be bouncing all over the place. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Bracken for those frequent flyer miles, but I'm really happy and excited to have you come on the Billion Dollar Seller stage in Puerto Rico. It's going to be great. Unknown Speaker: Thank you. Thank you for inviting me. And I, I'm looking forward to being there. Speaker 1: Awesome. We'll see you then. Next up on this very special BDSS podcast, I actually have The person that actually won the last BDSS, which was the virtual event in February, she just crushed it, like blew people's minds. I was just at a, in fact, I was just at an AI conference just recently in Las Vegas, and someone there actually came up and said, that presentation that Ritu did, tying the AI to Amazon PPC was just like next level. It like blew their mind. Ritu Java, welcome. Glad to have you here. Speaker 3: Oh, thank you so much, Kevin. I didn't know this. Like, so you went to the AI conference. And like, what was the context? Like, how did they bring it up? And like, what were the Amazon sellers? Speaker 1: This was an Amazon person that was there that most of the people that there's probably 400, roughly 400 people at the conference. And there's probably if I had to guess 20 or 25 Amazon people, maybe, you know, most of them were internet marketers, or affiliate type of marketers or other type of things like that. But the people in the Amazon space who kind of lead the way, a lot of them were there and it was really good stuff. A lot of really cool tools, a lot of really cool information. It wasn't really about Amazon, it was just about here's what's happening, here's the technology and here's how you can do this and this and this and this and you should be thinking about this and there's some pretty cool stuff on ways to actually grow an audience to launch products that they talked about where you can incorporate AI and some other things. It was really good. Speaker 3: Love it. Love it. Yeah. Speaker 1: But you were just recently in one in Japan too, right? And you're actually right now we're recording this. You're in Japan. Speaker 3: Yes, yes, I am in Japan. So this is a very quaint and charming city called Kamakura. And this used to be the capital of Japan almost like 1000 years ago. And this is where, you know, the political seat and everything was. And it's just amazing. It's just so gorgeous. So I've just checked into this hotel and managed to get early check-ins. I'm able to talk to you with good Wi Fi and all. Yeah, I think the Amazon Japan mastermind went really well and there was a lot of interest in Japan, so I'm really excited for what's to come. Speaker 1: Awesome. I saw a few pictures, it looked like a good event. I think there's some really good opportunity over there. Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely. Speaker 1: So you're going to be speaking in Puerto Rico. We're going to go all the way from Japan to the other side of the world to an island in the Caribbean called Puerto Rico and you're going to be speaking at the next Billion Dollar Seller Summit coming up June 11th to the 15th. Now as the winner of the last one, does that put any pressure on you? Like what if you don't even make the top 10 this time? Speaker 3: I know, right? Yeah. I mean, the thing is that Kevin, you have set the bar so high for everyone that participates in any way, whether they're speakers or attendees. So I guess you're setting the pace here. Okay. So I just think it's going to get better and better and better. So I'm really planning to make this next level. And so yeah, I don't know what the outcome is going to be, but I'm going to put in my best and share some cool stuff that I'm doing and we're doing at VP Synergia and I would love to share some of the cutting edge stuff that is out there. Speaker 1: So you're gonna be doing something around like some very insightful things around gathering intelligence on on what you're doing and what your competitors are doing and blending that kind of stuff together. And then mixing in a little bit of AI to really sweeten it and make it much easier and much faster to get this stuff something using some cool little software tools that are a little bit more advanced that are out there publicly. But but yes, you're gonna be showing some cool tactics around like this is people will be able to walk away with like, This is what they need to do. It's not like general theory or it's like step one, step two, do this, do this, do this, and this is going to be the result. Speaker 3: Right. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, there's a lot of, you know, focus on like software and also there's a lot of services. And the thing is that there's many things that people can do, you know, even on their own, but they're not equipped with either the steps or the direction in which to go in order to kind of leverage These insights from their own business data. So there's a lot of data, right? All of us know there's just too much data. In fact, there's so much data that it kind of freezes us at times. So my goal with this talk is basically helping Helping people see their data and leverage business intelligence insights from their data using some cool software, like you said, are out there, some of which will be free. And so I'm going to show you how to use those tools to kind of, you know, Take your business to the next level. So the goal is to get growth here, but the tools that we'll use basically will help to leverage the data that you already have. You're sitting on it. You just probably don't know how to use it enough. Speaker 1: That's awesome. I mean, your presentation at the February virtual event was like 10, was it like 10 steps or 10 ways to actually use AI to combine your PPC data with your keywords and with writing, making it right, these special Google Sheets, like really cool stuff. So I know whatever you're going to be presenting in Puerto Rico is going to be even next level. I can't wait to see it in the lineup there. This is a tough crowd. The lineup, I don't know if you've seen this, the other speakers, But there's some some of the best of the best, which, of course, you're you are too. But this is going to be this is a Super Bowl. Speaker 3: I am so looking forward to it. I can't wait. Speaker 1: It's going to be awesome. So it's June 11th to the 15th for everybody. What are you seeing right now in the PPC world? I mean, that's your specialty, PPC Ninja. And by the way, on April 27th, there's an entire episode coming out with Ritu of the AM PM Podcast. So make sure you mark down on your calendars for April 27. So later this month, there's a full episode that she and I did together that's got she just Spilling the beans on all kinds of cool stuff, so make sure you don't miss that episode. But what's something that you're seeing out there right now that listeners to this could take away? What's something they could be doing in their PPC or that you see them with some of your clients and you're like just scratching your head, why are they just missing this? What could you share along those lines? Speaker 3: Yeah, so, you know, Amazon has been releasing a lot of tools and they've been improving their UI, their reporting, and there's so many things that just get slipped in without people noticing. And so there's a lot of improvements that I've seen with sponsored brands, especially with sponsored brand video. And so one of the cool things that I'm really excited about and have been using is this ability to show a video In the headline space, like right up at the top of your search results page, right? So that's kind of prime real estate. And so far, we've been used to seeing like a lifestyle photo there, but now it's actually moving video and it just is so eye-catching and giving you CTRs. You know, upwards of three percent, four percent, like literally unheard of click through rates on those videos, especially because of the placement. Like there are video ads on page one and also on product detail pages. But this one just is kind of the leader of them all. And so. Speaker 1: So is this a new placement or is this some special way that you're doing it to get that up there? Speaker 3: Yeah, no. So this is using the sponsored brand video creation. But yes, there is some minor settings that you need to do to kind of make it show up more on the top of the search results page. And sometimes you can do it and sometimes you can't. But there are ways to kind of make that happen. The only downside is that because this is so new, none of the softwares have actually picked it up. So it's not part of the API. Well, it might be released as an API ability, but it's still not part of any of the software that I know of. So reporting and optimization on this ad type might require a little bit of manual monitoring, but that's okay. We're getting the best placement right up at the top. So we've been launching ads for this ad type for all of our clients on the agency side at BBC Ninja. I'm seeing some really good results so it's a great way to leverage something that has silently been released. Speaker 1: So how would people find that if people are listening like oh my god I didn't know that existed I didn't see the announcement or whatever where would they go to find this? Speaker 3: Well, it's just a sponsored brand ad. So you just go to your campaign manager and create a sponsored brand ad, a video ad, and send traffic to the storefront. So you need a store for this, right? So you can send traffic to your storefront instead of sending it to your product detail page. So by setting it that way, you can get that prime spot up at the top. Speaker 1: Awesome. Well, we too, I really appreciate you taking some time today and sharing with us and looking forward to seeing you next week on the webinar and as well as in Puerto Rico. I know it's going to be some amazing stuff. I'll be there with my notepad ready to take down and my camera to screenshot whatever it is that you're presenting because I know it's going to be amazing. Speaker 3: Thank you so much, Kevin. That puts a little bit of pressure on me, but yes, I'm going to live up to it. I'm going to try to live up to it. Thank you so much for having me. Speaker 1: You're welcome. We'll see you soon. Speaker 2: All right. Speaker 3: Take care. Speaker 1: All right. My next guest on this very special podcast edition, the BDSS edition, is none other than Anthony Cofrancesco. There, I got it. I got it all out. How are you doing, Anthony? I'm doing well. Speaker 3: How about yourself? Speaker 1: I'm alive and kicking as my buddy Mark Don would always say. Great to have you on here because you're someone who I remember when the first couple BDSS came out, you were like, how can I get to speak at one of these? How can I get to speak at one of these? And you're like messaging me like, I would love to be able to speak at one of these. You had spoken at some like Helium 10 Elite things and a few other places and you're like, how can I speak? And I'm like, well, show me what you got. Because you're doing stuff back then for I think PICFU, you know a whole bunch of image stuff and you sent me like a little proposal if I recall and I was like holy Jesus this is like really really good so I invited you to come up and then what did you just proceed to do? You proceeded to place in one of the final spots on the whole competition and so then that I think that motivated you because what did you finish like second or third that first time? Unknown Speaker: I finished third in the first one yeah. Speaker 1: Yeah third in the first one and then the next time that you spoke it was what second right? Unknown Speaker: I think I got third and then last time I got second yeah. Speaker 1: So you got then you got second and so now Anthony is like all right I keep moving up one each time so now I'm gunning for that first place spot. And I'm super stoked to have you speaking in Puerto Rico at the next BDSS on June 11th to the 15th. And you've got a pretty amazing topic that you're going to be talking about. I mean, you've got some pretty cool stuff that you're going to be talking about on ranking. Everybody's always wanting to know, how can I rank better? What can I do to sell more? And there's lots of little tactics and stuff out there. And some people get real technical and they break it down. This is how the A9 works. This this thing works over here and this one works over here, but it gets too technical and loses people. But you've got something that's like step by step layman's language. This is what you got to do to see massive results. Is that right? Unknown Speaker: Yeah, that's correct. And I think for years, right, my focus has all been images and conversion optimization. And so even when I had my own brands, a lot of these other things related to ranking, related to PPC, these were things that were either outsourced or done by my business partner. And so now it's like, I feel like I've seen one half of the equation and got really good at it. And now I'm seeing this other side of the equation. And so this isn't going to be a technical rundown of A9 or anything like that. What I really like doing is and what I think I'm quite good at is taking things that are very, very technical, but then explaining them in a way That everyone's going to understand. And so during this talk, I'm going to be walking through how the algorithm works from a ranking perspective. And the way that I look at it is Amazon is really complicated. Speaker 1: Right. Unknown Speaker: But when you break it down, it's just these series of levers that you pull in your business. Right. And some people don't have access to all the levers. Some people can only pull down the lever a certain amount. Speaker 1: Right. Unknown Speaker: Other people can pull down those levers more. And so what this talk is going to do It's in a very simplistic way that everyone can follow. It's going to help you really identify what are these value levers for your business and make sure that you have all of them pulled down to your maximum level that you can as a brand. Speaker 1: What's what's like something out there that people are just missing right now that you're seeing with all the people that you guys work with? What is something that you're like, holy cow, this is like, so something you could share here. I know you got some real cool stuff for the talk, but something that's just like, everybody's just missing this. And if you would just do this one little thing, you could, you could almost overnight add some sales or gain some position or rank or whatever it may be. Unknown Speaker: I think the biggest thing that people really need to understand in the most simplistic way is that the Amazon algorithm is comprised of four components. You have click through rate, conversion rate, revenue, and you have relevancy. And basically what's happening at all times is Amazon is just benchmarking everyone's performance for these four metrics, and then it's going to put you into that correct position. And so I think maybe this is maybe this is too long to share right now, but I think where a lot of sellers are going wrong is they're just they're not focusing on the fundamentals. They're focusing on sometimes Like these new flashy things which might get little gains, but I think especially for the attendees of BDSS, these people have already built brands. Some of them are dominating the niche. And so this is really the information that's going to help you solidify that niche, build that moat, and then make no one else want to want to touch you because they're looking at the analytics and they're just like, this person is dominating. There's no way even after months or years that I'm going to be able to catch up. Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true. So many people are always looking for that next little silver bullet, like you said, of what is it? Do I need to send outside traffic from Facebook or should it be from Instagram or something like that when it really just comes down to the fundamentals and knowing exactly what the algorithm wants and then just feeding that to it. And there's a lot of misinformation out there. You know, there's an A10, there's an A11, there's an A12, you know, all these crazy people that are just using it as a marketing hook, but there's usually not a lot of substance. And you guys, dive deep and go into the data and you're gonna have some really really cool stuff. You're gonna be speaking also Are going to be on the April 18th webinar, the free webinar that I'm doing for everybody. It's at BillionDollarSellerSummit.com forward slash webinar. If you haven't signed up, we're doing a hacks contest with a cash prize and everything. We've got a bunch of the BDSS speakers, a few people from the audience, all competing. Everybody gets like three minutes to actually make a presentation or talk or share their hack. And then at the end, we'll all vote and you're going to be there that day too, right? I will be. Speaker 2: Yep. Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to it. I think you're probably going to surprise and delight a lot of the people that are there for sure. Unknown Speaker: You know, I know this is a little bit of a promo piece, but for anyone listening, I can't recommend Billion Dollar Seller Summit enough. I know it's got a big price tag, but Kevin puts on really, really top notch events. And there is a good group of people here, some of the biggest sellers I've met at this conference. So it's a good group. Speaker 1: I appreciate that Anthony and thanks for taking some time today and looking forward to seeing you next week on the webinar and a few weeks after that in Puerto Rico. Sounds good. I'll be there. Speaker 2: See you there. Speaker 1: Wow. That was some awesome stuff. You know, the Billion Dollar Seller Summit speakers are the best in the industry. I hand select them. These are people that are, there's hardly any smarter minds out there collectively as a group. I hope you're able to make it to Puerto Rico with us in June. BillionDollarSellerSummit.com for all the information. And I hope you're able to make it on the webinar on the 18th of April, BillionDollarSellerSummit.com forward slash webinar. It's been great presenting this. If you didn't listen to yesterday's episode, part A, be sure to go back and listen to that. Totally different speakers and content. So be sure to check that out as well. We'll be back again next week at our regular time on Thursdays with the next episode. But before we go, I've got to leave you with some words of wisdom. This week, it's this. Kind of applies here to the Billion Dollar Seller Summit. It's not necessary to change a person in order to change their behavior. Just change their environment. It's not necessary to change a person in order to change their behavior. Just change their environment. Take care everybody. See you in Puerto Rico.