Amazon New Create a Digital Coupon
How to Create Coupon Feature Inside Seller Central
Amazon sellers don’t really need tutorial instructions on How to Create a Coupon Promotion, except perhaps to know where the button is located. It’s a self-service tool that allows Sellers to create and fund their own digital Coupons. Savings are instantly applied for customers. No need to enter codes! Look for this feature under your Advertising Tab:
If you don’t have the Coupon Button function or you have it but no access, it’s possible that your feedback rating is too low. You must have a seller feedback rating of 3.5 or higher.
Brand new accounts should be sure to get that first feedback. Even having just one feedback over the 3.5 rating will count towards access.
Note: Just like with PPC, the Buy Box is important to show up in organic search. Additionally, not all products are eligible, especially if you are not the Brand Registered owner.
Quick Guide to Amazon Digital Coupons – Nov. 2017
- 30 DAY RULE for PRICE: Careful with your listing dollar amounts. Coupons require a discount between 5% and 80% over your lowest price for this ASIN in the last 30 days. (So you can’t offer 25% today and 10% next week.)
- COST: You will be charged $0.60 per coupon redeemed (coupon used to make a purchase)
- ASIN LIMIT: You may add up to 50 parent ASINs to one coupon – but is this a good idea?
- TIME TO GO LIVE: Coupons become active 48 hours after you click the Submit coupon button
- CHANGES: Once active, you can only extend the end date (up to 3 months of duration) or increase your budget. No changing, pausing, or deselecting ASINs.
- LANGUAGE: Entering offensive words, discount percentages or referring to events (such as Prime Day or Black Friday) in coupon titles are prohibited.
- PRODUCT RATING THRESHOLD (Reviews): You need a 2.5 or higher for products that have 1-5 reviews and 3 or higher for products that have 5+ reviews, otherwise your coupon will be suppressed (ineligible or rejected), will have the message “Submitted with 1 suppressed asin” and not go live. This ASIN will automatically be reactivated when the product rating passes the threshold.
- PRICING RULES: ASINs will automatically be reactivated when the pricing rules are satisfied. Amazon requires your coupons to provide the lowest price in the past 30 days.
- STOCK: Coupons for an ASIN will automatically be reactivated when you add more inventory.
2017 Frequently Asked Questions
Since this program is brand new, some of these questions are unanswered or if answered, are guesses to how things might work. **Check back here for updates as we learn more.**
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- Is the Budget an amount spent PER DAY or for the length of the Campaign?
Answer: Budget amount is for “Length of the Campaign” and campaigns are deactivated once your budget is fully utilized. - Amazon states sellers pay “Redemption fees ($0.60 for every redemption)” so does this mean sellers pay $0.60 for each coupon clipped or for each coupon used?
Answer: You pay .60 for each redemption. - Do I pay my discount fee + .60 to Amazon or just .60 per coupon redeemed?
Answer: The Budget is just a method to track how many coupons you give away. You only pay $0.60 per redemption, meaning $0.60 for every coupon used to make a purchase.
Note: The coupon discount is an opportunity cost (loss) but doesn’t directly impact your cash flow. For example, if you offer a coupon for $3.00 off and a customer uses this coupon, you are only charged $0.60, but you gave up $3.00 from your original selling price. - What will Reports look like? Is it better to match 1 coupon per ASIN for tracking? Do we get to see any search term information?
Answer: The coupon fee shows up as a “Service Fee” under Reports > Payments > Transaction View as a separate line item.
– Your discount, such as a $3.00 off, shows as a Promo Rebate in the transaction sale data for the particular order number. This $3 is an opportunity cost (loss) but you do not pay Amazon $3.00.
– No other data (such as search terms etc.) is available. - When will a coupon show in Organic Search results vs only the special “Coupon area” page, Gold Box Deal page, and “PPC Product Display” paid ads?
Answer: Appears in Organic Search when you choose All Customers (see image below for Target Audience – customer segment choices).“Note: If you select a targeting option other than All Customers, Coupon badge will not show in the search results.” (found on Amazon Target Audience page)
- If I don’t have the Buy Box, will my coupon be approved and show?
Answer: Yes, you can be approved even without owning the Buy Box. If you create a direct link to YOUR STORE item (a direct link to your account item where you will have the Buy Box because it is direct), then your coupon will show along with the “Add to Cart” button. *So you can create coupons and post direct store links to social media, blogs, etc. to create your own coupon landing page, even if you don’t have the Buy box on Amazon’s main page. - Will my Referral Fee be based on price before or after the applied coupon?
Answer: Referral fee is based on the net sales proceeds (after all promotional discounts have been applied).
Best Tips for Amazon Seller Promotions
These are observations that sellers are reporting as of this writing:
- PLAN AHEAD: It takes 48hrs to go live, so don’t think you can create these ON special days, like Black Friday. You need to set them at least 2 days prior. Also, in order for your coupon to be approved, the listing price must be the lowest price listed in the last 30 days. (So you can’t just say, I’ll raise my price $1 and offer a $1 off coupon for the psychological impact on the buyer.)
- END DATE: During the 2 day waiting period for your coupon code to go active, you can edit the end date forward, but not backwards.
- BUDGET: Budget can only be revised upwards, even during your 2 day window.
- AMAZON ONE REDEMPTION PER CUSTOMER: Don’t forget to tick this so one person doesn’t grab all 🙂
- SAVE TIME: This new, simple option saves time because it’s super easy and we no longer have to create, distribute, and track Amazon Seller Promo Codes. The price sellers pay for this is $0.60 (see FAQ below for discussion on this fee).
- EASY PRODUCT LAUNCH: Use this to boost your position for new product listings. Consider skipping – saving fees you pay to third party launch tools and software.
- AMAZON REMARKETING TRACKING PIXEL: Tap into Amazon’s retargeting using the target audience feature. Sellers can take advantage of Amazon’s remarking ads which is great if you don’t have time to learn or deal with promotions like Facebook tracking pixels.
- AMAZON CONVERSION TRACKING: Waiting to see what reports will look like, but hoping to see information that will help us optimize further for natural organic traffic.
- BRAND LOYALTY: Time to brainstorm on how to use this to promote brand loyalty. Notify your customers of upcoming sales? Inserts in your products? What else can you think of?
- AMAZON CLAIM CODE COMBINABILITY: Hopefully coming soon! Wouldn’t it be great to encourage Amazon shoppers to buy one get one free, buy one and get a money off promotion on a second related item, etc.?
- SCARCITY: Will scarcity be added next? Will coupons say “only 3 left” as the budget runs down? – hope so!
- TITLE: Think about the words you’re using in your title. Consider keywords, converting words, problem solving words. Test for what works best.
Since people are getting rejected, I thought maybe it was for Title, so I’m collecting titles that I’ve seen were approved and more than just the product.
Titles Used by Others – use for ideas
- Cozy up in style Women’s plaid shirt
- Limited Time Deal-Save 20% on ….
- Ultimate construction toys for kids. It’s your imagination –
- All Imagine Craft activities–stock up!
- Save 10% on xxxxx During Holiday Seaso
- Save on [Brand]’s Best Selling Dog Toys (so I guess we can use Best)
- Made in the USA | 5-Count Premium …[product]
- [product] on Sale 10/25 to 11/30
- DISCOUNT PERCENTAGE: A 25% off discount changes the coupon banner color from orange to green.
- TARGET AUDIENCE: Focus on this area to immediately increase conversions.
- TESTING: Here’s an example of testing… The first image is a Sponsored Product and the second two are Organic search results for similar products with different prices and different coupon amounts.
OFFICIAL Amazon Digital Coupon Quick Links – November 2017
My list of quicklinks because I got tired of clicking to find them. You may need to be signed in to your Amazon Seller Account:
- How to Create a Coupon: Click Here
- Budget Explained: Click Here
- Target Audience Explained: Click Here
- Seller University Getting Started Video: Click Here
- Forum Search for Latest News on Coupons: Click Here
- Your Personal Coupon Clippings Page: Click Here
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- Is the Budget an amount spent PER DAY or for the length of the Campaign?
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Kids and Money Today
Tracy Foote Author | Writer | Entrepreneur | Internet Marketer "I'm enthusiastic about helping people in business and finance — so they can have money available for college, retirement, and travel."