Podcast transcript
Introduction
Hi, and welcome to this special live edition of Marketplace Masters, presented by MerchantSpring, the leading platform for agency client analytics and reporting. Now, today's episode is made possible by myagencysearch.com, your free gateway to finding the perfect Amazon agency.
Boost your Amazon presence effortlessly by getting matched with experts tailored to your needs. Just visit myagencysearch.com and mention Marketplace Masters for priority service. And of course, if you're an agency, secure your spot on the directory to connect with businesses eager for your services. Don't wait, head to myagencysearch.com and secure your free listing today.
Paul Sonneveld
Welcome. I am your host, Paul Sonneveld. And in this episode, we're set to uncover crucial insights and effective strategies for leveraging TikTok to grow your client's brand on Amazon. Joining me today is Paul Harvey, the renowned Amazon TikTok guy and founder of Rankster, where he excels in boosting Amazon sales through innovative TikTok marketing strategies.
Paul has a decade of experience selling on Amazon and has collaborated with various aggregators, led two Amazon-focused agencies, developed multiple software tools for Amazon, and coached countless sellers along the way. Thank you so much for joining us today, Paul.
Paul Harvey
Thank you, Paul. Good to be here.
Paul Sonneveld
It's a very exciting topic. But let me ask you, just to get to know you a little bit, how did you get into the TikTok space? Clearly, you've been in the Amazon space for a while, but how did you sort of gravitate your interest towards TikTok?
Paul Harvey
So the real reason is because I used to work for my sons, I used to work in an aggregator. So, I sacrificed everything to join an aggregator and obviously, it didn't work out well. But one thing they did really well, they had this really awesome software that would measure the verticals across all their brands, how their sales on Amazon, Walmart, Shopify, social signals, absolutely everything.
And every time I ran a TikTok ad campaign or just a general TikTok campaign, we would see a minor increase in sales on the major platforms like Amazon, Walmart, so on and so forth. But the problem was the software couldn't see why, what was causing the sales increase because we just couldn't understand TikTok. So all in there, I thought, okay, great. TikTok has a huge effect on sales. Just go all in on TikTok. And being a longtime Amazon seller, I missed the Instagram bandwagon and so on and so forth. So I went all in on TikTok.
Paul Sonneveld
Makes sense. Makes sense. Some of us still remember the word aggregator and what it means. There's very few of them around anymore these days.
Paul Harvey
Yeah.
Paul Sonneveld
But it sounds like it was a great learning opportunity. So, let's just talk a little bit about TikTok. I mean, it's been around for a number of years. In 2024, how has TikTok evolved as a platform for brands? I'm sure the TikTok that's out there now is not the same that it was three years ago, by definition. What do you see now? How has it evolved?
Paul Harvey
So pretty much I've been pushing TikTok, I've been pushing TikTok Shop for about two years. I originally started on TikTok Shop UK, then transitioned over to TikTok Shop US. And it's great. The reason why TikTok is so good is because they're just really experts at copying. For example, if you look at all the great content on TikTok by creators, influencers, so on and so forth, most times it's copied from other people and it happens a lot.
TikTok is a great platform, but it's a platform where people copy other people's content, so on and so forth. It's the exact same with e-commerce, because everything TikTok is doing on TikTok shop is a carbon copy of Amazon. Like for example, FBA, in TikTok it's FBT, preferred by TikTok. And they're kind of using everything they learned from Amazon or everything Amazon learned to kind of using those nuances to go ahead and push forward. So, it's a big deal. It's a big strategy going forward using just TikTok Shop.
Paul Sonneveld
So they're sort of accelerating their developments because they're looking at, they're learning from others as opposed to reinventing everything through trials and experiments. Now, you mentioned TikTok Shop. So, I just want to address some terminology here. Even in the office today, we're talking TikTok shop, TikTok for business, TikTok advertising. Do you mind just, and some of these might be the same, by the way, do you mind just breaking down the differences just to sort of make sure we've got the right signposts in place?
Paul Harvey
The main difference is this, is that there are influencers and affiliates. Influencers are the normal generic people on TikTok that create content, and then you take that content and push it to your Amazon listing through an Ad campaign or how people search for the product on Amazon after seeing it on their creator. Whereas affiliates, what they do, they are exclusively on TikTok shop. When they create content and a sale comes in on TikTok shop, they get the affiliate commission. So, affiliates and influencers, with influencers are TikTok, affiliates TikTok shop.
Paul Sonneveld
Gotcha, gotcha. So let's look at TikTok in the context of Amazon and specifically in the context of agencies that manage brands on Amazon. Let's say one of my brands comes to me and says, Paul, let's assume I'm running an agency. I've heard a lot about TikTok. Shouldn't we be on TikTok? Can you launch this on TikTok? Before saying yes, what are some of the things I should be thinking about as an agency owner or director of brand management? What are the things I should carefully consider before responding to my client?
Paul Harvey
So first of all, when I've gone through this, I've done hundreds of these campaigns. The hardest part is explaining to the client what to expect. Because when you send traffic from TikTok to Amazon, you don't know what works. You're effectively throwing stuff at a wall and seeing what sticks. And so, I would say to everyone, there are three KPIs you should need to measure when you're sending traffic from TikTok to Amazon. And when I say sending traffic, I mean like Ad campaign, because you can control that. Whereas if you just do a generic post, an organic post on TikTok, you can't really see the growth from that because there's no actually clickable Ads, clickable links to go from there.
So when you send traffic from TikTok to Amazon, there are three things you need to look for. The first of all is Amazon attribution. Always, always record that. And it must be Amazon attribution links through deep links. Deep links are links that open up the Amazon app by default, not the mobile browser. Because normally when you click on a link, or open up a mobile browser, so open up Amazon on the browser on the mobile phone, which is great, but most people are not logged in. So then once they do log in, they will have lost the search history, and then you're kind of just wasting a lot of money and a lot of time doing that. So effectively use deep links. When I click that link, I'll open up the Amazon app, because everyone is, well actually most people are logged into the Amazon app by default. So, first thing, look at Amazon attribution.
The second thing is, look at your brand analytics. Are more people searching for your brand as a result of seeing it on TikTok. Normally 9 times out of 10, TikTok is a really great product brand awareness platform. And the more people see it on TikTok, the more they'll search for it on Amazon. Because even if they can buy it on TikTok shop, Amazon has the trust factor. So they'll go to Amazon, search for an Amazon, and then look at the shipping speed, the cost, and so on and so forth, and normally get better results like that because more people are searching for it.
The third thing is always compare the ASIN's traffic when you're running Ads compared to when you're not running Ads. So, look at the page views, sessions, conversion rates, everything. when you're running those TikTok Ads compared to a period when you're not running TikTok Ads. And even if you're doing all these three KPIs, it's not a guarantee or give you the results you want because it can take weeks, maybe like a month or two, even like a few months to get the results you want. Generally, I see a 30% increase in sales on Amazon when we push TikTok traffic, but it might be immediate. It could be delayed or it could be further delayed.
Paul Sonneveld
So an uplift, so running TikTok, and that's just through the additional traffic that you're driving.
Paul Harvey
Yeah.
Paul Sonneveld
I mean, that immediately makes me think about, okay, so let's talk about advertising costs, right? 30% is great, but at what cost, right? I mean, the leading question, let's start with the basic one, right? Is it cheaper to advertise on TikTok than Amazon itself, like sponsored products?
Paul Harvey
Yeah, a hundred percent. It really is like, when I write, when I create a good TikTok campaign, point to Amazon, we average anywhere between 10 to 20 cents cost per click. And we get tons of clicks. It really is there because it works out well. The problem is when the user clicks on that link and they go to Amazon, are they actually going to do anything?
And a lot of the times what I've realized is I will create, let's say, 10 videos with influencers and creators. And then all the videos will be different. One will be product unboxing, this and that. It will all be different, but there'll be one common thing besides the product. There'll be one common thing in all the videos is the influencer will say, go find on Amazon now, just search brand name keyword. So for example, we have baby grow baby blankets.
And the reason we do that is because when you look at brand analytics, you see that given phrase baby grow baby blankets, then it actually increases because a lot of people don't actually click on the Ad, even though they can, they don't do it because Gen Z don't like Ads. So, they won't click on the Ad, but they will search on Amazon by default. So, if they see more than one person discussing a product, they will go search for it, but they will likely forget how to search for it. So, you tell them, go find Amazon, just search brand name, keyword. And we found that to be the best result. Normally, we see an increase in the search volume within a few weeks, depending on the aggressiveness of the campaign.
Paul Sonneveld
So, does that mean you're looking both at the kind of proper attribution metrics coming through the Amazon attribution tools, as well as uplifts in the specific keywords that you're putting in your content there? You sort of have to put both of them together, right?
Paul Harvey
Yeah, exactly that. When you start pushing TikTok to Amazon, you need to have like a bird's eye view approach to a lockdown, like a macro approach. Because when you try to look at just attribution or just total metrics, it doesn't make sense. And the reason is the TikTok buyer persona is very, very different because the young kids, sometimes they're older kids and the fastest growing demographic on TikTok are women in their mid-thirties. And as we all know, women in the mid-30s, if they're going to be wives, they have the purchasing power in the household. So that's a big thing to be pushing against. But a lot of them just like to window shop in a way. So yeah, it is a big opportunity.
Paul Sonneveld
So just to go a bit deeper on the cost, right? So obviously the cost per click, you know, big differences, but people will argue, well, it's how warm is the, what's the intent of purchase, right? Obviously when people are on Amazon, they typically either will have a shopping list. It's a bit like when I shop on Amazon, I'm not just there hanging out. I want to buy something, right? I'm looking for something. So it's very intentional.
I can't imagine the intentionality being there to that same degree on TikTok. But if you work all that in, so even, you know, your kick or conversion per click or whatever might be less, but if you work all of that in and you look at some sort of cost per conversion, TikTok versus Amazon sponsored products. Hard to say, but you know, what have you seen? Or maybe we can talk about some case studies. I'd love to just get a bit of anecdotal ammunition here.
Paul Harvey
So, the main thing I'll say is that, and this is really a test of an Amazon seller, are they experienced or not? Because if we say it's the influencer, just say it on your video, search baby group, baby blanket. Then, baby grow baby blanket must be pushed aggressively with Amazon Ads. So, use Amazon Ads to kind of help your TikTok users to actually find the product. Because when they go to Amazon, they search baby grow baby blankets.
It's wise to have a really aggressive PPC campaign on Amazon to catch all that traffic. And a lot of users don't like doing that because they say, okay, wait a minute, I'm spending money on TikTok Ads and then we're spending money on Amazon Ads to target those users. But that's the end game here. Don't think of it as Amazon Ads difference to TikTok. Use them to compliment one another. And yeah, and the buy mentality is very different from TikTok to Amazon. So, use them to compliment one another.
Paul Sonneveld
So I think what you're saying here, Paul, is don't look at it like either or, it's a combination strategy. And really what you're doing is you're using TikTok to create that sort of broader halo effect across your advertising campaigns.
Paul Harvey
And to make matters even more complicated, last week I was looking at one of my case studies and we had one brand that pushed traffic to TikTok shop because they are a TikTok shop seller and they push traffic to to the Amazon listings. And what's really weird is that the Amazon traffic that's pointed straight to the Amazon listings, the CPC was about 13 cents. However, the CPC of the Ads, like went straight to TikTok shop, even though it's on TikTok, you would expect to be cheap was 80 cents which doesn't make sense. Why would it be more expensive to send people to TikTok when they're already on TikTok than Amazon? And I don't have an answer for that.
And the reason is because TikTok is still learning. They're still trying to figure out what's working, what works, what doesn't work. And also the main thing is when you try to compare Amazon Ads to TikTok, TikTok Ads are like kindergarten compared to Amazon Ads, because Amazon Ads, we know, like we've done this for years, we know how painful it can become. With TikTok, they're still learning. And right now, there are not very many experienced media buyers on TikTok. So right now, TikTok is trying to figure that out and go from there.
Paul Sonneveld
Are you referring, so I just want to talk about the TikTok advertising functionality and their algorithms. I guess there's two business, there's like, people skills, knowledge, and understanding, right. And I think one thing you're saying is skill set way higher in terms of Amazon. So that's one thing there. Algorithms, maybe not as targeting not as developed, either on TikTok versus Amazon, obviously, the machine's still learning.
What about actual functionality? Right? I mean, I'm sort of looking at I remember having a look at some of some of the marketplaces, right? Who are running retail media and retail media, it's reduced, like it's a, the most basic version of sponsored Ads you can think of, right? Which is select the product you want to advertise and what's your budget? Like those are the two inputs. What does it look like on TikTok? You know, and particularly, well, how does it compare to Amazon in terms of functionality, ability to target, when to run campaigns, how to structure them? What are the options and variants available to a professional?
Paul Harvey
So I've run Ads on all the major platforms like Meta, Google Ads, Amazon Ads, and everything. And the easiest by far is TikTok Ads, because all you need is content. And once you have content, you create the Ad. And the Ad is basically you create who do you want to target, the interests, and the audience.
So the audience would be US, UK, which age group, so on and so forth. And the interests, if they're baby blanket, they're obviously going to be mothers, parents to newborns, and so on and so forth. And that's effectively all you can do, just interest-based targeting and location-based targeting. Right now, that's all you really can do on TikTok in general, because they're still learning and building the platform as we go ahead.
Paul Sonneveld
But other than options to optimize that further, it's like, can you remove audiences? Can you remove locations?
Paul Harvey
Yeah.
Paul Sonneveld
Obviously, you can see what's working, what's not working. Yeah. So actually, which then gets me to, and maybe this is kind of, it goes a little bit deep here, but I'm part of the reason I'm thinking about this is as an agency, I want to be able to add value to my clients. Right. And if it's, if all you have to do on TikTok is kind of turn things on and off, it's harder to justify the value and the retainer or the invoice I'll send you at the end of the month. So, how can agencies apply the skill and knowledge in this area?
Paul Harvey
So basically, the difference is now a good agency will have a good list of creators to reach on all day every day. The reason behind it is because about a few months ago, I created this video. It was absolutely amazing. I spent like $2,000 or $3,000 creating this video. It was epic. It was really, really good. It was a typical video that you would see on an Amazon listing. And I tried to use it as a TikTok Ad. And it absolutely crashed. When we launched the Ad, nothing but crickets. And I was really, really frustrated, even more so because a week later, some, I wouldn't say influencer, I would say some TikTok user took out her phone and did like a little selfie video. And it was ugly as hell. It really wasn't a good video. It was raw, it was terrible. And it went absolutely viral.
And then I said to the client, okay, I'll just spend like two or $3,000 creating this video. It went nowhere. But this creator, their stuff actually crushed it. And that's because TikTok, the biggest issue with TikTok is that people create these awesome videos, but if the video was not created on TikTok through the app, the TikTok servers in the Ad settings will struggle to actually create that or actually push out that content. For example, the awesome videos we create through the TikTok app I'll actually get better coverage on TikTok Ads than a video we create on Adobe or whichever, because the servers, the TikTok servers require higher bandwidth for those videos because they were not shot in TikTok Ads.
So first of all, I say to everyone, The first step is have your creators upload the content through the TikTok app. Do not try to be like the Amazon seller and make perfect great content because it just won't convert. Get a list of these creators, then create your content, have them post the content on TikTok and then just boost their content through TikTok Ads. And that is the best strategy to do because just getting a lot more coverage, a lot more bandwidth, a lot more product awareness by doing that.
Paul Sonneveld
That's super interesting. I mean, I'm trying to work out how much of that is just because it's a lower bandwidth or versus like TikTok recognizes this is content. I mean, a lot of platforms will favour content creative. It's a bit like LinkedIn, right? Favours content created within the platform. So, you know, just taking that a bit further, I mean, what are the implications for agencies here, right? So, I'm managing content like, Is this something that you encourage agencies to embark on themselves in terms of creating the content, or is it worth just getting TikTok? I don't want to say the word professionals because that alludes to something being super polished, but TikTok people who know what they're doing, how to engage with the audience and how to engage with the search engine. I mean, what does the content approach look like for agencies in this space?
Paul Harvey
So basically the main thing to remember and this sounds like really wrong but it's kind of true is that you get affiliates and influencers. Affiliates know how to sell whereas influencers know how to look pretty. I say that because influencers, they create amazing content, but their content normally doesn't really go anywhere because they don't know where it goes. They don't know if it actually performs well, if they're actually bringing sales. Maybe they're using Amazon affiliates. Maybe that works, but even that, that's few and far between, and those Amazon affiliates actually work really well are really hard to get. So effectively, a great agency will have both affiliates and influencers on the get go. And that is the best strategy going forward. Because if you have that, it's just really, really, really, I recommend that because the more people you have talking about your products, the more brand awareness you create, more people will search for it on Amazon as a result.
Paul Sonneveld
Yeah, that's very clear. Let's talk about budgets. Clients usually think in marketing budgets, right? Percentage of sales, TACOS. Let's for argument's sake, call it 20%. I mean, I know that's high for some categories and low for others, but let's say in a total budget of 20%, 20% of my sales I'm going to spend on advertising. And in fact, you know, one of our, I'm just going to, Johan's actually asking the question I was going to ask, which was, how do you break that budget down? As you're talking to your client, how much should a client think about spending on Amazon versus TikTok, right? Particularly in the context of our earlier chat around, actually, it's not either or, they should work complementary. So if that's the case, what does a split look like? Or what would you recommend?
Paul Harvey
When it comes to TikTok campaigns, I say to everyone, start off at $50 per day. And there's a big difference between TikTok shop campaigns and TikTok general campaigns that go to Amazon. I say to TikTok will recommend, if you're sending traffic outside of TikTok to like Shopify or Amazon, they recommend a budget of $5,000 a month. However, that's because they assume you know how to track your sales. You can use the pixel or so on and so forth. You can't do that on Amazon.
So you really, really don't take their guidelines. When they say to you, okay, they'll recommend to you $5,000 or whatever, that's what TikTok recommends. I've been through about two or three dozen TikTok Ad reps and they normally end up ghosting me because we know the platform better than them. And also they're trying to apply your website like Shopify rules to your Ads, which just don't work because you don't have the pixel to actually optimize those Ads.
So first of all, I go with that. I would start off at 1500 per month as a minimum. And then I'll say 1500, but like normally most of my clients, my smaller clients will spend, I'll say 1500, but normally you may only spend a thousand or maybe 1200. It just depends on their budget and growth there.
The nice thing with TikTok shop is that immediately as you start running ads, you can see your ROI. So I find TikTok shop Ads kind of cheaper because we immediately see the ROI so we can turn it on and off. Whereas if we go from TikTok to Amazon, we have to keep those Ads going for quite a long period of time to see the true effect, whatever happens on Amazon. It might be immediate, it could be delayed, but I basically push it until we know it's working.
Paul Sonneveld
Yeah. Yeah. You know, interesting. You're starting to hit on, I think one of the kind of bigger debates that we haven't really touched on, which is I'm an FBA seller. I've got a great brand. Should I just not sell those products through TikTok shop? Like why you know, go through what sounds like a little bit more work, potentially more budget to redirect people back to Amazon. Although the point you made about Amazon has got a lot more trust is super valid, right? Probably the conversion rate is higher, but in the context of higher costs and all that. I mean, when does it make sense just to go, Hey, you know, just go TikTok shop, just take the transaction right there and diversify your sales mix through a different channel.
Paul Harvey
So, the main thing I'll say to everyone, get onto TikTok shop if they can, but do it for one reason. Let's say you hire an influencer to create content for your brand. Generally, if they're any good, they'll cost at least $500 per post. And with TikTok, quantity is better than quality. So, the more videos you have, the better success you will see. For example, if you look at TikTok shop, all the best-selling brands have tons of videos about their brand. Whereas with the typical Amazon brand, that's expensive. It really just does take up too much.
So, I recommend pushing that content as much as possible. If we have the TikTok content and we have the TikTok shop content, that's great. Well, what's going to happen now, it's going to happen very soon, is that I'm doing this with female clients. We are using TikTok shop creators, affiliates, to create the content. And it only really costs a sample.
And then if I see that their videos are bringing in sales, I approach them and say, can I please buy your video for like an extra few hundred dollars or maybe like a hundred dollars, whichever. And then I take that video and I use that video to push to Amazon because you can't push TikTok shop affiliates to Amazon because TikTok hardcoded it. So you can only push your TikTok shop.
But if they give you the raw videos, you can download it and then upload it as a normal TikTok campaign. You can push to Amazon. So actually what you're seeing now is you can use TikTok shop creators and you just give them a sample, get some great content as opposed to paying a few hundred dollars to influencers.
Paul Sonneveld
That is a great hack. And I think Rupert just asked this exact question that you're on, how much you pay a creator and you know, Initially a free sample. I think if you're talking influence initially free sample, then maybe a couple hundred dollars for a video.
Paul Harvey
Yeah.
Paul Sonneveld
That is a great hack. Interesting to learn that you do have to sort of get the raw footage or the raw video and then re-upload it and do something with that. You can't sort of link it. That is super interesting. Great. Look, we've talked a lot about what to do and how to think about it. In your experience, where does it go wrong for Amazon brands? You know, an agency doubling this? I mean, because it's been a pretty topical topic for, you know, at least six or 12 months. Where have you seen agencies go wrong in this with our clients?
Paul Harvey
If you're not aggressive, you will fail. That's the main thing. The more aggressive you are on TikTok, the more overall sales you will see on Amazon and TikTok shop or just general sales and websites. Because the main thing about TikTok, I have a few brands that are on TikTok shop and they've yet to make a single sale on TikTok shop. They're running Ads, they're running affiliates, they've never made a single sale. However, the Amazon sales are increasing week on week.
And the reason is because their product just gels better with the Amazon audience and their buyer pool, their best or the persona of their buyer is people that buy on Amazon. But they're on TikTok just looking around and they see it recommended on TikTok, they go to Amazon and check it out. So often a lot of times you might not see any sales on TikTok shop but still see an increase on Amazon as a default because TikTok at the end of the day is a great brand awareness, product awareness platform.
Paul Sonneveld
So that's even without directing traffic to Amazon, right? You're saying running campaigns, you know, in theory people can buy on TikTok shop. You're not seeing the sales there, but people go, I mean, Amazon is the go to place, particularly, obviously, in North America, and large parts of Europe, they'll go there anyway, and you'll find that that bump in sales. Very, very interesting. Actually, you know, there was a question on this before, which is, Emma asked this question before, you know, how do you look at this in the context of kind of Amazon on DSP or broader DSP? Do you see that as this being quite a similar model, the way you describe it to DSP, like building that broad awareness? I mean, are there differences?
Paul Harvey
No, very much so. And the main thing is though, is that, just bear in mind, there's different buy personas. And also the biggest problem is I have some brands that are on TikTok shop, not made any sales, but are seeing an increase in Amazon. And some are not made any sales and are not seeing any sales increase on Amazon. It's very much like a product, like a brand case by case basis. Sometimes you see the results, sometimes you don't.
But the end of the thing is I've never not seen an increase in the search volume for a brand by pushing it on TikTok. It always works. And what's interesting though is that will create, let's say, 10 videos about the product and they get loads of clicks, everything. And if they're clicking and they're not buying, what's wrong with the Amazon listing? There's some disconnect there because they've seen the video, they're already pre-sold. So, they click and check it out on Amazon. If they haven't at least liked and followed your brand storefront or at least added to their wishlist, there's some issue over there. What is that? And maybe it's a price, so on and so forth. That's what brands need to realize. There's more to it than that.
Paul Sonneveld
That's very interesting. I'm looking at the clock. We are out of time, Paul. The time has absolutely flown by. And there's a couple of audience questions I haven't even gotten to. So, apologies, particularly to Melinda. Maybe, Paul, if you can jump in the comments on LinkedIn later and respond to some of those, that'd be absolutely awesome. Maybe just to wrap us up, final question is around, how do you see TikTok evolve over the next 12 months? What do you think, in terms of features, opportunities, and do you think the US will ban it? And probably that's a supplementary question.
Paul Harvey
So, the first thing about, I get this question a lot, people say, will TikTok be banned? Bear in mind, I look at this from an Amazon seller's point of view. TikTok is Chinese, and we've all dealt with Chinese hijackers. We can't get rid of them. So, the way I see it, we're not going to get rid of TikTok. They are a few steps smarter. And bear in mind, they've tried to ban TikTok so and so forth over the years. And they failed miserably. That being said, this time they may do well, but I feel that TikTok being Chinese are smarter than all of us because if we're smarter, we wouldn't have any Chinese hijackers, but we still do each and every single day.
Paul Sonneveld
And any thoughts on maybe features or, you know, we started this conversation around, you know, TikTok being very quickly to emulate, you know, things that Amazon's doing and others. What are some of those other features you think may flow into the platform this year?
Paul Harvey
So what I'm seeing right now is TikTok is doing a whole bunch of things. Like for example, as Amazon seller, we live and breathe by keywords. However, if you look on TikTok shop and what they recommend for keywords doesn't make sense. Like I have a product that's in kitchenware yet it recommends products that are in they are in automotive and health and beauty. It doesn't make sense. But what I'm trying to say is TikTok is learning.
So their keywords are better. And also most of the users, Gen Z, 20% of Gen Z on TikTok will start their search on TikTok as opposed to Google. And that's growing week on week, month on month. So the more people are searching and TikTok is putting a strong emphasis on their own search volume. So I'd say right now, just focus on that. Even if you don't sell on TikTok shop, just get it created so you at least have your placeholder there. Because right now, every Amazon seller has a website because they need a placeholder. I'm seeing TikTok shop being better than your own website. So, I would say I'd recommend doing that first and go from there.
Paul Sonneveld
Great. That's a great wrap up, Paul. Thank you so much. Really appreciate you coming on. I really feel like it built a much better understanding of TikTok. And I think there was some really gold nuggets for those people that listen carefully. I certainly wrote down a couple of really good nuggets there in terms of you know, how to get started and how to get some good results out of TikTok. Now, just, you know, in the event, if there's anyone listening here, like either live or on demand after, and they want to explore this further with you. I mean, this is your bread and butter. This is your expertise. How do they best get hold of people?
Paul Harvey
Best option is go to my website, rankster.co, R-A-N-K-S-T-E-R.co. And the reason is because I publish at least one or two articles a week just discussing all my case studies, everything. And the way I approach TikTok is the way an Amazon seller approaches TikTok. So I don't want to be TikTok, but I want to use TikTok to improve my Amazon sales and actually my online sales. So look at the website. There's tons of stuff to look over there and look we're doing. And yeah, I recommend it highly.
Paul Sonneveld
Fantastic. Thank you so much for joining us today, Paul.
Paul Harvey
Cool. Thank you. All the best.
Paul Sonneveld
All right, everyone, that is it for today's episode of Marketplace Masters with a focus on TikTok and how you use TikTok to support your Amazon clients and grow their sales and profits. If you are hungry for more, don't forget to visit our video on demand library for a treasure trove of insights. Just head to merchantspring.io and find the link to our library there.
And of course, if you are aiming to streamline your analytics to gain sharper insights, make sure to reach out to us or to me, DM me on LinkedIn. and I can share with you how Merchant Spring can transform your journey. Last, I'm all ears about what you want us to cover next. If you have a topic in mind or a burning question, please let me know and I'll do my best to find the relevant expert to tackle it together. Thank you so much for listening and until next time, take care.
