The Profit-Driven Guide to External Marketing for Amazon Brands

How can your brand stand out and remain profitable on Amazon with its 9.7 million sellers worldwide? The question deepens when you include the average CPC range of $0.80 to $1.30 for Amazon ads. As ad costs continue to grow, the solution is not to rely only on Amazon advertising, but to support your strategy with external marketing tactics.

Besides PPC advertising strategies, many brands invest in external traffic to stay visible and profitable on Amazon. In this guide, we’ll show how external marketing can be a powerful tool to support your growth as an Amazon brand.

What Is External Marketing?

External marketing represents a strategic use of off-Amazon channels to drive qualified traffic directly to your product listings. Instead of relying solely on Amazon PPC or organic ranking, you’re actively building customer pipelines from platforms where your ideal buyers already spend time.

Top off-Amazon channels for external marketing are:

• Social media (organic & paid)
• Influencer and affiliate partnerships
• Google Ads (paid search)
• Email and SMS marketing

Why External Marketing Matters for Amazon Brands

Amazon PPC strategy alone is no longer enough to succeed on the leading eCommerce platform. With external marketing, you control the narrative and where/how your traffic flows.

Amazon is a customer-centric marketplace, and external marketing allows you to connect with your audience through channels such as social media, email, SMS, and retargeting.

When done correctly, external traffic is a profitable solution. It can reduce your total cost per acquisition by reaching more qualified customers at lower competition costs.

The goal beyond selling products is to build a brand. You can create multi-touch brand awareness by leveraging social content, email campaigns, influencer partnerships, and paid ads.

Where Does External Traffic Come From?

Driving profitable external traffic isn’t about being everywhere. It’s about identifying where your customers spend time and how to engage them cost-effectively. Below, we’ll cover the key external traffic sources and how to drive external traffic to Amazon for success.

Social Media (Organic & Paid)

Organic Social

• TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube are ideal for showcasing products through user-generated content (UGC), product demos, behind-the-scenes looks, and educational posts.
• Social proof can help you build customer trust, and it’s crucial if you're selling in a crowded niche.
  

Example Tactics:

• Post UGC product videos using trending audio on TikTok.
• Share “how to use” tutorials on Instagram.
• Start a YouTube channel to answer customer questions and include a link to your product.

Paid Social

• Paid ads can scale your reach fast, but they must be profitable. Focus on high-intent creatives, clear CTAs, and smart funneling.
• Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok Ads, and Pinterest Ads allow precise audience targeting and can drive sales quickly.
• Use carousel ads on Meta for product comparisons, testimonials, and bundles.
• TikTok ads are great for raw, native-looking content that doesn’t “feel” like an ad.
• Consider using Pinterest ads, depending on your product category. This ad type works well for visual niches like home, fashion, and beauty.
• Use direct-to-listing campaigns or pre-landing pages for better tracking and retargeting.

Profit Tip: Use a landing page with pixel tracking before sending users to Amazon. This lets you retarget non-converters and build LTV outside Amazon.

Influencer & Affiliate Partnerships

Partnering with influencers or affiliates helps you borrow trust and reach from audiences that align with your niche. An experienced influencer marketing agency, such as Blue Wheel, can assist you in finding the best matches for your brand’s needs and goals.

Influencer Marketing

• Partner with micro-influencers (10k–100k followers) for authentic reach and lower fees.
• TikTok Creator Marketplace is one of the platforms that can help you find them quickly.
• Leverage the Amazon Influencer Program for your brand.

Discover the story of a Canadian skincare brand that achieved over 1 million impressions by partnering with 90 influencers in a highly effective campaign.

Affiliate Programs

• Affiliates promote your product in return for a commission.
• Use Amazon’s Brand Referral Bonus program to earn back a % of sales driven from affiliate links.
  

Profit Tip: Give each influencer or affiliate a unique Amazon Attribution tag so you know who’s profitable and who’s not. 

Google Ads (Search & YouTube)

Google is a goldmine for bottom-of-funnel customers actively searching for what you sell.

Google Search

• Capture high-intent buyers with branded or competitor search terms. For example, target high-intent search queries like “best beauty blender on Amazon”.

YouTube Ads

• Pre-roll ads that demonstrate the product’s value or solve a pain point.
• Combine with remarketing to re-engage viewers who didn’t convert.
  

Profit Tip: Use keyword tools to find gaps in your niche. Target “buy (product) on Amazon” searches for bottom-of-funnel wins.

Email & SMS Marketing

Email and SMS marketing are powerful tools for driving external traffic to your brand on Amazon.

• Build a list using post-purchase inserts, landing pages, or gated content (e.g., product quizzes, giveaways).
• Use flows: welcome sequence, abandoned cart reminders, product education.
• Utilize SMS to promote limited-time coupon codes or restock alerts.

Profit Tip: Promote limited-time Amazon coupons in emails to create urgency. 

Learn how we helped Serious Steel Fitness achieve a +332.2% increase in revenue from flows in 9 months. 

Multi-Touch Attribution & Amazon DSP

The key to long-term profitability is understanding what’s driving sales. This is where Amazon Attribution and Amazon DSP can support your external marketing strategy. 

Amazon Attribution

• Tracks off-Amazon traffic, providing valuable insights into its impact. 
• Shows metrics like add-to-cart rate, sales, and conversions.

Amazon DSP (Demand Side Platform)

• Use programmatic ads that retarget Amazon shoppers off-Amazon.
• Powerful when paired with external traffic to reinforce messaging and drive repeat visits.
  

Profit Tip: Track campaigns using first-touch attribution, not just last click. The platform that starts the journey often gets undervalued, but it’s usually the key to scale.

How to Use Amazon Attribution to Measure Results

If you’re spending money, time, and other resources sending traffic to Amazon, you need to know what’s working and what’s wasting your budget. That’s where Amazon Attribution comes in.

Amazon Attribution provides tracking links that tell you where your sales are coming from when traffic originates off-Amazon. With these insights, you can:

• See which platforms drive the most profitable traffic
• Optimize ad creatives and spend by ROI
• Validate influencer and affiliate performance

In addition to benefiting from the free Amazon Attribution tool, you can also explore the advantages of the Brand Referral Bonus program. When you use Attribution links, Amazon can give you back around 10% of sales via the Brand Referral Bonus. That means you lower your true customer acquisition cost automatically.

Final Thoughts on External Marketing for Amazon Brands

To stand out and thrive on Amazon, own your audience and drive traffic beyond the platform. Bringing in external traffic can boost your organic rankings and increase sales in ways Amazon ads alone can’t.

Whether it’s influencers, affiliates, paid ads, or email marketing, the focus should always be on channels that deliver measurable profit. Use tools like Amazon Attribution to track and optimize your marketing and advertising efforts.

Our experts can help you create and implement profitable external marketing strategies. Contact us today to learn more.