Creating vs Capturing Demand for Amazon Sellers

Amazon is a battlefield. Are you winning or just surviving? Most brands on Amazon follow the same playbook: List a product, run ads, and hope to capture demand. But the brands that 𝐰𝐢𝐧 𝐛𝐢𝐠 aren’t waiting for demand to show up. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲’𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐭. 𝐂𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐝 means relying on Amazon’s existing traffic. You bid on keywords, fight for placements, and optimize your listings—all to 𝐰𝐢𝐧 𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬. It works—until it doesn’t. 🔹 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐦𝐞 𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐬? Sales slow down. 🔹 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐂𝐏𝐂𝐬 𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐞? Profitability shrinks. 🔹 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐩 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬? You’re forced into a race to the bottom. Capturing demand is playing defense. The real advantage comes when you 𝐂𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐝 instead. Instead of waiting for shoppers to discover you, you build awareness 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠. You shape their perception, educate them about why they need your product, and position your brand as the obvious choice—before they ever land on Amazon. And when they do? They’re not browsing. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲’𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠. 𝐂𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐬: ✔ 𝐇𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 → You’re not just another option; you’re the first choice. ✔ 𝐋𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐂𝐏𝐂𝐬 → Shoppers come with intent, making ads more efficient. ✔ 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐥 → You’re not reacting to search trends—you’re setting them. So how do you do it? ☑️ 𝐋𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐀𝐦𝐚𝐳𝐨𝐧 𝐃𝐒𝐏 & 𝐒𝐁 → Use data-driven audience targeting to reach shoppers before they even start searching. ☑️ 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐥𝐮𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐬→ Build trust and brand awareness through influencer partnerships that drive pre-search intent. ☑️ 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐒𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 → Use platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok to showcase your brand and drive traffic to Amazon. ☑️ 𝐃𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭→ Educate and engage potential buyers with valuable content across blogs, videos, and social media.. Most brands rely on Amazon to drive their demand. The best brands drive it themselves. What do you think is the winning strategy Amazon Right Now? 

Why Amazon-Only Brands Hit a Ceiling Most Amazon-native brands don't realize they're fighting with one hand tied behind their back. They think: 'Amazon is where the volume is. Why complicate things?' Here's the problem. Amazon-only brands are entirely dependent on search demand. Someone has to already be looking for your product category to find you. You have limited top-of-funnel. You're not creating demand. You're capturing it, but only if it already exists. The brands dominating categories on Amazon aren't just on Amazon. They're creating discovery off-Amazon, through social, influencers, content, and then capturing the transaction on Amazon. Discovery happens on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube. Intent is created there. Then the customer goes to Amazon to buy because that's where they already shop, have Prime, and trust fulfillment. If you're Amazon-only, you can't create that loop. You're waiting for people to search. You're competing entirely within Amazon's ecosystem where every competitor has access to the same tools, same keywords, same ad placements. You also can't build strong brand equity. Customers know what they bought, not who they bought from. Retention is weaker. You don't own the customer relationship or the lifetime value that comes with it. The strongest Amazon brands use DTC for margin and retention. They use social for discovery and demand creation. They use Amazon for fulfillment and intent matching. If you're Amazon-only, you can grow but you'll hit a ceiling that off-Amazon presence breaks through.

Your messaging to create demand IS DIFFERENT than your messaging to capture demand. Here is how to think about the difference. ↳ And how to craft messaging for each. (using Fletch’s value prop model) 1️⃣ 𝗠𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗗𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱 (ie. demand generation) 99% of your market is not actively shopping for your product. So explaining your product’s value to this audience in your top-of-funnel marketing won’t be effective. Instead, you should be messaging around the activities this “non-shopping” audience is doing (ie. use cases) AND spotlighting problems they are experiencing. Using the framework, here are what the messaging elements look like for Calendly: 🟤 Use Case → Scheduling meetings This is the activity supported by Calendly’s product. If the audience isn’t doing this activity, then they are completely outside of your market — and you should ignore them. ⚫ Competitive Alternative → Sending back and forth emails This is how non-Calendly users are currently carrying out the use case. 🔴 Problem of the Alternative → This is annoying and time-consuming This is the pain point of doing things in this alternative way. To apply these messaging elements, you’ll translate the core ideas into copy that lives in your marketing assets. (social posts, blogs, ads, webinars, podcasts, etc.) Here is what the hook of an ad or post might look like: “Here’s how much time you’re wasting coordinating meetings over email…” ——— 2️⃣ 𝗠𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗖𝗮𝗽𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗗𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱 Assuming you’ve created awareness of the problem your product solves, you can then message around the value of your product. But remember, you’re just trying to get them to take a closer look — not convince them to buy the product. To do this, you should be clear about the unique capabilities of your product and the expected benefit they would get. Here are what the messaging elements look like for Calendly: 🟠 Capability - Send a single link to schedule meetings This is the new unlock for prospective buyers. It tells them what they would be doing differently compared to the alternative. 🟢 Feature - Booking link  This is what powers the main capability and is usually applied as supporting context to help a user understand how the product works. 🔵 Benefit - eliminate the back-and-forth emails This is the positive outcome of using the capability + feature. It’s usually the elimination or reduction of the product. In most cases, you’ll translate these elements into different marketing assets (Home pages, landing pages, sales deck, partner enablement materials) — These are your demand capture assets. ——— Remember, your market has different levels of awareness about your product and the problem you solve. You can’t message the same way to create and capture demand. 📨 Demand 𝗖𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 messages spotlight the problem. 🪤 Demand 𝗖𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗘 messages spotlight your solution. #productmarketing #demandgeneration

Creating demand VS Capturing demand The biggest differentiator I see between the best disrupter brands on Amazon and everyone else? The best brands know to CREATE their own demand. What do I mean by this?! 🔶 Capturing Demand: Relying on Amazon to drive your demand. You list a product, you run sponsored ads, and you capture the demand that Amazon is already creating for you. Pros: Easy. Amazon does the hard work. You put your sponsored product ad at the top of the page and you capture the attention of customers that are ALREADY searching for your product. Cons: You are at the mercy of the market. If searches are down, sales are down. If ad costs are up, your top of search placement is more expensive, and your RoAS is down. If your competitors lower their price, you are being directly compared to them in the search results and you lose your competitive advantage. 🔶 Creating Demand: You educate a customer on why they need your product BEFORE the search is even made. You convince them to go to Amazon and buy your product. You CREATE the demand for your brand. Pros: You get ahead of the competitive nature of Amazon's search results. Your customers are educated on why they need your product BEFORE they type in a search term. (Meaning potential customers are less swayed by the price, reviews, and PDP's of your competitors). Inflated CPC's are less of a worry since you have a higher CVR than everyone else in your category. Cons: It's not easy. Creating your own demand requires patience. This is NOT direct response. This is disruptive. Brands MUST understand that the path to purchase is not linear. Creating demand at scale takes TIME. ---------------------------- The best ways to create your own demand? - Lean into Amazon DSP. All of the control, audience insights, and creative opportunity you need to create demand at scale. - Leverage influencers and social to increase trust and authority

TikTok sends buyers to Amazon.   Still people think they are enemies, to the point where sellers see TikTok Shop as a separate decision. A different channel. A different budget. A different team. That is the wrong frame.   When a creator posts about your product on TikTok Shop, demand gets created in real time.   But buyers do not always convert on TikTok. They search your brand name on Amazon. They click your listing. They buy where they trust. That search behavior helps your branded search volume on Amazon, increases your product page traffic, and improves your sales velocity.   And Amazon's algorithm reads all of that as a signal.   One wellness brand now attributes 30% of its net-new customers to TikTok Shop activation. Another coordinated TikTok Shop campaign with Amazon resulted in a 40% year-over-year increase in new customer acquisition. In periods without TikTok activity, that same metric dropped 5%.   So believe me when I say that TikTok will not replace Amazon, at least not while it feeds it.   The mechanism is simple: TikTok creates intent. Amazon captures the conversion. The brands winning right now are not managing these as separate channels. They coordinate affiliate activity with Amazon bids, pricing, and promotions around the same SKUs, getting creator attention.   Running a single channel alone is a missed opportunity.   So maybe thinking of TikTok as your Sponsored Display extension can make sense   Start with one SKU. Activate creator content around it. Watch your branded search on Amazon in the following two weeks. That number will tell you everything about whether your content is creating real demand or just impressions.   The data is already in your account. You just need to know where to look. ♻️ Repost it if you think this changes how someone on your team looks at TikTok and Amazon.   #AmazonSeller #TikTokShop #EcommerceStrategy #CatalogManagement #AmazonFBA

Amazon PPC is still a very strong channel for e-commerce brands right now. You’re dealing with high purchase intent, relatively clear attribution, short conversion windows, and campaigns that are quick and straightforward to launch. Plus the ad sales you generate also support your organic ranking in search. That said, as the platform matures, it’s becoming more important to create demand off Amazon too. Drive awareness elsewhere, then use Amazon to capture the demand you’ve already created. If you put it all together successfully - generating demand outside the platform, capturing it through Amazon PPC, whilst bidding/ranking on generic keywords - the model still works very well.

Amazon sellers, are you co-opting demand or creating demand? Your answer determines everything about your strategy. "If you're sourcing your product and you solve a problem, you're going to be successful." The easiest path? Find what customers already want, then improve it. Look at negative reviews, add the missing feature, and take market share. "Marshmallow sticks that extend? That’s how businesses grow—ask customers what they want, give it to them, then ask if you got it right." Trying to create demand from scratch? Tough road. If customers don’t know they need your product, expect high ad spend, slow sales, and a long education process. That’s why supplements win—they can afford $5 PPC clicks because of their lifetime value. 👉 HomeGoods is the easiest private-label category. Low PPC costs, high demand, and no complex compliance. 👉 Solving existing problems is always a safer bet than trying to invent new demands. 👉 The difference between co-opting and creating demand impacts your entire marketing approach. Choose wisely—one path is a sprint, and the other is a marathon. Full episode: https://lnkd.in/e7YYUJZp

Brands that scaled on Amazon PPC alone are now fighting for margin they no longer have. PPC is a capture mechanism. It intercepts demand that already exists. The moment you stop spending, the signal stops. There is no compounding. There is no residual lift. Just a faucet you rent indefinitely. The brands building durable positions on Amazon are doing something different. They use paid traffic to seed demand signals — conversion velocity, review cadence, session depth — that the algorithm uses to rank organically. Ads ignite the flywheel. They don't replace it. This distinction matters because most operators measure PPC by ROAS. But ROAS tells you nothing about whether you're building brand equity or burning it. The real question: is your organic rank improving as your ad spend grows? If not, you're paying full price for rented visibility. Audit your last 90 days. If organic sales as a percentage of total didn't grow, your PPC is a cost center. Not a growth engine. #Amazon #EcommerceStrategy #ConnectedCommerce

Amazon isn’t a discovery engine. It’s a demand-capture machine. If buyers aren’t already searching, PPC isn’t a growth lever, it’s a tax. Here’s the truth. 1️. Search intent ≠ discovery Bundles and lifestyle sets rarely convert without pull. Amazon shines when shoppers already know the job-to-be-done: knee support tape, desk monitor arm, odour eliminator. If no one is typing it, you’re paying to educate and paying a lot. 2️. PPC amplifies. It doesn’t alchemise. Ads magnify a good offer. They expose a weak one faster. Generic components. Me-too pricing. Vague benefits. They don’t scale. They bleed. 3️. The smarter sequence Build demand off-Amazon first. Creatives, influencers, email, landing pages. Then let FBA capture the spillover. Prime, trust badges, fast delivery. Think of Amazon as your checkout, not your top-of-funnel. The counterpoint: Amazon-first works only when the product solves an active, searchable problem with clear differentiation: better spec, easier install, a use-case-driven bundle. In that case, you’re not inventing demand. You’re stealing it.

There is no such thing as “going viral” on Amazon. Amazon is not a demand creation platform. It is a demand capture platform. The demand is created elsewhere: • TikTok • Instagram • paid social Then consumers go to Amazon with intent to purchase. This creates a window of opportunity. We identified a product trending on TikTok… Then validated the data: • increasing search demand • low competition • clear opportunity to improve the product We moved quickly: • designed a better version • launched within ~60 days • captured early demand The result was a six-figure profit product. Not because of luck… But because of speed and data. The key is understanding this sequence: demand starts outside Amazon search demand increases competition lags behind fast movers capture the market This is where most sellers miss the opportunity. They look for demand on Amazon… Instead of tracking where it begins. 📲 If you want to see how we identify and validate these trends using real data, you can explore it here: https://lnkd.in/e2h4mCJ2 Question: are you looking for demand on Amazon… or tracking where it starts? #AmazonSeller #AmazonFBA #EcommerceGrowth #ProductResearch #DigitalMarketing