Are Editorial Product Recommendations Right for You?

In this guest article, Curt from Seller Rocket explains how to evaluate if your products are the right fit for editorial product recommendations.

Driving external traffic to Amazon is all the rage these days.

Amazon is incentivizing brands to drive external traffic through a program called the Brand Referral Bonus where brands are credited an average of 10% of the revenue driven through their Amazon Attribution tag.

Amazon does this to offset its largest expense, advertising. In 2023 Amazon spent $20.3 BILLION on advertising!

Selling on Amazon is also getting more complicated, to say the least. To combat rising CPC costs and stand out from competitors, brands are looking for ways to be discovered outside of Amazon.com.

One effective way to drive external traffic to your Amazon listing is to have your products reviewed and recommended by editors at relevant publications. In this guide, we will help you understand how publishers choose products and whether your products are a fit for editorial product recommendations.

How to Evaluate Product Fit for Editorial Product Recommendations

Go to Google and Search "Best (your product type)". If you sell bed sheets this means you're searching "best bed sheets". You're going to want to look at the review articles like 16 Best Bed Sheets of 2024, Tested & Reviewed by Good Housekeeping and any others that you can find. Some search terms have more recommendations than others.

How many review articles are there? Are they written by well-known publications like Good Housekeeping, Wirecutter, The Spruce, Better Homes & Gardens, Byrdie, InStyle, CNET, Insider, PC Mag, etc? Are the articles from smaller review sites?

Most categories have a mix of big names and small names. Big names = big competition, small names = small competition.

If there are very few or no review articles it usually means that it's too small of a niche or not a category that customers research before making a purchase. It could also mean this is a green field of opportunity and you can have the first article.

Sometimes products aren’t necessarily a fit for “Best ____” articles because they are extremely unique like this “Red the Crab Silicone Utensil Rest.” These products work great in Buzzfeed-style articles that are a collection of unique and interesting products. Look at the articles. How does your product compare to the products that are currently featured?

Analyzing Featured Products

We've been using a very broad search for “bed sheets” as an example- this category is extremely competitive. If you look at the Best Sellers in Sheet & Pillowcase Sets on Amazon, the top 10 products average over 150k reviews!!

When we look at the GH article, the products being featured are:

Brooklinen - $189 - linking to the brand’s website
Mellani - $33 (355k reviews) - linking to Amazon
California Design Den - $34 (84k reviews) - linking to Amazon
The Company Store - $284 - linking to the brand’s website
LL Bean - $169 - linking to the brand’s website
West Elm - $139 - linking to the brand’s website
Slumber Cloud - $234 - linking to the brand’s website
Amazon Basics - (488k reviews) - linking to Amazon of course.
Cuddledown - €252 - linking to the brand’s website
Delilah Home - $190 (4 reviews!) - linking to Amazon and with affiliate tracking URL

Links to a Brand’s Website

This means they have a direct relationship with the brand, which can cost anywhere from $5-50k+ depending on the publisher and typically results in a dedicated article without competitors. Or they picked up the product through an affiliate marketing platform such as Share-A-Sale where brands post their products and offer commissions for affiliates.

Publishers are doing this to earn affiliate commissions and will optimize their content and product selection to maximize that revenue stream. In general, publishers/affiliates will always gravitate to brands they recognize and brands that offer a high commission. A 10% commission on a $100 product is better than a 30% commission on a $30 product. A product with a high price point will not sell as many units as the most affordable option.

Links to Amazon

Amazon makes it very easy to earn commissions through Amazon Associates. A publisher doesn’t need to have any relationship with the brands they feature. They use their Amazon Associates link and BAM! They automatically earn commissions from Amazon when shoppers follow their link and purchase products.

This is the case for most links to Amazon.

Number 10 on the GH list is interesting - The product has 4 reviews, it has a high price point, and they are using an affiliate tracking URL while still sending traffic to Amazon. It looks like the GH team made an exception for a newly launched product because it has a high price point and it’s safe to assume they are earning huge commissions on each sale. Because this product doesn’t fit the mold, they get the last slot. Great job Delilah Home!

Based on the products recommended and where the links go, it looks like the GH team chose well-known direct-to-consumer brands that have a high price point (bigger commissions) and lower-priced Amazon products that are leading their category in reviews.

Each publisher operates differently. Some may only link to brand websites. Some may only link to Amazon with an affiliate link or with their Amazon Associates link. They could also have multiple variations of the same article and different mixes of link types.

How Do Publishers Find the Products They Feature?

Affiliate Marketing Platform

This is similar to a baby registry where they choose products based on their price point and commission being offered. Visibility could be an issue if there are many brands in a category using the platform. Commissions are set by the brand, so if a brand is conservative with their commission offer they could be skipped over. There are multiple platforms to choose from with various costs to use each platform.

With all these variables it can be tricky to find success, but we have witnessed incredible results from brands that have their affiliate program dialed in.

Select from Amazon Top Sellers in the Category

Choosing from the Amazon top sellers in the category they're writing about is a very common shortcut for a publisher. Products that have tons of reviews and are at the top of their category are a safe bet for a publisher to include in editorial product recommendations.

Tons of reviews mean that customers like the product and it’s unlikely that someone will be disappointed and write mean tweets about the publisher’s recommendations. They also don’t need to interact with the brand, they simply write the content and use their Amazon Associates link. This can lead to a surprise bump in sales for brands that are featured for the first time.

Referrals from Affiliate Marketing/PR Agencies

A good affiliate/PR agency will typically have team members with ties to the publishing world.

They know the details that a publisher cares about and/or have personal relationships with editors and writers that help get products placed. These agencies also help take brand interaction off of a publisher’s plate so they can focus on writing great content.

This is where Seller Rocket sits, but we’re also similar to an affiliate marketing platform. We pitch products aligned with a publisher’s content, give publishers the freedom to write the content how they want, and we offer elevated commissions.

Outreach from Brands

Publishers are constantly receiving outreach from brands that want to be featured. We hear that most publishers do not return emails - this could be due to the constant influx of brands hoping to be placed or due to the way the brands reach out or the messaging they use.

Large publishers will typically have a media kit with various packages to promote a brand or product ranging from newsletter placements, social media posts, social or native ads, “best” lists, or articles about the brand or a specific product without competitors.

Costs go up as the coverage gets more specialized and big-name publishers could charge a premium to put your brand in front of their audience.

Here's what one publisher charges for product recommendations. Getting featured placements in a dedicated newsletter and editor's pick post starts at $50k. Social media features start at a minimum of $10k per post, but for a more effective campaign with social boosting it's closer to $20k.

Methods of Getting Products Featured by Publishers

Wait around for publishers to discover your product - Free (if you don’t consider opportunity cost). If you’re a top seller in your category this is likely to happen to you at some point.

Reach out to editors/writers yourself - This takes time and hard work. Don’t get discouraged!

Affiliate marketing platform - Platforms don’t usually advocate for you, but offering more commission can make your product stand out against competitors.

PR agencies - Good agencies will charge high retainers, but they can get you amazing coverage that addresses the unique features that set your brand apart from the competition. I point very unique products towards PR agencies.

Working directly with a publisher - This method is very expensive.

Seller Rocket - We advocate for you! Costs can be comparable to an affiliate marketing platform.

Seller Rocket was established in 2019 to help great brands get the recognition they deserve from top-tier publishers. Today Seller Rocket works with over 4500 brands to drive over $100 Million in GMV through a network of over 500 publications. Contact us to learn more.