In the latest episode of The PickFu Podcast, John Aspinall, Brand Evangelist at PickFu, sat down with Destaney Wishon, CEO of BTR Media, to discuss the evolving landscape of Amazon advertising and the importance of building strong brands.

BTR Media is a premiere retail advertising agency. With a proven track record of propelling growth for top brands, Destaney’s seven years of expertise in Amazon advertising has made her a trusted industry authority and leader in content and education.

Watch the full episode here, or you can just grab the key takeaways below.

The power of in-person events

This episode was special because John and Destaney were able to chat in-person, live at the Pattern Accelerate summit in Salt Lake City – an event for top e-commerce leaders and brands.

Kicking off the conversation, Destaney emphasized the value of attending in-person events like Pattern Accelerate. These events offer irreplaceable opportunities for networking and gaining insights from fellow industry professionals.

She noted, “If you’re not going to learn anything from the actual speakers, it’s who you run into in the hallway.”

The “Mom Test”: putting yourself in the customer’s shoes

One key concept Destaney introduced was the “Mom Test,” which involves looking at your product listings from a customer’s perspective. She explained:

“We pretend that our mom’s buying a product. I’m like, ‘Mom, if you’re going to buy my coconut milk powder, what would you do?’ She pulls out her phone and she types in coconut milk powder. And this is what you see.”

By putting themselves in the customer’s shoes, brands can better understand how their products stand out (or blend in) on Amazon’s search results pages.

Prioritizing creative and brand building

A recurring theme throughout the discussion was the growing importance of creative assets and brand building on Amazon. Destaney emphasized that Amazon is pushing sellers to embrace creative elements, both on and off the platform.

“Amazon’s pushing creative more, as we kind of mentioned. Creator connections, off platform insights. You have to have some level, maybe not DSP. You may not be ready, but you have to start building an audience off platform or with Amazon’s opportunities on and off platform.”

Looking ahead to the future of Amazon advertising, Destaney also shared a desire for more accessible data and insights from Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC), which allows brands to dig deeper into their search, display, and organic data.

Using PickFu to test creative assets

John demonstrated the power of PickFu’s self-service polling platform by running live polls to test different creative assets for a coconut milk powder product. 

The polls highlighted the importance of elements like packaging design, product visuals, and clear value propositions in driving consumer preferences.

Since respondents share written feedback with every poll, PickFu provides sellers with deeper insights than a standard A/B test – helping them better understand the reasoning behind consumer choices and enabling them to improve their products.

Some of the comments on the poll above included:

• “I like option B because it looks more expensive and like a national, name brand. I would assume because of this that it is of good quality and buy it.”
• “It’s a powder and I prefer the jar of choice B as I feel the packaging of the bag of choice A might fall or would break.”
• “I like option B because I trust container packaging a bit more at keeping the powder fresh. I also like the design and look of option B.”

Learn more about PickFu for e-commerce brands and sign up for free to run your first poll!

Key takeaways

Throughout the episode, several key insights from Destaney emerged:

• Attend in-person events to network and gain industry insights.
• Put yourself in the customer’s shoes to understand how your products stand out on Amazon.
• Prioritize creative assets and brand building, both on and off Amazon.
• Test creative assets using tools like PickFu to optimize consumer appeal.
• Embrace off-platform advertising to build brand awareness and drive conversions.
• Leverage data and insights from tools like Amazon Marketing Cloud to inform your strategy.

With Amazon’s continued emphasis on brand building and creative assets, Destaney’s insights offer valuable guidance for sellers looking to stay ahead of the curve in the ever-evolving world of Amazon advertising.

You can watch the full episode here for more insights from Destaney. Follow our YouTube and LinkedIn pages to catch future episodes – we go live every Thursday at 12pm Eastern with a new guest!