Honestly, I used to think associated traffic was just random algorithm recommendations. That changed last year when I launched a new home goods product. I didn’t pour a huge budget into search ads, but by targeting 11 associated traffic placements, we hit a 62% organic order share in the first month, with traffic costs 40% lower than similar new products. That’s when I realized this channel has way more potential than most people think.

A lot of sellers fixate on dumping money into search ads to get top rankings, and overlook these lower-cost, higher-conversion associated placements. Today I’m breaking down every associated traffic tactic I’ve tested and proven to work, from placements you can control directly to strategies for taking traffic from competitors and protecting your own.

Controllable Associated Traffic Placements

These placements can be set up directly through Seller Central, so you have full control over how they work. They work for cross-selling products in your store, driving traffic between listings in the same brand, and even launching new products.

  • The “Bundles with this item” placement now shows higher up on detail pages than it used to. Our tests show it can make up around 12% of total detail page traffic, and you can use it for brand ads to boost exposure for bundled products. When I sold outdoor cutlery, I bundled knives with sharpening stones and sheaths, and the bundle converted 28% better than selling sharpening stones alone. You can set this up directly in Seller Central at https://sellercentral.amazon.com/bundles/create/.

  • Promotions show two types of badges. A green badge appears for multi-unit discounts over 5% with only one tier, while a yellow badge works for multiple tiers or cross-product discounts. Products with these badges get 17% more clicks than those without. If you want to boost cross-sales between two products, set up a discount for buying Product A plus Product B. You’ll get a yellow badge no matter the discount size, so shoppers can spot the deal right away.

  • The “Add an Accessory” placement shows below the add to cart button, and it’s not the same as the accessory field in listing templates. You need to contact your account manager to get access to this feature. Pairing your main product with low-cost, high-value accessories can lift average order value significantly. We used this placement for 3C products and saw a 19% increase in average order value.

  • The “Newer Model” placement lets you link updated versions of the same product type to older listing pages, guiding shoppers to newer options. When we upgraded the material of an insulated tumbler, we linked the new model to the old listing, and 15% of the old listing’s traffic flowed directly to the new product. That saved us almost $800 in launch ad costs. You don’t need a full technical upgrade to use this either, most small iterations of same-category products qualify. The setup page is at https://sellercentral.amazon.com/help/hub/solution/WF_NewVersionWidget.

  • The “From the brand” section lets you upload custom images, each linked to a specific Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN) that shoppers can click through to. You can also add a link to your brand store below the images. When we swapped our brand story images to show scene shots of our product bundles, clicks to our brand store went up 21%.

  • The comparison template in Premium A+ Content lets you line up different configurations of your own product line with clear parameter differences, making it easier for shoppers to choose. Our tests found that detail pages with these comparison modules saw a 14% lift in cross-sales across the product line, since shoppers can find the option that fits their needs faster.

One quick note here: fill every single one of these controllable placements completely. Leaving any blank is just handing free traffic over to your competitors.

Competitor Associated Traffic Strategies

Beyond the placements you control, associated slots on competitor detail pages are a free traffic pool you can tap into. If you run a category portfolio of products, you can also use these strategies to defend your own detail pages from losing traffic to competitors.

The “Consider a similar item” and Climate Pledge Friendly (CPF) placements share the same slot as the Newer Model widget. Similar item recommendations are algorithm-generated, but CPF is available to any product with the required sustainability certifications, and it comes with extra traffic benefits. We had a home goods product with a sustainability certification join CPF, and traffic from this slot increased by 8%.

The Frequently Bought Together (FBT) section used to be fully controlled by algorithmic purchase data, but now you can target it with ad campaigns. A lot of sellers think you can’t break into FBT slots for top sellers’ products, but when top sellers launch new products, their order volume is still low enough that targeted ads can help you land a spot. I once targeted a top seller’s new product for FBT placement, and got more than 30 orders a day from that slot alone.

For the “Similar items that may deliver to you quickly” section, I compared dozens of recommended products across different categories and found you don’t need to have drastically faster shipping than competitors to qualify. As long as your shipping speed is on par with the reference listing, you’re eligible for recommendation. Keep your shipping times above the category average, and you have a good shot at showing up here.

The “Videos for this product” section has 10 total slots, including main image videos, customer review videos, and creator uploaded content. Fill all 10 slots with your own brand’s videos. If you leave any open, competitor videos will show up there and siphon your traffic. We once missed this for a product, and 3 of the slots were filled with competitor videos, which dropped our conversion rate by 12%. As soon as we filled all slots with our own content, conversion rates bounced back immediately. You don’t just have to post product overview videos either. Make short, focused clips highlighting core features, like a water resistance test for waterproof products, kept to 30 seconds or less. These drive significant conversion lifts.

The “Compare with similar items” section lists key parameters across competing products. Use the customizable feature description fields to make your product’s advantages as specific as possible, even adding small icons to stand out from competitors. We changed a product’s battery life description from “long-lasting” to “72 hours of continuous use, 3x the category average” and added a small battery icon. Clicks on our product from this comparison section went up 24%.

There are also several associated slots you can target with ads, depending on your goals:

  • The “Products related to this item” ad slot can be targeted with Sponsored Products (SP) campaigns. It rotates with other associated placements, and it’s easy to win this slot when running ASIN-targeted campaigns against competitors.

  • The “Related Posts” section gets populated with brand post content. If you want to see all posts in your category, just add your category ID to the end of https://www.amazon.com/posts/feed/category/. You can pull the category ID directly from the URL bar of the category bestseller page. Posting regular brand content can help you show up in this slot on competitor pages.

  • The “Brands in this category on Amazon” slot can be targeted with Sponsored Brands (SB) campaigns pointing to your brand store.

  • The “4 stars and above” slot requires a product rating of 4 stars or higher, and can be targeted with SP campaigns. It rotates with other associated placements.

  • The “Similar brands on Amazon” slot can be targeted with Sponsored Brands Video (SBV) campaigns. Video content is getting more weight in the algorithm, and SBV campaigns get 20% more clicks than standard image ads in our tests.

Overlooked Dynamic Associated Placements

Beyond the fixed slots on detail pages, there are plenty of dynamic associated placements that seem random at first, but can be optimized with the right strategy.

A lot of sellers think ads are only useful if they get clicks or conversions, but that’s not the case. Every impression is a touchpoint with a shopper. Think of the saturation campaigns run by major global brands, repeated exposure builds brand recall over time. Every impression for your product has value. Don’t write off ads just because you don’t get immediate clicks or sales. Low click-through rate is a listing optimization problem, and low return on advertising spend (ROAS) is a campaign strategy problem, not a problem with impressions themselves. Running Sponsored Display (SD) retargeting campaigns, targeting shoppers who have viewed or purchased similar products, can lift repeat purchase rates and cross-sales significantly. Our tests found that view retargeting campaigns have 37% higher ROAS than standard targeting.

The “Customers frequently viewed” section shows the most popular products in the category from the last 7 days, and it’s a high-traffic top slot. You can qualify for this section by maintaining consistent click-through rates and sales volume. The “Inspiration from this brand” slot is free for brands with multiple products and a library of post content. We posted 3 times a week for a month, and eventually this slot made up 5% of our total traffic.

There are also associated placements on the shopping cart page, and the content shown varies by user and time of day. The more associated placements you cover, the more traffic opportunities you’ll unlock.

I’ve been an Amazon seller for almost 6 years, and I’ve run nearly 100 listings across 12 categories. For one of my top listings, associated traffic made up 41% of total traffic, with costs less than half of what we paid for search traffic. A lot of operational tactics don’t require big budgets. Nailing these small details can save you thousands in ad spend, and bring in more qualified traffic.

Have you run into issues with associated traffic in your business? Maybe you’ve struggled to land a FBT slot, or you’re not sure how to set up targeted ads to steal competitor traffic? Drop a comment below, I’ll answer as many questions as I can.