In this episode of Upside, Ali and Zamir open the E-commerce Clinic to tackle real questions from sellers facing everyday Amazon challenges. From account access issues to advertising performance and disappearing listings, the team works through practical problems submitted by listeners and breaks down how to diagnose and fix them. What’s Covered in This EpisodeThe episode kicks off with a common but frustrating problem: getting locked out of Seller Central after changing the phone number linked to two-factor authentication. Ali and Zamir explain why this can happen and share a workaround many sellers overlook. Instead of relying solely on Seller Support, they suggest contacting Amazon through the customer account side, which often has more responsive support and can help restore access faster. They also highlight the importance of using an authenticator app rather than SMS codes as your primary two-factor authentication method. The discussion then moves into advertising performance and click-through rates. A listener asks why their campaigns are generating impressions and top-of-search placements but still producing a very low CTR. The team breaks the issue down into three areas: what customers see on the search results page, keyword relevance, and advertising settings. They emphasise that CTR is influenced by multiple factors including price, reviews, delivery promise, images, promotions, and status badges like Amazon’s Choice or Best Seller. They also discuss how bid adjustments can help increase top-of-search visibility, which ultimately improves the likelihood of getting clicks. Another listener asks about managing auto campaigns that generate strong revenue but relatively low CTR. The team explains how Amazon uses auto campaigns to distribute traffic across a wide range of search terms, often at lower CPCs. Rather than shutting them down, they recommend using auto campaigns as keyword discovery tools, while adding negatives to avoid overlap with manual campaigns. They also address the misconception around “good” CTR benchmarks, encouraging sellers to compare their performance against competitors using tools like Amazon Brand Analytics to understand market averages. Finally, the episode tackles a tricky situation where a product appears live and in stock in Vendor Central but does not show up in search results. Ali and Zamir walk through several potential causes including stock levels, delivery location settings, listing suppression, miscategorisation, missing images, or new listings that have not yet fully indexed. They recommend checking inventory availability, verifying postcode delivery settings, reviewing images and category placement, and consulting account health notifications before escalating to Vendor or Seller Support. Key TakeawaysTwo-factor authentication issues: Use Amazon customer support routes if Seller Support cannot resolve login problems.Use authenticator apps: SMS authentication can fail, especially when travelling.CTR depends on many factors: Price, reviews, images, delivery promises, and badges all influence clicks.Focus on relevance first: Broad keywords may generate impressions but not meaningful engagement.Auto campaigns are discovery tools: Use them to find keywords, then move strong performers into manual campaigns.Benchmark against your category: Market CTR averages vary widely by product type.Search visibility issues: Check stock levels, delivery location, category placement, images, and indexing delays. To submit your own question for a future E-commerce Clinic, check the link in the description and the team may tackle it in a future episode.
