External traffic. The hidden growth lever

As Head of Sales at AMVisor, I regularly speak with 1P and 3P Amazon sellers that outperform the competition and I always ask: What’s your secret?
One of our customers recently told me their breakthrough came from a source many ignore: external traffic. That led me to Christoph Gärtner, founder of Pixelwerker and expert in driving external traffic at scale. His network of 300+ comparison sites has already redirected over €220 million in sales to Amazon vendors and 3P sellers.
Curious how that works? So was I. Let’s get into it.

Robert Laskowski: Christoph, great to have you here. For those unfamiliar what exactly is external traffic?
Christoph Gärtner: Thanks for the invite, Robert. Simply put, external traffic refers to shoppers who come to Amazon via non-Amazon platforms like Google. While most vendors and 3P sellers focus only on Amazon Ads and listings to push their products, they overlook the fact that a large share of consumers begin their search elsewhere. That’s where we come in.

Robert: Sounds powerful. How exactly do brands get listed in your comparisons?
Christoph: It’s straightforward. Vendors and 3P sellers send us a list of ASINs. Sometimes via Excel, sometimes we pull them. Our editors then integrate the products based on editorial logic. We don’t sell rankings. But of course, we structure our content to convert well.  After all, we only earn when a sale happens.

Robert: You distinguish between “cold” and “warm” traffic. What’s the difference?
Christoph: Cold traffic is when a user is sent directly from an ad to an Amazon listing without any context. That rarely converts. Warm traffic, on the other hand, goes through an editorial page first. For example, a user sees our “Top 5 Robot Vacuums” article, gets informed, and only then clicks through to a product listing. The buying decision is made before they land on Amazon.

Robert: What about reporting? Vendors are used to detailed Amazon Ads dashboards.
Christoph: We built our own tracking system. It captures every click and conversion, and we provide monthly reports. Our clients know exactly how many sales they’ve made. It’s completely transparent.

Robert: Which product categories benefit most from your traffic?
Christoph: We perform best in the €20–€400 range. Think kitchen gadgets, fitness gear, home goods, or small electronics. These are “considered” purchases not impulse buys, but also not life-changing decisions.

Robert: That’s impressive. So, external traffic doesn’t just bring direct sales but also helps improve organic performance?
Christoph: Exactly. External traffic is one of the strongest signals for Amazon’s algorithm. It can push listings up in organic rankings significantly. Sometimes by a factor of four to six. That in turn drives more visibility and more organic sales.

Robert: One last concern: Is there a risk of double-paying if vendors or 3P sellers already run ads?
Christoph: No. Our commission model means you only pay us when a sale can be clearly attributed to our traffic. It’s incremental revenue, not cannibalization. Some of our clients even rely solely on external traffic to improve their organic Amazon ranking.

Robert: Christoph, thanks again for the insights. Any final words for our readers?
Christoph: Try it. There’s no risk. You don’t need a big budget. And the effects on sales, rankings, and brand visibility can be remarkable.