Hey, thanks for tuning in to another Partner Interview at EcomBalance. At EcomBalance, we’re all about creating win-win partnerships where we are able to grow with other companies in the eCommerce space.
In this exclusive interview, we interview Danny Carlson from Kenji ROI, a company providing Amazon SEO, & Amazon PPC Management services in the US.
Danny Carlson is an Amazon E-com Expert specializing in PPC Management & Listing Optimization. He founded the Agency “Kenji ROI” in 2016 & has grown it to more than 25 team members.
Kenji ROI has served 721+ brands in all categories with product photography, video, copywriting, Amazon SEO, & Amazon PPC Management services, and has produced 1768+ Amazon product listings.
Danny is also host of the Actualize Freedom Podcast (Amazon FBA) & the Danny Carlson Podcast (building agencies, mindset, & lifestyle) completing more than 100 interviews with names like Mike Michalowicz, Daniel DiPiazza, Steve Sims, Manny Coats, & Kevin King.
Residing in Bali, his off time is spent riding sport motorcycles, motocross, & speaking at business events.
We hope that you enjoy the interview and that it brings value to you as an eCommerce business owner.”
Connor: Hey Danny, thanks for taking the time to chat with us today. As a company, one of our goals is to highlight our partners so that our clients can benefit where it makes most sense. To get started, can you give us a high-level introduction to Kenji ROI and a little bit about how the company got started?
Danny: Kenji ROI helps product brands boost Amazon conversion rates through our turn-key listing optimization and ads management services. Ultimately, we increase revenue by making the product pages more efficient, permanently.
I started Kenji ROI in 2016 after growing my own Amazon revenue to $40k per month. After a scary account suspension (I got it back eventually), I shifted my full focus to growing the agency.
At first it was just me and 1 assistant, but over the years we have expanded to a team of 25 full time employees.
I’m from Vancouver, but have been living in Bali for the past 3 years where I enjoy spearfishing, acroyoga, and focusing on business growth.
Connor: Thanks for sharing that! Can you dive a bit more into the products and services that you offer to help with Amazon listing optimization and PPC? Our audience is always looking for reputable companies that they can lean on for specific parts of their eCommerce businesses.
Danny: Kenji ROI’s listing optimization services are all turn-key & optimized specifically to maximize Amazon conversion rates. We work with brands of all sizes at a range of budgets.
Our complete listing packages includes everything: photos, video, listing writing, keyword optimization, A+ Content.
Or we offer each service separately.
- Product Photography: with or without models & shoot location rentals. Complete with infographics and white background images.
- Listing Writing with Keywords
- A+ Content Description
- Listing Video & Video Ads
- Amazon “Stores” Brand Pages
For Amazon PPC management, we work on a monthly retainer basis, and a percentage of our fee is tied to ads performance. We typically work with brands with budgets of $5000 per month or more for ads.
What makes our PPC management stand out is our focus on making conversion rate improvements, not just managing the ads in a silo.
Connor: Jumping off of that…when you’re thinking about your ideal customer, who is that? Where are they selling online? Where are they located in the world? How much sales do they typically have in a year? If there’s any other qualities, please include them as well. We’re all about making introductions where it benefits both parties.
Danny: We work with everyone from new Amazon sellers launching their first product, all the way up to 9 figure brands most people would recognize on store shelves.
The scope of the projects are going to change depending on the size and needs of the brand. A new seller would probably go for one of our entry-level packages, & the larger brands typically go with complete listing packages and ads management for a larger amount of products.
Connor: For our audience to truly understand what makes you stand out from other companies in the Amazon management services space, can you share a story of how Kenji ROI truly helped one of its customers?
Danny: One of our clients was selling just $7500 per month. Over the course of optimizing their listings, 2 months later their revenue increased to $24,285
This is mostly due to their conversion rate increasing from 17% to 28%, both their organic traffic and ads traffic were converting at a much higher rate, and translated to more revenue.
Connor: As you and your company think about the next year ahead, what does it look like? Are there any specific initiatives that you’re working on as a team to better your product or service for your customers?
Danny: This year we are really focused on quality & efficiency. We went through a really big growth period in 2020-2021, and now we’re focusing on sharpening our craft further, staying ahead of the curve, and just doing what we do best even better.
Connor: How about this…everyone loves a company’s growth story. We all naturally go through ups and downs as a company. What was one of the biggest challenges that the company faced in its growing stages?
Danny: We went through a period in 2021 where we grew too quickly. We were getting more referrals than we knew what to do with and were hiring new people every month.
It turned into chaos as we had a huge amount of orders and a lot of new team members who hadn’t quite gotten a handle on their roles & our systems.
I worked a lot of 12 hour days that summer and it wasn’t so fun, but we learned a good lesson that growth needs to be more intentional, and sometimes saying no to new clients is the best thing to do.
Connor: Thanks! Let’s talk some eCommerce! Where do you see the industry heading in the next 1-2 years? Any big changes that you’re predicting for the industry? How can eCommerce companies prepare for it?
Danny: I think ecommerce is still growing for at least the next 5 years before it starts to slow down. The overall adoption is still small compared to the total retail market, and the more everyone integrates with technology, the more that will grow. The older generations die off and eventually it’s everyone who prefers to shop online.
There are some big development in ecommerce coming, but the mass adoption still isn’t there yet.
- 3D product photography where customers can interact with a 3D model of your product.
- Augmented Reality (AR) where customers can use their phones to see what your product looks like on them or in their living room as a live overlay.
- 3D printing, where products can be printed on site instead of shipped to your house.
These will all eventually blow up in the ecommerce world, it’s just a matter of time. For now the technology is not quite there yet.
Connor: Changing gears a little bit…When it comes to bookkeeping and accounting, what do you think the biggest pain points for eCommerce business owners are? Feel free to speak from personal experience as well.
Danny: Ecom business owners have some of the toughest books to get right. The inventory to cash received cycle is super long, and it can be really difficult to ensure everything is accurate.
But even worse than that, any ecommerce business doing cash accounting will have totally useless financial information about the health of their business. If it’s a 2-3 month cycle between paying a manufacturer and getting paid from Amazon, your monthly profit and loss will be up and down all over the place.
As someone who dislikes books with a passion, and has gotten bit by some bad accounting mistakes as an entrepreneur, I would strongly urge anyone who does not have rock solid books already to hire it out to someone with ecommerce accounting experience.
Connor: Okay, here’s an open mic opportunity. If there’s one thing that you’d want the EcomBalance community to hear from you, what would it be?
Danny: Conversion rate on Amazon is the foundation to success. It makes everything work better, and running advertising without first optimizing the photos, writing, and listing is like adding an extra 15% charge on all your ad spend.
Focus on building the listings to the maximum quality first, then focus on growing traffic. The sales will come in much more abundance.
Connor: As we close this out, I just have one more question. Where is the best place to find and follow you and the company online? Also, if you have one, is there any special offer that you’ll be offering to the community today?
Danny: To see Kenji ROI’s listing optimization services, go to https://www.kenjiroi.com to learn more.
SPECIAL OFFER: Any reader of the EcomBalance blog gets a free “Amazon Listing Analysis Video” breaking down exactly what improvements can be made on your listing.
Just email [email protected] and include a link to the listing you’d like us to analyze for you.
