May '23 Roundup
This May roundup is bursting at the seams with...?
Let's get GO-ing.???
Posts from Global Overview :
Amazon DSP Link Out Case Study
This case study outlines how our GO team used Amazon DSP link out campaigns to reach customers and drive engagement to a brand’s shoppable website. It’s a great example of Amazon’s influence as an advertiser, providing a lift both on and off Amazon. Check out the details → Amazon DSP Link Out Case Study?
Tailored Audiences (beta) Case Study
We love testing betas with our clients! This case study captures an early success story we had with Tailored Audiences in Customers Engagement Emails. This brand was already leaning into Customer Engagement Emails, and we had built up such strong momentum that they qualified for this beta test with Tailored Audiences. The results were strong, with metrics like +$247 more sales per campaign and +4% higher open rates. Check out the details → Tailored Audiences Case Study??
Posts by others that stood out and sparked our curiosity:?
Jeffrey Cohen pointed us to a great discussion he had with Chad Rubin around “Amazon’s take rate of ~50%”. The focus was around a broader understanding of your business structure, aligning it with the platforms or avenues that provide the greatest profit, and then determining from there if Amazon’s rate is good or bad for you based on those deeper questions. Take a look at the full post and the thought-provoking discussion → click here.
Jungle Scout released their annual Amazon Advertising Report several weeks ago and called out a few trends of note for every advertiser. Here are some that caught our eye, but be sure to download the entire report → click here
“In 2023, 63% of Amazon brands and sellers are also selling on other platforms, up from 61% in 2022 and 58% in 2021. Social media channels are making a play at e-commerce, too. 41% of small-to-medium sized (SMB) sellers and 62% of enterprise brands are now investing in social media advertising to market their products.”?
“Amazon revenues from third-party seller services rose 20% between 2021 and 2022. Approximately 70% of brands and sellers on Amazon are 3P sellers.”?
“Sponsored Products is the most popular Amazon PPC option among SMB sellers, while Sponsored Brands see the most investment from large brands and enterprises. In 2022, SMB sellers reduced their advertising investment on ecommerce platforms by 6%, while increasing investment in social media ads by 15%. Enterprise brands, however, increased their investment in both ecommerce platform and social media advertising (by 6% and 18%, respectively).”?
“...the rising number of brands, retailers, and sellers on Amazon is converging with macroeconomic challenges like inflation and a recession. This adds layers of competition and complexity for brands and sellers seeking to optimize their approach to advertising and determine where to invest their promotional budgets.”?
“A look at average RoAS also reveals wide variations among product categories. Ads for products in the Musical Instruments category yielded the highest average returns in 2022 ($9.40), while categories with the lowest included Pet Supplies ($2.18), Health & Household ($2.21), and Grocery & Gourmet Food ($2.64).”?
Also, this added note from Connor Folley , VP of Strategy at JungleScout Cobalt, regarding the complexity of RoAS is an important reminder about the bigger story behind this metric:?
“RoAS is a product of many factors. Health & Household, for example, yields some of the lowest returns, while categories with the highest RoAS include Appliances and Musical Instruments. This correlates with selling prices: Health & Household products have low prices, but are sold by brands with huge budgets. By contrast, RoAS for Appliances and Musical Instruments is buoyed by much higher prices.”?
Scott Crockett , Sr Agency and Ad Tech Partner at Amazon, pointed us to a?Digiday article with?a user-friendly?summary of Amazon Ads’ machine learning updates for its demand-side platform. ?
“Amazon has spent years developing such capabilities to help advertisers target desired audiences using the few remaining signals that will be left in the wake of third-party cookies.?
Neal Richter , director, advertising science at Amazon DSP, told Digiday this is made possible by letting advertisers plug their first-party data into?its data clean room Amazon Marketing Cloud?to identify their required audiences.?
‘What we have done with these upgrades is tied to our performances algorithms,’ he explained. ‘What we announced before [at Amazon Unboxed in October 2022] was about addressability, and now we’re turning that into improved performance based on these new predictive models.’?
In a test involving 140,000 advertiser campaigns, advertisers using these updates experienced the below results, according to Amazon’s internal tests conducted over the course of last year.?
‘We know that every percentage point of improvement counts to advertisers, and these new upgrades have helped increase engagement and return on ad spend,’ added Richter in a press release.”?
Read the full article → click here
“Does your company view the role of marketing as a ‘growth driver’ or a ‘cost center?’ ??”?
Cody Tusberg , our VP of Partner Marketing, directed?us toward a great post by Todd Kaplan , CMO of Pepsi. Normally we try to keep these brand-building reminders short, but this one was so good we needed to post the entire piece. Take a look. ??
?“The best growth minded companies recognize that marketing isn't simply a bunch of advertisements and fluffy metrics.?
When done well, the marketing function champions the voice of the consumer within the walls of the organization, serves as a strategic long term thought partner, and can truly implement and amplify the company's growth objectives within the marketplace.?
In fact, when it is fully embraced, marketing can be the number one driver of growth within an organization.?
It's easy for people to have a surface level view of marketing — quick to bucket the whole practice as a bunch of big, flashy campaigns, expensive media, lots of theory, limited 'proof' of results, and in the worst cases — as a distraction!?
But the companies who understand the real power of brand building regularly tap into marketers to develop long term growth strategies, initiate new ways to connect their products to consumers, and bring all the internal functions and departments together along the journey.?
Marketing at its best starts with a rich consumer insight, inspires a long term growth strategy, and can lead to impactful in-market executions that deliver sustainable results over time.?
But the first step is acknowledging how the function of marketing is currently perceived within your organization.?
Does your leadership have any pre-existing viewpoints about marketing that are at odds with your ability to unleash its full potential??
Are you playing defense to an onslaught of ROI inquiries, or are you playing offense - reframing the dialogue about the long term growth opportunities marketing can deliver if properly embraced??
Marketers should raise their hand to take on the responsibility of driving their business forward.”?
This month’s Get GO-ing Challenge is inspired by cognitive-behavioral author and former professional poker player Annie Duke , from her book “Thinking in Bets”:?
A key part of what makes our teams so successful is that we approach everything as students ready to learn, rather than all-knowing experts. Yes, we have decades of experience supporting billions of dollars in sales across Amazon, and we are always learning and getting curious about new opportunities. That means accepting that we can’t know everything, but we can always learn more.?
In your business and among your own team, when was the last time you said, “I don’t know”?? How often do you shed the mentality of an all-knowing expert for that of a student ready to learn? ?
If it’s been too long since you’ve said, “I don’t know”, find something to get curious about today. It could be a customer trend, a product idea, a strategy variation, or a team member’s life experience. Explore something you haven’t—something you don’t know yet—and see what you can learn. ?
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