Report: Amazon Sponsored Display On The Rise, How Brands Are Using New Ad Unit To Defend Product Detail Pages

SAN FRANCISCO, June 09, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Perpetua, a global leader in eCommerce advertising and intelligence software, today released their 2021 Sponsored Display Report, an examination of performance across Sponsored Display advertising on Amazon and the impact the new ad unit has on driving a brand’s awareness and sales. With retargeting controls, ad placement on and off Amazon and competitor conquesting controls, Sponsored Display is beginning to reach feature parity with DSP, all on CPC rather than CPM model.

Today, the majority of consumer purchases begin with online search and almost half of all online shopping searches begin not on Google (22%) but Amazon (49%) (source: search engine journal), making above the fold ad placement tremendously valuable and the need to protect Product Detail Pages increasingly important. With that in mind, the report shows that Sponsored Display ads on Amazon help advertisers unlock new to brand customers with access to upper funnel ad units and give advertisers the ability to better dominate their Product Detail Page. Moreover, Sponsor Display Product Targeting ads are similar to search ads, making them feel less invasive, more organic and ultimately more effective.

“Dominating the ad inventory on the Product Detail Page is essential; it is a brand’s direct line to customers and sales*,*” says Adam Epstein, VP Growth at Perpetua. “Given their location, an advertiser must now think of defending their product pages the same way they defend branded search. You have to bid on your own ASINs, otherwise your competitors will. A worst-case scenario for any advertiser is bringing a customer to their product page via a search ad, and then having a competitor steal that customer with a Sponsored Display product targeting ad.”

Shoppers do click on advertisements once they are on a Product Detail Page, in fact, Perpetua’s Sponsored Display Report found 42% of Sponsored Products clicks, and 30% of Sponsored Product sales come from Product Detail Pages.

When brands such as Natural Dog Company shifted to a strategy using Sponsor Display category to target competitors, they were able to drive a 4x increase in sales from Sponsored Display with a 40% increase to total sales since launching with Perpetua. While scaling their spend on Sponsored Display ads by over 120%, Natural Dog Company has managed to decrease their branded spend by 40% allowing them to reallocate this spend to their category and competitor initiatives.

“When we started, we saw a lot of success with our healing balms and branded search, but as we transitioned it became clear that we had to shift focus to a category and competitor strategy,” says Molly Gorie, Amazon eCommerce Manager at Natural Dog Company. “It was crucial not only to defend our brand on our own PDPs but to also drive brand awareness and gain new customers by targeting our competitors.”

If an advertiser is unsure if Sponsored Display is right for them, we recommend trying it out. There’s no better way to discover the effect of a new advertising unit on your business than testing. Like all ad units on Amazon, it is encouraged that you not to look at ACOS alone. Monitor the total sales of the products with retargeting turned on and measure total sales growth, with a keen eye in flagging if retargeting is capturing otherwise organic purchasers. You are likely to see strong ACOS on lower funnel activities such as product targeting or retargeting, but should focus on metrics like CPC when dealing with top of funnel Amazon Audiences.

Key Findings:

• From Jan 1 – March 31, 2021, 42% of Sponsored Products clicks, and 30% of Sponsored Product sales come from Product Detail Pages, compared to 29% of clicks and 22% of sales coming from ‘top of search’ during the same time.
• In general Product Attribution Targeting (PAT) campaigns are more efficient than retargeting, but there are categories such as electronics, 8% vs 15%, where we see very efficient retargeting ACOS.
• Product Attribution Targeting (PAT) has a higher conversion rate (CVR) across categories compared to retargeting, however with increased competition brands are paying higher CPCs in most categories with PAT, resulting in a higher ACOS . Retargeting through Sponsored Display has proven to be a winning solution for advertisers in most categories, with brands paying CPCs as much as $0.80 lower with Sponsored Display retargeting vs Product Attribution Targeting (PAT) and reducing their overall ACOS.
• Using a 14 day attribution window, 80% of expected sales from Sponsored Product & Display PAT happen one day following the initial click. While 60% of expected sales on retargeting campaigns happen 1 day after initial click, within 7 days 90% of total expected sales roll in.
• While Sponsored Product and Sponsored Display ad units have similar performance when bidding on competitor ASINS, in categories such as Food (51%vs 69%), Pets & Animals (35% vs 39%), and Household CPG (22% vs 37%), Sponsored Display proves to have a more efficient ACOS.

Recently, Perpetua launched industry-leading support and controls for brands looking to drive consideration and engagement with both new and existing customers by targeting their Product Detail Pages with Sponsored Display. Brands can choose to take full control of their strategy or easily set up basic campaigns to let the AI takeover with Sponsored Display. Perpetua brings together everything needed to drive profitable market share growth for eCommerce brands on Amazon as well as other marketplaces including Instacart, Walmart, Target and more.

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About Perpetua

Perpetua is building the growth infrastructure for eCommerce which includes optimization and reporting technology for the world’s smartest eCommerce businesses. Through the platform, advertisers create goals based on strategy and leverage Perpetua’s best in class, AI-powered optimization engine to execute tactically. Integrations with Amazon, Instacart and Google ensure brands achieve optimal reach and engagement across the full shopper journey, and provide unified performance intelligence for maximum visibility. Perpetua is venture-backed with offices in San Francisco and Toronto. To learn more, visit perpetua.io