OpenMity is one of the partners who we have worked with since early days of Fast Brands. Our partnership dates back to year 2019. It's not typical for clients to work with agencies so long, but hey, we are also not the typical agency, and it is also true in this partnership with OpenMity, in which we are more like an extension of their team. We understand each other and our collaboration over the years has only became better.
So what happens when you work together with an agency for many years? It can sometimes feel like everything that was possible, has been already done, but that couldn't be further from the truth. And that's also the main takeaway from this case study – it is always possible to do more, to grow further and to find new methods that can help stay ahead of the competition.
First of all, the eCommerce landscape changes regularly, including Amazon marketplace. The competition evolves month by month. The Amazon search algorithm has changed multiple times over these years. And Amazon has launched many new tools (and they still continue to do it) to empower companies that sell their products on Amazon. So, by default, there will always be some new methods and tools available, which aren't yet used by majority. This is also true outside Amazon eCommerce landscape. Just look at all these different platforms and services popping up every month, opening new ways how to grow your eCommerce business across different channels. All right, back to Amazon...
It can feel really comfortable when your products are sitting on the top positions, but don't get too relaxed, the competitors are always lurking from behind. With that being said, it should be clear why it is important to try out the latest tools, even while they are still in the BETA version, which was also the case for Amazon Attribution tool. These tools can help you stay ahead of the competition or overtake some relaxed category leaders.
Why did we use Amazon Attribution (Beta) Tool, and is it good?
Like many other DTC brands, OpenMity team is building their brand presence on different channels and platforms. And every year it gets more difficult to track the efficiency of each of these channels because more platforms appear and further expand the classic customer journey.
Customers go through different touch-points through their purchase journey and up until recently it was quite impossible to measure effect of each of these touch-points have on Amazon sales. But fortunately Amazon launched Amazon Attribution tool.
So we immediately knew that we will give this tool a try and see if it solves any of our questions, like:
- Does anyone buy OpenMity products on Amazon, when directed from their email campaigns where OpenMity mentions special sale on Amazon etc.
- Does anyone buy OpenMity products from specific social media ads, leading customers directly to Amazon?
- Which social media ad creatives generate the best results on Amazon?
- Does Pinterest generate any sales on Amazon from Amazon product pins?
- ...and many more questions about different touch-points that could have effect on Amazon sales.
Another great reason why we decided to use this new tool is because In addition to valuable data, Amazon gives 10% of all sales generated through these links back to you.
Thus essentially decreasing the classic Amazon commission (referral fee) from 15% down to 5%, because you get 10% of each sale generated from these attributed links back in your Amazon account balance.
Using Amazon Attribution tool to gather valuable data
The whole process is rather simple. In some cases it takes additional message to Amazon Ads support team to enable this tool, but the only real requirement is a registered trademark which you need to verify on Amazon Brand registry (highly advise to do it, if you haven't yet done it for your brand). Once you have access to the Amazon Attribution tool, you can quickly find it from your Amazon Ads platform (under "Measuring & Reporting section" -> "Amazon Attribution").
Here are the steps which we took, to properly set-up Amazon Attribution tool:
- We identified all channels where OpenMity mention their Amazon products and prepared a matrix of [marketing channels] x [products]
- We created unique URL for each marketing channel and each product so we could see the data for each of these
As you can see below, Amazon Attribution tool then allows you to see data for each of these campaigns. And those who are used to limited amount of data Amazon usually gives, will be surprised to see this, because this is the only tool in which Amazon shows not just visits, orders and sales, but also ADD TO CART statistics.
Analyzing results and improving external marketing strategy effectiveness
Although we can't share exact results of our campaigns, but we did reach our goal.
First of all, we saw which social media ad campaigns work best (and which underperformed). It wasn't really possible before this, because without Amazon Attribution there was no way how to tell if Facebook (or any other external platform) ads generated any sales, because you can't install "Facebook pixel" on your Amazon listing page etc.
In other words, running external ads without this tool is like driving blindfolded – you can try to look for some correlation between ad spend/clicks and Amazon sales, but it's far from accurate. In comparison, Amazon Attribution gives precise data about each URL that you create through this Amazon Attribution tool. And don't get lazy – put in the extra work and create all these different URLs not just for different campaigns but also for different creatives, it will give you much more valuable data and allow you to better optimize all campaigns.
We were also able to identify specific blog posts that drive not just traffic but also generate valuable Amazon sales for newly launched products. Before that we didn't know if these blog posts even brought any additional Amazon sales. But now OpenMity could identify specific blog posts which they can further optimize to improve organic traffic and also test new ad campaign funnels where these blogs are part of the customer's journey.
Summary and key take-aways
Look out for new tools (both on Amazon and also outside Amazon) because they can really make a difference. Even if these tools are still in BETA testing phase.
- Amazon Attribution will give you deeper insights about different marketing strategies that you are using and help to maximize their Return on Investment (ROI). It's actually the first tool that allows you to properly measure the impact that these various external marketing channels have on your Amazon sales.
- In addition, you also get monetary benefits: each sale generated through these attribution links will equate to around 10% of product sales price, so if you already bringing traffic to your Amazon pages from external marketing activities, this will be an immediate win (with tons of valuable data in addition to that).
Overall, there aren't really any downsides. So don't wait and start using Amazon Attribution tool.
If you need help with setting up the Amazon Attribution campaigns, simply message us and we will help you!
Ps. If you are not yet selling on Amazon but are running social media ads, working with influencers and publications, generating earned media or boosting your brand awareness in any other way, you will have guaranteed success on Amazon, because we can guarantee you – people are searching for your brand on Amazon. And if you are not there, your competitors will definitely it. It's possible to launch on Amazon without any ad spend at all. In fact, we have seen some of our partner brands exceed 5 figures in revenue soon after launching without spending any $ on Amazon ad campaigns and even before getting first reviews, all thanks to quick launch strategy and amazing brand presence online, not even talking about the results they reach within their first year on Amazon.
Interested in working with us? Just get in touch, we answer to EVERY inquiry :)
