At Bobsled, we’ve seen our clients achieve great success with Amazon DSP, and we want more brands to understand the power of the platform!
The Amazon Demand-Side platform (DSP) allows advertisers to programmatically reach audiences both on Amazon sites and apps as well as third party sites. According to Amazon, 10X more high-intent shoppers can be reached with display advertising versus PPC alone.
“There is a lot of trepidation about Amazon DSP which is understandable,” explains Bobsled PPC Manager Ross Walker. “Firstly, a lot of brands have only recently gotten up to speed with Amazon PPC, and they’re not ready to venture out of their comfort zone into the world of programmatic display.”
“Secondly, when brands hear that Amazon DSP is more about ‘brand awareness’ rather than direct conversions, many run for the hills, as they’re desperate to protect their bottom line, especially on the Amazon channel. But when the correct DSP strategy is implemented, brands see an undeniable uptick across vital growth performance metrics.”
Below, Ross has answered some common questions about DSP and shared a case study from a Bobsled client.
DSP is suitable for brands with aggressive growth targets. If you’ve exploited all of the PPC options available through the Amazon Advertising console and still haven’t met your market share goals, it’s time to start layering in DSP tactics. Though DSP is typically a more expensive option with traditionally lower ROAS compared to native Amazon PPC, DSP is the only way to reach the entire potential market opportunity for a product.
Simply put, Amazon PPC advertising is all about search term targeting within the Amazon marketplace. On the other hand, DSP allows you to utilize Amazon’s proprietary customer data.
Want to target anyone who has searched for, viewed or purchased a certain ASIN on Amazon? DSP can do it. What to show ads to that segment with full custom creative assets both on and off Amazon? DSP can do it. Want to take advantage of on-Amazon placements available only to DSP? Well… DSP can do it.
It goes beyond proprietary data though. DSP will allow you to target lifestyle and demographic audiences that align with your brand which are unavailable through the Amazon Advertising console. This kind of targeting will let you hit audience niches at a scale unattainable by brands not on DSP.
This free PDF will give you a thorough explanation of Amazon DSP and how to strategically align it with your brand goals. In addition to our DSP checklist & best practices, we’ve also included a DSP case study from one of our clients here at Bobsled.
It takes time to develop seasonal creative, so getting ready in late Q3 to launch seasonal ads in Q4 is a great idea. Having some data to analyze so that you can identify your top performing audiences and creative placements will also help you maximize your Q4 ROI. Importantly, an audience of customers in-market for your products, who have viewed but not purchased one of your ASINs in the last 90 days, is an ideal audience to retarget while you run big Q4 promotions.
For most advertisers, DSP typically takes approximately a week to set up, and a couple of weeks from there to fine-tune the initial campaigns. As you test out new audiences or new creative, expect at least two weeks to gather data and another week or so to tweak bids, negate non-performing audience segments and analyze your creative data to promote the top variations.
After your first month; refine your audiences, negate underperforming segments and increase budgets on top performers. After three months; work on a creative refresh to combat banner blindness.
A Bobsled client in the Beauty & Cosmetics space had invested significantly in Amazon PPC and additional PPC spend was resulting in diminishing returns. The client shared a strong desire to grow top of funnel awareness and improve new-to-brand sales.
Leverage DSP retargeting, competitor targeting, in-market and lifestyle targeting tactics to increase product sales, competitor conquests, brand visibility, and top of funnel awareness. Specifically; focus on increasing new-to-brand purchases which add incremental retail sales and track improvements in Subscribe and Save sign ups for their consumable products.
The Bobsled team utilized a combination of dynamic and custom creative to meet these goals. Product detail pages were updated to include the dynamic creative. DSP campaigns leveraged this creative though off-Amazon placements for retargeting and competitor conquesting goals. Custom creative was utilized to build brand awareness and drive top of the funnel detail page views. This charged up the flywheel for retargeting at high ROAS and improved Amazon PPC metrics because there was more overall brand search volume with high conversion rates.
Steady increases in total product sales and new-to-brand conversions:
Steady improvements in Subscribe and Saves and consistently high total ROAS:
As an accredited Amazon Advertising partner, Bobsled has been on the forefront of DSP self-service for years, bringing clients onto the platform while it was still an unknown quantity for most agencies.
We’ve developed advanced tactics from our own experience and have a much lower bar to entry in terms of spend (10% of ad spend with a $1,000/month minimum) compared to Amazon’s own managed service. Our client services range from limited engagements, to retarget non-converting visitors to our brand’s pages, to full in-market, competitor targeting and brand awareness funnels.