Amazon has long been the top e-commerce destination for U.S. consumers. Until recently, though, the ability for advertisers to evaluate the effectiveness of external traffic to Amazon has been conspicuously absent. Amazon Attribution finally changes this, enabling brands to measure the impact of cross-channel marketing efforts that drive to Amazon all in one console for the first time.
“Amazon Attribution is a game changer for agencies and marketers. Previously, brands couldn’t measure the success of cross-channel advertising driving sales and awareness to Amazon. With Amazon Attribution, brands can now better quantify their media investment and effectiveness of other channels. As a result, they could potentially double down on their Amazon media investment.”
Lizzy Delorio, Head of Media, Podean
What is Amazon Attribution?
Amazon Attribution is an advertising and analytics measurement solution used by agencies and marketers to gain insight into how non-Amazon marketing channels across social, search, display, video and email influence shopping activity and sales performance on Amazon. For example, prior to the launch of Attribution, if a brand was running a Google search ad driving to Amazon, it wasn’t possible to accurately measure how the Google campaign affected sales on Amazon. With Amazon Attribution, this is now possible under one console. This service is available for professional sellers enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry, vendors, and agencies with clients who sell products on Amazon.
Measure. Optimize. Plan.
By using Amazon Attribution, marketers can discover a plethora of new ways to grow their business on Amazon. There are three key elements that help maximize the benefits of using this tool: Measure, Optimize and Plan. First, marketers can measure and understand the influence of their cross-channel digital marketing activities using insights from Amazon Attribution. Second, marketers can make in-flight optimizations by using on-demand advertising analytics to ensure both impact and efficiency. Finally, marketers can learn which marketing strategies most effectively drive sales and maximize ROI to help build future marketing plans.
Key Benefits of Amazon Attribution
The Amazon Attribution Advantage
Why should marketers use Amazon Attribution Measurement? Consumer-brand engagement is higher than it has ever been, and marketers need to capitalize on the non-Amazon channels that play key roles in the shopping experience. Although Amazon Advertising already helps drive brand consideration and awareness, Amazon Attribution gives marketers a new perception of what is driving value to their brand and what is resonating with consumers. Ultimately, Amazon Attribution allows brands to finally attributesales to their off-Amazon marketing.
Could Amazon reward sellers that drive external traffic to its retail sites? Though this is not confirmed, many sellers believe that’s exactly what happens, and it would certainly make sense. When driving more external traffic to Amazon, Amazon gains more potential customers and volume. This could lead to better organic search for brands and better treatment from Amazon itself.
Best Practices:
Recent Updates (September 2020): Expanded bulk operations capabilities with Facebook Ads
Amazon Attribution bulk operations were initially designed for Google Ads. As of September 2020, according to Amazon, “Bulk operations for Facebook ads enables advertisers to automatically generate up to 8,500 Amazon Attribution measurement tags by uploading a single file containing campaign information.” With the newly generated tags, brands can now download reports to help inform them on cross-channel spend and performance. Setting up campaigns across the Facebook ecosystem including on Instagram and Messenger become that much easier.
Case Study: Major Consumer Electronics Company
The Challenge: A major consumer electronics company selling headphones approached Podean looking for a better way to understand how effective its cross-channel campaigns were in contributing to boosting sales on Amazon. The brand had been running Google Ads driving to Amazon but didn’t know how successful the campaigns were in ultimately driving sales on Amazon.
The Solution: Podean activated Amazon Attribution for the brand, which allowed it to actually measure digital activation performance across multiple channels. Within the familiar API console, the brand learned that while the Google campaigns were successful in driving brand awareness to its Amazon store, the return wasn’t as high as previously thought in terms of ROAS. Without Amazon Attribution, the brand had been left in the dark.
The Solution: Thanks to Amazon Attribution and Podean’s insights, the brand shifted 25% of its Google Ad spend to Amazon Search to drive incremental sales. The results were impressive. This past quarter, total sales on Amazon grew by more than 62% and more than 321% year-over-year. Thanks to Podean activating Amazon Attribution, the brand was able to unlock new insights and ultimately sell more product.
While this type of growth is not guaranteed when activating Amazon Attribution, there are numerous other useful insights brands can discover. Another Podean client in the beauty space discovered that 21% of their Google Ad revenue converts on Amazon.