Case Study forA Personal Care Brand

Prime Day, year on year

Seller Central
Amazon US
Sponsored Ads
New-to-Brand

A personal care brand capped its non-branded bids at first-order ACOS, although its customers buy 2.5 times the units of their first order within a year. For Prime Day we bid to what a new customer is worth over three months instead, and paid for branded searches only as far as the brand held its share of them. New-to-brand customers rose 35% at $6.50 of ad spend each, and net margin went from 19% to 23%.

New-to-brand customers, up from 4,680: 6,318
Ad spend per new customer, down from $8: $6.50
Event profit, up from $63K: $91K
Net margin, up from 19%: 23%

The Challenge

An established brand, heavily dependent on Amazon, converting well but growing slowly. The brand judged its ads on first-order ACOS, so every non-branded bid stopped where a single order broke even, at about 30% ACOS. Branded searches, which the brand won organically anyway, took more than half the budget.

The year before we took over, Prime Day won 4,680 new customers at $8 of ad spend each. Counting discounts too, each one cost $15. The event made a 19% net margin. The goals for this one: more new customers than the year before at a lower cost each, and net margin above 22%.

What We Did

We read the brand's customer cohorts first. A new customer's first order was usually a single pack on its 20% Prime exclusive discount, which broke even at about 25% ACOS. Over three months they bought 1.4 times those units, mostly at full price, so a non-branded ACOS of up to 44% paid for itself within three months.
For Prime Day we raised non-branded bids toward that line. Non-branded spend rose 83% and ran at a 42% ACOS.
We lowered branded bids step by step while watching the brand's purchase share on its own name. Branded spend halved and purchase share stayed at 92%, so the money went to shoppers who did not know the brand yet.
We moved the discount. Multipack buyers were mostly repeat customers, so the Prime exclusive discount stayed on the single pack, where new customers start, and came off the multipacks. List price did not change, so subscribers saw no difference.

Results

6,318 shoppers bought the brand for the first time, up 35% on 4,680.
Ads alone cost $6.50 per new customer, down from $8. With discounts counted, each cost $11, down from $15.
Three months on, the Prime Day customers had reordered almost as much as customers won outside events, which is normal for customers won at a sales event.
On the main product's non-branded searches, impression share rose from 2% to 5%, still under the ceiling of about 7% for one product, where more spend starts paying for sales the brand would win anyway.
The average order rose from $21 to $23 as multipacks sold at full price. Sales rose from $330K to $401K, and event profit from $63K to $91K.
Over their first year the event's new customers should bring about $218K of repeat sales. That is a forecast from the brand's earlier customers, because this group has not had a year to reorder yet.

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Case Study forA Personal Care Brand

Prime Day, year on year

Seller Central
Amazon US
Sponsored Ads
New-to-Brand

New-to-brand customers, up from 4,680

6,318

Ad spend per new customer, down from $8

$6.50

Event profit, up from $63K

$91K

Net margin, up from 19%

23%

The Challenge

What We Did

We read the brand's customer cohorts first. A new customer's first order was usually a single pack on its 20% Prime exclusive discount, which broke even at about 25% ACOS. Over three months they bought 1.4 times those units, mostly at full price, so a non-branded ACOS of up to 44% paid for itself within three months.
For Prime Day we raised non-branded bids toward that line. Non-branded spend rose 83% and ran at a 42% ACOS.
We lowered branded bids step by step while watching the brand's purchase share on its own name. Branded spend halved and purchase share stayed at 92%, so the money went to shoppers who did not know the brand yet.
We moved the discount. Multipack buyers were mostly repeat customers, so the Prime exclusive discount stayed on the single pack, where new customers start, and came off the multipacks. List price did not change, so subscribers saw no difference.

Results

6,318 shoppers bought the brand for the first time, up 35% on 4,680.
Ads alone cost $6.50 per new customer, down from $8. With discounts counted, each cost $11, down from $15.
Three months on, the Prime Day customers had reordered almost as much as customers won outside events, which is normal for customers won at a sales event.
On the main product's non-branded searches, impression share rose from 2% to 5%, still under the ceiling of about 7% for one product, where more spend starts paying for sales the brand would win anyway.
The average order rose from $21 to $23 as multipacks sold at full price. Sales rose from $330K to $401K, and event profit from $63K to $91K.
Over their first year the event's new customers should bring about $218K of repeat sales. That is a forecast from the brand's earlier customers, because this group has not had a year to reorder yet.