January and early February is a great time to review your Amazon Advertising performance from the past year and make adjustments, tweaks, and resolutions for improved campaign management in the year to come.

2021 PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT AND 2022 CAMPAIGN REFRESH

A key first step is to assess performance of all Sponsored Ad campaigns and DSP orders. Which campaigns performed well, what factors drove performance, and how can you replicate that success within your other campaigns?

Also ask: which campaigns performed poorly and why? Identifying the factors that held these campaigns back and applying those learnings to your other campaigns (if applicable) will set your new work up for success.

Furthermore:

• Consider the following areas to assess when auditing your Sponsored Ads / DSP account:
  • Sponsored Ads:
    • Campaign Types: Sponsored Product / Sponsored Brand / Sponsored Display
    • Campaign Tactics: Brand / Non Brand Keywords, Auto, Category Targeting, etc.
    • Campaign setting: Placement bid adjustment
    • Campaign setting: Bidding strategy
    • Campaign / Ad Group structure
    • Keyword / Targeting performance
  • DSP:
    • Campaign Tactics: Retargeting / Prospecting
    • Targeted Audiences
    • Campaign setting: Viewability
    • Campaign setting: Frequency
    • Campaign setting: Bid strategy
    • Campaign setting: Budget cap
    • Tracked product ASINs
    • Line Item targeting settings
    • Creative Type: Video (OTT & Online video ads), Custom Image, Responsive

NAVIGATING PRODUCT INVENTORY CHALLENGES

Many advertisers faced inventory challenges over the past year. In 2022, adjust your Amazon Advertising strategy to account for these issues with the following approach:

• If the same group of ASINs continually runs short on inventory, create separate campaigns to support those ASINs that have not experienced the inventory issues, ensuring your overall account doesn’t face downtime when specific ASINs are out of stock. This is especially important for Sponsored Brand campaigns, which will continue to serve and potentially direct users to Product Pages that give the user no option to purchase.

UPDATE CREATIVE ASSETS & MESSAGING TO ALIGN WITH THE CURRENT SEASON

• Stand out from the competition by consistently refreshing your creative
• Utilize all creative formats, listed here, and be quick to adopt new formats as they become available:
  • Headline text (Sponsored Brand / DSP)
  • Custom Image Creative (Sponsored Brand / DSP)
  • Video (Sponsored Brand / DSP)

UTILIZE “BRAND METRICS” DATA TO INFORM YOUR 2022 STRATEGY

• “Brand Metrics” is a measurement solution launched in October 2021 which quantifies opportunities for your brand at each stage of the customer journey (Awareness, Consideration, Purchase). The tool compares your brand performance to similar advertisers in your category and provides recommendations for improving performance within each stage. See the below example:
  

INCREASE THE REACH OF YOUR DSP CAMPAIGNS

• As of October 2021, advertisers can access third-party audiences from branded data providers with a click of a button in Amazon DSP. Per Amazon, “Third-party audiences can help advertisers reach their objectives by providing frictionless access to thousands of third-party audiences that are complementary to Amazon standard audiences or net new.”
• The ability to manage 3^rd party audiences within the DSP UI allows you to manage Amazon, advertiser, and third-party audiences in one place, ultimately increasing your reach and improving management efficiency. 

At Stella Rising, our award-winning team of Amazon and search experts help brands shine on the platform amidst incredible competition. If you are hoping to amplify your Amazon strategy, stand out on the platform, and drive revenue, connect with us.