Large Mattress Manufacturer Gets an Amazon Store Makeover Through Google
Efficiency metrics across all search platforms helped our client rest easy as we shifted some spend from Google to Amazon.
Challenge
A large mattress manufacturer’s main business challenge was finding a way to drive efficiency-based KPIs on Google search without a shopping cart on site. As a mattress/furniture retailer, the company doesn’t have a cart on its main website for customers to purchase products. To capture online sales through Google search, text ad traffic was being driven to its Amazon product pages.
However, this prevented the team from gathering insights into channel-specific sales and efficiency, because Amazon does not allow third-party tracking on product pages. With few performance insights, trackable performance goals were limited to increasing CTR, keeping CPCs low, and maximizing traffic within monthly budgets. Since the value of Google search compared to the Amazon program was unknown, it was challenging to fund and manage each campaign appropriately.
Approach
Merkle’s solution was to target a robust Amazon Store, once available, with a variety of pages that could be used as relevant landing pages for 100% of the mattress manufacturer’s Google keywords. This solution helped achieve the main objective while also enhancing shoppers’ Amazon experience to be comparable to that of a traditional retail website.
Traffic from Google text ads and Amazon Sponsored Brand Ads both drive to the Amazon Store, with performance for each reported separately. Amazon’s limitations on the number of unique source tags currently prevent Merkle from having source tags down to the keyword level.
However, through this process Merkle has been helping to craft the future of Amazon’s tools by providing the Amazon Stores team with feedback to improve the use and functionality of their offering.
Results
Keys to success
- Extensive experience with Amazon, with an understanding of the various limitations of tracking on the platform and where we might be able to drive Google traffic to gain better insights.
- Having insight into efficiency metrics across all search platforms proved critical for bidding and budgeting effectively.
- Maximizing revenue holistically across our programs within defined spend constraints.