Introduction

Welcome to the Amazon Advertising Data Trends Review Series for March 2021. This is a monthly blog series where we:

  1. Breakdown changes in the Amazon advertising market landscape
  2. Pinpoint key areas of improvement
  3. Provide guidance on future market expectations

If you missed last month’s edition, you can check that out here.

By reviewing the data and trends in the proceeding blog post you will gain a better understanding of what has happened in the Amazon advertising marketplace in March. In turn, will enable you to strategically position your ad-campaigns for April and beyond.

The Data

The data used for this post includes:

  • Sponsored Product ads
  • Ads delivered in the US

Market Overview

Month-over-Month

This month there has been significant changes in each of the KPI’s covered. The largest changes include:

  • 10% increase in Cost per Click
  • 16% increase in Revenue per Click

Overall, the increases in the revenue per click and conversion rate lead to a decrease in ACoS, despite the increases in cost per click.

Year-over-Year

There continues to remain significant changes year-over-year. Most importantly, ACoS has decreased by an astounding 21% and ROAS increased 26% year-over-year! This is driven by:

  • 14% decrease in Cost per Click
  • 8% increase in Revenue per Click

Aggregated Key Trends

ACoS

There continues to be not much excitement happen in ACoS since December. Overall, ACoS continues to remain in it’s 20-25% range

6 Month View

ACoS_DB

1 Month View

ACoS_DB (Monthly)

Ad Spend per 1000 Impressions

Ad Spend per 1000 Impressions continues to see an increasing trend. Over the last few months Ad Spend per 1000 Impressions hovered just under $4. However, it March, this threshold has finally been broken. We’ll continue to monitor this trend to see if it continues.

6 Month View

Conversion %

In February, we experienced a consistent decreasing trend for the entire month. This quickly reverted in March and we are now starting to see a longer-term increasing trend developing in conversion.

6 Month View

Cost Per Click

Similar to Conversion %, CPC has a longer-term increasing trend emerging since December as well. However, there does seem to be a resistance point at $1.00. It’s possible that CPC will continue to remain within the $0.80-$1.00, but we have been experiencing other KPI’s break thresholder recently.

6 Month View

Click Through Rate

CTR % continues to stay consistently above the prior 0.40% threshold. There was a slight dip below in March, which is believed to be due to the Holidays. Overall, it continues to look like CTR% above 0.40% will be a more normal baseline.

6 Month View

CTR_DB

Revenue Per Click

Revenue per Click is continuously breaking record highs. In March, RPC increased above $5 for the first time since last March. RPC has since retreated since then, but if trends continue we could see RPC continue to reach new highs.

6 Month View

RPC_DB

Match Type Key Trends

Ad Spend per 1000 Impressions

While the Exact match type no longer as an increasing trend, the Broad match type is starting to take its place. The Board match type increased over $3 for several weeks in March, converging closer with the Phrase match type. This historically has been a point of resistance.

6 Month View

AdSPI_MT_DB

Conversion %

The increasing trend that we saw in the Aggregate Trends section, is largely being driven by the Broad and Phrase match types.

6 Month View

Cost per Click

The increasing trend we saw in the Aggregate Trends section is being driven by all the match types. With the Broad and Phrase match type experiencing a long-term, and therefore more sustainable, trend than the Exact match type.

6 Month View

Click Through Rate

In the Aggregate Trend section, we can see that CTR % remains relatively flat, however consistently staying above 0.40%. When we break this down by match type, the story is vastly different. We’re starting to experience decreasing trends in the Phrase and Exact match types. Which means the aggregate is being propped up by the Broad match type. If these trends continue in Phrase and Exact, it’ll likely start dragging down the aggregate trend with it.

6 Month View

Placement Type – Longer Term Trends

Ad Spend per 1000 Impressions

Over the last couple of months, we have been monitoring the increases in the Top of Search placement for Ad Spend per 1000 Impressions. Not only did this placement continue to remain above $50, it broke out higher breaching $60!

AdSPI_DB

Similar to Top of Search, the ‘Other on Amazon’ placement is also breaking barriers. ‘Other on Amazon’ has breach over $6, which has been a point of resistance during the last 6 months

AdSPI_DB (Ex. TOS)

Lastly, the ‘Detail Page’ placement is hitting its resistance point of $1.50, similar to the other placement types, we can likely expect this to continue to increase higher as well if the trend continues.

AdSPI_DB (Ex. OOA)

April’s KPI Predictions

In this section we forecast what we think may happen to the KPI’s in the preceding month, by reviewing the Year over Year trends. But before we start, let us dive into what we had forecasted would happen for March:

  1. Forecasted Decreases:
  • ACoS
  • Ad Spend per Order
  1. Forecasted Increases:
  • Ad Spend per 1000 Impressions
  • Conversion %
  • Revenue per Click (RPC)
  • Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
  1. Forecasted to remain flat:
  • Cost per Click (CPC)
  • Click Through Rate (CTR %)

As we can see from the Market Overview table:

ACoS, Ad Spend per 1000 Impressions, Conversion %, RPC, and ROAS aligned with our previous month’s expectations. While Ad Spend per Order, CPC, and CTR % had missed our expectations. In the proceeding section, we will review the historical trends in the KPIs in order to guide us in what may happen in March.

ACoS

ACoS decreased by 5% in March, meeting our expectations. In prior years April has remained relatively flat compared with March, therefore we expect to see ACoS remain flat next month.

ACoS_YR_DB

Ad Spend per 1000 Impressions

Ad Spend per 1000 Impressions increased by 5% in March, meeting our expectations. Next month, we are expecting Ad Spend per 1000 Impressions to experience a slight increase.

AdSPI_YR_DB

Ad Spend per Order

Ad Spend per Order increased by 4% in March, missing our expectations. Expecting to see Ad Spend per Order remain flat for April.

AdSPO_YR_DB

Conversion %

Conversions increased 5% in March, aligning with our expectations. Expecting to see a decrease for April.

Conversion%_YR_DB

Cost per Click

Cost per Click increased by 10% in March, missing our expectation. We are expecting to see a slight increase for April.

CPC_YR_DB

Click Through Rate

Click Through Rate decreased by 5% in March, missing expectations. Expecting to see a slight increase in April.

CTR_YR_DB

Revenue per Click

Revenue per Click increased by 16% in March, aligning with directional expectations. Expecting to see a decrease in April.

RPC_YR_DB

Return on Ad Spend

ROAS increased 6% in March, aligning with directional expectations. Expected to see ROAS remain flat for April.

ROAS_YR_DB

Key Points

Overall, the key points for this month include:

  • Month-over-Month the largest changes in KPIs include CPC and RPC, increasing 10% and 16%, respectively.
  • Year-over-Year there ACoS is down 21%, with CPC down 14% and RPC up 8%
  • Aggregate ACoS remains stable between 20%-25%.
  • Ad Spend per 1000 Impressions, Conversions, and CPC are experiencing longer-term increasing trends
  • Revenue per Click continues to break higher to new highs
  • Phrase and Exact CTR % are starting to see decreasing trends

We will be reviewing this data and including deeper insights and trends each month. If you have any questions or any data you would like to see, please reach out.