Introduction
Welcome to the Amazon Advertising Data Trends Review Series for February 2021. This is a monthly blog series where we:
- Breakdown changes in the Amazon advertising market landscape
- Pinpoint key areas of improvement
- 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 February. In turn, will enable you to strategically position your ad-campaigns for March 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 we have not seen too much movement in the KPIs month over month. The largest changes include:
- 5% increase in Cost per Click
- 4% increase in Revenue per Click
Overall, this had a minimal impact on ACoS and ROAS, changing 1% and -1%, respectively.
Year-over-Year
Despite little changes month-over-month, there are significant changes year-over-year. Most importantly, ACoS has decreased an astounding 20% and ROAS increased 26% year-over-year! This is driven by:
- 21% decrease in Ad Spend per Order
- 23% decrease in Cost per Click
- 22% increase in Click Through Rate
Aggregated Key Trends
ACoS
Since December ACoS has been staying within the range of 20%-25%. There has not been too much activity in ACoS in February.
6 Month View
1 Month View
Ad Spend per 1000 Impressions
Ad Spend per 1000 Impressions continues to see an increasing trend. It also continues to sit just under $4 and we will have to see if this threshold will be breached or if it reverts back to more normal levels.
6 Month View
Conversion %
Despite conversions being up month-over-month, there was a significantly decreasing trend throughout the month of February. If this trend continues, it is likely we will see conversions decline going into March.
1 Month View
Click Through Rate
CTR % has consistently struggled to break through the 0.40% level. In December we experienced a CTR% that remained consistently higher than the 0.40% level. Since then, CTR% has continuously remained above 0.40%. It is started to look more like these higher levels are here to stay longer term.
6 Month View
Revenue Per Click
Revenue per Click had a significant spike during January and had yet another spike during February, which was higher than the January, but still remained lower than the all-time high of December. Revenue per click seems to continually be trying to break records. We are hoping to see this continue in upcoming months.
6 Month View
Match Type Key Trends
Ad Spend per Order
Ad Spend per Order followed a similar increasing trend as in aggregate for all Match Types, however, to varying degrees of magnitude. From February 1st to the 28th, the:
- Broad match type increased 18%
- Phrase match type increased 23%
- Exact match type increased 34%
Typically, in the past we have seen the Exact match type more sensitive to changes than the other match types.
Last month we noticed that the Exact match type started to diverge away from the Broad and Phrase match types, however, all three match types have now converged back together in February.
Ad Spend per 1000 Impressions
Over the past couple of months, we have noticed an increasing trend in the Exact match type. However, during February, this trend has been broken and the Exact match type does not seem to be increasing as rapidly as previously, at the moment.
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. This placement continues to remain above $50, which has historically been a maximum point. It is possible that this placement type is experiencing increased competition causing it to remain systematically higher.
While Top of Search had a resistance point of $50, the ‘Other on Amazon’ placement is also experiencing a resistance point of $6. We can expect to see ‘Other on Amazon’ increase above $6 over time, if Top of Search is any indication of what will happen.
Ad Spend per Order
The ‘Detail Page on Amazon’ placement has continued to diverge higher and away from the ‘Other on Amazon’ placement. Historically, these placements have been relatively the same. Again, there seems to be increased competition in the ‘Detail Page on Amazon’ when it comes to Ad Spend per Order.
Click Through Rate
Previously we had been monitoring the increasing trends in both Top of Search and ‘Other on Amazon’ placement types. Both of these placement types no longer have an increasing trend. However, there has been a systematic shift upward that seems to be here to stay.
March’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 February:
- Forecasted Decreases:
- ACoS
- Ad Spend per Order
- Cost per Click
- Forecasted Increases:
- Ad Spend per 1000 Impressions
- Conversion %
- Revenue per Click
- Forecasted to remain flat:
- CTR %
As we can see from the Market Overview table:
Ad Spend per 1000 Impressions, Conversion %, and Revenue per Click aligned with our previous 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 increased by 1% February, missing our expectations. In prior years March has experienced a lower ACoS than February, therefore we expect to see a lower ACoS next month.
Ad Spend per 1000 Impressions
Ad Spend per 1000 Impressions increased by 2% in February, meeting our expectations. Next month, we are expecting Ad Spend per 1000 Impressions to experience a slight increase.
Ad Spend per Order
Ad Spend per Order increased by 2% in February, missing our expectations. Expecting to see a slight decrease in March.
Conversion %
Conversions increased 3% in February, aligning with our expectations. Historically, March has had lower conversions than February. However, as we saw earlier, Conversions had a strong decreasing trend throughout February. Therefore, it could go either way and it will be interesting to see if the historical trends follow or if we will see a continuation in the declining trend.
Cost per Click
Cost per Click increased by 5% in February, as expected. We are expecting for conversions to remain flat in March.
Click Through Rate
Click Through Rate decreased by 2% in February, missing expectations. Expecting to see CTR% remain flat for March.
Revenue per Click
Revenue per Click increased by 4% in February, aligning with expectations. Expecting to see a slight increase in March.
Return on Ad Spend
ROAS is a new metric for this month. ROAS increased 1% in January, expect to see a slight increase in March.
Key Points
Overall, the key points for this month include:
- Month-over-Month the largest changes in KPIs include CPC and RPC, increasing 5% and 4%, respectively.
- Year-over-Year there were 20%+ drops in ACoS, Ad Spend per Order, and CPC; and a 20%+ increase in CTR % for PPC Entourage Users.
- Aggregate ACoS remains stable between 20%-25%.
- Ad Spend per 1000 Impressions continues to see an increasing trend.
- Click Through Rate has consistently remained above 0.40%, a previous barrier.
- Revenue per Click continues to try to breach all-time highs.
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.
Entourage: Software to Scale Amazon Ads and Results Driven Management.
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