Introduction
Welcome to the Amazon Advertising Data Trends Review Series for March 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 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
1 Month View
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
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
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
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!
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
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.
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:
- Forecasted Decreases:
- ACoS
- Ad Spend per Order
- Forecasted Increases:
- Ad Spend per 1000 Impressions
- Conversion %
- Revenue per Click (RPC)
- Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
- 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.
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.
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.
Conversion %
Conversions increased 5% in March, aligning with our expectations. Expecting to see a decrease for April.
Cost per Click
Cost per Click increased by 10% in March, missing our expectation. We are expecting to see a slight increase for April.
Click Through Rate
Click Through Rate decreased by 5% in March, missing expectations. Expecting to see a slight increase in April.
Revenue per Click
Revenue per Click increased by 16% in March, aligning with directional expectations. Expecting to see a decrease in April.
Return on Ad Spend
ROAS increased 6% in March, aligning with directional expectations. Expected to see ROAS remain flat for April.
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.
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