Is your brand still reeling from last year’s supply chain issues, hiring challenges, and rising product costs? To help you eliminate these obstacles and achieve your goals in 2022, we’re reviewing valuable lessons from Q4 and taking note of the trends, updates, and opportunities that are on the horizon for the year ahead.
For brands across categories, 2021’s holiday season was dampened by ongoing inventory issues due to the pandemic. With worries about stock levels and shipping delays, consumers started their shopping earlier in the season — creating a rise in traffic on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday. Cost-Per-Click (CPC) shot up a whopping 38% during Thanksgiving for sponsored products, while ad spend declined on Cyber Monday for the first time ever.
So what does this mean for you? Ultimately, Q4 showed signs of optimism with consumer spending on the rise, but smaller brands still had to be savvy when budgeting for their sponsored product ads. If you want to break through all of the fierce competition on the Amazon marketplace and make the most of your advertising budget in 2022, it may be time to adjust your approach.
While many of the same obstacles from 2021 are predicted to persist in the new year — from supply chain issues to increasing advertising costs — there are some new and notable opportunities that eCommerce brands should be taking advantage of.
To start, Ben Ryan Schwartz from Pacvue suggests keeping your eye on shoppable video, which would allow clickable ads directly in your videos. He also notes the benefits of Amazon’s new and improved display capabilities — including updated audience targeting for Amazon DSP — and different fulfillment models, from brick-and-mortar to click-and-collect.
As Amazon and eCommerce advertising continues to evolve, the question remains: how do you leverage these updates and opportunities for your unique brand? According to Nicole Reich of Retail Bloom, the first step to determining how much to spend on advertising is to identify your strategy. Whether you want to drive awareness, expand your audience, or focus on profitability, there are different campaigns for each goal.
As Nicole says, to create winning (and on-budget) campaigns, you have to align your advertising budget and goals with your overall Amazon strategy and sales. She advises taking your approach to the next level by reviewing benchmarks in your category, understanding which campaigns and keywords connect with your goals, and maxing out the bottom of your funnel before moving up.
