Standing Out in a Saturated Category: 3 Things to Help You Cut Through the Noise

Amazon is getting more crowded every year and brands across all categories are feeling the weight of it.  

• 839,900 new Sellers have joined Amazon between Jan-Aug 2024 alone, which equates to roughly 3,700 new Sellers every day (Source: Helium 10, Seller Stats 2024 So Far, Aug 19).
• It’s projected that brands will spend $28B on Search Ads alone in 2024. That number will nearly double by 2026 (Source: EMarketer Amazon Advertising Forecast, Aug 2024).

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The noise is only going to continue escalating because Amazon is anticipated to keep growing. EMarketer projections show Amazon sales reaching over $585B by 2026 and making up 41.3% of total retail e-commerce sales (and 7.4% of total retail sales).

So, if your category seems noisier and more saturated every day, you’re not alone. The good news is that we typically see brands find success in their crowded categories when they focus on 3 things: communicating differentiators, moving up the funnel, and making their dollars work harder than their competitors.

1. Differentiators: Spotlight What Sets You Apart

What makes your brand unique? Is it your stellar reviews? Your commitment to eco-friendly practices? The scientific backing of your products? A compelling brand story?

Identify your key differentiators and lead with them. In a sea of similar products, these distinguishing factors can be the beacon that draws customers to your brand. Don't just blend in—shine a spotlight on what sets you apart.

Here’s how we helped a brand do just that.

CASE STUDY: Creative Updates Prioritize Differentiators to Help a Brand Stand Out

Challenge: The product detail page (PDP) needed updates that balanced the brand’s visual identity with product benefits and other features that would tell their story and help them stand out.

Solution:

• We rebuilt the PDP content from scratch to incorporate an informative and clear message that would earn the shopper’s trust.
• We utilized a combination of product-forward imagery and educational elements that included use-case information and nutritional benefits that distinguish the product from its competitors.

Results: When comparing 30 days pre-PDP update vs 30 days post-PDP update, we increased the brand’s average daily metrics:

• Units: +22%
• Sales: +16%
• Sales/visitor: +8%
• Conversion rate: +2.4% (even with a +1.9% increase in visitors)

2. Awareness: Introduce Your Brand Earlier in the Shopping Journey

If you're only allocating your advertising dollars to branded product searches, you're limiting yourself to a shrinking pool of potential customers. It's time to cast a wider net.

Move further up the funnel, where shoppers are browsing in-aisle or near-aisle. Prioritize getting in front of them to build awareness earlier than your competitors so that by the time those consumers are ready to purchase, your brand feels more familiar and has the advantage.

We’ve talked about this before, but this fishing analogy is a helpful reminder that various ad types and tactics impact each stage of the path to purchase differently.

TIP: It’s important to remember that your upper-funnel ad tools and tactics must be measured against different KPIs. While Amazon’s breadth of data does provide visibility to things like return on ad spend (ROAS) on Streaming TV (STV) campaigns, focusing solely on lower-funnel metrics like ROAS does not give you an accurate understanding of the impact. Instead, focus on awareness metrics like brand searches, PDP visits, and brand store visits. Keep an eye on your topline growth to see if your total sales are responding to this upper-funnel approach. Those things will help provide a much clearer picture of how your upper-funnel campaigns are performing.

CASE STUDY: Implementing Streaming TV Within a Full-Funnel Strategy to Drive Total Business Success

Challenge: A CPG was initially hesitant to invest in Amazon Streaming TV (STV), but when they acquired a new brand, GO convinced them it was the perfect opportunity to test the upper-funnel tool within a full-funnel campaign.

Solution: We crafted a full-funnel advertising strategy for the newly acquired brand utilizing STV (40% of the budget), DSP (30% of the budget), and Sponsored Ads (30% of the budget).

Results: When comparing pre-STV launch to post-STV launch, we generated greater awareness and brand favorability with more shoppers while boosting performance for the brand as a whole:

• New-to-brand shoppers: +71%
• Market share: +50%
• Total brand traffic: +44%
• Total brand sales: 37%

3. Efficiency: Make Your Dollars Work Harder

How many times does a consumer need to see your ad before they buy?

If you were able to know, and optimize your ad strategy to reduce that number, how much further could you stretch your advertising budget?

The old "Rule of 7"—which suggests a consumer needs to see your brand seven times before making a commitment—may still hold true for some brands, but a lot has changed since it was first introduced in the 1930s. Amazon’s tools, with more sophisticated targeting and advanced campaign metrics, can put that rule to the test with things like Amazon Marketing Cloud’s attribution data. You’ll be able to see how many times a consumer needs to see an ad before they purchase, allowing you to identify the optimal number and make campaign optimizations accordingly.

That information alone will keep you from overspending. But you can take the efficiency to another level by leveraging that data to measure how different combinations of ad tools drive different results. In our experience, brands that stack ad tools to build momentum throughout the path to purchase not only drive sales growth but do so more efficiently, making their advertising dollars work harder than their competitors.

CASE STUDY: Multi-Touch Approach Finds Efficient Growth on a Limited Budget

Challenge: A challenger brand with budget constraints needed to make their advertising dollars work harder than their competitors. They wanted clarity on which combination of ad tools would drive the most efficient purchase rate.

Solution: We utilized Amazon Marketing Cloud’s Overlap Reporting to track how consumers responded to upper-funnel DSP tactics. We saw a...

• 1% purchase rate without DSP
• 15% purchase rate with DSP

With this insight and other attribution reporting, we built a comprehensive, multi-touch strategy that would test a range of upper-funnel tools – STV, DSP, OLV, and Sponsored Display. This helped us understand how we could most effectively drive monthly Shipped COGS and NTB purchasers, all while improving brand metrics in their category when competitors were spending 2x our client’s budget.

Results:  

• +99% increase in monthly shipped COGS from the beginning to the end of the campaign.
• +22% increase in monthly NTB purchasers when comparing the beginning of the campaign to the end of the campaign.
• Brand metrics also increased significantly from the beginning of the campaign to the end of the campaign: Awareness = +90% improvement, Consideration = +91% improvement, Purchase = +51% improvement.

Let’s Help You Stand Out in Your Category

Are you ready to stand out in your crowded category? By spotlighting your differentiators, investing further up the funnel, and making the most of your dollars, you can rise above the competition and capture the market share you deserve. If you need a partner to help you cut through the noise of your competitors, click the contact button below. We’d love to learn more about your business and see how we can support your goals.

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