Advertising on Amazon is now an essential component of the majority of brand plans. With so many sellers vying for attention in a world of millions, sponsored ads provide products with the ad boost needed to be noticed. Advertising campaigns alone are not enough. For success, you must track ad performance constantly using robust tools and measurement metrics. This enables sellers to maximise targeting, budget, and, finally, conversions.
As an experienced seller or a new seller who needs to start advertising on Amazon, having the ability to analyse campaign data correctly is essential.
Understanding Sponsored Ads on Amazon
Sponsored ads are Amazon’s PPC offerings that enable brands to promote products in high-visibility placements. Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display ads are these services. Each ad type is used for different goals, ranging from direct conversions to brand awareness.
The key to success in advertising on Amazon is to continue to monitor performance and make data-driven decisions.
Why Performance Analysis Is Important
If ad spending is not analysed regularly, it can quickly get out of control without producing results. Sellers can end up spending money on poor-performing keywords or advertising to the wrong audience segments. Performance analysis assists:
- Determine which keywords generate sales
- Discover which ASINs work best in ads
- Monitor return on ad spend (ROAS)
- Optimise bids and campaign structures
In short, the analysis turns guesswork into strategy.
Key Metrics to Track
To measure the effectiveness of sponsored ad campaigns, several core metrics must be monitored:
ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sales)
This shows how much you’re spending on ads for every rupee of revenue. A low ACoS generally indicates high efficiency, but context matters—a higher ACoS may be acceptable for new product launches.
ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)
ROAS gives you a better idea of the revenue produced per rupee spent. Greater ROAS means improved performance.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
CTR indicates how engaging your ad is to consumers. Low CTR can suggest that your ad copy or image requires optimisation.
Conversion Rate (CVR)
Even if your ad receives clicks, it has to convert. CVR informs you about how good your product pages are at closing the sale.
Impressions and Spend
Impressions are used to gauge brand visibility, and spending needs to be tracked to prevent overspending.
Over time, monitoring these yield trends so sellers can iterate and optimise.
Leveraging Amazon’s Intrinsic Tools
Amazon also includes its own-created dashboards, like Campaign Manager and Brand Analytics. These provide a rudimentary analysis of sales, ad spending, keyword performance, and customer search queries.
Yet, these tools are limited. They tend not to have advanced segmentation, comparisons of historical data, or links with larger retail data. Serious Amazon advertisers need third-party analytics tools.
The Role of Digital Shelf Monitoring
Digital shelf monitoring is more than advertisements. It monitors how your products are described, priced, reviewed, and ranked in marketplaces. But why does this play a role in sponsored ads?
Because ad performance is never isolated, a well-optimised product listing with good reviews and good stock availability will consistently outperform an optimised listing with faulty images or poor content. Watching the digital shelf enables one to determine whether ad performance problems originate from issues with discoverability, product visibility, or content.
Additionally, observing your competitors’ shelf presence provides strategic insights, such as knowing when to raise bids or modify content to stay ahead of the game.
Blending Ad and Shelf Analytics
Actual power is achieved when you marry advertising metrics with digital shelf insights. For instance:
- Did your ACoS increase because a rival went on a price slash?
- Did CTR decline following your product’s falling search rank?
- Is the bad conversion caused by negative reviews or OOS status?
By bringing ad performance and shelf data together, brands can quickly identify and address issues and react intelligently.
Using the Right Tools
Several sophisticated tools available on the market today offer a more comprehensive snapshot of Amazon’s performance. These tools can:
- Consolidate data across marketplaces
- Compare ad performance week-to-week or month-to-month
- Deliver keyword-level insights
- Notify you of price or stock changes in real-time
- Benchmark your performance against competitors
These capabilities are important to scale ad campaigns effectively. Brands tend to find that it makes sense to invest more in strong analytics platforms than it does to blindly grow ad budgets.
Paxcom and Kinator: Centralising Ad and Shelf Data
Paxcom is one of the companies providing end-to-end solutions for the two key domains of ad and shelf data. Its very own tool, Kinator, gives brands access to monitor, measure, and analyse both digital shelf performance as well as ad KPIs.
Kinator enables sellers to track how visibility, availability, price, and competitor activity impact the performance of sponsored ads. This allows brands not just to track what’s happening but also to know why.
From keyword-level tracking to automatic alerts and listing changes, Paxcom solutions enable data-driven decisions, particularly for large-volume sellers or portfolio managers operating across multiple countries and markets.
Conclusion
Effective advertising on Amazon isn’t merely a question of high prices and compelling creative copy. To be successful, it involves constantly monitoring, analysing, and reacting with a strategic response based on insights.
Through the integration of digital shelf monitoring and ad analysis, brands can get a deeper understanding of their performance.
With the proper tools at your disposal, you can be out in front, whether to maximise the ROI on campaigns or get rid of wasteful ad spend.
On sites like Paxcom’s Kinator, marketers can bridge the gap between ad effectiveness and shelf presence, making better decisions that drive lasting growth.
