How to Use Amazon Reporting to Your Advantage

For most brands selling on Amazon, the sales process starts out seeming pretty cut-and-dry. You build your product listings, customers buy your products, and money exchanges hands. Further down the road, however, things can get a little more complicated. To take sales numbers to the next level, many brands leverage Amazon advertising programs (typically through Sponsored Products spend, although there are other areas as well) that require some sort of metrics tracking to ensure maximum ROI.

When it comes to tracking Amazon ad spend, Amazon itself provides sellers with some (relatively) detailed reports. A typical Sponsored Product report contains metrics pertaining to:

• The Daily Budget of a Sponsored Product campaign
• The total Spend of a campaign (how many clicks it’s gotten)
• The total amount of Sales generated from the ad campaign
• Average Cost of Sale (ACoS)

While these metrics offer incredible insight into the success of certain campaigns and can help brand executives realize the importance of Amazon ad campaigns, the level of detail available varies based on what type of seller relationship each brand has with the Amazon platform. Brands on Seller Central (this can include any type of brand across the entire spectrum) have a bit more flexibility and visibility into tracking advertising reports. Seller Central brands can either use FBA to fulfill orders or handle the logistics of the sale themselves, which also gives a different level of access to ad metrics. Sellers leveraging an FBA relationship, for example, might not have immediate insight into total sales (especially related to a specific campaign) or the ACoS, because there is limited visibility into logistical details such as return rate.

Brands on Vendor Central (typically larger brands as this is an invite-only program) have even less visibility into the type of ad report metrics available through Amazon. Because Amazon acts as the sole seller of these products, it is actually in control of ad spend and determines some of the above foundational reporting basics like Daily Budget or Total Campaign Spend. Brands with this type of relationship might have very little insight into how products are moving on Amazon since they are quite removed from the process as a whole.

Optimize Amazon Ad Reporting
For brands looking to get a leg up on Amazon reporting and start using the available reports to their advantage, there are a few ways to report and manage ad metrics other than the Amazon platform. While Amazon provides a decent level of basic reporting, to really grow and increase product reach, many brands need a bit more ‘meat’ behind the scenes. This is where other tools can come into play.

First, there are traditional reporting companies that brands can invest in. These tools typically require a substantial investment up front and in return run reports on a myriad of different metrics on Amazon. It’s important to remember, however, that most of these reporting tools don’t offer anything by the way of corrective action or consulting solutions – they’re just there to deliver deeper insights and numbers.

Next, there is the option of manually tracking ad metrics. For brands fulfilling Amazon orders in-house, this sometimes seems like the easiest course of action. Brands can merge logistics metrics and numbers with detailed return metrics and ad spend reports, creating a fuller look at all Amazon operations. The biggest drawback here, of course, is the process of manually entering all this data into spreadsheets. For manufacturers with products on Amazon, there just aren’t enough hours in the day to waste time counting and reporting.

The final option is for a brand to leverage a third-party seller partner to track and manage all aspects of its Amazon seller relationship. From shipping and logistics to returns and detailed ad spend metrics, single seller partners track all of these details and actually share back with brands to help move operations forward. Instead of just compiling data and pushing it out, single seller partners help brands know exactly how Amazon ads are working and where to make improvements down the line.   

Leveraging Data to Measure Success
To truly make an impact in the world of Amazon advertising, it’s critical to track as much data as possible, which can sometimes be overwhelming to brands that don’t know exactly where to start. Knowing the right kind of data – and what it signifies – can help brands truly take the next step in their Amazon advertising efforts. Foundational metrics such as ACoS, total spend, and daily budget are, of course, incredibly important to understand the overall success of Amazon ad campaigns. Other metrics, like sell-through rate and inventory cost, can help round out the Amazon fulfillment picture for more detailed insight. Add in logistics metrics like how long inventory has been sitting in a warehouse (possibly racking up storage fees) and a brand has a truly complete picture of advertising and selling on Amazon.

Make Amazon Ads Easy with SupplyKick
Don’t worry – just because advertising on Amazon seems overwhelming doesn’t mean it has to be! With SupplyKick as your single seller partner, your team can rest easy knowing Amazon ads and reports are constantly up-to-date and contain relevant information that can help you grow your business on Amazon. Learn more – get started with SupplyKick today!