Optibac: 119% Brand Search Growth Driven by Full-Funnel Advertising

What Changed

The Optibac Probiotics case study, featured on the official Amazon Ads blog, highlights the powerful impact of transitioning from a lower-funnel-only advertising approach to an integrated full-funnel strategy leveraging Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC). Previously, Optibac faced challenges with a disconnected customer journey between awareness and purchase, leading to stagnant New-to-Brand (NTB) customer acquisition. By organically connecting Streaming TV ads, Amazon DSP, and Sponsored ads, they successfully boosted potential customers' awareness, deepened their consideration, and ultimately improved their conversion rates.

As a result, Optibac achieved a remarkable 119% increase in brand searches, far surpassing their 30% goal, and a 70% increase in detail page views, exceeding their 25% target. Furthermore, they grew their year-over-year market share by 1.66 percentage points and boosted their New-to-Brand customer ratio to 53%. This success is particularly noteworthy because it goes beyond mere short-term sales spikes, driving sustainable growth by enhancing Customer Lifetime Value and repeat purchase rates.

Why This Matters

Many Korean Amazon sellers tend to focus on lower-funnel advertising, such as Sponsored Products, to drive short-term sales. However, the Optibac case clearly demonstrates that this approach has limitations when it comes to long-term brand growth and market share expansion. In today's fragmented customer journey, a full-funnel strategy that connects the entire process—from potential customers becoming aware of a brand, showing interest, considering a purchase, to finally converting—is essential. Especially as competition intensifies on Amazon, building a pipeline of potential customers by investing in the awareness and consideration stages, rather than solely focusing on conversions, becomes the key to long-term success.

Practical Application Checklist

Consider Building Brand Awareness with Upper-Funnel Advertising: Leverage Amazon DSP: If your budget allows, Amazon DSP enables you to showcase your ads across various placements both on and off Amazon, effectively introducing your brand to potential customers and boosting awareness. Utilize 'In-Market' and 'Lifestyle' audience targeting to reach highly relevant prospects. You can explore creating DSP campaigns within the Amazon Ads console. Utilize Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display: While not as extensive as DSP, these two ad types can also play an upper-funnel role. Sponsored Brands allow you to tell your brand story through your logo, custom headlines, and a link to your Store page. Sponsored Display contributes to increasing awareness by reaching potential customers through category or interest-based targeting.

Develop a Cohesive Strategy for Each Sponsored Ad Type: Design Staged Ad Campaigns: Create a campaign structure that flows from Awareness (Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display) → Consideration (Sponsored Products, Sponsored Display remarketing) → Conversion (Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands). Remember that in the Optibac case, connecting upper-funnel efforts with Sponsored Products resulted in a purchase rate of 0.5%, more than double the 0.2% achieved by using Sponsored Products alone. Actively Utilize Remarketing: Actively use Sponsored Display's remarketing features to re-engage customers who viewed your products but didn't purchase, or those who abandoned their carts. This is highly effective in preventing customer journey drop-offs and boosting conversion rates.

Expand and Connect Ad Performance Metrics: Track Brand Searches and Detail Page Views: Regularly monitor changes in brand search volume and detail page views within the 'Campaign Manager' and 'Brand Analytics' reports in the Amazon Ads console. Analyze how these metrics evolve after implementing upper-funnel advertising to effectively measure performance at the awareness and consideration stages. Analyze New-to-Brand (NTB) and Repeat Purchase Rate: Check the NTB buyer ratio in Brand Analytics and analyze your repeat purchase rate from sales reports to understand the long-term impact on customer value. It's crucial to evaluate the overall effectiveness of your full-funnel strategy by considering these metrics together, rather than solely focusing on ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sales) or RoAS (Return on Ad Spend).

Important Considerations

💡 Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) and Streaming TV ads are currently advanced solutions primarily for large brands and agencies, which may make them difficult for all Korean Amazon sellers to directly access or utilize. While this case study is based on the UK market, the core principles of a full-funnel strategy and the importance of building awareness are applicable to all markets and sellers.

📰 Source: https://advertising.amazon.com/library/case-studies/luzern-ecommerce-optibac-full-funnel-growth