Dive Brief:

• Levi Strauss & Co. has found success with both advertising and sales on Amazon, according to Gartner L2's "Amazon Winner's Circle" report provided to Marketing Dive. The brand funneled ad spend away from YouTube and directed ad referrals to its branded Amazon page, boosting its share of ad impressions on Amazon from 3% to 30%. The web traffic boost increased organic visibility for the branded store in Google search results, which in turn drove more consumers to an Amazon page with Levi's merchandise and away from traditional Amazon search pages where competitors also run ads. Levi's captured a larger share of "best sellers" in the jeans category and grabbed a 40% share of headline search ads and 27% of sponsored products.
• The report suggests brands be deliberate about driving consumers to Amazon pages with high conversion rates, adjust their strategies according to bidding competition and consumer spending and consider partnering with publishers to integrate branded content.
• Sixty-two percent of advertisers are not advertising on Amazon, according to findings of a poll conducted during a Marin Software webinar that was shared with Marketing Dive. Among those advertising on the platform, 33% use sponsored product ads, 23% use headline search ads, 17% use product display ads and 5% use display/Kindle ads.

Dive Insight:

The Gartner L2 report should help shed some light on how different brands are using Amazon's various ad options successfully. As Amazon's ad business continues to grow, the company has created new opportunities and features to streamline advertising on the platform, including rebranding its headline search ads and sponsored products as "Amazon Advertising." But, as the Marin Software poll reveals, more than two-thirds of brands are still not advertising on Amazon, with most saying they're unsure of how the company's offerings work.

As Amazon ad budgets grow, Gartner L2 recommends brands take a more nuanced approach, turning campaigns on and off as bidding competition and consumer spending demands.

Household cleaning products brand Seventh Generation's headline search ad blurbs included the terms "subscribe" or "save" in seven out of 18 creative instances on Amazon, and the company's headline search ad landing page included a "see buying options" button that led consumers to its product page to subscribe, according to the Gartner L2 report.

Several newer brands are also seeing success on Amazon. Beauty brand Aesthetica was able to increase the number of sponsored products in the top three spots in searches to 90% using a keyword strategy that focused on just 30% of its products sold on Amazon. This strategic approach beat Revlon, which ran an extensive campaign on 66% of its products that only resulted in 38% of its sponsored products ending up in the top positions. Direct-to-consumer toothbrush brand Quip, which doesn't distribute via Amazon, reaches Amazon Alexa audiences through paid partnerships with publishers like BBC News.