by

Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, (January 12, 2018)

Developers at Performics have built an Amazon platform that now allows the performance agency to support clients running advertising campaigns through the marketplace.

The platform, called Caiman, offers analysis tools, focuses on bidding strategies, auction insight, data and reporting. It can extract daily keyword-level Amazon campaign data — beyond what is available directly through Amazon — to speed optimization in bid strategies, budgeting, performance pacing and targeting.

“It enables us to move faster than Amazon’s own reporting, and that speeds results in higher-performing ads and more efficiency for our clients,” explains Scott Shamberg, CEO at Performics U.S.

Caiman also provides granular reporting, which cuts down on manual reporting time for the agency’s teams, so they can focus more on optimization and testing.

Along with the platform, the agency developed a performance strategy.

Combining search ad platforms will become a major trend in 2018. Commerce-driven clients — about three-quarters — have at least tested running advertisements on Amazon and Bing or Google.

Shamberg said companies use Amazon to complete the transaction on the marketplace, in addition to using the platform as a traditional search engine, which means leading consumers to their own website to complete the transaction. They are also using Amazon as their distribution channel to deliver the products.

Performics integrated the Amazon ads business into its Performance Media Practice, which includes advertising on marketplaces like Amazon, traditional paid search on Google and Bing search engines, programmatic, social and video.

Within that team, Performics trained specialists in commerce — and Amazon in particular, mostly because the ecosystem is different, Shamberg said.

Some clients also run organic search engine optimization campaigns on Amazon and have Performance Content resources to run these programs. The Performance Content Team manages traditional SEO, conversion optimization and user interface.

More than 50 Performics clients — from consumer product goods companies to retailers in electronics and apparel — are running campaigns on Amazon. Shamberg declined to name clients using the new Amazon platform, but the company works with Kohl’s, H&M, and Kieh’s.

Merkle also began talking this week with clients about its Amazon ad business at the consumer electronics show, CES.

MediaPost.com: Search Marketing Daily

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