When it comes to accelerating the proverbial ‘Amazon Flywheel,’ a key challenge brands deal with is the degree to which ad spending will have a knock-on effect to drive organic rank improvements. A Momentum Commerce analysis illustrates how search ad spending impacts organic rank relatively quickly, but these benefits were much less pronounced during high-traffic periods like Cyber Week.

The Research

Momentum Commerce examined 11 months’ worth of advertising and sales activity across two separate clients respectively operating in the Grocery & Gourmet Foods and Home & Kitchen categories. Campaigns included in this analysis were those tied solely to the brand’s single top-selling product, rather than an array of products, to better illuminate any association between spend and organic rank. Only Amazon search advertising spend was included in the analysis (e.g. Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands).

The Story

• In most cases, an increase in search ad spend drove an improvement in that product’s organic rank within the same week
  • Major exceptions were the middle of July, coinciding with Prime Day, and Cyber Week when there wasn’t as large of an impact
• During the early part of 2022, spend had a greater impact on organic rank across both clients as opposed to later in the year
• Ad density plays a role in the likely impact of spend on organic rank, both positively and negatively
  • When ad density is higher, the impact of spend on organic rank is less dramatic
  • When ad density is lower, the impact of spend on organic rank is more pronounced

Biggest Takeaways for Brands

• Particularly for top-selling products where achieving efficiency is a higher priority, consider a 1:1 campaign architecture for greater control and to better measure the organic impact of search ad spend
• During high-traffic periods, goals should focus more on near-term sales impact rather than longer-term organic knock-on effects
• When planning to reduce spend levels across key terms, changes in ad density need to be taken into account to better estimate the expected impact on organic rank