NOTE: This feature is only available to Pro / Enterprise plans & for legacy dayparting users from the Starter / Growth packages.
Introduction
Perpetua's Stream Optimization feature allows users to set scheduled changes to bids so that they are increased or decreased automatically for Amazon Sponsored Product goals.
We designed this feature because traffic volume on Amazon tends to change throughout the day, and advertisers may want to increase or decrease bids at a certain time to align with patterns in shopping behaviours. Please click here for a complete guide on Stream Optimization and step-by-step instructions to create your schedule. It is strongly recommended that you review the Stream Optimization article for a foundational understanding of this feature before you dive in to this article - otherwise, it can be a bit confusing!
In this article, we focus on strategy and how you should design your Stream Optimization schedules. We answer questions such as: How do I know what bid multipliers to apply, and at what time?
For example, advertisers may decide to bid higher when CPCs (Cost-per-clicks) are lower because it's easier to win against your competition, or when sales volume is higher to maintain traction.
Many users have asked us for advice to design a schedule that aligns with these scenarios. Depending on the metric you want to optimize, you will leverage different datasets to execute on your strategic objectives. Below we outline three scenarios for more context. You are encouraged to use a combination of the recommendations we provide, as you know your business best!
Each scenario comprises a framework that consists of 3 parts:
Define your strategy. What is the metric that matters to you?
Leverage the data that informs you on the current health of this metric and identify trends broken down by day of week and time of day.
Please note that the datasets we mention below are suggestions. There are many different ways to use the data available to you, and it will be different for each advertiser.
Create the schedule following the steps here. Decide on the Perpetua goals that you will include in each schedule.
The bid multipliers you apply will depend on what you are comfortable with, so we did not provide concrete numbers. In general, if you want to go lower, enter a percentage less than 100%. If you want to go higher, enter a percentage above 100%. ⚠️ Inputting 0% will pause the campaign.
🚨 Stream bid multipliers may take up to 15 minutes to apply at the specified hour. This may result in some spend occurring in the first hour that a goal or segment is paused.
Scenario 1: I want to optimize for ACoS
Strategy
If your goal is to lower the ACoS metric, the focus might be to drive efficiency by pulling back wasteful spend during times of day where you are seeing insufficient sales.
Data
To find out times of the day you are seeing high spend with few sales, you will want to look at hourly advertising data. Hourly data is now available to all Pro/Enterprise customers (check out our pricing here). You might consider viewing CPCs vs. bids to find out where your bid is too low to win, or too high for you to afford.
If you notice a pattern in spend and sales depending on the day of the week, then you can have the same changes to bids applied on those days when you create the schedule. This part is quite straightforward because you can simply manipulate your graph view on the app or download the data and change the view on a spreadsheet to discover trends.
Goals
Since each Sponsored Product goal may behave differently, it might make sense to create a separate schedule for each goal whose ACoS you want to impact. If multiple goals have similar ACoS and it makes sense to pull back spend on all of them during the same time of day and day of week because they advertise related products, then you can apply 1 schedule to all of these goals.
Scenario 2: I want to optimize for Sales
Strategy
If your goal is to maximize sales, the focus might be to double down on bids and be really aggressive when there is high traffic. More clicks and impressions indicate a high shopper volume.
Data
To find out times of the day you are seeing high sales, you will want to look at hourly advertising data. Here are some suggestions for data sources.
Use the Stream Reporting beta feature on Perpetua. Please chat with one of our team members to get the latest update at hello@perpetua.io
Use a keyword research tool that can display share of voice and organic rank data by the hour, such as Perpetua's Search Insights. View the most important search terms for your brand, and see when you have highest Share of Voice (SOV). Higher SOV and lower organic rank are indicators of a high sales volume
Supplement your research by using the Targets and Search tab for insight into the popularity of the terms related to your SP goal. Analyze search frequency rank, and view clicks and impressions they receive. You can also gauge performance by viewing click-through rates, conversion rates and ASIN click ranks. To further isolate performance data, use our filters to surface terms that meet a certain criteria. For example, I might find that the word "shoes" is my highest performer. Then, I can search this term under Search Insights to see its SOV by the hour and adjust bids for the goal this term is in.
Generate reports directly from Amazon Seller or Vendor Central
The reports you are able to access depend on your permissions and contract with Amazon. Anecdotally, some of our users have requested reports from their Amazon account representatives especially when they could not get them via Seller or Vendor central. An example is the audience insights report. If you are an Amazon Vendor, you will also have access to Amazon Retail Analytics to track your sales, inventory data, operational issues, and more. There is Amazon Retail Analytics (ARA) Basic and ARA Premium. Some of these reports will give you shopper traffic data by time of day and day of week. It is best to speak with your rep to find out more.
Use the classic Perpetua dashboard. If you notice a pattern in spend and sales depending on the day of the week, then you can have the same changes to bids applied on those days when you create the schedule. This part is quite straightforward because you can easily manipulate your graph view on the app or download the data and change the view on a spreadsheet to discover any trends.
Reach out to your data strategist or chat support for information about our Business Intelligence offerings if there is data that you cannot get from our app or Amazon. Not many people know this, but our Business Intelligence team can actually stream your ads data to your company’s own visualisation tool or cloud warehouse! Another service option is that our team can create a custom dashboard for you that displays any data in any form - graph, table, pie chart (anything you can think of) - all in one view. After viewing our pricing plans, let us know the metrics that matter to you and what you are looking for to receive a quote!
Goals
Since each Sponsored Product goal may behave differently, it might make sense to create a separate schedule for each goal whose sales you want to impact. If multiple goal advertise related products, then you can apply 1 schedule to all of these goals.
Scenario 3: I want to optimize for Share of Voice
Strategy
If your goal is to maximize Share of Voice (SOV), there are two approaches. The first is that you might want to double down on bids and be really aggressive when you have lower share of voice compared to your competitors. This is for advertisers that have a high budget and are willing to invest heavily. The other option is maintain the momentum and protect your brand where you already have a high SOV.
Data
If you are a Perpetua power user, you already be familiar with our Search Insights feature which offers Share of Voice (SOV) and Organic Rank data for a search term by the hour. You can use this feature to find areas of improvement. When your SOV dips to unsatisfactory levels, bid higher during those times for the goals that contain the search term to gain traction. When you have high SOV compared to your competitors, you may still want to bid higher. By increasing bids at these times, you make it harder for competitors to steal your share so you can maintain your organic rank and defend your brand.
You can also view the organic rank of ASINs for terms where you have a high or low SOV to determine how high you want to go with your bid multipliers. If your brand's products have an organic rank close to 1, and you want to get the number 1 position, you might want to apply a bid multiplier of 200% or more during hours where SOV is off-peak.
Goals
Since each Sponsored Product goal may behave differently, it might make sense to create a separate schedule for each goal whose SOV you want to impact. If multiple goals have an overlap in search terms, then you can apply 1 schedule to all of these goals depending on how you want to organize and manage the schedules on your end.
🚨 Recall that you can have a schedule applied to the entire SP goal, or only for some segments in a goal. For example, in an advanced goal with a keyword boost campaign, I can either apply the schedule to the entire goal, or only for the keyword boost and competitor segment. The same SP goal segment cannot have two schedules applied simultaneously. If you apply a new schedule to a segment (that already has an existing schedule applied), then that new schedule will override the previous. For more information, please click here.
Article last updated August 2023. If you find this information to be out of date or want to contribute your ideas, please contact hello@perpetua.io. 😊