Martin’s Chocolatier is an independent, online chocolate company specialising in artisan European chocolates. The company partnered with digital agency Fluid Commerce to drive more Amazon sales over the competitive Easter sales period. A research-driven customer journey map guided how and when to reach customers via different Amazon advertising tools, from discovery to retargeting. To compete against well-known brands with larger budgets, the strategy was to focus on using Amazon Sponsored Display and Product ads to reach a large number of early browsers and capitalise on searches for bigger brands, then use insights from those campaigns to optimise later brand and remarketing campaigns. The campaign generated a 280% sales increase.

Martin’s operates in a competitive marketplace dominated by established brands such as Hotel Chocolate, Cadbury and Nestle, with 90% of its sales coming from Amazon.

Fluid Commerce was asked to drive:

• +100% YoY ad revenue
• +150% YoY New-To-Brand (NTB) sales)

The strategy was to optimise an Amazon sales push by:

• conducting competitor and market analysis to identify trends, gaps and opportunities. This found that supermarkets started selling Easter eggs at discounted prices at least one month in advance, and that consumers who purchased Easter eggs in advance were influenced by supermarket product displays. This meant that early, prominent, targeted advertising would be key
• identifying the best products to push, based on seasonality fit and stock levels
• mapping out the likely customer journey – from those thinking of purchasing Easter treats, to those late buyers just before the Easter weekend – to deliver the right message at the right stage of the journey.

Sponsored Product Ads (SP) were used to engage early browsers. Manual keyword campaigns meant that Martin’s products would be shown to searchers with high intent. To increase ad visibility and reach, an automatic targeting campaign was run alongside the manual keyword campaign, with Amazon automatically serving Martin’s product ads against any relevant shopper searches. This approach also identified other keywords and ASINs (a unique, 10-digit, product Amazon Standard Identification Number which identifies products on Amazon), that could be potentially useful for Martin’s. Targeting similar ASINs helps a brand increase its advertising visibility.

Both the automatic and manual Sponsored Product Ads covered all stages of the customer journey, from discovery (which would increase New To Brand sales) to conversion (which would drive revenue growth).Product isolation was key to monitoring performance, segregating budgets and manipulating targets more efficiently. Using data from SP campaigns, Amazon’s recommendations and Amazon’s SERP, an SP competitor targeting campaign was launched to increase Martin’s market share.

A Sponsored Brand campaign was then launched, targeting keywords harvested from the SP campaigns. These used an eye-catching brand image to capture the attention of the shoppers searching on relevant terms. The ads increased brand familiarity and showcased key products.

Closer to Easter, Sponsored Display Remarketing ads were used across all Amazon shopping and entertainment channels. These programmatic adverts retargeted non-purchasers who had looked at “Easter Eggs”, “Chocolate Boxes & Gifts” and “Chocolate Gifts” categories over seven, 14 and 30 day periods.

In the final push to Easter, a Sponsored Display In-market campaign targeted those searchers actively looking to purchase “Chocolate Gifts” and “Chocolate Eggs” five days before Easter. As one of Amazon’s biggest USPs is next-day Prime delivery, this strategy leveraged the fact that purchase intent is usually highest two to five days before an event.

• 280% revenue increase YOY
• 546% increase in sales from new to brand customers YOY
• Following the success of the Easter campaign, Martin’s Chocolatier products were featured in the top 50 Bestsellers in the Chocolate Boxes & Gifts category on Amazon for the first time