Good morning,
Turns out TikTok Shops growth is outpacing ecommerce heavyweights like Shopify and Amazon. Last year TikTok Shops grew 400% YoY while Shopify grew 34% and Amazon just 8%.
As we wait with bated breath on the results of the U.S. ban on TikTok, here are some tips on how ecommerce businesses can survive.👇
Here’s what you’ll find in today’s DTC:
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After the House passed a bill that could potentially ban TikTok from the U.S., it’s becoming a real possibility that the popular social media app could cease to exist. ☠️
For businesses that rely heavily on TikTok virality or TikTok Shops, this could have a significant impact on revenue. 📉
While the bill awaits Senate review, it is still a good idea for SMBs to look ahead and be proactive. Protect your brand reach so that if a ban does happen, you will still be able to reach your potential customers.
Here are some tips on how to safeguard your audience:
The truth is any social media app can be banned or go under. Having control and access to first party customer data will give you a leg up on your competition.
The takeaway?
The value of ‘owning your audience’ has never been more important.
This possible TikTok ban really highlights the importance of diversifying your channels. Owning first party customer data will be the key to success especially as we move into Q3 and Q4. 🔑
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Yesterday we talked about Amazon ad placements and today the Pilothouse Amazon team will cover the importance of Bid History.
Arguably the most important part of Amazon advertising is active bid management to follow performance.
This is a simple one, but a quick way to see if campaigns are actively being managed is to ensure bids are actively being changed.
👉 Head inside an ad group inside Sponsored Product campaigns and click that “History” button to see the bid change history.
Most bidding software will move bids somewhere between daily to weekly.
Typically you’ll know these are automated software bid movements because they’re small changes made in the middle of the night. Ideally you’d also see some larger manual bid movements in here as well.
Why so many bid changes?
If Amazon is a second-price auction, why not just set a certain bid and let it go?
There are a ton of daily differences in competition’s advertising: product relevance, ranking, customer reviews, buying intent, traffic levels, etc.
These changing factors all impact conversion rate and average cost per click.
As these metrics shift, bids need to be moved to maintain performance towards your goals.
These are typically small changes that can be automated by some software for the day-to-day movements which should be combined with occasional human intervention (especially to higher spending campaigns) to make larger shifts and keep things on track.
If you’ve been following along with this series, you’ll now be confident in your Amazon advertising’s branded vs. prospecting split, you’ll know campaigns are directing to the right placements, and can rest assured that bids are being actively controlled to match your goals.
Stay tuned for the next one where we’ll dig into what to look for when it comes to product page optimization.
Want the Pilothouse Amazon team to take a closer look? Click here to get in touch.
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DTC Newsletter is written by Rebecca Knight and Frances Du. Edited by Eric Dyck.
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