After Spending $10M on Amazon Ads, This Business Stopped [Here’s Why]

Bryan Porter is the co-founder of Simple Modern, Amazon’s #1 drinkware supplier. He believes they’ll sell 4 million tumblers and water bottles in 2024.

In a recent Twitter thread, he reveals that over the past years, his company spent $10M on Amazon advertising. But then, they spent $0.

Why?

They saw two problems with Amazon ads:

Organic customers were shopping through ads

If the ad was ranking number one, but the organic listing was in the fifth position, many organic customers were buying through the ad.

Organic reach was suffering

Simple Modern’s team realized that their organic placements tended to fall when they paid for a top position.

This is because Amazon doesn’t want duplicate listings at the top of the page, but it also discourages businesses from spending budget on ads.

So what did they do instead?

Take a look:

Focused on product-market fit

Listings that struggle with organic placements need improvement. By focusing on product quality, selection, and value, they saw higher converting listings.

Stopped advertising on brand keywords

Simple Modern now lets competitors bid on their brand name. “If we can’t win when a customer searches for us, how can we beat competition on a retail shelf or generic keyword?”

Improved deals

Improving deals did more for their conversions and placements than ad spend.

How can you apply these insights?

Yes, test different advertising strategies. But more importantly, focus on building your brand.

A strong brand will win at the end of the day. Even on Amazon.