Case Study
Ubun drives new-to-brand exposure and increases overall sales for Orbis
Goals
- Increase new-to-brand (NTB) sales
- Increase NTB conversion rate
Approach
- Analyzed sales data using Amazon Marketing Cloud to understand conversion paths and identify high NTB products
- Deployed campaigns using Amazon DSP for high NTB Amazon Standard Identification Numbers (ASIN) to upsell and attract more NTB and loyal customers in the awareness stage
- Leveraged Sponsored Products, focusing on NTB cost per acquisition as a key performance indicator (KPI) to optimize sales opportunity and drive incremental sales
- Used Sponsored Brands with video ads and custom imagery to enhance brand profile and increase click-through rates
Results
- Increased NTB sales by 41%
- Raised NTB customer ratio by 22%
Orbis is a Japanese skincare retailer that began selling on Amazon in 2016. During their first few years on Amazon, Orbis’ marketing team focused on maximizing return on ad spend (ROAS). However, this strategy was not attracting or retaining the volume of new customers they aspired to reach.
In 2021, Orbis engaged Ubun to help accelerate brand growth and increase their NTB conversion rate on Amazon. Ubun is an Amazon Ads partner that focuses on the incremental effects of custom, holistic advertising investments to increase sales.
Focusing on new customer rates for campaigns and products
Ubun used Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) to analyze sales data from Orbis over the previous year, focusing on new customer rates for each advertising campaign and the relevant conversion paths. They identified the ASINs in Orbis’s products that attracted the most new customers and used Amazon DSP to re-engage audiences, aiming to upsell to more customers through these ASINs. Amazon DSP helped Orbis achieve higher brand exposure to users in the awareness stage of the marketing funnel. Ubun also calculated the average annual purchase amount per user, set the allowable NTB cost per acquisition, and enabled bid optimizations to maximize Orbis’s delivery and performance goals.
For brands like Orbis that have a large share of the market, even users searching with category keywords may be existing customers. By using Amazon Marketing Cloud data to identify and acquire NTB customers—and implement relevant strategies—we were able to significantly increase Orbis’s previously stagnant gross merchandise sales.
—Ken Katayama, Account Executive at Ubun
Converting first-time buyers into loyal customers
Further analysis helped Ubun identify loyal customers who had purchased the same item multiple times. Using Amazon DSP, they implemented promotions for refills and cross-selling of other products for both the loyal customer and NTB segments. This supported the transition from first-time buyer to repeat loyal customer, driving long-term sales.
To increase incremental sales, Ubun leveraged a variety of sponsored advertising tools, including Amazon DSP, AMC, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Products. They also used their proprietary automated reporting tool, Ubun BASE, which utilizes Amazon Selling Partner API (SP-API) and Amazon Ads API to help execute and strategize sales maximization. They helped Orbis set up Sponsored Products ads after segmenting incoming traffic based on customer purchase intent. Instead of using traditional ROAS metrics, they used NTB cost per acquisition as the KPI for Sponsored Products, to help ensure no sales opportunity was missed.
In addition to Sponsored Products, Ubun deployed Sponsored Brands video ads and custom imagery to help promote a premium brand profile that stands out in the cosmetics category. Custom images also contributed to an increased click-through rate. During product launches, Ubun set up new product pages and used Sponsored Brands to promote understanding of new products. They deployed SEO tactics including optimizing new product names, specifications, and internal keywords to help ensure visibility.
Boosting NTB sales and customer retention
Ubun’s advertising strategies also extended to sales events such as Prime Day. Ubun calculated the average revenue per user during sales events versus the average revenue during non-sales event periods. They allowed a higher cost per acquisition during sales events to increase exposure in the skincare category. This successfully drove acquisition of new customers and increased sales growth compared to Prime Day events in previous years.
Through precise monitoring using Ubun BASE, and adjustment of advertising exposure for new and existing products, Orbis exceeded their growth target mid-fiscal year. Specifically, NTB sales increased by 41% 1 compared to the monthly averages recorded before the introduction of Amazon Marketing Cloud. The ratio of Orbis’s NTB customers also rose by 22% 2 .
Ubun has proven to be a reliable and supportive partner that helped us achieve our sales targets.
—Yuki Fujita, Senior Account Executive at Orbis
1-2 Orbis, Japan, 2024