How a Shark Tank brand reached new heights through Amazon Ads

In 2011, founders David Toledo and Paul Slusser sat around a campfire thinking about how much energy was drifting into the sky. They made it their goal to find a way to harness that wasted energy into something useful. From there, Power Practical’s first product, the PowerPot, was born: a thermoelectric generator that uses heat to charge phones and other USB devices.

Based on the overnight success of the PowerPot, Toledo and Slusser grabbed the attention of ABC’s Shark Tank in 2014, where they had the opportunity to present their product to the “the Sharks.” Caleb Light, Vice President of Sales at Power Practical, and Toledo were able to snag an investment from Mark Cuban. They launched on Amazon Exclusives shortly thereafter.

“We launched our company in 2011 with a Kickstarter campaign,” says Light. “Since then we have done 10 Kickstarter campaigns to bring new products to life. On Season 5 of Shark Tank we were invited to present, which we did, and it was an awesome experience.”

Power Practical wanted to gain visibility and drive sales for their products sold on Amazon. They launched their first Sponsored Products campaigns in 2015. They were able to start advertising in just minutes, which helped them gain impressions and drive sales within their first month on Amazon. Power Practical ran numerous sponsored ads campaigns and sought to manage them programmatically, automating changes to keyword bids and adding new keywords to existing campaigns. In April 2017, Power Practical had an advertising cost of sales (ACOS) of 30% and an average click-through rate (CTR) of 3.67%. Their advertising was primarily done through Sponsored Products.

As Power Practical’s catalogue accelerated on Amazon, they sought help with automating tasks. The company collaborated with Teikametrics, a software platform that uses data science and technology to automate campaign optimization and scale advertising efforts. “Mark Cuban Companies’ managing director introduced us to Teikametrics,” said Light. “I did a little research and was sold within about 20 minutes.”

Teikametrics used machine learning to continuously optimize paid search campaigns on Amazon. Power Practical integrated the product with algorithmic bidding technology. Power Practical leveraged Teikametrics’ technology to optimize keyword bids and manage their performance advertising campaigns within Amazon Ads. This gave Power Practical more time to launch new products and work on other aspects of their Amazon business, such as forecasting and planning. Teikametrics helped restructure Power Practical’s advertising campaigns while optimizing ad spend, improving keyword targeting, and adding new keywords on a weekly basis. The proprietary technology’s keyword bidding algorithm allowed Power Practical to put their Sponsored Products bid optimization on autopilot.

Mark Cuban Companies’ managing director introduced us to Teikametrics. I did a little research and was sold within about 20 minutes.

– Caleb Light, Vice President of Sales at Power Practical

One month after automating their Sponsored Products campaigns, Power Practical’s sales generated by Sponsored Products increased by 203%, clicks increased by 120%, and ACOS was reduced by 3.67%. Power Practical also leveraged reporting features available in Seller Central to identify the customer search terms that had led to sales. As of today, their average monthly sales attributed to Sponsored Products grew 71%, with a peak of 300% growth during the holiday season in 2017. Power Practical has gone from running three Sponsored Products campaigns to running over 15 campaigns for their 20-product lineup. Sponsored Products now accounts for 22% of their monthly sales volume.