Expand your brand across Europe

Your business is thriving in one marketplace—an amazing achievement, but what’s next? Perhaps an adventure across the continent.

Amazon Ads recently conducted a study of more than 3,000 sellers in the hardlines category (products such as home goods, sporting products, etc.) who have made the venture outside their home marketplace and into at least three countries in Europe, including the UK, Germany, France, Spain, and Italy. We’ve found five key recommendations to help brands grow as they expand and launch ads in these additional marketplaces. Read on to see the best ways to expand your brand and selling ability internationally.

The study

We started our study by looking into the total sales and number of views on product detail pages (also known as glance views) for all 3,000 advertisers in the 0 to 6th and 7th to 12th month after Sponsored Products launch. These insights were then used to assign a composite score based on the growth in sales and glance views between the two time periods. That composite score was used as our binary success metric for the entire study, where a successful advertiser is in the 50th percentile or above in growth.

With the help of machine learning algorithms, we then broke the different advertisers into five unique clusters based on their advertising and retail characteristics, allowing us to pull a series of truly insight-driven recommendations from their actions.

Visual depiction of the clustering process

Visual depiction of the clustering process

Indexed success metrics performance
(Baseline = Square)

Growth in sales

Growth in sales. Cluster 1: 16.4; Cluster 2: 6.8; Cluster 3: 2.3; Cluster 4: 2.7; Cluster 5: 1.

Growth in glance views

Growth in glance views. Cluster 1: 3.8; Cluster 2: 3; Cluster 3: 1; Cluster 4: 1; Cluster 5: 1.

And now we’re sharing them with you. These suggestions are based on what we learned from the study when we looked at the most significant differences between Cluster 1 and 5 that directly impact Cluster 1’s successes, like having 16.4 times higher sales growth and 3.8 times higher glance views.1

1. Consider keeping campaigns running throughout the year.

Shopping never stops, and you shouldn’t either. With always-on Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands campaigns, you’re able to reach customers all year round. Having campaigns running for longer also gives you a chance to discover better insights for more optimization. When you have the freedom to experiment during your slow periods, you can use the learnings during your peak times. Advertisers in Cluster 1 ran always-on Sponsored Products for a median period of 9 months (36 weeks) and Sponsored Brands for a median period of 4 months (16 weeks).

Keeping that continuity is a key part in truly understanding your campaign performance, so you’re able to skip repeating that ramp up period your campaign needs to really get going. A full funnel approach of awareness, consideration, and conversion working in harmony also helps to make sure you’re getting the most out of your campaigns.

2. Ramp up your multiple keyword tactics.

With exact match and negative keywords, you help ensure your campaign only appears on shopping results pages that meet your performance goals and none that don’t. Phrase match keywords also help to reach out to more audiences, which is key in building brand awareness in a new, foreign marketplace. Take a look at your customers’ reviews to find more keywords and keep your metrics working for you.

Of course there will always be a period of trial and error, which is why it's good to test and learn, balancing phrase match keywords with exact match keywords to attract large audiences with your specific brand interests.

English translations for German keywords in Germany (DE) marketplace

English translations for German keywords in Germany (DE) marketplace.

ASIN catalogNegative keywordsRationale
Patio furnitureDining room furnitureAd won't show when shoppers look for dining room furniture
Patio furniture coversSofa furniture coversAd won't show when shoppers look for sofa covers
Both patio swing sets and sofa productsSofa products in campaigns promoting swing setsAds promoting the sofa product line won't show next to the ads from campaigns promoting patio swing sets

An example of how negative keywords function.

3. Mix up your investment.

A healthy balance between Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Products helps to maximize your campaign’s visibility, and will help ensure that the whole range of your product family is featured. The advertisers in Cluster 1 have a median impression ratio of 1:4 between Sponsored Brands vs. Sponsored Products.

4. Drive visibility to uplift revenue and awareness.

Supporting your products with Sponsored Products ads early on when launching in a new marketplace, and continually leveraging additional ad solutions like Sponsored Brands in quick succession to one another, can help customers in new locales to discover your brand and products. The median advertiser in Cluster 1 launched Sponsored Products 6 days after entering new countries, and 40 days after launching Sponsored Brands. Using relevant keywords to match your ads with customer shopping queries can help drive ad clicks to help ensure that your content is primed for optimal performance.

And the launch of your first campaign is just the beginning of what you’ll learn with us. Our specialists are ready to lend an ear, and our webinars on budgets and bids, keywords, and reporting are open for registration.

5. Boost the number of customer reviews on your product.

In addition to advertising tactics, more than 80% of advertisers in Cluster 1 observed improved reviews in the analyzed time frame.2 Not only does it help your brand to stand out, but it also allows shoppers to gain their own insights and make more informed choices. These reviews can often also give you a clearer vision of ways to improve your products and stay connected to your customers’ needs.

Vendors, try taking advantage of Amazon Vine. This program invites the most trusted reviewers on Amazon to post honest and unbiased feedback about new and pre-release items to help their fellow customers make informed purchase decisions.

quoteUp... it was really easy, and I saw results almost immediately: my sales increased in my first 3 months of advertising.quoteDown
— Janice, US Amazon seller

We hope this advice helps when considering a multi-market campaign launch and expansion into new locales.

1 Amazon internal sales data, EU 5 , 2013-2020
2 Amazon internal sales data, EU 5 , 2013-2020