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tl;dr

• The client was overspending on low-funnel branded ads, limiting category reach and new-to-brand (NTB) growth.
• Right Side Up’s audit also revealed structural inefficiencies and underuse of Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC).
• We reallocated spend toward mid-funnel and NTB-focused campaigns while maintaining branded visibility.
• Branded orders held above 95% organically even after cutting lower-funnel spend.
• AMC insights guided smarter keyword strategy, gateway ASIN prioritization, and NTB tracking, driving NTB share from ~54% to 65%+.

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The Challenge

After limited success with a previous agency, our client turned to Right Side Up’s ecommerce team to reinvigorate their Amazon ads. 

Our first step was to conduct an audit and identify where those performance inefficiencies were originating. 

We learned that the client was steadily (and successfully) investing in social media, ramping up spend before Prime Day along with considerable everyday lower funnel investment to defend their brand. And to convert that traffic, they reallocated budgets from upper- and mid-funnel campaigns to low-funnel branded ads.

But this shift caused a critical issue: it limited category reach and reduced opportunities to attract new shoppers, whether through organic or paid efforts.

Our hypothesis: the client was overspending on low-funnel Brand Defense campaigns and needed a more balanced strategy. 

First, though, we had to prove they could pull back without losing branded shoppers.

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Related: What is Amazon Marketing Cloud? Your Complete Guide

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Complete audit findings

Although the most glaring issue was an overinvestment in branded and bottom-of-funnel campaigns, Right Side Up identified several other issues driving inefficiencies, such as a major underutilization of Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC). Here’s everything we discovered:

• Excess branded spend: 57% of ad spend was going to branded, low-funnel terms.
• Underinvestment in mid-funnel: Only 43% of spend targeted category or competitor keywords.
• Inefficient structure: Branded, category, and competitor terms were mixed, complicating optimization.
• Redundant branded spend: Products already ranked on page one organically, making much of this spend unnecessary.
• Gaps in NTB tracking: Amazon Ads console lacked NTB reporting for Sponsored Products; AMC data was used only at the ad-type level.
• Limited use of AMC: AMC could support smarter bidding, audience creation, DSP frequency, and gateway ASIN analysis but wasn’t fully tapped.

The Solution

Building on our audit, we shifted into action with a clear goal: leverage AMC insights to drive new-to-brand (NTB) acquisition while keeping strong branded visibility. At the same time, we reinforced best practices in campaign structure and ongoing monitoring to maximize efficiency. More specifically, we:

• Rebalanced spend: We reduced branded ads to 10–15% and shifted budget to mid-funnel targets.
• Separated keyword groups: We rebuilt campaigns to isolate branded, category, and competitor terms; researched high-volume, incremental keywords.
• Created keyword tracker report: We monitored paid and organic performance for the top 80 search terms.
• Focused on NTB ASINs: Using AMC data, we identified products with the highest NTB potential and increased spend on them.
• Tracked NTB for Sponsored Products: We broke out campaigns by ASIN and targeting type to measure and prioritize high-impact tactics.

The Results

To gauge the effectiveness of our changes, we tracked weekly and monthly metrics, including:

• Organic click and order share for branded terms
• Budget allocation before and after the shift
• KPIs for lower- vs. mid-funnel campaigns
• Keyword tracker data for the top 80 branded, non-branded, and competitor terms

The results validated our hypothesis: Branded orders remained strong even as lower-funnel spend was reduced. We observed:

• ‍Stable organic share: Branded orders held above 95% organically despite sharp cuts in lower-funnel spend.

• Stronger acquisition funnel: NTB sales rose month over month through mid-funnel spend and better rankings.

• Improved rankings: Increased investment in category keywords boosted order volume and organic placement.
• ‍Gateway ASIN success: AMC insights identified NTB gateway products,RSU prioritized ad spend against those critical items, raising NTB share from 54% to over 65%.

Conclusion

By reallocating spend toward acquisition and leveraging the brand’s organic strength, Right Side Up drove significant new-to-brand growth without sacrificing branded share. 

Through smart campaign restructuring, deeper AMC insights, and close collaboration with the client’s marketing and analytics teams, we built a more balanced, scalable foundation for continued growth.

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Want similar results?

Our ecommerce team combines smart strategy with AMC insights to drive maximum Amazon growth—reach out today!

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