Sales Were Steadily Declining And ACoS Was Soaring. This 40 Year Old Toy Company Looked To OperationROI To Reinvigorate The Brand And Drive More Sales On Amazon.
The Challenges
Discovery Toys is a premier toy company whose toys help children enhance their developmental skills and learn the best ways to interact with the world around them. They have been a trusted brand in the early childhood development field for over 40 years. Discovery Toys came to us in early March, right when COVID-19 was starting to hit America. Even without the Coronavirus, their Amazon sales and profitability were declining. As an established brand, we needed to update their listings and assets to catch up with competitors who were overtaking their presence. Our tasks:
- Optimize titles, bullet points, and descriptions
- Update imagery
- Establish a strong brand presence
- Reduce ACoS
- Overhaul existing ad campaigns
- Utilize new ad features like Sponsored Display Ads
- Make sure they could ship FBM and FBA for every product
A Picture Says A Thousand Words!
And For An Established Toy Company Whose Sales Were Decreasing, Focusing On The Brand Was The First Place To Start.
The Solution
Sales were stagnant year over year. Paid search costs were increasing. And the listings were in dire need of a refresh. On top of that, the coronavirus pandemic started throwing states into lockdown and disrupting logistics even for FBA products.
Phase 1: Shipping Products During Coronavirus
Amazon was so overloaded by the deluge of online shoppers they had to start putting restrictions on what products could be sent to Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) and started padding shipping times by 2 to 3 weeks in some cases for non-essential products. Even essential products were shipping with at least a week’s delay.
We set up all our SKUs to have fulfillment options through FBA and Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM). We also enacted sensible shipping plans that let us ship safely without late orders but still arrive faster than FBA.
Phase 2: Content is King
“Content is King” is an SEO term describing the importance of content in SEO. This same concept resonates on Amazon when it comes to optimizing product listings. The product title and product details are both critically important to being found in Amazon’s search results. Amazon’s algorithm uses this content as well as it is the first content consumers will read about this product.
Discovery Toys has a long and storied history in the early childhood development toy category. They have been innovating STEM toys for over 40 years and entire generations were raised on their products then passed down to their children.
Unfortunately, over the years their listings had become dated and lacked the critical content that consumers are seeking when purchasing products for children during early development. We needed their listings to reflect their history of quality, focus on the development value for children, and differentiate them from the cheaper imitation products that had flooded the market on Amazon. We immediately began to optimize all the content for all of Discovery Toys product offerings.
Phase 3: An Image is Worth A Thousand Words
Humans are visual shoppers and good imagery on Amazon can help increase conversion rates. Unfortunately, Amazon does not allow text on the main imagery, but that rule does not apply to the additional images. Successful brands have released that using the additional images you can better convey the uses and benefits of each product.
Discovery Toys has accumulated lots of great imagery over the years, but they were not using the additional images to their advantage. We enhanced their additional images by incorporating informative graphics and information that would resonate with the parents purchasing these products. To strengthen the brand’s presence, we developed a consistent brand look and feel that would now carry across all their product being sold on Amazon.
Phase 4: Advertising Overhaul
Amazon updated the targeting for Automatic Sponsored Product Ads in early 2019. Any campaign built before then loses the option of choosing between Close and Loose Match Search Term Targeting and Substitute and Complement ASIN targeting. This granularity allows us to optimize ads much more precisely and has been a big boon in dropping ACoS for all our clients. Discovery Toys had older campaigns that were performing well but had to be recreated to allow for future enhancements. Whenever you start a new campaign there is a transition period before it gets fine-tuned, doing this during a pandemic was interesting but ultimately very successful.
ACoS Decreased By 17% And Continues To Improve
In the first 4 months with OperationROI, Discovery Toys already had 2 of their best non-Christmas holiday months in a row.
The Results
The listings have been optimized with refreshed content and imagery. The paid search campaigns have been overhauled and updated with the latest targeting. FBA has almost returned to normal. The early results are very promising. Sales are up, paid search campaigns are more profitable, and Discovery Toys is on the right track with the holiday season is approaching.
Within the first 4 months of working with OperationROI and Discovery Toys already had two of their best non-Christmas holiday months in a row. ACoS has dropped over 17% since we took over and it is performing better each month. With the delayed Amazon Prime Day followed closely by Black Friday and Cyber Monday, we expect this to be a very successful holiday season for Discovery Toys.
UPDATE: Overall sales have increased by 582% and orders are up 385% from when we started.
What Our Client Has to Say
“OperationROI…great strategic partner! The team at OperationROI is very accessible and really stays on top of our account and ad spend…making changes when needed and refining strategy. They are an excellent addition to our limited internal team.”
— Jerry Salerno, CEO
