As Amazon continues to grow as an e-commerce platform, many marketers and advertisers are turning to tools like Google Analytics to measure the effectiveness of their Amazon advertising campaigns. But while Google Analytics is a powerful tool for measuring many aspects of digital marketing, it's not well-suited for measuring Amazon advertising. In this post, we'll explore why Google Analytics is a poor tool for measuring Amazon advertising and what alternatives are available.
First, Google Analytics doesn't provide detailed information about individual ad impressions or clicks on Amazon. This means that it's difficult to see which ads are performing well and which ones are underperforming, making it challenging to optimize your campaigns.
Second, Google Analytics doesn't provide real-time data on Amazon advertising, which is essential for making informed decisions about your campaigns. Because Amazon advertising involves real time auction bidding targeting specific audiences, it's important to have access to up-to-date data in order to adjust your strategy and maximize the effectiveness of your ads. The reporting for Amazon's DSP is delivered in an ad server and ties the data back across the Amazon marketing cloud.
Third, Google Analytics doesn't provide data on key metrics for Amazon advertising, such as product sales and revenue. Without this information, it's difficult to accurately measure the success of your Amazon advertising campaigns and determine the return on investment.
So what are the alternatives to Google Analytics for measuring Amazon advertising? One option is to use Amazon's own advertising platform, which provides detailed, real-time data on your campaigns. Another option is to use a third-party ad tracking and analytics platform, such as Advert Analytics or Sellics, which provide specialized tools and reporting for Amazon advertising.
In conclusion, while Google Analytics is a valuable tool for many aspects of digital marketing, it falls short when it comes to measuring the effectiveness of Amazon advertising. If you're running Amazon advertising campaigns, it's important to use specialized tools and platforms that provide the detailed, real-time data you need to optimize your campaigns and drive results.
Current Pain Points With Google Analytics and Amazon Ads
- Bot Scanner Traffic
- Amazon uses a bot scanner to check each iteration of our assets to ensure compliance. GA is unable to filter this traffic out leading to high bounce rates and low time on site
- GA does not count view-through conversions or site visitors from outside sources
- If a user views an Amazon DSP campaign but does not click through and later searches for the dealership on Google, that conversion is entirely attributed to search
- Session definition discrepancy Multi session views are not counted from programmatic advertisers causing
Actions to Reconcile Traffic in Google Analytics
- Pixel website conversions through Amazon pixel
- Track same conversion goals that you look at in GA through the Amazon pixel for more accurate reporting
- Add UTM parameters and click macros
- Input UTM parameters to each campaign in order to accurately tag traffic coming from the DSP
- Utilize sales and leads match-back reporting
- Run match back reports for sales and lead CRM lists to show offline activity driven from DSP campaigns to further craft a narrative of the user journey
