our blog chatter
|
|
This week we assess why Amazon Advertising API data, and a corresponding data storage solution, is crucial for your agency’s, brand’s, or investment firm’s success. No matter how you slice it, API data is crucial to understanding and growing your Amazon business. I’m switching gears a bit this week as this very question came up while I was working with a paid media agency in the Denver area. It went something like, “Can I get by working with the manual advertising report downloads that come out of Amazon directly?”. The short answer —no. Keep reading to avoid the pitfalls of relying on manually downloaded Amazon advertising reports. Your manual process won’t scaleIf you are just getting started advertising on Amazon, you likely have stumbled across the manual advertising data reports that are available for Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands as seen below. And although you can cobble together a reporting solution via Excel, Smart Sheets, or another option, you will inevitably run into a number of issues as your data set, client list, and reporting obligations grow. I used the manual method of generating reporting and analysis for my Amazon clients for almost two years. It was painful. I wish I would’ve been on the API so much sooner. The following are the primary issues that occur when working with the manual downloads:
The API has all the available dataIf you have suspicions about data gaps in the API then you can breathe easily. V2 of the Amazon Advertising API has all of the data that is currently available in the manually downloaded reports. There are a number of data gaps in V1 of the API, which is why Amazon recommends that you move immediately to V2 of the API. V2 of the API also happens to be where Amazon first releases access to new data fields. Often, we will notice new data fields flowing through the API before they are available in the Amazon advertising interface. If you want to stay on top of the data, having API access is to ensure you are up on the latest changes. Any structural changes that Amazon makes to the data of the API are detailed in release notes that explain the changes and help your developer or data provider adapt the data pulling and storage solution. This is not the case for manual reports which often roll out new fields with no warning. One day you’ll find yourself minding your own business, downloading and uploading the manual reports and all of a sudden your reporting solution breaks at the end of the month for no reason. This can cause extreme stress come reporting time and is easily avoided by moving off of the manual reports. Because Amazon said soA paid media agency that I work closely with was accepted into Amazon’s Agency Partnership Program in the fall of 2018. You won’t find much about this program as it is in its early stages and does not promote externally —Amazon found me on LinkedIn and made the connection. Only about 100 agencies nationwide were accepted into the program and in speaking with the manager of the division, we came to find that Amazon has specific scoring criteria determining an Agency’s eligibility to become a partner. And you may have guessed it, utilizing the API data for advertising is one of those boxes that should be checked in order to be considered. So if you want to work with Amazon directly as an agency, much like you would a Facebook or Google, it is time to start drawing on the API. TakeawaysIf you read nothing else, here are the headline points for why you should be using Amazon Advertising API data:
sam hager | president dash / AMAZON
an amazon advertising expert, sam is on the forefront of ecommerce evolution and leads thought for agencies and brands looking to crack the digital commerce code. sam.hager@dashapplications.com
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
July 2020
Categories
All
|
denver
|
boulder
|
fort collins
|
raleigh
|
© 2021 Dash Applications LLC. All Rights Reserved.
|