A pet wellness company grows with the Brand Referral Bonus and Amazon Attribution
"We view Amazon as a strategic partner and an important sales channel.”
Josh Awad
COO, Honest Paws
Bringing the CBD trend into the pet wellness market
Honest Paws is a wellness brand that started by specializing in CBD products formulated for pets. Founded in 2016, Honest Paws makes premium pet products, while striving to provide a world-class customer experience.
The team at Honest Paws realized early on that they’d benefit from broadening their focus beyond CBD-based pet products into general pet wellness. As they expanded their line of products to include non-CBD offerings, they began to sell in the Amazon store.
“We recognized how important it is to meet our customers everywhere they are and a lot of them are on Amazon,” COO of Honest Paws Josh Awad says.
The team at Honest Paws realized early on that they’d benefit from broadening their focus beyond CBD-based pet products into general pet wellness. As they expanded their line of products to include non-CBD offerings, they began to sell in the Amazon store.
“We recognized how important it is to meet our customers everywhere they are and a lot of them are on Amazon,” COO of Honest Paws Josh Awad says.
Honest Paws and Amazon before the Brand Referral Bonus
Before the Brand Referral Bonus, Honest Paws had experimented with driving traffic to Amazon, but they weren’t able to discern which advertising channels yielded the strongest return or what was pushing incremental growth.
“With ever-rising ad costs on social media and very low conversion rates, we were always kind of scrambling to see what worked,” says Jake Malthaner, VP of ecommerce at Honest Paws. “We tried multiple social media platforms and there wasn’t a massive lift.”
“With ever-rising ad costs on social media and very low conversion rates, we were always kind of scrambling to see what worked,” says Jake Malthaner, VP of ecommerce at Honest Paws. “We tried multiple social media platforms and there wasn’t a massive lift.”
Everybody was trying to figure out how to make more money on Amazon at a cheaper rate and get a better organic lift from Amazon. [The Brand Referral Bonus] was the answer.Jake MalthanerVP of ecommerce, Honest Paws
The Brand Referral Bonus boosts Honest Paws bestseller ranking and sales
Honest Paws began using the Brand Referral Bonus almost as soon as it was available. The average 10% credit helped offset the rising costs of ad spend on social media and gave Honest Paws the flexibility to experiment with new ways to improve conversion. In addition, they found driving traffic to Amazon listings resulted in higher conversion. They began to double down on the Brand Referral Bonus in late 2021.
The Brand Referral Bonus allow you to add tags across search and social ads and emailing marketing using Amazon Attribution, an advertising solution for marketers who want to access analytics and measure campaign performance.
“The results were tremendous right out of the gate,” Jake says. “We were seeing 12% conversion rates and sometimes $12,000 to $15,000 in sales on a single link.”
They saw an increase in cart sizes and, with that, an increase in average order value, as well as a 97% new-to-brand rate. They also saw a drastic lift in their Subscribe & Save rate, with a lift of three times their monthly subscriptions since they started. In addition, they saw improvements in their Best Seller Ranking.
The Brand Referral Bonus allow you to add tags across search and social ads and emailing marketing using Amazon Attribution, an advertising solution for marketers who want to access analytics and measure campaign performance.
“The results were tremendous right out of the gate,” Jake says. “We were seeing 12% conversion rates and sometimes $12,000 to $15,000 in sales on a single link.”
They saw an increase in cart sizes and, with that, an increase in average order value, as well as a 97% new-to-brand rate. They also saw a drastic lift in their Subscribe & Save rate, with a lift of three times their monthly subscriptions since they started. In addition, they saw improvements in their Best Seller Ranking.
Conversion rates jump 4x with BRB and Amazon Attribution
The team at Honest Paws loves analytics, and using the Brand Referral Bonus with Amazon Attribution gave them a more in-depth understanding of marketing channels both in and beyond the Amazon store.
With Amazon Attribution, they started to track how well each non-Amazon marketing campaign performed. This data provided Honest Paws with the confidence to conduct A/B tests that compared different versions of campaigns. That helped them learn what resonated most with customers.
One A/B test used the Featured Offer to study customer purchase behavior. One purchase link went to an Amazon sales page and the other took a customer to the Honest Paws website.
“The conversion rate has been 3 to 4 times better, in some cases 10 times better when the shopper clicks on the Amazon link,” Jake says. “The most important thing this enables us to do is capture that lead, meaning a lot of customers go to honestpaws.com, they browse around, and then they go to Amazon to make their purchase.”
With Amazon Attribution, they started to track how well each non-Amazon marketing campaign performed. This data provided Honest Paws with the confidence to conduct A/B tests that compared different versions of campaigns. That helped them learn what resonated most with customers.
One A/B test used the Featured Offer to study customer purchase behavior. One purchase link went to an Amazon sales page and the other took a customer to the Honest Paws website.
“The conversion rate has been 3 to 4 times better, in some cases 10 times better when the shopper clicks on the Amazon link,” Jake says. “The most important thing this enables us to do is capture that lead, meaning a lot of customers go to honestpaws.com, they browse around, and then they go to Amazon to make their purchase.”
Monetizing content marketing and SEO with the Brand Referral Bonus
Honest Paws drives roughly 75% to 80% of their external marketing traffic to Amazon and puts a focus on search engine optimization (SEO).
“Even though we want to keep strengthening every channel we can, we want the higher conversion rate that the Amazon buy button supports, and the efficiencies of using BRB,” Jake says.
They also saw success from experimenting with marketing strategies like link proliferation and third-party content marketing. For example, they worked with publishers to feature pet wellness goods in product-comparison articles, or “listicles” (best-of lists). One of the online articles where an Honest Paws product appeared notably received 35,000 views per month. With the link back to Amazon through the Brand Referral Bonus, they saw an average of 10% back on relevant purchases.
“Even though we want to keep strengthening every channel we can, we want the higher conversion rate that the Amazon buy button supports, and the efficiencies of using BRB,” Jake says.
They also saw success from experimenting with marketing strategies like link proliferation and third-party content marketing. For example, they worked with publishers to feature pet wellness goods in product-comparison articles, or “listicles” (best-of lists). One of the online articles where an Honest Paws product appeared notably received 35,000 views per month. With the link back to Amazon through the Brand Referral Bonus, they saw an average of 10% back on relevant purchases.
What’s next for Honest Paws and BRB?
With a focus on developing new, clean, ingredient-based products, Honest Paws is excited about what's to come.
“Our [Brand Referral Bonus] links and Amazon Attribution analytics are helping to grow our brand awareness at a pivotal time,” Jake says.
They’re looking forward to further honing analytics and ongoing experimentation.
“The benefits that Amazon rewards sellers with, in terms of organic indexing and incremental revenue growth, far outweigh the work it takes to drive external traffic to your listings,” Josh says.
“Our [Brand Referral Bonus] links and Amazon Attribution analytics are helping to grow our brand awareness at a pivotal time,” Jake says.
They’re looking forward to further honing analytics and ongoing experimentation.
“The benefits that Amazon rewards sellers with, in terms of organic indexing and incremental revenue growth, far outweigh the work it takes to drive external traffic to your listings,” Josh says.
[The Brand Referral Bonus] is the best bang for your buck that you’re going to get.
