1
00:00:11,850 --> 00:00:16,380
Well, welcome to last minute Levers,

2
00:00:16,440 --> 00:00:20,910
your final prep before we enter
into what is arguably the most

3
00:00:20,910 --> 00:00:25,620
wonderful time of the year
for sellers and merchants and

4
00:00:25,620 --> 00:00:29,370
brand owners. We got
q4, we got peak holiday,

5
00:00:29,370 --> 00:00:34,170
we got BFCM coming up right around the

6
00:00:34,170 --> 00:00:34,680
corner.

7
00:00:34,680 --> 00:00:37,590
And so we wanted to take this time to
do something kind of unique and this is

8
00:00:37,590 --> 00:00:38,730
going to be a bit of a unique event.

9
00:00:38,730 --> 00:00:41,520
I'll kind of lay the
stage here momentarily,

10
00:00:41,520 --> 00:00:46,110
but we want to get you ready and give
you some final strategies, tactics,

11
00:00:46,470 --> 00:00:51,210
levers to pull so that you
can make this a smashing

12
00:00:51,600 --> 00:00:55,710
success. And so this is not
going to be your typical webinar.

13
00:00:55,770 --> 00:00:58,200
I love learning. I love
attending webinars.

14
00:00:58,590 --> 00:01:03,030
Sometimes they're kind of like
death by PowerPoint or Google

15
00:01:03,180 --> 00:01:06,210
Slides or Gamma or whatever
the latest flavor is.

16
00:01:06,990 --> 00:01:10,350
We'll certainly have some visuals, we'll
have some presentations to show you,

17
00:01:10,350 --> 00:01:14,310
but I wanted this to be
more of a conversation with

18
00:01:14,580 --> 00:01:19,080
experts so that you can
get some raw feedback and

19
00:01:19,080 --> 00:01:23,310
ideas and I think this will be
fun and I think the pace will be

20
00:01:23,490 --> 00:01:27,480
enjoyable.
And so I'm really just your host today.

21
00:01:27,480 --> 00:01:30,690
I'm just the guy behind the
microphone keeping everything moving,

22
00:01:30,690 --> 00:01:35,550
making sure we're on track and really
pulling out some great insights

23
00:01:35,610 --> 00:01:37,800
from our guests.

24
00:01:37,800 --> 00:01:42,090
And so I do want to introduce
our guests because do we have a

25
00:01:42,090 --> 00:01:46,770
lineup for you? So first
off, we've got Luba.

26
00:01:47,010 --> 00:01:48,810
She's part of team OMG.

27
00:01:48,810 --> 00:01:52,830
She's our senior A BM or
Amazon brand management

28
00:01:53,220 --> 00:01:54,120
strategist.

29
00:01:54,660 --> 00:01:59,220
And Luba is one of those people that
I don't know anybody that knows the

30
00:01:59,220 --> 00:02:03,120
insides of baseball for Amazon, like Luba.

31
00:02:03,780 --> 00:02:06,570
She comes from running a hardware
store just long as the other day,

32
00:02:06,570 --> 00:02:10,860
running a hardware store on the upper
west side of Manhattan to becoming

33
00:02:11,340 --> 00:02:12,660
an Amazon pro.

34
00:02:12,660 --> 00:02:16,860
And she actually ran Amazon for a client
of ours years ago and then someone that

35
00:02:16,860 --> 00:02:18,120
I became a real friend with,

36
00:02:18,120 --> 00:02:21,960
the owner and Luba and
her team grew that brand,

37
00:02:21,960 --> 00:02:25,770
a pretty big brand from 3 million a
year on Amazon. Nothing to seize that,

38
00:02:26,190 --> 00:02:30,450
to just shy of 17
million a year on Amazon.

39
00:02:30,450 --> 00:02:34,200
She's grown other brands. She's
a trusted coach and advisor.

40
00:02:34,200 --> 00:02:38,790
She's kind of running our team here
at OMG and so can't wait for you to

41
00:02:38,790 --> 00:02:43,140
hear from Luba. She's
fiery, she's got insights.

42
00:02:43,740 --> 00:02:45,690
You're going to love her as
soon as you hear from her.

43
00:02:45,690 --> 00:02:48,060
So we'll hear from Luba momentarily.

44
00:02:48,060 --> 00:02:52,110
But welcome to the program
Luba and scale of one to 10,

45
00:02:52,110 --> 00:02:53,910
how excited are you to be
presenting on the webinar?

46
00:02:54,090 --> 00:02:58,140
I actually love being on a webinar,
so I would even say it's 11.

47
00:02:59,140 --> 00:02:59,770
Oh,

48
00:02:59,770 --> 00:03:04,690
we're dialing this one up to 11 for
all you Spinal Tap fans out there.

49
00:03:05,350 --> 00:03:09,100
Next up we got Jonathan Finka.
I had to look this up. Jonathan,

50
00:03:09,580 --> 00:03:13,240
you've been with OMG for seven years,
man, that is in internet years.

51
00:03:13,330 --> 00:03:15,670
That is a long, long time.

52
00:03:15,790 --> 00:03:18,760
So super glad that
you're part of the team.

53
00:03:19,150 --> 00:03:21,550
Jonathan is an ad pro.

54
00:03:21,550 --> 00:03:26,530
The dude remembers numbers like
nobody's business. He is very strategic,

55
00:03:26,530 --> 00:03:27,430
he's logical.

56
00:03:27,820 --> 00:03:32,710
He understands how brand building
works and how Amazon advertising works.

57
00:03:32,710 --> 00:03:36,610
And so Jonathan, with that
man, welcome to the webinar.

58
00:03:36,610 --> 00:03:39,070
Welcome to the show, so to
speak. Thanks for coming on.

59
00:03:39,070 --> 00:03:43,750
And same question for you. Scale
of one to 10, how excited are you?

60
00:03:44,290 --> 00:03:48,760
More of a realist. So I'm going to
give it a seven, a strong seven.

61
00:03:51,730 --> 00:03:55,210
I actually, I had those
hedging bets in my mind, right?

62
00:03:55,210 --> 00:03:58,900
Placing bets and I knew you were going
to come in under, so I love that.

63
00:03:58,900 --> 00:04:03,280
I think that's a good ad strategist
who's really watching the numbers and

64
00:04:03,280 --> 00:04:05,530
bidding and looking at
probabilistic outcomes.

65
00:04:06,250 --> 00:04:08,680
Got to take the realistic approach,
right? It's a seven. Yeah,

66
00:04:08,680 --> 00:04:12,490
and I think that's spot on. So love that.

67
00:04:12,850 --> 00:04:14,290
Love having both you on the program.

68
00:04:14,290 --> 00:04:18,580
So you're going to hear a ton from
Jonathan and Lu as we go here,

69
00:04:18,580 --> 00:04:20,590
but the real star of the show,

70
00:04:21,490 --> 00:04:25,930
the real guest of the show
here is our friend and

71
00:04:25,930 --> 00:04:29,920
client, Connor Crook
from Diamondback Tools.

72
00:04:29,920 --> 00:04:31,600
What's up Connor? How's it going today?

73
00:04:32,410 --> 00:04:33,430
Things are good. Things are good.

74
00:04:33,430 --> 00:04:36,130
I've been down in the warehouse
sewing stuff all morning.

75
00:04:37,060 --> 00:04:40,330
You've been making tool
belts today, not tool belts.

76
00:04:40,330 --> 00:04:44,590
We're looking at some brand expansion
and I'm just sitting down at the

77
00:04:44,590 --> 00:04:49,450
machine playing around with some concepts
and seeing what might come out in the

78
00:04:49,450 --> 00:04:50,283
future.

79
00:04:50,380 --> 00:04:53,890
You're playing your best
Christmas elf here. Like, hey,

80
00:04:54,910 --> 00:04:57,220
let's not just talk about products,
let's not talk about growth.

81
00:04:57,220 --> 00:05:00,880
Let's go make some stuff. You're
going to get to hear from Connor,

82
00:05:01,240 --> 00:05:04,960
one of the longtime OMG clients, a friend.

83
00:05:04,960 --> 00:05:09,040
We're really seeing tremendous growth,
amazing product time and back tools.

84
00:05:09,040 --> 00:05:13,810
And so we'll get to see
how Amazon fits into their

85
00:05:13,810 --> 00:05:15,070
overall growth strategy,

86
00:05:15,460 --> 00:05:18,280
what their promotional strategy
is going to be like for q4,

87
00:05:18,610 --> 00:05:22,030
and then some challenges and
some wins from this year.

88
00:05:22,030 --> 00:05:25,600
And really that's going to
be the flow of this webinar.

89
00:05:25,600 --> 00:05:27,580
I think it's important to
take just a couple of minutes.

90
00:05:27,580 --> 00:05:28,540
We won't spend long here,

91
00:05:28,540 --> 00:05:33,460
but let's talk strategically how should
Amazon fit into your overall brand

92
00:05:33,460 --> 00:05:36,730
growth before we get into a season like
this and start discounting and start

93
00:05:36,730 --> 00:05:38,380
going nuts, trying to
close sales and whatnot.

94
00:05:38,800 --> 00:05:40,420
I think it's important to back up and say,

95
00:05:40,450 --> 00:05:45,010
why are we doing what we're doing? How
is Amazon fit into the grander scheme of

96
00:05:45,010 --> 00:05:45,370
things?

97
00:05:45,370 --> 00:05:48,970
Because ultimately I should be trying to
build a business and trying to build a

98
00:05:48,970 --> 00:05:52,450
brand, not just trying to sell stuff
on Amazon. So we're going to back up.

99
00:05:52,450 --> 00:05:55,120
I really love Connor's perspective here.

100
00:05:55,420 --> 00:05:59,090
So we'll do that very briefly and then
we're going to get into some challenges

101
00:05:59,090 --> 00:06:00,530
and some wins from this year,

102
00:06:00,530 --> 00:06:04,820
what has changed and what's different
and so how that's going to shape our

103
00:06:04,850 --> 00:06:08,060
Q4 plan. And then we'll get the last
minute levers, promotional strategy,

104
00:06:08,060 --> 00:06:12,350
lots of good stuff for you to take away
and make this one of the best holidays

105
00:06:12,350 --> 00:06:16,130
yet. So let's start with
strategy. So Connor,

106
00:06:16,910 --> 00:06:19,070
I want to hear from you,

107
00:06:20,120 --> 00:06:25,070
how does Amazon fit into your overall

108
00:06:25,580 --> 00:06:29,960
brand strategy and how has that

109
00:06:29,960 --> 00:06:33,170
evolved over recent years? Because again,

110
00:06:33,170 --> 00:06:37,790
as we get into this situation where we
may be tempted to slash our profits to

111
00:06:37,790 --> 00:06:41,420
close more deals in q4, we step back
and think about the overall strategy.

112
00:06:41,420 --> 00:06:43,250
So how has that evolved
for Diamondback Tools?

113
00:06:43,790 --> 00:06:44,623
Yeah, Brett, thanks.

114
00:06:45,650 --> 00:06:50,630
So I bought Diamondback back in
2016 at the very end of 2016,

115
00:06:50,660 --> 00:06:55,280
got going next year and our strategy
was all about our website tool

116
00:06:55,280 --> 00:06:58,760
wells.com. We eventually
added some dealers.

117
00:06:59,060 --> 00:07:02,540
We weren't really able to get into the
dealers in the US but we had some success

118
00:07:02,540 --> 00:07:05,480
internationally and I was
really hesitant about Amazon,

119
00:07:05,480 --> 00:07:09,080
just horror stories that I've heard
about them copying your product,

120
00:07:09,080 --> 00:07:13,850
knocking off your product, you lose
control of it. And after a few years,

121
00:07:13,850 --> 00:07:15,530
I think it was 21 or so,

122
00:07:16,130 --> 00:07:20,570
we had an employee at the
time sales lead who said, Hey,

123
00:07:20,570 --> 00:07:23,450
I've got some experience with Amazon,
I can set it up. We'll see how it goes.

124
00:07:23,690 --> 00:07:25,610
Well you know how to do it. Let's do it.

125
00:07:26,600 --> 00:07:31,160
It was also a good timing because that
was post COVID when the DTC market was

126
00:07:31,160 --> 00:07:36,020
slowing down and it was a good time to
really branch out into some different

127
00:07:36,020 --> 00:07:39,740
channels. So once we got in there,

128
00:07:40,340 --> 00:07:44,900
what we found is Amazon provides a couple
of different really key features for

129
00:07:44,900 --> 00:07:48,380
us. One, it's a different sales
stream, it's a different customer.

130
00:07:48,740 --> 00:07:53,450
I think Luba has some information she'll
share about globally the overlap or

131
00:07:53,450 --> 00:07:55,190
lack of overlap with Amazon,

132
00:07:55,190 --> 00:07:59,720
but we've definitely seen from
what information we can get from

133
00:07:59,720 --> 00:08:01,610
Amazon that it's a different customer.

134
00:08:01,610 --> 00:08:06,200
We have some really interesting anecdotes
about how you can get a customer on

135
00:08:06,200 --> 00:08:08,930
Diamond Bag that becomes your
online customer and vice versa.

136
00:08:09,650 --> 00:08:11,390
Some of the different
just shopping habits.

137
00:08:12,740 --> 00:08:17,720
Another great thing that it's done
for us is help smooth cashflow issues.

138
00:08:19,220 --> 00:08:22,460
Amazon DTC wholesale,

139
00:08:22,460 --> 00:08:24,560
they all have different ebbs and flows.

140
00:08:24,920 --> 00:08:29,600
Obviously right now stores or wholesalers
are stocking up for the holidays,

141
00:08:29,600 --> 00:08:33,320
but customers are cooling it down.
They know Black Friday's coming,

142
00:08:34,130 --> 00:08:38,930
so we know that we're going to
have a spike in both Shopify and

143
00:08:38,960 --> 00:08:42,470
Amazon as you go into the holiday,

144
00:08:42,470 --> 00:08:46,730
but then even there they kind of ebb
and flow a little bit differently.

145
00:08:47,990 --> 00:08:51,140
So just understanding
how Amazon can smooth

146
00:08:52,430 --> 00:08:56,250
cashflow, how it can bring
in new customers, and

147
00:08:58,320 --> 00:09:00,720
it's just an expansion
to have one more stream.

148
00:09:00,810 --> 00:09:04,560
And I was talking about costs
and stuff. I look at it this way.

149
00:09:05,040 --> 00:09:08,070
Amazon wholesale and DTC,

150
00:09:08,160 --> 00:09:11,700
they're all going to cost you
30 to 40 points. It's such.

151
00:09:11,700 --> 00:09:14,550
A good point. It's such a good
point. You really can't avoid.

152
00:09:14,550 --> 00:09:17,550
It. Yeah, you're going to
pay margin to a dealer, okay,

153
00:09:17,730 --> 00:09:21,570
dealers doing certain things for
you, they're selling for you. Amazon,

154
00:09:22,020 --> 00:09:23,250
that's a place where you can market.

155
00:09:23,250 --> 00:09:24,570
It's a place where they're
going to sell for you.

156
00:09:24,570 --> 00:09:28,260
They're going to do part
of your warehousing for you
and they're going to open

157
00:09:28,260 --> 00:09:30,420
you up to new eyes so
you can pay for that.

158
00:09:30,960 --> 00:09:33,690
DTC has been a tremendous amount,

159
00:09:34,020 --> 00:09:38,130
much of it with OMG on
advertising, on Facebook,

160
00:09:38,130 --> 00:09:42,120
on Meta and Google. So either
way you're paying. Yeah.

161
00:09:42,450 --> 00:09:45,720
Yeah, man, it's such a good point. Yeah,
you're going to lose 30 or 40 points.

162
00:09:45,900 --> 00:09:47,550
It's going to vary a little
bit by your category,

163
00:09:47,550 --> 00:09:52,350
but you're going to be giving up that
margin and just where it's going does vary

164
00:09:52,350 --> 00:09:54,540
a little bit from channel to channel.

165
00:09:54,540 --> 00:09:58,140
And I love this chance to step back
and just look at this holistically.

166
00:09:59,160 --> 00:10:02,940
I'll use a couple of examples here.
Boom. Originally boom by Cindy Joseph.

167
00:10:02,940 --> 00:10:05,490
Now boom, beauty longtime client of OMG.

168
00:10:05,730 --> 00:10:08,520
We worked with them for years and
years on the Google and YouTube side,

169
00:10:08,520 --> 00:10:12,960
and then we helped them launch on
Amazon and they went from zero to

170
00:10:13,110 --> 00:10:16,950
$6 million the first year and very
little cannibalization of their core

171
00:10:17,400 --> 00:10:20,220
business. And it's because there
was a lot of pent up demand.

172
00:10:20,220 --> 00:10:22,470
There was a lot of people that have been
seeing the boom, my Cindy Joseph ads,

173
00:10:22,470 --> 00:10:23,970
and they love the message
and they love the angle,

174
00:10:23,970 --> 00:10:27,120
but they just weren't buying because
Boom wasn't on Amazon. They launched on

175
00:10:27,120 --> 00:10:28,290
Amazon. Things take off.

176
00:10:28,530 --> 00:10:31,890
Obviously we do a lot of work on the ad
side and the organic optimization side

177
00:10:31,890 --> 00:10:35,160
and stuff like that. Then
you look at native deodorant.

178
00:10:35,160 --> 00:10:36,360
We were working with Moist,

179
00:10:36,360 --> 00:10:40,800
the founder from the early days and went
through the acquisition and grew them

180
00:10:41,250 --> 00:10:45,870
with p and g for years. I think they
did a billion dollars last year.

181
00:10:45,870 --> 00:10:48,900
Moist tweeted, but one of the things
he said about Amazon was like,

182
00:10:49,170 --> 00:10:51,330
I just wish I'd gotten there
sooner. That was the main thing.

183
00:10:51,330 --> 00:10:52,260
I wish I'd gotten there sooner.

184
00:10:53,070 --> 00:10:55,200
But I think what we're
potentially tempted to do,

185
00:10:55,200 --> 00:10:56,760
and I tease this a
little bit at the outset,

186
00:10:56,760 --> 00:11:01,440
is we're tempted to say
we're on Amazon, it's Q4,

187
00:11:01,450 --> 00:11:06,150
it's about to be cyber five or cyber 12
or cyber whatever it's going to be this

188
00:11:06,150 --> 00:11:09,060
year. Got to do well.

189
00:11:09,060 --> 00:11:12,840
So I'm just going to start giving away
all my margin and then end up making

190
00:11:12,840 --> 00:11:15,180
mistakes.
And so seeing how this fits,

191
00:11:15,180 --> 00:11:17,700
this is a great place
to close new business,

192
00:11:17,700 --> 00:11:20,970
a great way to attract new
customers. To your point, Connor,

193
00:11:20,970 --> 00:11:24,390
sometimes you meet people and you will
get customers you wouldn't have otherwise

194
00:11:24,390 --> 00:11:27,510
gotten. And so that's really
what this is all about.

195
00:11:27,810 --> 00:11:31,050
I want to talk briefly about, anyway,

196
00:11:31,050 --> 00:11:34,290
actually we can dig in as much
as we see fit here as we go here,

197
00:11:34,290 --> 00:11:37,140
but what are some of the
things that have shifted?

198
00:11:37,140 --> 00:11:38,130
So I'll start with you Connor,

199
00:11:38,130 --> 00:11:42,690
and then I want to go deep with Luba
and Jonathan. What's shifted this year?

200
00:11:43,530 --> 00:11:47,640
What's changed on Amazon because there's
been a lot and then how that's going to

201
00:11:47,640 --> 00:11:49,350
influence us in q4.

202
00:11:49,350 --> 00:11:53,740
So what are some of the changes you've
kind of endured here in 25 so far,

203
00:11:53,740 --> 00:11:54,573
Connor?

204
00:11:54,790 --> 00:11:54,940
Well,

205
00:11:54,940 --> 00:11:58,300
the big story in e-commerce and commerce
in general this year is obviously the

206
00:11:58,300 --> 00:11:59,133
tariffs.

207
00:12:00,070 --> 00:12:04,480
The tariff situation has been really huge
here at Diamondback and interesting on

208
00:12:04,480 --> 00:12:08,230
a lot of different levels because we
were a made in USA product for the first

209
00:12:08,230 --> 00:12:09,880
five, six years I ran in business.

210
00:12:10,540 --> 00:12:14,860
That just became untenable and for a lot
of reasons and we moved our production

211
00:12:14,860 --> 00:12:18,730
to Vietnam. That was a
huge move that we did.

212
00:12:18,820 --> 00:12:23,290
And as about the time we got all
of our product moved to Vietnam,

213
00:12:23,590 --> 00:12:28,360
we had the announcement of liberation
day and we were being liberated from,

214
00:12:28,600 --> 00:12:31,780
I don't know what liberated
from your profits. Exactly.

215
00:12:33,520 --> 00:12:38,440
So it quickly became our strategy around

216
00:12:38,440 --> 00:12:41,170
liberation day and the tariffs was, hey,

217
00:12:41,170 --> 00:12:43,120
we are selling a lot of our
product internationally.

218
00:12:43,120 --> 00:12:47,860
We need to lean into that and we need to
figure out a way to get our product to

219
00:12:47,860 --> 00:12:50,620
various places around the world
without coming to Charlottesville,

220
00:12:50,620 --> 00:12:55,450
Virginia along the way.
And so we were

221
00:12:55,450 --> 00:12:56,830
working with that a lot with wholesale,

222
00:12:56,830 --> 00:12:58,870
but it's also a part
of our Amazon strategy.

223
00:12:59,650 --> 00:13:02,740
We had always fulfilled
orders into Canada from here,

224
00:13:03,730 --> 00:13:08,350
FBM from here in Charlottesville or
FBA through American warehousing.

225
00:13:08,800 --> 00:13:13,060
So we are moving a lot of our Amazon

226
00:13:13,060 --> 00:13:17,620
strategy around Australia and Canada.
We're leaning in heavier there.

227
00:13:17,620 --> 00:13:20,050
We're starting to put in
advertising in Canada.

228
00:13:20,470 --> 00:13:22,300
We haven't started
advertising in Australia yet,

229
00:13:22,330 --> 00:13:24,520
but we're seeing solid
organic growth there.

230
00:13:25,540 --> 00:13:30,130
And so it's all about moving the product
and getting it to those locations

231
00:13:30,130 --> 00:13:32,860
without coming here to avoid the tariffs.

232
00:13:32,860 --> 00:13:36,070
So international expansion
has been really big for us.

233
00:13:37,420 --> 00:13:41,650
Another thing that came with the shift
in manufacturing was skew changes

234
00:13:43,360 --> 00:13:45,130
internally. We made the decision that

235
00:13:46,630 --> 00:13:51,370
this product is a DB 500 or whatever
it is when it's made in Asia,

236
00:13:51,880 --> 00:13:52,930
it becomes a DB 500,

237
00:13:52,930 --> 00:13:57,760
a phrase. Well then you lose
a lot of traction with the

238
00:13:57,760 --> 00:13:58,593
algorithm.

239
00:13:59,170 --> 00:14:03,970
So working on strategies to avoid losing
the traction that we've grown around

240
00:14:03,970 --> 00:14:07,390
certain products has been a big
part of our growth this year.

241
00:14:08,710 --> 00:14:11,170
We also, because when we moved to Asia,

242
00:14:11,170 --> 00:14:15,220
we divided between our best
product and our old product,

243
00:14:15,220 --> 00:14:18,190
which is now on sort of our
better level best product.

244
00:14:19,660 --> 00:14:23,230
And so there's been a lot of discussion
around channel strategy as to what goes

245
00:14:23,230 --> 00:14:25,480
on Amazon, what goes on tool belts.com,

246
00:14:25,810 --> 00:14:29,620
what goes to dealers and how do
we emphasize different products.

247
00:14:31,330 --> 00:14:36,280
And the biggest part of our Amazon
strategy this year is just really been the

248
00:14:36,280 --> 00:14:39,190
growth DTC wise.

249
00:14:39,190 --> 00:14:43,150
September was pretty far off of
the pace of where we hoped to be,

250
00:14:43,150 --> 00:14:44,980
but we made up for it on Amazon.

251
00:14:45,430 --> 00:14:50,350
And the interesting thing is it's not
cannibalization because we're seeing

252
00:14:50,350 --> 00:14:54,080
most of the growth, Amazon or a lot
of it is in Australia and Canada.

253
00:14:54,080 --> 00:14:58,640
As we've moved more there, put more
of our product available on Amazon.

254
00:14:59,030 --> 00:15:03,410
So our Amazon strategy has
been avoiding tariffs and

255
00:15:03,710 --> 00:15:05,180
leaning into international,

256
00:15:05,810 --> 00:15:10,700
dealing with updated skews and
trying not to lose traction and then

257
00:15:10,700 --> 00:15:15,440
trying to figure out how to make
Amazon really a thoughtful part of our

258
00:15:15,440 --> 00:15:19,880
omnichannel approach so
that it's growing without

259
00:15:19,880 --> 00:15:21,260
cannibalizing the other channels.

260
00:15:22,250 --> 00:15:26,630
Man, such good insights there a
lot we can unpack. I love that.

261
00:15:26,660 --> 00:15:28,250
Thinking about which products
are going to be on Amazon,

262
00:15:28,250 --> 00:15:31,730
which are going to be strictly
DTC or other channels and yeah,

263
00:15:31,730 --> 00:15:33,800
tariff mitigation and
international expansion,

264
00:15:33,800 --> 00:15:38,180
all of those are opportunities
that Amazon unlocks for us.

265
00:15:38,990 --> 00:15:41,690
We'll get back to some of
that more as we go here.

266
00:15:41,690 --> 00:15:46,490
I'm going to kick things over to you Luba
right now and I want to hear from you

267
00:15:46,640 --> 00:15:51,350
what are some of the things that
have really shifted this year

268
00:15:53,540 --> 00:15:57,380
and what's changed that has
materially changed the game on Amazon?

269
00:15:57,380 --> 00:15:58,730
You've been doing this for 11 years,

270
00:15:58,730 --> 00:16:02,090
you've seen everything under the
sun as it pertains to Amazon,

271
00:16:02,360 --> 00:16:05,270
so fire away and feel free to share your
screen too if you want to share that

272
00:16:05,270 --> 00:16:06,770
presentation if that's useful.

273
00:16:07,130 --> 00:16:08,690
So first of all, Connor,

274
00:16:09,410 --> 00:16:13,970
great success on Amazon and most
importantly I think you have the

275
00:16:13,970 --> 00:16:18,560
winning perspective on how
Amazon feeds into your ecosystem

276
00:16:19,280 --> 00:16:21,920
because too many people
are afraid of Amazon.

277
00:16:21,980 --> 00:16:26,840
And I've always said that if you
are not in control of your products

278
00:16:26,840 --> 00:16:29,930
distribution on Amazon,
somebody else's will.

279
00:16:31,550 --> 00:16:35,630
We see it all the time where a
brand's products end up on Amazon

280
00:16:36,440 --> 00:16:41,120
sold by third party resellers and
you have no control over content,

281
00:16:41,120 --> 00:16:43,130
over pricing, over quality.

282
00:16:44,000 --> 00:16:47,390
And we always advise brands who
may not even be interested in it,

283
00:16:48,590 --> 00:16:52,790
at least take control of your own
product that is being distributed there.

284
00:16:53,900 --> 00:16:55,280
There's always going to be the case.

285
00:16:55,820 --> 00:16:59,720
And just to elaborate on the
whole cannibalization thing,

286
00:17:00,320 --> 00:17:00,950
we've actually,

287
00:17:00,950 --> 00:17:05,480
in a good old days when you could
match Amazon scrambled email to the

288
00:17:05,480 --> 00:17:07,670
actual customer information,

289
00:17:09,500 --> 00:17:11,960
you can't do that
anymore, not at the scale,

290
00:17:12,470 --> 00:17:15,440
but we ran with one of
the brands I worked with,

291
00:17:15,440 --> 00:17:20,030
we ran their Amazon customers versus
their direct to consumer customers.

292
00:17:20,660 --> 00:17:23,030
There was about 10 15% overlap.

293
00:17:23,750 --> 00:17:24,583
That's crazy.

294
00:17:25,460 --> 00:17:27,290
You would think it
would be so much bigger,

295
00:17:27,710 --> 00:17:30,800
but in reality people shop
where people want to shop.

296
00:17:31,370 --> 00:17:34,310
I can see 20 Facebook
ads for a beauty product.

297
00:17:34,370 --> 00:17:39,080
I will not buy it through
Facebook, I will not.

298
00:17:39,140 --> 00:17:42,830
I go and I will look on
Amazon, is it available there?

299
00:17:43,580 --> 00:17:45,350
That will be my first resource.

300
00:17:47,630 --> 00:17:51,420
But what dramatically changed
on Amazon this year is

301
00:17:53,040 --> 00:17:56,700
matching product to customer intent.

302
00:17:57,750 --> 00:18:00,930
That is the biggest
change that took place.

303
00:18:01,590 --> 00:18:05,430
You can't any longer
spend your way into sale

304
00:18:06,420 --> 00:18:10,590
because if your product is not optimized
to the point where it's matching the

305
00:18:10,590 --> 00:18:14,640
consumer purchasing content, your
ads are simply not going to show.

306
00:18:15,900 --> 00:18:20,730
So you have to be very
thoughtful about who

307
00:18:20,730 --> 00:18:21,990
your customer is,

308
00:18:22,710 --> 00:18:27,420
what your brand is and what
is your value proposition.

309
00:18:28,590 --> 00:18:33,330
So we're going to be giving away some
of templates and I know everybody uses

310
00:18:33,330 --> 00:18:37,740
tools, we all have tools, sometimes
we have way too many tools,

311
00:18:38,700 --> 00:18:43,560
but these are quick templates
that you can use and I'll

312
00:18:43,560 --> 00:18:46,350
just walk over them and then
we'll email the links to anybody

313
00:18:47,910 --> 00:18:51,270
who is interested. So template.

314
00:18:51,270 --> 00:18:53,850
We'll make sure everybody gets it,
we'll email it out to the whole list.

315
00:18:54,840 --> 00:18:59,490
So the first template that I put
together that I like to use is sort of

316
00:18:59,490 --> 00:19:02,400
estimating if you should
even be running the deal.

317
00:19:02,940 --> 00:19:06,780
So you just plug in with the
referral fee. That's standard 15%.

318
00:19:07,500 --> 00:19:11,430
So let's say on average you
pay $5 in fulfillment fees,

319
00:19:11,520 --> 00:19:15,810
that's your 20% is your gold taxers and

320
00:19:16,200 --> 00:19:17,940
let's say you're going to run a best deal.

321
00:19:18,480 --> 00:19:22,830
Best deal for either be next week

322
00:19:22,950 --> 00:19:27,720
or for Black Friday, Monday is going to
cost you a thousand dollars per deal.

323
00:19:29,400 --> 00:19:33,810
Now this calculator helps you
calculate if your regular price is

324
00:19:33,840 --> 00:19:37,650
$15 and you're giving 10% discount

325
00:19:39,000 --> 00:19:43,650
and you sell 6,000 units with

326
00:19:45,270 --> 00:19:47,370
20% advertising cost,

327
00:19:48,270 --> 00:19:51,900
will you make money in the end or not?

328
00:19:52,770 --> 00:19:56,580
And you just plug in numbers and
see where you want to be in terms of

329
00:19:56,670 --> 00:19:59,040
advertising, how many
units you need to sell,

330
00:19:59,880 --> 00:20:04,020
how much margin you can give away to
come out where you want to come out

331
00:20:04,740 --> 00:20:07,770
financially. That's a
useful little template.

332
00:20:10,080 --> 00:20:13,920
Peak event budget, pacing
what you plan to spend,

333
00:20:13,920 --> 00:20:18,090
what you actually spend
paid revenue, total revenue,

334
00:20:19,260 --> 00:20:23,280
are you where you want
to be in Taos? If not,

335
00:20:23,730 --> 00:20:27,720
then you may need to dial
down your advertising expense.

336
00:20:29,280 --> 00:20:31,650
You may want to look
into why you pay so hot.

337
00:20:32,430 --> 00:20:34,380
And finally inventory,

338
00:20:35,100 --> 00:20:39,570
do you have enough on hand
inbound to FBA at a WD,

339
00:20:40,470 --> 00:20:41,820
how are you selling through?

340
00:20:42,210 --> 00:20:46,620
Should you pull back your ads
or maybe pause the promotions?

341
00:20:47,380 --> 00:20:51,370
This is something that I usually
recommend running during the

342
00:20:52,090 --> 00:20:54,130
large high velocity events,

343
00:20:54,670 --> 00:20:57,430
literally to have 15 minute touch bases

344
00:20:59,620 --> 00:21:03,730
and during the event just to see where
you are because things can get out of

345
00:21:03,730 --> 00:21:04,330
hand.

346
00:21:04,330 --> 00:21:09,250
Love it. Those resources are amazing Luba,
so we'll email that out to everybody.

347
00:21:09,760 --> 00:21:11,140
Feel free to use those, share those.

348
00:21:11,140 --> 00:21:15,640
I think now is a good time actually to
mention our sponsors and you alluded to

349
00:21:15,640 --> 00:21:16,690
this Luba,

350
00:21:16,690 --> 00:21:21,040
that everybody is using tools and
I think the most sophisticated,

351
00:21:21,040 --> 00:21:25,210
the fastest growing brands are using
tools makes life easier and better.

352
00:21:25,210 --> 00:21:28,390
But sometimes you just need to get down
and dirty with a spreadsheet and I do

353
00:21:28,390 --> 00:21:32,110
that all the time. We use HubSpot and
other tools for sales, I love them,

354
00:21:32,440 --> 00:21:34,420
but sometimes I just want to put stuff
in a spreadsheet because I want to

355
00:21:34,600 --> 00:21:37,870
manipulate and play around
with it and think big picture.

356
00:21:37,870 --> 00:21:42,370
And so I do want to highlight our
sponsors before we hear from Jonathan on

357
00:21:42,370 --> 00:21:45,880
what's changed, some wins
and challenges from 2025,

358
00:21:45,880 --> 00:21:49,360
but Amazon Prep, a MD prep, kpac,

359
00:21:50,200 --> 00:21:54,040
hello tax seller, candy LTA three Colts,

360
00:21:54,160 --> 00:21:56,800
check them all out,
they've got special offers,

361
00:21:57,490 --> 00:22:01,960
they're all valuable in their own
and so check out our sponsors.

362
00:22:03,220 --> 00:22:05,050
Jonathan, from your perspective,

363
00:22:05,830 --> 00:22:10,750
challenges wins and what's
shifted in 2025 so far from the

364
00:22:10,750 --> 00:22:12,250
ads side of things.

365
00:22:14,620 --> 00:22:19,300
So I think everybody knows that
the landscape in Amazon is always

366
00:22:19,300 --> 00:22:24,280
getting more competitive and
obviously 2025 is no different from

367
00:22:24,280 --> 00:22:25,780
the past couple of years in that sense,

368
00:22:26,170 --> 00:22:28,630
but it is different in the way
that it's getting more competitive.

369
00:22:29,500 --> 00:22:34,360
Obviously we've been seeing a lot more,
at least the bucket of brands on Amazon.

370
00:22:34,360 --> 00:22:38,590
I think we OMG work with
about 30 ish brands on Amazon,

371
00:22:38,590 --> 00:22:42,670
but we've all pretty much across the
board been seeing more and more intensity

372
00:22:42,670 --> 00:22:47,440
from either copycat
sellers or knockoffs or

373
00:22:48,130 --> 00:22:52,630
even more that are more sellers
popping up that are trying to

374
00:22:52,840 --> 00:22:57,580
say that they're your product or
making swiping your images and

375
00:22:57,580 --> 00:23:01,570
whatnot. But that's sort
of always been around,

376
00:23:01,570 --> 00:23:04,030
it's been a lot hot more intense
over the last couple of years.

377
00:23:05,080 --> 00:23:09,670
But of course the tariff play and just
kind of piggybacking off of what Lulu was

378
00:23:09,670 --> 00:23:13,120
saying about using really scrutinizing,

379
00:23:13,540 --> 00:23:16,810
will this promo actually be
profitable at the end of the day

380
00:23:18,970 --> 00:23:23,950
to tie into that is really brands have
had to really hone in on what are your

381
00:23:23,950 --> 00:23:28,390
numbers. We've worked with many brands
that were just on Amazon and they

382
00:23:29,770 --> 00:23:34,120
had their product that they were slinging
on Amazon for the last few years and

383
00:23:34,120 --> 00:23:39,040
they never really like, Hey,
what's margins? What's your goal?

384
00:23:39,700 --> 00:23:42,160
And they would come to us and
they'd say, what should our ACOs be?

385
00:23:42,160 --> 00:23:43,540
What is tacos?

386
00:23:43,540 --> 00:23:48,260
I've never heard of that
and not a business owner

387
00:23:48,260 --> 00:23:51,650
myself, but I like to think that if
I, I would have that nailed down,

388
00:23:52,310 --> 00:23:56,480
but just as it's getting more and more
competitive, we're seeing higher CPCs,

389
00:23:57,260 --> 00:23:59,210
the tariffs are obviously
eating the margins,

390
00:23:59,420 --> 00:24:03,230
that number is really important and that's
also really important for the ad side

391
00:24:03,260 --> 00:24:04,400
of things to know that

392
00:24:05,900 --> 00:24:09,860
if that number is being determined by
your agency or you're trying to figure out

393
00:24:10,010 --> 00:24:12,230
what is that performance
target we need to be hitting,

394
00:24:12,650 --> 00:24:16,730
it's really critical to have
everything else in a row so that

395
00:24:17,600 --> 00:24:22,160
yeah, we can be at that
15% or 20% or 30% ACOs

396
00:24:22,460 --> 00:24:26,750
or whatever that taco number is.
Just making sure that you are being

397
00:24:27,530 --> 00:24:28,850
obviously profitable
at the end of the day,

398
00:24:28,850 --> 00:24:30,650
but then as aggressive as you can be.

399
00:24:31,310 --> 00:24:35,990
Another big shift in the Amazon ecosphere,

400
00:24:35,990 --> 00:24:40,790
which also is if you're going to events
or whatever and hearing from promotions

401
00:24:40,790 --> 00:24:41,623
from Amazon,

402
00:24:41,660 --> 00:24:45,320
they're always talking about their new
features that they're rolling out and

403
00:24:45,320 --> 00:24:49,730
it's sort of been a data overload and
it's really been rolling out for the last

404
00:24:49,730 --> 00:24:50,660
two years,

405
00:24:50,660 --> 00:24:55,040
but with all the brand analytics and
the customer journey analytics and the

406
00:24:55,040 --> 00:24:59,000
search query analytics and then the Amazon
marketing cloud and all the insights

407
00:24:59,000 --> 00:24:59,870
you can get from that,

408
00:25:00,230 --> 00:25:04,640
there's just so much that you
could really dive into it.

409
00:25:05,000 --> 00:25:08,360
Especially like the Amazon marketing
Cloud and all the different audience

410
00:25:08,360 --> 00:25:10,220
segmentation that you can go into there.

411
00:25:10,610 --> 00:25:15,290
You could go in there and be absorbing
so much data for you could probably

412
00:25:15,290 --> 00:25:19,460
absorb that data for two months and
not really come out of it with an

413
00:25:19,460 --> 00:25:21,200
actionable like, Hey,

414
00:25:21,410 --> 00:25:25,850
I'm making more success over here because
there's just so much data and so much

415
00:25:25,850 --> 00:25:30,110
to look at. There are some really good
nuggets and I think that the customer

416
00:25:30,110 --> 00:25:33,770
journey analytics is a great insight so
you can dig into your audience trends

417
00:25:34,100 --> 00:25:35,990
and then Amazon's also
giving you like, hey,

418
00:25:36,320 --> 00:25:40,940
your awareness is decreasing month on
month and here's some tips for growing

419
00:25:40,940 --> 00:25:43,280
your awareness, whether that's
expanding sponsor brand ads,

420
00:25:43,280 --> 00:25:47,690
sponsor display or running promos to
certain subsets of your audience groups.

421
00:25:49,280 --> 00:25:51,470
And we do use that very frequently,

422
00:25:51,470 --> 00:25:54,440
but then the software
providers that we use,

423
00:25:55,100 --> 00:25:59,870
KPO one that we use a
lot for just really great

424
00:26:00,080 --> 00:26:04,730
reporting and they can pull all
of that kind of together and

425
00:26:04,730 --> 00:26:08,870
then we can have more cohesive narratives.

426
00:26:08,870 --> 00:26:12,650
So the software is doing the work of
analyzing all this data into group sets

427
00:26:12,650 --> 00:26:17,390
that we want to be looking at to
then optimize our PPC around that,

428
00:26:18,440 --> 00:26:19,273
the Amazon marketing.

429
00:26:19,640 --> 00:26:20,510
One thing I want to do, sorry,

430
00:26:20,510 --> 00:26:23,450
let's just key on something really
quickly Jonathan. So with the,

431
00:26:24,530 --> 00:26:28,550
we've realized that our problem
was never necessarily more data.

432
00:26:28,820 --> 00:26:31,070
Now we have lots and lots of data.

433
00:26:31,100 --> 00:26:34,250
We're swimming in the data
and if you're not careful,

434
00:26:34,250 --> 00:26:35,900
you just at the end of the day
you end up and you're like, well,

435
00:26:35,900 --> 00:26:39,020
I looked at a lot of numbers today,
like an unbelievable amount of numbers,

436
00:26:39,200 --> 00:26:42,770
I don't know what to do. So the only
way this is beneficial if we say,

437
00:26:42,770 --> 00:26:47,130
okay is what this means and
this is what I'm going to do

438
00:26:47,520 --> 00:26:51,990
next, and so you just talked
about something interesting
where if awareness or

439
00:26:51,990 --> 00:26:55,620
impressions are going down on a specific
item, you're maybe looking at, okay,

440
00:26:55,620 --> 00:26:57,030
how do I reverse that trend?

441
00:26:57,330 --> 00:27:02,220
And so can we unpack a few of those
or just the highlight if I kind of

442
00:27:02,220 --> 00:27:04,800
cut you off midstream, but
what are a few of those? Okay,

443
00:27:04,800 --> 00:27:08,700
these are the important data points that
you could be finding and then what do

444
00:27:08,700 --> 00:27:09,533
we do with those?

445
00:27:09,750 --> 00:27:13,350
Yeah, so especially on the topic
of as we're getting into q4,

446
00:27:13,350 --> 00:27:14,430
we've always got the promos,

447
00:27:15,300 --> 00:27:19,140
the big deal event next week and then
of course Black Friday, cyber Monday,

448
00:27:19,380 --> 00:27:22,320
so the customer journey
analytics as I touched on,

449
00:27:22,800 --> 00:27:27,660
you can look into that and see your
different audience pools of shoppers that

450
00:27:27,660 --> 00:27:30,720
are in awareness, shoppers in
consideration, intent purchase,

451
00:27:31,560 --> 00:27:36,480
and so sponsored brand ads sponsored
display are the ones that ad

452
00:27:36,480 --> 00:27:40,650
types that we can use to really grow
the awareness and considerations.

453
00:27:40,650 --> 00:27:44,100
So shoppers who are seeing the
brand, becoming aware of the brand,

454
00:27:44,100 --> 00:27:45,330
maybe even engaging,

455
00:27:45,330 --> 00:27:50,220
coming to the listing page and
those are critical initiatives

456
00:27:50,220 --> 00:27:55,110
in the lead up to a promotional
event is just getting awareness out

457
00:27:55,140 --> 00:27:55,290
there.

458
00:27:55,290 --> 00:27:58,650
People don't know your brand and of course
they're not going to be searching for

459
00:27:58,650 --> 00:28:01,770
your brand, at least not as often.

460
00:28:02,100 --> 00:28:06,120
And so then just building that awareness
pool is hypercritical and then you can

461
00:28:06,120 --> 00:28:10,830
also use those pools to then
retarget both during the

462
00:28:10,830 --> 00:28:12,750
event to say, Hey, you
looked at my product,

463
00:28:12,930 --> 00:28:16,050
so I'm using a display A to
retarget people who looked
at my product in the last

464
00:28:16,050 --> 00:28:20,160
seven days because I know you've been
kind of window shopping in the lead up to

465
00:28:20,160 --> 00:28:23,340
this event and now I'm remarketing my
product to you while the promo's running

466
00:28:23,700 --> 00:28:28,170
and then also post an event and you can
again remarket to those same cools if

467
00:28:28,170 --> 00:28:33,150
you have a consumable remarket to those
who purchased at the repurchase rate

468
00:28:33,630 --> 00:28:38,430
range.
And then also in the search query

469
00:28:38,430 --> 00:28:39,263
analytics.

470
00:28:39,450 --> 00:28:44,010
This is a very insightful data point
that's going to say for your whole

471
00:28:44,010 --> 00:28:48,300
subcategory, Amazon sees
we're selling tool belts.

472
00:28:48,420 --> 00:28:53,040
Amazon sees there's 5,000 purchases in
the last month for tool belts and your

473
00:28:53,040 --> 00:28:56,880
brand only got 1%. Okay,

474
00:28:56,880 --> 00:28:59,370
this is mission critical because
this is on the core of our.

475
00:28:59,370 --> 00:29:03,690
Product, a lot of upset, a lot
of room to grow and extend.

476
00:29:03,690 --> 00:29:03,960
Right?

477
00:29:03,960 --> 00:29:08,940
A lot of room to grow and then
obviously you can see the fruit of

478
00:29:08,940 --> 00:29:12,240
your effort and that we're working
on the SEO to make sure that we're

479
00:29:12,240 --> 00:29:16,650
organically ranking and indexing for tool
belts and that we're working on the ad

480
00:29:16,650 --> 00:29:21,270
side of things to make sure that we're
showing up for tool belts and then week

481
00:29:21,270 --> 00:29:23,130
over week, month over
month, we can see, okay,

482
00:29:23,130 --> 00:29:26,640
our share is increasing here
we are gaining this relevancy.

483
00:29:27,960 --> 00:29:28,380
And so yeah,

484
00:29:28,380 --> 00:29:33,150
just really knowing not all of this
data is going to be actionable,

485
00:29:33,150 --> 00:29:37,140
but using the data to
steer some of your actions

486
00:29:37,650 --> 00:29:40,710
and using it to assist you and
not getting too lost in the,

487
00:29:41,020 --> 00:29:43,510
because it can drive you
a little crazy. It's.

488
00:29:43,510 --> 00:29:44,200
Easy to do.

489
00:29:44,200 --> 00:29:47,920
One of the best analogies I ever heard
was that of a pilot and if you ever have

490
00:29:47,950 --> 00:29:51,460
looked in the cockpit when you're boarding
a plane or something, you're like,

491
00:29:51,850 --> 00:29:56,410
there's an unbelievable
amount of dials and

492
00:29:56,710 --> 00:29:59,200
displays and knobs and
buttons and stuff like that.

493
00:29:59,530 --> 00:30:02,950
Really pilots mostly use about six
of those to fly the plane, right?

494
00:30:02,950 --> 00:30:05,290
Everything else is just
if something goes wrong,

495
00:30:06,040 --> 00:30:08,320
they can diagnose and
fix things and whatnot.

496
00:30:08,320 --> 00:30:11,440
And so that's really the way you're going
to be too running your Amazon business

497
00:30:11,440 --> 00:30:15,790
or hiring an agency or an in-house team
is they're going to run the business

498
00:30:15,790 --> 00:30:18,370
based on five or six data points with,

499
00:30:18,370 --> 00:30:21,670
they'll have everything else to kind
of diagnose if something goes wrong.

500
00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:25,540
I love that the lead up,
the main event after math,

501
00:30:25,570 --> 00:30:28,920
Jonathan where the lead
up we're looking at, hey,

502
00:30:30,820 --> 00:30:35,590
how do we grow awareness and kind of
fill the funnel so that then during the

503
00:30:35,590 --> 00:30:38,620
main event we can close as many people
as possible and then afterwards,

504
00:30:38,860 --> 00:30:43,150
how do we remarket to people and close
those that maybe didn't close or close

505
00:30:43,150 --> 00:30:46,210
people that maybe got money over the
holidays but haven't bought anything and

506
00:30:46,210 --> 00:30:50,470
now they're going to buy from you.
And so lots of good stuff there. Lube,

507
00:30:50,470 --> 00:30:51,850
did you want to chime in on that?

508
00:30:52,090 --> 00:30:56,200
On a data, the number one data
point that I always look at,

509
00:30:56,200 --> 00:30:58,030
and I'm coming from a brand perspective,

510
00:30:58,780 --> 00:31:03,010
so number one data point that I've
always had to report on was profit margin

511
00:31:03,760 --> 00:31:06,100
in terms of dollar and percentage.

512
00:31:07,210 --> 00:31:11,980
So if the profit margin in terms of
dollar and percentage was at or above the

513
00:31:11,980 --> 00:31:13,060
level that I needed,

514
00:31:13,570 --> 00:31:16,390
that was literally the only data
point that I needed to look at.

515
00:31:17,500 --> 00:31:20,470
Now if the profit margin was
not where I want it to be,

516
00:31:20,470 --> 00:31:23,680
if it was below in terms
of dollars or percentage,

517
00:31:24,490 --> 00:31:29,320
then you start looking into
which of my products is not

518
00:31:29,320 --> 00:31:30,220
making me money?

519
00:31:31,420 --> 00:31:35,260
And then you start dialing in why
is that product is not making money?

520
00:31:35,710 --> 00:31:39,760
Very often you discover that the reason
is because it's sitting mostly unpaid

521
00:31:39,760 --> 00:31:43,450
traffic versus organic.
If that's the case,

522
00:31:43,450 --> 00:31:46,270
you dial back down and
you say, okay, great.

523
00:31:46,930 --> 00:31:48,550
Why is it unpaid traffic?

524
00:31:48,640 --> 00:31:53,560
Is it not getting click through rate
is the conversion rate is the number of

525
00:31:53,560 --> 00:31:54,393
session.

526
00:31:54,460 --> 00:31:59,260
So I always like to work back from
the profit margin looking to what's

527
00:31:59,260 --> 00:32:02,980
not working and answering
questions, what can I change,

528
00:32:03,880 --> 00:32:05,770
which lever can I pull to improve it?

529
00:32:07,130 --> 00:32:07,963
Love it, love it.

530
00:32:08,830 --> 00:32:12,550
Let's roll right into the
next topic with you Luba,

531
00:32:12,550 --> 00:32:14,740
and feel free to share some
of the visuals on this,

532
00:32:14,740 --> 00:32:19,540
but as we look at our last
minute levers for holiday

533
00:32:19,600 --> 00:32:22,450
2025, what are some of those?

534
00:32:22,450 --> 00:32:24,790
And so after you share,

535
00:32:24,790 --> 00:32:28,840
we're going to talk to Connor about his
promotional strategy and then we'll wrap

536
00:32:28,840 --> 00:32:31,000
up with Jonathan. Jonathan on the ad side.

537
00:32:31,840 --> 00:32:34,300
But I know part of this could
be we're looking at deals,

538
00:32:34,300 --> 00:32:36,700
we're not going to do deals
because we want to protect margin,

539
00:32:36,700 --> 00:32:39,980
but roll through some last
minute levers here for us, Luba.

540
00:32:40,820 --> 00:32:44,270
Absolutely. Well first of all,
before we get into levers,

541
00:32:44,270 --> 00:32:47,720
I just want to reinforce the ideas that
you cannot sell stuff that you don't

542
00:32:47,720 --> 00:32:48,553
have.

543
00:32:49,340 --> 00:32:54,140
And I've seen brands lose Q4 because they

544
00:32:54,140 --> 00:32:55,400
didn't ship stuff in time

545
00:32:56,900 --> 00:32:59,930
and always be proactively planning.

546
00:33:00,740 --> 00:33:03,230
And if you can, and I
think you're doing it,

547
00:33:03,620 --> 00:33:06,710
if you can have fulfilled
by merchant backup

548
00:33:11,390 --> 00:33:15,620
to your fulfilled by
Amazon, Talking about paths,

549
00:33:16,010 --> 00:33:20,000
deal track or no deal track,
I'm not going to lie naturally,

550
00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:24,830
it's much easier to have successful
Q4 if you plan on running deals,

551
00:33:25,940 --> 00:33:29,750
but even if you don't plan on running
deals, there is still a no deal track,

552
00:33:30,230 --> 00:33:35,150
which is where you focus on
video ads on optimization

553
00:33:35,210 --> 00:33:36,710
of your product detail page,

554
00:33:37,400 --> 00:33:41,270
setting up specific store
pages and retargeting.

555
00:33:41,300 --> 00:33:44,300
That's where your SAEO,

556
00:33:46,490 --> 00:33:51,080
which is genic search optimization,

557
00:33:51,860 --> 00:33:56,240
we all optimizing for AI these
days. And for Amazon agents,

558
00:33:56,810 --> 00:33:57,643
Chad g pt,

559
00:33:58,340 --> 00:34:03,170
you want AI agents to pick up your
product as the most relevant to

560
00:34:03,170 --> 00:34:07,400
consumer query. So leader
assets optimization,

561
00:34:07,400 --> 00:34:12,260
store curation and use of
advertising is going to help you if

562
00:34:12,260 --> 00:34:16,310
you are not going to
run deals. What are the

563
00:34:18,920 --> 00:34:22,460
last minute levers you can pull?

564
00:34:22,970 --> 00:34:25,370
And I'm just going to
scroll through some of this.

565
00:34:26,540 --> 00:34:30,860
What are the last minute levers you can
pull right now because we are really in

566
00:34:31,400 --> 00:34:35,630
the final stretch of getting
everything done and ready.

567
00:34:36,860 --> 00:34:40,820
The number one thing I
recommend test new main image,

568
00:34:42,230 --> 00:34:46,670
have several versions of a
main image, test it through.

569
00:34:46,670 --> 00:34:50,960
There are multiple services that
help you with that PFU product

570
00:34:51,020 --> 00:34:51,853
tinian,

571
00:34:53,270 --> 00:34:57,890
there may be more if you have
your own user group AB test on

572
00:34:57,950 --> 00:34:58,783
Amazon,

573
00:34:59,630 --> 00:35:04,520
test as many new images as you can
right now that may possibly dramatically

574
00:35:04,520 --> 00:35:08,780
improve your click through rate
regardless of you running deals or not

575
00:35:10,040 --> 00:35:13,820
set up sponsored brand video
campaigns. Believe it or not,

576
00:35:13,820 --> 00:35:17,810
if you don't have high
production assets for a video

577
00:35:18,440 --> 00:35:21,770
using Amazon Video Builder actually works.

578
00:35:22,880 --> 00:35:26,510
Those videos that you make
using Amazon templates,

579
00:35:27,020 --> 00:35:28,190
they perform rather well

580
00:35:30,500 --> 00:35:35,450
build an Amazon gift guide
page. Even if you're selling,

581
00:35:36,620 --> 00:35:39,600
you may think you're selling
the most UNG giftable products,

582
00:35:39,600 --> 00:35:44,340
but I worked with a Showerhead
brand which had a huge spike in q4.

583
00:35:45,780 --> 00:35:48,480
People were giving each other
showerheads for Christmas.

584
00:35:49,290 --> 00:35:50,520
You just never know what's helpful.

585
00:35:51,420 --> 00:35:53,970
Quick note on that, Luba,
we got a long time client,

586
00:35:53,970 --> 00:35:57,780
they sell mops and microfiber
products. Shout out Brett Haney,

587
00:35:57,780 --> 00:36:02,250
but a long time ago they ran an email
that was the worst Christmas gift ever and

588
00:36:02,250 --> 00:36:03,660
it was a mop and they're like,

589
00:36:03,660 --> 00:36:06,360
don't give her a mop or don't
give him a mop or whoever.

590
00:36:06,810 --> 00:36:10,290
And it actually ended up being
a tremendous seller for them.

591
00:36:10,290 --> 00:36:12,750
And so they're like, oh, sweet,
we'll just lean into this worst,

592
00:36:12,750 --> 00:36:14,130
worst gift ever. Here you go.

593
00:36:14,550 --> 00:36:19,440
It's like you could have a
holiday guide and even poke fun at

594
00:36:19,440 --> 00:36:22,380
your own product, but people are going
to buy, people are going to buy in q4.

595
00:36:23,310 --> 00:36:26,190
People are going to buy in q4,
build an Amazon give guide page,

596
00:36:26,460 --> 00:36:31,170
have a sponsored brand
ads targeting that page.

597
00:36:31,170 --> 00:36:32,003
Specifically

598
00:36:33,480 --> 00:36:38,250
Jonathan already mentioned retarget
with recent product visitors set

599
00:36:38,250 --> 00:36:40,410
FBM backup.

600
00:36:40,950 --> 00:36:43,980
You just don't know what's going to
happen with your inventory in q4.

601
00:36:45,450 --> 00:36:46,470
Always have a backup.

602
00:36:47,010 --> 00:36:50,640
It's not going to be as
effective as having FBE offer,

603
00:36:51,000 --> 00:36:55,770
but at least you're not going to go
completely dark depending on your

604
00:36:55,770 --> 00:37:00,300
business model. If you
have SMS and email list,

605
00:37:01,020 --> 00:37:03,300
this is what we found, and Brett,

606
00:37:04,080 --> 00:37:08,610
I think Nick actually has some
studies on this where the email

607
00:37:08,610 --> 00:37:13,200
includeDTCall to actions, one
by on website, one by an Amazon,

608
00:37:14,700 --> 00:37:17,490
and they've actually seen really
well response to buy on Amazon.

609
00:37:18,180 --> 00:37:22,050
Yep. It's a great strategy where if you've
got an email list, and I hope you do,

610
00:37:22,470 --> 00:37:26,130
especially if you're multichannel and
omnichannel test with some of those,

611
00:37:26,250 --> 00:37:28,380
including that buy on Amazon button,

612
00:37:28,380 --> 00:37:31,080
a lot of people would rather
do that anyway, so test it.

613
00:37:31,710 --> 00:37:36,630
Amazon has stats which say that Amazon

614
00:37:36,960 --> 00:37:41,760
buy with Prime button on your website
actually improves conversion by 25%.

615
00:37:42,330 --> 00:37:44,310
That could be very meaningful, 25%.

616
00:37:44,730 --> 00:37:49,440
So whether you are all about
aggressive deals or leaning more into

617
00:37:49,440 --> 00:37:52,380
optimization and PPC, what
I call the no deal track,

618
00:37:54,120 --> 00:37:59,100
all of these seven levers you can pull
right now and have meaningful impact

619
00:37:59,100 --> 00:38:03,060
on your Q4 sales. I do
have one disclaimer.

620
00:38:03,060 --> 00:38:06,420
Do not make any major changes
to your product detail.

621
00:38:06,420 --> 00:38:11,280
Page 72 hours prior to
high velocity event.

622
00:38:11,670 --> 00:38:13,860
And why is that? Luba 100% agree,

623
00:38:13,860 --> 00:38:16,890
but make it clear why you
don't want to do that.

624
00:38:17,640 --> 00:38:19,680
You're confusing the guts of Amazon.

625
00:38:19,740 --> 00:38:24,270
There is an algorithm you make
change to the bad end or to the

626
00:38:24,270 --> 00:38:29,250
copy and the algorithm now
needs time to figure out how

627
00:38:29,250 --> 00:38:31,320
you relevant to customer incourse.

628
00:38:31,860 --> 00:38:34,770
So if you're going to do major updates,

629
00:38:34,800 --> 00:38:39,790
either do them at least 72
hours prior to major event or

630
00:38:39,790 --> 00:38:42,670
wait till next week's,

631
00:38:43,000 --> 00:38:47,470
big prime deal days are going to be
over and then make all of your changes

632
00:38:47,950 --> 00:38:52,750
in time for the algorithm to index
them prior to Black Friday Cyber

633
00:38:52,750 --> 00:38:53,583
Monday.

634
00:38:53,860 --> 00:38:57,910
Totally makes sense. That makes sense.
Awesome. So let's do this, Connor,

635
00:38:57,910 --> 00:38:59,260
and I believe you're muted,

636
00:38:59,260 --> 00:39:04,030
but talk through your
promotional strategy for this

637
00:39:04,030 --> 00:39:08,950
year and how has your
promotional strategy changed

638
00:39:08,950 --> 00:39:12,370
over the years because it's
important to consider it.

639
00:39:12,580 --> 00:39:16,300
A lot of people expect discounts, and
so this is the time of year for deals.

640
00:39:17,530 --> 00:39:21,550
It's also a great way to give away
all your profits. And so yeah,

641
00:39:21,580 --> 00:39:23,260
how are you guys approaching this year?

642
00:39:23,710 --> 00:39:26,020
How has your promotional
strategy changed over the years?

643
00:39:26,260 --> 00:39:29,440
Well, my first comment,
now that I'm unmuted,

644
00:39:29,440 --> 00:39:31,660
I'm going to reiterate some of the
things that Lou has been talking about.

645
00:39:31,660 --> 00:39:32,493
Inventory? Yes.

646
00:39:33,430 --> 00:39:33,970
Yes, yes.

647
00:39:33,970 --> 00:39:34,930
Inventory, inventory,

648
00:39:34,930 --> 00:39:38,380
inventory because it makes a huge
difference to success on Amazon.

649
00:39:38,440 --> 00:39:43,210
One of the main things we have seen in
our success this year is maintaining

650
00:39:43,210 --> 00:39:46,150
steady inventory because whenever
you have stockouts on Amazon,

651
00:39:46,480 --> 00:39:51,100
you get dinged and you just
fall back down the algorithm to

652
00:39:51,100 --> 00:39:52,000
recover from.

653
00:39:52,150 --> 00:39:56,800
A big part of our growth and success
this year has been maintaining the

654
00:39:56,800 --> 00:40:01,180
inventory of all the products
that leads into what are our

655
00:40:01,180 --> 00:40:04,840
holiday plans. We don't really know yet.

656
00:40:05,530 --> 00:40:10,420
And the reason we don't really know yet
is because we're still a month out and

657
00:40:10,840 --> 00:40:14,740
we don't know exactly what
our inventory balance is.

658
00:40:15,040 --> 00:40:18,370
We know that we're going
to have coupons on Amazon,

659
00:40:18,880 --> 00:40:21,220
we're going to do
discounting on our website.

660
00:40:21,310 --> 00:40:25,840
We're going to try to make
them a different play so
that if you go to Amazon,

661
00:40:25,840 --> 00:40:30,580
you get this product at a good deal.
Whereas we've become very specific about

662
00:40:30,580 --> 00:40:35,200
categories of products on our website,
and then there's also product bundling,

663
00:40:35,200 --> 00:40:36,850
which we like to do on both of them.

664
00:40:36,940 --> 00:40:40,270
But the product bundling is one of those
things we really don't know until we

665
00:40:40,270 --> 00:40:43,720
get approach and we look
at our inventory because

666
00:40:45,730 --> 00:40:49,840
bundling is oftentimes, well, here's a
product that we think is really great,

667
00:40:49,840 --> 00:40:51,670
but we haven't been really
selling that much of it,

668
00:40:51,670 --> 00:40:53,410
so let's make it part of a bundle.

669
00:40:53,590 --> 00:40:56,530
Maybe that way we can promote
that product going forward.

670
00:40:57,730 --> 00:41:01,330
I believe that customers always
prefer a free gift than a discount.

671
00:41:02,290 --> 00:41:06,730
I also prefer to keep protect my margin
by giving away free gifts because

672
00:41:07,210 --> 00:41:11,470
we're a brand that we want people
to become immersed in. So the

673
00:41:13,450 --> 00:41:15,670
more Diamondback products I
can get into the customer,

674
00:41:15,670 --> 00:41:19,300
the more I know they're going
to buy down in the future. So.

675
00:41:20,590 --> 00:41:22,480
I love that. I want to key on
that just really quickly, Connor,

676
00:41:22,480 --> 00:41:27,310
I think it's a great point, and we have
several apparel brands that do this,

677
00:41:27,310 --> 00:41:29,020
especially early in holiday,

678
00:41:29,380 --> 00:41:33,380
and some of this is mostly all they
do for the holiday is free gifts with

679
00:41:33,380 --> 00:41:37,010
purchase and it fits because
we need stocking stuffers.

680
00:41:37,250 --> 00:41:41,000
We need a gift to give someone else. Maybe
I want to buy a tool belt for myself,

681
00:41:41,330 --> 00:41:43,360
but if I do this, I get a
free gift. Now I can be,

682
00:41:43,490 --> 00:41:46,820
I was really shopping for my son or
whatever because I'm going to give him the

683
00:41:46,820 --> 00:41:50,720
free gift. There's all kinds of ways to
kind of position that and angle that.

684
00:41:51,170 --> 00:41:55,340
I remember my buddy Peter that owns a
Groove Life's silicon wedding ring company

685
00:41:55,610 --> 00:41:59,270
for the longest time, and I think
they still do it. They mentioned, Hey,

686
00:41:59,270 --> 00:42:02,630
free gift with purchase, it's a
$19 value, a $30 value or whatever.

687
00:42:02,990 --> 00:42:06,440
And all that really means is you're going
to get a free ring in your size of a

688
00:42:06,440 --> 00:42:08,240
color or something that
couldn't sell, right?

689
00:42:08,240 --> 00:42:10,730
It's just like it's inventory
that's sitting there.

690
00:42:11,120 --> 00:42:13,130
Let's make this a high perceived value.

691
00:42:13,130 --> 00:42:17,000
Let's increase our conversion
rate for it for holiday. It's man,

692
00:42:17,030 --> 00:42:20,090
I'm making you feel an outsized benefit.

693
00:42:20,480 --> 00:42:23,930
It maybe even feels bigger than
a discount, but guess what?

694
00:42:24,380 --> 00:42:28,250
I'm not eroding my margin at
all. And so love that strategy.

695
00:42:28,250 --> 00:42:29,690
I think more brands need to use it.

696
00:42:30,500 --> 00:42:34,850
So we're going to be running
coupons on Amazon as we get closer

697
00:42:35,870 --> 00:42:37,670
into the season and
we'll have some bundles,

698
00:42:37,670 --> 00:42:41,750
but of course we won't really probably
start running some inventory reports over

699
00:42:41,750 --> 00:42:44,660
the next couple of weeks as we
see what's coming in inbound,

700
00:42:44,660 --> 00:42:45,493
what's been selling well,

701
00:42:46,070 --> 00:42:50,030
and then we'll make some decisions
about what exactly products we put into

702
00:42:50,030 --> 00:42:52,250
bundles, any particular discounts,

703
00:42:54,080 --> 00:42:56,720
because going back
inventory is so important,

704
00:42:56,720 --> 00:42:58,880
you never want to run
out of the inventory.

705
00:42:58,880 --> 00:43:03,770
So we try to run different promotions
between Amazon and our website

706
00:43:04,430 --> 00:43:08,000
just to kind of give different
customers a different opportunity.

707
00:43:09,530 --> 00:43:09,680
Connor,

708
00:43:09,680 --> 00:43:14,150
is that sort of based on the skews or
the products you see moving on those

709
00:43:14,150 --> 00:43:19,070
various channels or is it based on the
products that you have excess inventory

710
00:43:19,070 --> 00:43:19,880
on in those channels?

711
00:43:19,880 --> 00:43:24,590
Thinking about what products do
you discount or feature what you

712
00:43:24,710 --> 00:43:28,460
bundle, how do you look at that
differently on DTC versus Amazon?

713
00:43:29,480 --> 00:43:33,470
Well, let's just take a step back
and look at this strategy in general.

714
00:43:33,830 --> 00:43:37,160
You can use all the, we have a lot of
tools now. We've been talking about tools.

715
00:43:37,490 --> 00:43:40,550
You can use tools on your
website or on Amazon that say,

716
00:43:41,240 --> 00:43:43,280
I know that if a customer buys this pen,

717
00:43:43,280 --> 00:43:46,790
they're probably going to buy the top for
the pen and they might buy this bag to

718
00:43:46,790 --> 00:43:50,060
put it in. Great. I know that information.

719
00:43:50,060 --> 00:43:53,660
I can bundle those things together and
I know that customers are likely to buy

720
00:43:53,660 --> 00:43:58,490
all of those things. On the other hand,
I know that I got this pen, this top,

721
00:43:58,640 --> 00:44:00,890
but I got a lot of these
phones lying around,

722
00:44:00,890 --> 00:44:04,760
so I'm going to say on my
website or on my Amazon page,

723
00:44:04,970 --> 00:44:08,000
people who bought this also
bought this. No, they didn't.

724
00:44:08,240 --> 00:44:11,450
But if I convince you they
did, then maybe you will too.

725
00:44:14,060 --> 00:44:17,330
Maybe they didn't, but they should. And
so if I bundle it and now people will.

726
00:44:18,020 --> 00:44:20,990
So bundling to me is a way that

727
00:44:22,580 --> 00:44:27,140
you can help your customer by
helping them complete their bundle,

728
00:44:27,590 --> 00:44:32,280
but it's also a way that you help
yourself as the brand by slow inventory,

729
00:44:32,580 --> 00:44:35,700
promoting inventory that you do.
We've got this great product,

730
00:44:35,700 --> 00:44:38,340
but it's not getting in
the hands of the customer.

731
00:44:38,940 --> 00:44:41,610
So if we just get more of 'em out
there, it's not a bad product.

732
00:44:42,210 --> 00:44:45,000
We just hadn't found the right
target audience for it yet.

733
00:44:45,420 --> 00:44:50,220
So I don't think our mix there is
different on Amazon versus on our

734
00:44:50,220 --> 00:44:51,053
website.

735
00:44:51,240 --> 00:44:55,560
We do want to see what's selling
on that channel so that we're

736
00:44:55,560 --> 00:44:57,240
highlighting that product,

737
00:44:57,690 --> 00:45:02,580
but then what we put with it might be
based on some mix of those other factors.

738
00:45:03,120 --> 00:45:03,953
Totally makes sense.

739
00:45:03,990 --> 00:45:08,610
I want to pause for just a minute
and talk Luba and Jonathan.

740
00:45:08,610 --> 00:45:13,080
I know you guys were talking about
virtual bundles and some new opportunities

741
00:45:13,080 --> 00:45:17,790
there specifically that we can lean
into around the holidays related to ads.

742
00:45:17,790 --> 00:45:21,240
Any points on that? And whoever
wants to go first, go for it.

743
00:45:21,600 --> 00:45:25,590
I'll go first and I'll say that virtual
bundles has been probably one of the

744
00:45:25,590 --> 00:45:30,120
least. You utilized tools on Amazon,

745
00:45:30,960 --> 00:45:33,840
mainly because A,

746
00:45:33,840 --> 00:45:37,710
you're paying two or three
fulfillment fees for one order.

747
00:45:38,520 --> 00:45:42,840
So if you're doing commercial bundle
of product A, product B and product C,

748
00:45:43,410 --> 00:45:47,460
you're going to end up
paying three FBA fees

749
00:45:49,290 --> 00:45:51,930
at the lower price. Kana,
you did not know that.

750
00:45:53,640 --> 00:45:54,660
I didn't know that,

751
00:45:54,660 --> 00:45:59,010
but I hope that the person
who manages my Amazon channels

752
00:45:59,580 --> 00:46:03,330
here in my office and there and the
consultants that they use have that

753
00:46:03,330 --> 00:46:04,620
conversation regularly.

754
00:46:07,620 --> 00:46:11,070
I love that. I love subtle messages.
This is how you lead folks.

755
00:46:12,040 --> 00:46:15,690
This is how you become CEO, the subtle
messages. I love it, Connor. Yeah,

756
00:46:16,020 --> 00:46:17,580
with emails after pro.
Yeah, so that's good.

757
00:46:19,680 --> 00:46:23,070
You have to be careful about putting
those bundles together because you do pay

758
00:46:23,070 --> 00:46:27,240
more than one fulfillment fee. Also,

759
00:46:27,240 --> 00:46:30,750
it only shows up on one of the
product pages. So what you want to do,

760
00:46:30,750 --> 00:46:34,830
if you want to move that product that
you have laying around and doesn't sell,

761
00:46:34,830 --> 00:46:37,830
you want to put it on the most
traffic page that you have,

762
00:46:37,890 --> 00:46:41,340
even if it may not make sense from the

763
00:46:42,450 --> 00:46:44,670
product usage decision,

764
00:46:44,670 --> 00:46:48,060
but that's how you bring
visibility to your slow movers.

765
00:46:48,420 --> 00:46:49,830
That's how you create a virtual bundle.

766
00:46:50,400 --> 00:46:54,840
But the biggest drawback was virtual
bundles always was that they could not be

767
00:46:54,840 --> 00:46:57,810
advertised through sponsor it product ads.

768
00:46:59,190 --> 00:47:04,110
So you could create a ton of them and the
only way to advertise them was through

769
00:47:04,500 --> 00:47:09,060
setting up a pitch store saying bundles
and driving sponsored brand ads.

770
00:47:09,720 --> 00:47:14,310
So Jonathan, how excited are you about
sponsored product ads for bundles?

771
00:47:14,880 --> 00:47:19,590
We have seen some light
success out of virtual

772
00:47:19,590 --> 00:47:22,440
bundles, but with the addition of
putting them into sponsored product ads,

773
00:47:22,440 --> 00:47:25,170
we could see obviously a lot more
traffic going to them. As lube said,

774
00:47:25,560 --> 00:47:29,530
that historically hasn't really been a
way to push them too hard just kind of

775
00:47:29,530 --> 00:47:31,570
existing on the listing page.

776
00:47:31,570 --> 00:47:35,890
And it's just like another
variation of frequently bought with,

777
00:47:35,890 --> 00:47:37,060
it's not that right,

778
00:47:37,060 --> 00:47:42,040
but it is just as a shopper perceiving
it historically didn't really ever mean

779
00:47:42,040 --> 00:47:44,350
too much to them unless the
discount was pretty large.

780
00:47:46,030 --> 00:47:50,890
So did you want the less levers for PPC

781
00:47:50,890 --> 00:47:51,860
here now? Yes, please. Please.

782
00:47:52,290 --> 00:47:54,380
That. Back to Connor
in a second. Yeah, go.

783
00:47:54,380 --> 00:47:56,890
For it. Yeah, I'll be here
real quick. So in the lead up,

784
00:47:56,890 --> 00:48:01,360
obviously already we're almost
done, get the lead up to next week,

785
00:48:01,720 --> 00:48:04,480
but lead up to promos always being,

786
00:48:05,350 --> 00:48:08,770
considering the performance dip that
we usually see two to three days,

787
00:48:09,250 --> 00:48:12,970
sometimes a little bit longer in
the lead up to the day of the event.

788
00:48:13,360 --> 00:48:17,620
So you want to be just really
aware of that PPC performance,

789
00:48:17,620 --> 00:48:20,320
and so making adjustments to make
sure you're still hitting your targets

790
00:48:21,640 --> 00:48:23,890
sponsored brand. Jonathan, any insights.

791
00:48:23,890 --> 00:48:24,070
There?

792
00:48:24,070 --> 00:48:28,750
And this probably depends
on how aggressive or how
conservative our clients want

793
00:48:28,750 --> 00:48:31,210
to be, but do you ever advise, Hey,

794
00:48:31,210 --> 00:48:35,020
don't black too much in that lull
because our people that are looking,

795
00:48:35,020 --> 00:48:38,350
then they're looking in
the few days leading up to

796
00:48:40,060 --> 00:48:41,380
the fall prime day,

797
00:48:41,410 --> 00:48:45,370
which now just totally blank on what
it's called or the Turkey 12 or whatever.

798
00:48:45,790 --> 00:48:49,030
And so how much should they pull
back or should they pull back at all?

799
00:48:49,540 --> 00:48:51,700
Right. No, yeah, not
necessarily meaning pullback,

800
00:48:51,700 --> 00:48:55,180
and I don't think we touched on this yet,

801
00:48:55,180 --> 00:48:57,940
but obviously any promotional period,

802
00:48:58,750 --> 00:49:03,490
you really have to know what
you're trying to build on Amazon

803
00:49:03,580 --> 00:49:07,930
and where does your brand
fit into the Amazon system?

804
00:49:08,380 --> 00:49:09,520
With Diamondback tools,

805
00:49:10,750 --> 00:49:15,550
they have a very diversified product
portfolio and someone who's buying the

806
00:49:15,550 --> 00:49:18,280
belt is likely developing a belt system.

807
00:49:18,280 --> 00:49:22,060
And so there's many different pieces that
they're going to buy potentially over

808
00:49:22,060 --> 00:49:23,860
the lifetime, especially
if they love the brand,

809
00:49:23,860 --> 00:49:26,020
which most of our shoppers we
do see, they love the brand,

810
00:49:26,020 --> 00:49:29,080
they come back and they buy more, but

811
00:49:32,290 --> 00:49:36,190
it's not like a $20 supplement that
you're consuming every single month.

812
00:49:36,190 --> 00:49:40,720
And so the repurchase window is
very different and someone who

813
00:49:40,720 --> 00:49:45,490
buys a whole tool belt system
is not likely to buy that

814
00:49:45,490 --> 00:49:50,170
exact same system again, at least
not for, hopefully it lasts for five,

815
00:49:50,170 --> 00:49:52,030
10 years.
I don't know how long it typically lasts,

816
00:49:52,030 --> 00:49:54,070
but that's going to last a long time.

817
00:49:54,070 --> 00:49:58,600
So thinking about the event in that
sense that they're not diamond back is

818
00:49:58,600 --> 00:50:00,070
building subscribers.

819
00:50:00,940 --> 00:50:05,410
So we do want to be moderately
aggressive for the promotional

820
00:50:05,410 --> 00:50:09,700
periods with this kind of
brand building product line,

821
00:50:10,090 --> 00:50:14,590
but because we're not building
subscribers because we have a longer

822
00:50:14,770 --> 00:50:18,370
repurchase window, we're not
going to be hyper aggressive.

823
00:50:18,460 --> 00:50:21,490
If you're a consumable product and you
know that if somebody likes your product,

824
00:50:21,490 --> 00:50:24,610
they're going to be back in 30 days where
you're going to get a subscription out

825
00:50:24,610 --> 00:50:27,530
of it, you can afford to be
a lot more aggressive. So.

826
00:50:27,830 --> 00:50:31,370
Thinking maybe even go break even or
close to it in a situation like that where

827
00:50:31,790 --> 00:50:33,320
in other scenarios that would be silly.

828
00:50:33,410 --> 00:50:36,230
You're not making any money giving
it all to Bezos. Yeah, exactly.

829
00:50:36,320 --> 00:50:38,720
Right. So all that to say in the lead up,

830
00:50:38,750 --> 00:50:40,820
it's not necessarily
you need to pull back,

831
00:50:41,180 --> 00:50:45,860
it's just you need to be a bit
more hyper aware that you could see

832
00:50:46,550 --> 00:50:51,110
sharp fluctuations in those couple
of days in the lead up to the event.

833
00:50:51,110 --> 00:50:55,370
And then even days right
after the event where your

834
00:50:55,460 --> 00:51:00,200
usual parameters for bid adjustments
and if you have bid up and

835
00:51:00,200 --> 00:51:03,980
down or you have some kind of
software running your bids,

836
00:51:04,490 --> 00:51:07,970
just knowing that it can be a little
bit out there skelter in those couple of

837
00:51:07,970 --> 00:51:08,180
days.

838
00:51:08,180 --> 00:51:12,800
So you might shoot your tacos from a 5%
up to a 15% for those couple of days.

839
00:51:12,800 --> 00:51:15,680
So you want to go in
and make some changes.

840
00:51:15,800 --> 00:51:19,970
You don't want to blow up your efficiency
just for the sake of that additional

841
00:51:19,970 --> 00:51:23,450
awareness. A lot of window shopping
that's happening in those couple of days

842
00:51:25,070 --> 00:51:26,090
during the event,

843
00:51:26,900 --> 00:51:31,220
you still again kind of have to know
how aggressive you're trying to be.

844
00:51:31,820 --> 00:51:36,740
And so we check in at least
every hour from 9:00 AM

845
00:51:37,130 --> 00:51:39,770
eastern till about 8:00 PM
Eastern, which those are kind of,

846
00:51:40,190 --> 00:51:41,990
that's when it picks up and
that's when it falls off.

847
00:51:42,260 --> 00:51:44,060
And then of course if you
have a lightning deal,

848
00:51:44,060 --> 00:51:48,530
you really got to be on top
of that, but during that time,

849
00:51:48,740 --> 00:51:50,240
tacos is a bit better.

850
00:51:50,240 --> 00:51:54,500
So that spend divided by total sales is
a bit better of a true north star than

851
00:51:54,530 --> 00:51:57,230
ACOs. ACOs is still very important.

852
00:51:57,470 --> 00:52:01,430
If you target is 15 and you're
seeing the ACOs coming in at 300%,

853
00:52:01,940 --> 00:52:03,710
it's probably some adjustments
you need to be making,

854
00:52:04,070 --> 00:52:08,840
but there's a lot of lag
because that hourly data

855
00:52:08,840 --> 00:52:13,640
updates that Amazon gives us is there's
going to be a ton of sales attribution

856
00:52:13,640 --> 00:52:16,310
lag. So the ACOs is a
little bit less relevant.

857
00:52:16,460 --> 00:52:19,520
It might be showing if your
target's 25, you might be at 50,

858
00:52:19,850 --> 00:52:24,200
and that'll lag down to probably
closer to 30 after the event,

859
00:52:24,290 --> 00:52:25,970
and that might be okay
for during the event,

860
00:52:26,240 --> 00:52:30,140
but that tacos number is
still very important to be
paying attention to because

861
00:52:30,140 --> 00:52:34,040
there's not going to be too much
clawback to the total sales. And then

862
00:52:34,790 --> 00:52:37,280
as we get outside of the event, we
already hit on this a little bit,

863
00:52:37,280 --> 00:52:41,060
but remarketing, using
display ads to remarket,

864
00:52:41,060 --> 00:52:45,140
especially if you are a consumable
repurchase brand product.

865
00:52:45,140 --> 00:52:48,140
So you can use that to time
when you're remarketing,

866
00:52:48,770 --> 00:52:51,770
did they purchase in 30 days
ago during that event? Okay,

867
00:52:51,770 --> 00:52:54,650
now it's time to remarket to
them with display ads. Yep.

868
00:52:54,830 --> 00:52:55,610
Really great.

869
00:52:55,610 --> 00:52:59,870
So we're going to talk about a couple of
those bonuses and then how we can help

870
00:52:59,870 --> 00:53:02,810
you as well if you need
additional help for the holidays.

871
00:53:02,810 --> 00:53:05,510
But final thoughts from you, Connor,

872
00:53:05,510 --> 00:53:10,100
on just how you approach
couponing and discounting

873
00:53:10,610 --> 00:53:12,950
and this time period,

874
00:53:13,310 --> 00:53:17,600
are you going to mostly lean
into just coupons on Amazon?

875
00:53:17,690 --> 00:53:20,090
Have you ever considered lightning
deals and some of those other

876
00:53:21,710 --> 00:53:24,530
tools that Amazon has available?

877
00:53:25,110 --> 00:53:27,330
Just kind of talk about
any final points there.

878
00:53:27,720 --> 00:53:28,920
So margin and profitability,

879
00:53:30,210 --> 00:53:34,110
I think we've played around with
some of these other tools before,

880
00:53:34,350 --> 00:53:36,090
some of the lightning
deals and those things,

881
00:53:36,090 --> 00:53:40,200
but a big part of where Diamondback is
right now in our evolution as a company

882
00:53:40,500 --> 00:53:44,310
is establishing the baselines,
which sounds kind of sad, I guess,

883
00:53:44,310 --> 00:53:47,400
pathetic that we're nine years in and
we're trying to establish baselines,

884
00:53:47,400 --> 00:53:50,670
but we've been through a lot, especially
with the change in manufacturing,

885
00:53:50,670 --> 00:53:53,130
so profit margin,

886
00:53:53,670 --> 00:53:55,800
contribution margin from
the different channels.

887
00:53:56,220 --> 00:54:01,200
Right now we want to really focus on
doing the same thing for a little bit of

888
00:54:01,200 --> 00:54:03,930
time and establish and establish a plan.

889
00:54:03,930 --> 00:54:06,210
So I think we're going to really
lean into coupons this year.

890
00:54:06,210 --> 00:54:09,270
It's something we've done in the past
so that we can then look back and say,

891
00:54:09,900 --> 00:54:12,420
effective how are we doing?

892
00:54:13,230 --> 00:54:16,890
And that way when we look at next
year, we've got a plan for, okay,

893
00:54:16,890 --> 00:54:21,210
last year this was the margin that we
assumed was going to be the sweet spot

894
00:54:21,210 --> 00:54:22,950
where we didn't lose too much profit,

895
00:54:22,950 --> 00:54:27,930
but we sold more units. And then we can
really start to hone in on these things.

896
00:54:27,930 --> 00:54:28,763
So

897
00:54:29,940 --> 00:54:33,450
going back to 2017 when I started
the business or bought this business,

898
00:54:34,320 --> 00:54:37,350
that was the time of revenue,
revenue, revenue, revenue, revenue.

899
00:54:37,530 --> 00:54:40,530
Let's see how fast and how hard we can
go and how much we'll count profits

900
00:54:40,530 --> 00:54:42,780
later. Just grow, grow, grow.
We'll figure it out. Yeah, yeah.

901
00:54:42,780 --> 00:54:47,040
Guess what got equal? Bottom line, right?
Eventually, yeah, that time has come.

902
00:54:47,160 --> 00:54:51,630
And so for us as a company and our
stage of evolution is really now

903
00:54:51,930 --> 00:54:53,520
establish those baselines,

904
00:54:53,970 --> 00:54:58,830
know those numbers so that in the
future we can really start to see are

905
00:54:58,830 --> 00:55:02,310
we being successful? Hey, we sold
a whole bunch on Amazon. Well,

906
00:55:02,370 --> 00:55:06,390
so what could we have done better?
Did we do better last year?

907
00:55:06,510 --> 00:55:08,280
Did we give away all of our profitability?

908
00:55:08,700 --> 00:55:13,680
So stick with the coupons this year
and really focus on establishing a

909
00:55:13,680 --> 00:55:16,620
baseline so that we know when we're
being successful in years in the future.

910
00:55:16,980 --> 00:55:20,400
Love that coupons, establish that
baseline. Look at virtual bundles,

911
00:55:20,400 --> 00:55:25,020
look at how you're doing this.
Fantastic Connor, brilliant insights,

912
00:55:25,080 --> 00:55:29,520
a way to weave the brand story through
this man. Really appreciate it. And hey,

913
00:55:29,790 --> 00:55:31,440
everybody out there, go
buy a tool belt, man.

914
00:55:32,070 --> 00:55:36,090
Somebody in your life that needs a tool
belt. My brother-in-law's a contractor,

915
00:55:36,990 --> 00:55:41,250
I'm aided by my recommendation. He's
like, oh, I'm a Diamondback tool belt fan,

916
00:55:41,250 --> 00:55:44,250
for sure. Yeah, look at that. Showing off
the product. I love it. And so really,

917
00:55:44,250 --> 00:55:47,370
really good stuff. Check it
out on Amazon. So Connor,

918
00:55:47,430 --> 00:55:50,490
thank you so much, Luba.

919
00:55:50,580 --> 00:55:55,200
I want to let you wrap up here
with a couple of final thoughts

920
00:55:55,380 --> 00:55:57,570
on prepping here and also want to mention,

921
00:55:57,630 --> 00:56:00,390
if you're looking at this and you
feel like, man, I've got the team,

922
00:56:00,390 --> 00:56:03,090
I got the plan, I got
everything. Awesome. Crush it.

923
00:56:03,360 --> 00:56:06,480
I can't wait to hear about your success.
If you're like, well, wait a minute,

924
00:56:06,840 --> 00:56:10,860
I would like a Luba and or a
Jonathan on my team to help me.

925
00:56:11,430 --> 00:56:13,230
There's a short window to do that,

926
00:56:13,230 --> 00:56:16,350
but there is a little bit of time and
so we'd love to do some last minute

927
00:56:16,350 --> 00:56:19,800
planning and prep to help
you crush the holidays.

928
00:56:19,800 --> 00:56:22,980
And so you can GoCommerce
click on Let's Talk,

929
00:56:23,260 --> 00:56:26,590
we'll do a strategy session for you,
a little prep time for the holidays,

930
00:56:26,590 --> 00:56:30,880
but Luba closing thoughts
as we get everybody ready

931
00:56:31,210 --> 00:56:35,350
for Q4 closing tips and thoughts.

932
00:56:35,800 --> 00:56:40,270
Closing thoughts. Don't do
promotions, coupons, deals,

933
00:56:40,270 --> 00:56:44,140
or anything else just for the
sake of creating a deal on them.

934
00:56:44,680 --> 00:56:45,513
Just you feel like you have.

935
00:56:46,390 --> 00:56:48,280
Yes. And then two weeks
later saying, well,

936
00:56:48,280 --> 00:56:50,110
we run a lightning deal
and it didn't work.

937
00:56:50,800 --> 00:56:53,860
The reality today on Amazon
without external traffic,

938
00:56:54,730 --> 00:56:59,320
without that external push, your deal is
not going to perform. That's just cold,

939
00:56:59,320 --> 00:57:03,970
hard truth. So if you are
running a coupon at the very,

940
00:57:03,970 --> 00:57:07,990
very list or a deal or any kind
of promotion, at the very least,

941
00:57:08,980 --> 00:57:13,450
pretty much every brand today has access
to creator connections where you can go

942
00:57:13,450 --> 00:57:18,340
and set up 10% commission,
create a connection campaign,

943
00:57:18,790 --> 00:57:23,410
make sure that you put in
word deal promotion Black

944
00:57:23,410 --> 00:57:28,180
Friday into the title because
that's the only searchable field

945
00:57:28,270 --> 00:57:32,350
for affiliates and just
have that evergreen

946
00:57:34,540 --> 00:57:38,830
because you can go in and you can change
it if you have a little bit more time.

947
00:57:39,370 --> 00:57:42,550
LTA helps you to scale it.

948
00:57:47,280 --> 00:57:49,660
The least low effort
is create a connection.

949
00:57:50,170 --> 00:57:54,370
The higher level is paying up with
LTA and really growing because

950
00:57:55,720 --> 00:57:56,980
Amazon is all about the brand.

951
00:57:57,910 --> 00:58:01,690
Just slapping a coupon on doesn't
work without brand identity,

952
00:58:01,690 --> 00:58:05,950
brand equity and external. Amazon
wants your external traffic.

953
00:58:06,970 --> 00:58:09,460
Whenever you do Amazon, always
ask what does Amazon wants.

954
00:58:10,390 --> 00:58:14,860
Average conversion of a consumer
when they land on Amazon is close to

955
00:58:15,250 --> 00:58:16,300
70%.

956
00:58:16,840 --> 00:58:21,520
That's why Amazon is giving you 10%
referral bonus back because they want you.

957
00:58:22,120 --> 00:58:25,390
That external traffic. If you provide
it, they will reward you for it. Yes.

958
00:58:26,170 --> 00:58:27,850
Well, whenever the brand says,

959
00:58:27,850 --> 00:58:31,360
I tried a deal last year
and it didn't work well,

960
00:58:31,360 --> 00:58:34,540
what did you do outside of putting
the deal together and running ads?

961
00:58:35,500 --> 00:58:36,333
That's the last.

962
00:58:37,000 --> 00:58:39,070
Thought. Protect your margins.

963
00:58:39,070 --> 00:58:43,150
Make this a profitable
holiday season. In the end,

964
00:58:43,210 --> 00:58:45,100
that's all that's going to matter.

965
00:58:45,100 --> 00:58:48,580
It's what you get to keep if you're
building a brand or business to one day

966
00:58:48,580 --> 00:58:52,480
sell, that's all a future
buyer really cares about.

967
00:58:52,480 --> 00:58:53,920
They want to see growth and
some other things as well.

968
00:58:53,920 --> 00:58:57,760
But without profits there, you
don't have a very strong case.

969
00:58:58,120 --> 00:59:01,480
And so last minute lever I'm going to
pull is let's talk about our sponsor.

970
00:59:01,480 --> 00:59:05,980
So a MZ prep, KPAC, hello,
tax seller, candy lta,

971
00:59:05,980 --> 00:59:07,780
and three cults. Check them out.

972
00:59:08,200 --> 00:59:11,650
We'll send out some unique offers
from them as well as we send out these

973
00:59:12,130 --> 00:59:14,680
resources that Luba has
expert put together,

974
00:59:14,680 --> 00:59:18,550
I promise you you want some more
Luba in your Amazon business.

975
00:59:18,550 --> 00:59:23,060
And so we'll send out these resources.
Thanks once again to Connor Crook,

976
00:59:23,480 --> 00:59:27,320
to Luba to Jonathan. And as we mentioned,

977
00:59:27,320 --> 00:59:29,900
if we can be of assistance
last minute here,

978
00:59:30,200 --> 00:59:34,010
let us know omg commerce.com.
And with that, we'll wrap up.

979
00:59:34,130 --> 00:59:39,080
Thanks everybody and good
luck this holiday season.

980
00:59:39,230 --> 00:59:39,530
See everybody.