Paid Marketing Helps Zebco Fishing Grow Market Share and Amazon Revenue 32% in 1 Year 

The Problem 

Zebco, a subsidiary of Rather Outdoors, is a fishing reel and rod manufacturer with decades of experience making family friendly products. While the brand had a rich and successful history, it had struggled to see success on Amazon. 

Battling sophisticated, factory direct competitors, Zebco was faced with poor sales performance and minimal growth, even as Amazon sales in the fishing category were skyrocketing. Thier market share was declining on Amazon while consumers were shifting purchases from brick and mortar to online.  

To combat declining share, Zebco began investing in paid advertising, but had a modest budget and focused almost exclusively on branded keywords. With most of the budget paying for branded keywords, Zebco was targeting shoppers who already knew of their products instead of targeting new consumers or brand-agnostic consumers, which made up most Amazon shoppers. As Zebco struggled to find its footing in the dynamic Amazon market, they turned to Run AMZ for help. 

Primary Goal: Increase sales and market share using AMS 

The Solution 

When Zebco first approached Run AMZ, they had limited budget for AMS and their paid campaigns were generating only 8% of total Amazon revenue. An even bigger concern was Zebco’s lack of presence in the fishing category, where they didn’t have a single product in the top 50 best sellers within an Amazon fishing category. To reach Zebco’s Amazon goals, Run AMZ recommended the following changes: 

1. Utilize AMS to drive sales and increase organic ranking for Zebco products. 
2. Improve digital merchandising to improve conversion rate and shopability in support of marketing.  

Advertising Plan 

The first step to revamp advertising was to work with the Zebco team to increase marketing budget. The additional spend would be a significant investment for Zebco, and one without proven success, so Run AMZ presented a marketing plan supported by category specific data to the Zebco team. The plan covered products to advertise, expected spend and expected return along with impact to category share of voice. This was supported by a detailed list of metrics from Amazon marketing; from average spend from competitors, cost per click, current Share of Voice and data from past performance. In addition to the plan, Run AMZ presented a monthly run-rate with expected returns so the Zebco team could see if the plan was working, or course correct as needed. This reduced the overall risk and offered tangible benchmarks of success.  

Once the budget was approved, Run AMZ went to work implementing the updated strategy with a primary goal to focus marketing on acquiring new customers; marketing efforts were shifted from branded campaigns to generic keywords.   

For Zebco’s paid campaigns, Run AMZ held position in high-volume branded keywords while shifting more budget towards generic keywords and direct competitor terms. This change had 2 significant impacts: the first was increased visibility in the market, reaching new consumers. The second was improved organic position as Amazon learned that consumers reacted positively to seeing Zebco products in search. Run AMZ focused on Zebco’s top products in each category instead of trying to spread the budget across their entire line. In addition to the strategic focus, Run AMZ tactically managed bids, keywords, and campaigns to maximize Zebco’s ROAS. 

To effectively manage marketing, Run AMZ also isolated keyword type and product category in campaign and keyword tagging. This provided visibility to the performance of each product category and keyword audience (Branded, Generic and Competitor) and allowed Run AMZ to measure the impact of each segment of business. This data was used to move budget where the highest return can be found, or isolate focus areas for the business. It also helped guide future decisions around annual budgeting for Zebco.  

Improved Digital Merchandising 

As marketing spend increased, Run AMZ knew that improving conversion rate was going to be key to overall marketing success. To support this, Run AMZ engaged in 3 areas to improve Zebco’s digital merchandising, making their products easier for consumers to shop.  

1. Improved variation strategy: Run AMZ reorganized Zebco’s variations around product families and changed the variation structures to make the products easier to shop. This also had the benefit of combining reviews for top selling products, which impacted both conversion rate and organic position.  
2. Improved Copy: To help Zebco win the buy box and convert more ad traffic, Run AMZ updated titles for nearly all products. The agency also put together a 13-page guide on digital consumer copywriting best practices to educate Zebco on Amazon’s copy standards and ensure the product information on each detail page was both accurate and explanatory, converting more shoppers as a result. 
3. Improved Creative Assets: Run AMZ also worked closely with Zebco and ultimately created updating listing images and A+ Content to better explain product features and uses. This change put information used for making purchasing decisions right in front of the consumer and helped improve conversion.  

The Results 

Thanks to Run AMZ’s aggressive Amazon ad strategy, Zebco improved ROAS by 28% from 2021 to 2022 despite the increase in spending on generic keywords. Zebco is now a top contender in its space and has improved both organic and paid placements across Amazon. The brand also saw a 32% year-over-year increase in revenue in 2022, and an additional 23% increase the following year. 

The growth-focused paid campaigns Run AMZ launched for Zebco also helped the brand increase its Amazon market share. Before working with Run AMZ, Zebco had no products in the top 50 of their category. Today, Zebco has 5 products in the top 20, including the #1 bestselling Fishing Rod and Reel Combo! The Zebco Dock Demon Combo (shown below at #10) has remained within the top 10 of the Amazon category since January 2022. 

*Zebco products starred