🔊 What do we make of Prime Day performance?

Advertising spend on Amazon increased by 3.8X compared to the daily average of the 30 days leading up to this year’s two-day Prime Day event, according to campaign management platform Kenshoo. That’s the same increase the company saw during Prime Day a year ago when the event ran as usual in July.

Kenshoo says advertising-driven conversions were up 2.6X this year and that advertiser sales revenue was up 4.9X compared to the previous 30-day average. However, that’s down from last year when advertisers running campaigns via Kenshoo saw sales revenue increase by 5.8X compared to the days leading up to the event.

The increased competition for online shoppers meant lower return on ad spend (ROAS) as spend and the cost of bids rose in some categories. “Despite a 187% increase in impressions, Home and Kitchen, for instance, saw ROAS drop by nearly 50% compared to last year, in part due to a nearly three-fold increase in ad spend. Clothing, Shoes, and Jewelry experienced a similar effect, with ROAS declining by 4% from Prime Day last year,” said product feed solution Feedvisor.

Some brands saw CPCs come in at more than a dollar over forecast, performance agency PMG said.

Beauty and Personal Care and Electronics were standouts, however, said Feedvisor. Beauty and Personal Care saw a 210% increase in sales on 146% increase in ad spend. ROAS for the category was up 26% from last year. Electronics advertisers saw ROAS increase by 58% over Prime Day 2019.

Learn more -- What Prime Day signals for 2020 holiday retail »

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Snapchat reported revenues increased 52% year-over-year to $679 million and average daily active users (DAUs) increased by 18% year-over-year to $249 million for the third quarter of the year. One stat that stood out to us in particular was the average revenue per user (ARPU) in North America. Overall ARPU increased 28% to $2.73, yet in North America, that number shot up $46% to $5.49.

Why we care. Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel said the company is making long-term investments in its community and advertising efforts. The chart above indicates the company is seeing those efforts literally pay off. AR will continue to be a big focus. “The adoption of augmented reality is happening faster than we had previously anticipated, and we are working together as a team to execute on the many opportunities in front of us,” Spiegel said in a statement. The company has partnered with Champs Sports, Clearly, Essie, Hoka One One, Kohl’s, Levi’s, Jordan Brand, and Sally Hansen to launch augmented reality-powered virtual try-on experiences on the platform.

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“One thing people don’t really talk about or understand is that logistics is a huge part of the customer experience, which is a huge part of today’s marketing. Everything in marketing today is so much more 1:1, so much more experiential, people want that Amazon-like feel no matter where they go.” The words not of a marketer, but of a thought leader in the logistics and supply chain space, Erik Mumford, co-founder of REFASHIOND OS, a consultancy focused on supply chain innovation.

In a wide-ranging exchange with Mumford, and his REFASHIOND co-founders, we learned the extent to which the traditional global supply chain is being reconfigured through localization or by bringing manufacturing home (especially in the case of essentials like pharmaceuticals and PPE), and how these changes — accelerated, of course, by COVID — might produce benefits in terms of sustainability and ethical practices.

We also got insights into the way big brands like Amazon and Walmart are scrambling to meet the as-yet unknown demand curve of the holiday season.

Read more here.

HubSpot has launched a new pricing model, Marketing Contacts, that allows marketers to pay for only the contacts they want to reach out to via advertisements and email. Marketing Contacts allows users to store up to one million non-marketing contacts at no charge. Non-marketing contacts are defined as all bounced and unsubscribed contacts. Marketing and non-marketing contacts are separated automatically. Sealed pricing allows marketers to pay based on the number of contacts.

The introduction of Marketing Contacts is one of a number of value propositions from HubSpot this year, including updates to raise reporting limits, and making embeddable meetings, landing pages and quotes free to non-paying customers.

Why we care. HubSpot reflects a trend among martech vendors to look after customers — especially smaller customers — now, in the hope of maintaining loyalty in a better time to come.