Do you ever find it difficult to fall asleep? If you work in the ecommerce realm, we understand there’s a lot to keep you up at night from budgeting concerns to inventory.
Let’s just say, as leaders in the digital advertising space – we know the feeling.
In 2004, two men (desperate to get some sleep) decided to do something about it. During this time, energy drinks like Red Bull and Monster were just starting to gain popularity and the market was booming with new products to keep the general public awake.
Dream Water founders Vince Porpiglia and David Lekach realized there was no liquid available to help people fall asleep and with that thought, their sleep-aid drink vision became a reality.“They were looking to create sleep aids in new, (and at the time unavailable) formats like liquid, powder, gummy, etc.,” Gary Jiang, Digital Marketing Manager at Dream Water said.
“Their general desire was to fill out the available formats to give options to people (since the only available format were pills at the time).”
Dream Water has come a long way since it’s humble beginnings.
To start, they’ve downsized from an 8oz bottled drink to a convenient 2.5 oz shot, and now offer an easy to grab on-the-go powder, that you can pour into hot or cold liquids. The powder can be taken without water like candy / pixie sticks too.
Their marketing strategy has also matured, largely thanks to their growth on digital channels like Amazon and partnership with CPC Strategy.
“Our Amazon PPC experience with the CPC Strategy team has been phenomenal. They’re experts in the space and do an incredible job of executing while simultaneously educating clients. CPC Strategy is more than an agency, they’re partners in the growth of our Amazon business,” Jiang said.
We spoke with Jiang to find out why his team decided to partner with CPC Strategy, what their experience has been like so far, and what we can expect to see from their company in 2018.
Dream Water & Direct to Consumer Selling
Jiang joined Dream Water in 2015.
“I saw Dream Water as a very good opportunity in the sense of direct to consumer selling. My entire digital marketing career has been focused on ecommerce and I felt like we were in alignment in terms of goals. That synergy between myself and the brand was the main reason why I joined the team.”
“Today, we sell our product in pretty much all of the major retail pharmacy drug store chains and super markets, but in the last 3 years or so the focus for Dream Water has shifted towards selling direct to consumer.”
Blog Post: “Should Wholesale Brands Start Selling Direct-to-Consumer?“
“Sales in retail stores have steadily decreased across the board and in the industry as a whole. Not only are we attracted to the better margins but there are significantly lower headaches with selling direct to our consumers.”
Dream Water Invests in Amazon Advertising
Dream Water started selling on Amazon about 3 years ago and now operates on the Vendor and 3P side. They also distribute their products on Jet.com, eBay.com, Walmart.com, Drugstore.com, and a couple other retailers (primarily as a wholesale relationship).
“We decided to team up with CPC Strategy this year because the complexity of selling on Amazon is enormous in terms of the advertising options you have and all the moving levers. From inventory projections to listing optimizations, all of the bits and pieces are so daunting – especially when you have a small team.”
“For us the biggest obstacle was just sheer man power, time, and bandwidth. We could not dedicate the effort and full focus to each one of those levers, so that’s why we decided to find a solid agency to help us offload all of that extra work.”
According to Jiang, Dream Water tried working with a different agency prior to CPC, but the experience with them “wasn’t very positive.”
“I had been following CPC Strategy’s content for quite some time. It was a go-to resource for us. For example, when we needed to figure out how to optimize our keywords on the back end of a listing, we would Google it, check out the article – and try to figure it out,” he said.
“CPC Strategy was creating good content and historically we have always seen the agency as knowledgeable in the Amazon space. Ultimately, that was the catalyst for us to start working with them.”
Dream Water & CPC Strategy Team Up
When Dream Water joined CPC Strategy they were seeking guidance on how to better invest their advertising dollars on Amazon. As we started to clean up their account, we identified several areas of improvement.
According to Jaz Seisa, Marketplace Channel Analyst at CPC Strategy we leveraged our in-depth keyword research and bid optimization strategies to improve performance and efficiency.
“The goal of Amazon keyword harvesting is to discover and bid on keywords or search terms used by customers to find your products.”
“By analyzing Dream Water’s keyword data on a granular level we were able to discover terms that they never even thought about bidding on before.”
“Instead of the ‘set it and forget approach’, now we were able to push Dream Water’s products forward with a detailed keyword strategy in mind.”
We also worked closely with Dream Water to improve their AMS account. We optimized their auto and manual campaigns and built out new campaigns (based on an ASIN level) which allowed us to get a lot more detailed with their bidding strategy.
As a result, Dream Water has completely shifted their baseline in an upward direction, increasing sales by 77.59%*
*Time Period: 60 days before Dream Water launched with CPC Strategy vs. 60 days after
Dream Water Elevates Their Listings with A+ Content
Our Creative Team also implemented A+ Content on select ASINs to act as an extension of Dream Water’s brand on the Marketplace.
We worked with Dream Water to modify the product description fields and build out custom creative including their brand story, enhanced images, and text placements.
A+ Content also gave Dream Water the additional space within their detail pages to answer common customer questions and provide relevant details about their products. As a result, we saw an uptick in conversions rate – a trend we anticipate will continue.
“I think A+ Content is a great addition to Seller Central’s suite of tools. I’m a huge fan of A+ Content because I want consumers to have a positive experience when it comes to searching and buying products online,” Jiang said.
“Overall, Amazon releasing A+ Content has been conducive for a better buying experience. If a customer can land on a listing and be able to see a coherent story for the brand as well as the products designed in an aesthetically pleasing way – it not only improves the conversion rate but it also improves the customer’s experience and that’s a huge benefit.”
Dream Water Expands Product Line in 2018
Now that Jiang and our Amazon Management team are in alignment, he’s been freed up to invest his time in other endeavors including the launch of two new product lines.
“We are in the process of launching Dream Water + Beauty and Dream Water + Sport. Both product lines are built off of our signature base formula but with enhanced ingredients. Dream Water + Beauty helps improve skin & nail health and the Sport version helps athletes recover quickly as well as get the sleep they deserve.”
“On top of that, we’re also expanding our accessories line. We want to be a sleep brand rather than just a sleep aid brand, so we’re adding in additional accessories like neck pillows and eye masks.”
“Overall, 2018 is going to be a pretty exciting time for us. We are committed to growing our direct to consumer strategy and in the year ahead we plan to spend significantly more on digital advertising efforts for Amazon and Facebook.”
For more on Dream Water or how to improve your Amazon advertising efforts, email [email protected].