Case study: retail media on Amazon, Walmart and Target
From autopilot to a growth engine
An established consumer brand was running heavy, diligent Amazon advertising and still watching efficiency stall.
In the first 30 days after Bearing took over, sales rose 61% and impressions 98%, outpacing a 45% increase in spend. Anyone can buy 61% more sales with enough budget. The story here is that growth outran spend.
The challenge
Busy, but adrift
Under the prior agency, the account had plenty of activity but no strategy connecting spend to the one thing that matters: total sales growth. A Bearing audit surfaced three root causes.
- Budget skewed defensive. Branded campaigns ate 28% of spend for great surface-level KPIs and little incremental sales, while non-branded growth was starved.
- Mechanics left on the table. Campaigns capping out, mismatched bids and keywords, targeting not aligned to goals.
- Channels going unwatched. The UK was under-investing in branded, and Walmart and Target, the channels with the most headroom, were largely ignored.
How Bearing sees advertising
Most advertisers never get past tactics.
Tier one
Ads are on
Campaigns exist and run. Presence without intent.
Tier two
Optimized to a KPI
Diligent management toward a single number, usually ROAS. Good tactics, unexamined goals.
Tier three: Bearing
Optimized to the business
Map the real customer journeys. Judge spend by incrementality and total sales, not vanity ad metrics.
“If 85% of the people who search your brand already buy from your brand, how incremental is that branded ad, really?”
Our approach
Separate defense from offense
- Separated defense from offense. Branded and non-branded spend got different goals. Defensive funding was set to what's required to hold placements; everything else was freed for incremental growth.
- Rebalanced the budget. Branded spend dropped from 28% to 14% of budget while branded ROAS climbed to $8.58 and competitive placements held. Savings went to non-branded (now 62% of spend) and automatic targeting.
- Fixed the mechanics. Re-bid and re-keyworded the account, restructured capped campaigns, aligned targeting to the new goals.
- Took over cleanly and fast. A gradual October transition was pulled forward to mid-October on strong early results.
- Extended the discipline across channels. The same playbook lifted the UK and opened up Walmart and Target.
Reallocations like this usually trade headline ROAS for incremental sales. Here the account was inefficient enough that both moved up at once.
Results after 30 days of full control
Growth outran spend
Advertising-attributed performance vs. the prior comparable period.
Branded share of budget, cut nearly in half, with branded ROAS climbing to $8.58 (+37%) while holding competitive placements.
Non-branded ROAS, even as its share of spend rose to 62%. DSP ROAS more than doubled.
And momentum compounded: total ROAS, up 11% at takeover, has since improved to roughly +54% as the new structure matures.
| Campaign type | Spend | Sales | ROAS | CPC | Impressions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Non-branded | $73.6K +33% | $153.0K +68% | $2.08 +26% | $0.89 +1% | 43.2M +54% |
| Auto* | $27.8K +443% | $82.9K +585% | $2.98 +26% | $0.59 +11% | 31.1M +286% |
| Branded | $16.9K −17% | $144.6K +14% | $8.58 +37% | $0.54 −17% | 4.4M −12% |
*Auto growth is off a near-zero prior base. Performance data: 30-day review, November 2024.
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