How the Demographics Report Will Change your Amazon Campaigns

March 11, 2020
By Nancy Lili Gonzalez

Welcome to the mini-series finale on Amazon Advertising’s Brand Analytics!

We began this series to help you get the most from each and every feature of Amazon’s Brand Analytics report. In the series we covered Search Frequency Rank, Market Basket Report, and Item Comparison and Alternate Purchase Behavior.

This article is all about Demographics, and it is no exception.

By the end of this article, we expect you to better understand your product’s audience so thoroughly that you will feel confident informing the entirety of your marketing and product development approach from it.

This article also doesn’t hesitate with transparency. We tell you the not-so-nice parts about the demographics report too.

Understanding your audience is crucial to earning more sales, and the demographics report offers literally just that: a better understanding of who your audience is.

If you’re ready to gain perspective on your consumers to enhance your performance on Amazon, then you are on the right link.

Friendly reminder: The information in this article is only relevant to registered brands on Amazon. If you’d like access to this tool, apply for Amazon Brand Registry.

Amazon’s Demographics Data: Is it what you think it is?

According to Amazon, the demographics report “shows Brand Owners the breakdown of their Amazon customers (in aggregate) by age, household income, education, gender, and marital status. This information allows Brand Owners to assess the need for and success of targeted marketing campaigns and make product portfolio decisions based on customer penetration by demographic. This report is only available in the United States.”

Amazon always overcomplicates definitions. Let Mike take it away:

This report answers the question of who's on the other end, who is actually buying these things. That should pump you up, knowing exactly who is buying these products because then you can circle back and create even stronger products.

Before Amazon released the demographics reports, sellers had a challenging time marketing to potential Amazon marketplace customers, but now sellers will know the age, household income, education, gender, and marital status of their audience and will be free to use this knowledge on and off Amazon.

The demographics report allows users to search for specific products by using the ASIN search box at the top of the report. The ASIN search box supports searches for up to 500 ASINs at a time with either a space or comma separating each ASIN.

If you wanted to see demographics for an entire line of products, you could add all those ASINs to the report to see the demographics.

The data availability for this report is weekly, monthly, or quarterly, but you can’t customize the dates and request, for example, January 3rd to March 8th.

The demographics data is your jumping-off point for fortifying your sales and Amazon rankings. Its data encompasses a consumer’s age, income, education, gender, and marital status.

Yes, it appears Amazon’s demographics data is what you think it is.

Learn more about each category below.

Please note: The following images are representative for an account we manage and it should not be confused with your data. (Did you know we offer managed services?)

Sales per Age Group

The Sales per Age Group includes the sales totals of six groups ranging between 18- 24 and up to 65+. Consumers of different ages are generally attracted to different things and require a marketing strategy that considers that.

Sales per Household Income

The Sales per Household Income covers the income range of less than $50,000 annually to over $250,000. Households of different incomes generally have different price needs that determine what they buy. Knowing this could finetune your pricing approach, to either be more competitive or more luxe.

Education

The Education category ranges from customers who have “less than high school” education to those who possess a master’s degree or above. Knowing your consumer’s education level allows you to craft more powerful copy.

Gender

The Gender category offers data on whether a seller’s product appeals more to certain traditional genders, such as men or women. Whether or not your product is designed for a specific traditional gender or if it’s unisex or all-inclusive, knowing the gender of the person purchasing your product helps you craft your consumer’s persona. Crafting a strong consumer persona fortifies customer acquisition.

Marital Status

While other factors hint at this data point, Marital Status implies what percentage of customers are single or married. Again, knowing your average consumer’s marital status improves your ability to craft your consumer’s persona. Sometimes single individuals and married couples have different daily needs and stressors that might impact how you market a product toward them.

It appears every bit of information in the demographics report is useful and relevant for improving your Amazon PPC campaigns, doesn’t it?

Demographic Data’s Downfalls

Hands down, the demographics report offers useful data!

We wish it was all rainbows and sunshine, but there are three unfortunate hiccups in the report, or metaphorical thunderstorms, if you were enjoying that cliche analogy.

The first unfortunate part about the demographics report is, namely, that some information is not available. Lacking data means results are inaccurate and it requires more flexibility when considering strategy.

We spoke to an Amazon representative who said data may be inaccurate because of family-shared accounts. Somehow, in spite of having robots and surveillance in our homes, Amazon is still unsure of how to track shared accounts.

The second unfortunate part about the demographics report is that the keyword search option does not work. We tried it on multiple accounts and multiple keywords, and we determine it’s a typo or erroneous feature. You can search for ASINs, but not keywords.

The third unfortunate part about the demographics report is… it underreports. We noticed inaccuracies with reporting of total sales. Be aware of that when you view your report.

Will these downfalls in the demographics report hinder your performance? No, but they are pesky. The report would be more useful without glitches.

Demographics: You have it, so use it!

What a plethora of data! How neat!

Now that you know as much as you can about your audience’s age, household income, education, gender, and marital status you can better inform your branding and even your external marketing.

To change your Amazon campaigns for the better, use the demographics data to craft consumer personas, create more targeted ads, and funnel traffic to and from external platforms.

You can also boost brand awareness and produce more powerful messaging with this data in your back pocket.

Once you know who your consumer is, then tailor your campaigns to match them. If you know all of your customers are seniors, for example, tailor your lifestyle photography to match because customers typically like to see themselves or an aspiration of themselves in products.

Similarly, this information should help you better tailor your Sponsored Brand Ads, including the videos, images, and headlines.

You can even use Amazon’s demographics data beyond your Amazon marketing! Use this information to inform how you run external platforms, like Facebook ads.

Knowing who your consumer is enables you to expand your reach and find your consumer elsewhere too.

In the future, we predict Amazon will develop demographic targeting ads. Demographic targeting would allow sellers to bid differently on different segments. Google, Facebook, and Instagram already offer this feature, and we expect Amazon will catch up soon.

That’s all, folks!

Amazon’s demographic reports may not be perfect since it lacks complete information, however the information it offers is incredible and useful for brand owners who would like greater control in their overarching marketing approach.

Recap:

The demographics report tells sellers their customer’s age, income, education, gender, and marital status.
Search by ASIN, not keyword, for the demographics of a specific product or an entire line of products.
Demographics data availability is weekly, monthly, or quarterly.
The demographics report lacks total data and underreports.
Use demographics report to craft consumer personas, create targeted ads, and funnel traffic to external platforms.

That’s a wrap, Badger Nation!

Thank you for requesting this mini-series all about Brand Analytics. Compiling the information for our podcasts, YouTube videos, and our blog was a delight for the whole team.

This was our most frequently requested topic, and we are open to future suggestions as well. If you have questions, we have answers. Please don’t hesitate leaving a comment or giving us a shout.

Badger out.