Case Study
Ariat, a premier manufacturer of innovative performance products, partnered with Blue Wheel to evaluate whether Amazon DSP Performance+ could improve media efficiency and customer acquisition beyond the brand’s existing DSP retargeting strategy. With a mature Amazon presence and reliable baseline performance, Ariat sought to determine if automation powered by Amazon’s first-party signals could drive incremental growth while maintaining measurement rigor. To test this opportunity, Blue Wheel conducted a three-month controlled study comparing Performance+ campaigns to a control group built from standard product retargeting.
Case Study
Ariat, a premier manufacturer of innovative performance products, partnered with Blue Wheel to evaluate whether Amazon DSP Performance+ could improve media efficiency and customer acquisition beyond the brand’s existing DSP retargeting strategy. With a mature Amazon presence and reliable baseline performance, Ariat sought to determine if automation powered by Amazon’s first-party signals could drive incremental growth while maintaining measurement rigor. To test this opportunity, Blue Wheel conducted a three-month controlled study comparing Performance+ campaigns to a control group built from standard product retargeting.
Click-Through Rate
Increase in CTR
Effective Cost per Click
Decrease in eCPC
Detail Page Views
Increase in DPV
Click-Through Rate
Increase in CTR
Effective Cost per Click
Decrease in eCPC
Detail Page Views
Increase in DPV
Target Return on Ad Spend
Increase in TROAS
New-to-Brand TROAS
Increase in NTB TROAS
Amazon DSP
Ariat maintains a strong presence on Amazon with DSP campaigns delivering consistent baseline performance. However, as the brand invested more heavily in upper-funnel and acquisition efforts, it needed to determine whether newer automated solutions could improve media efficiency and drive incremental customer growth beyond traditional retargeting.
Performance+ helped us move from manual audience hypothesis testing to algorithmic, conversion-focused optimization using Amazon’s first-party signals. With Ariat’s large and varying product catalogue, we wanted to understand whether automation-driven modeling could outperform our existing audience-layered structure in efficiency and scale. For mature Amazon brands, Performance+ represents a scalable path to incremental growth when implemented with disciplined testing, strategic oversight, and clear performance guardrails.
Ariat maintains a strong presence on Amazon with DSP campaigns delivering consistent baseline performance. However, as the brand invested more heavily in upper-funnel and acquisition efforts, it needed to determine whether newer automated solutions could improve media efficiency and drive incremental customer growth beyond traditional retargeting.
Performance+ helped us move from manual audience hypothesis testing to algorithmic, conversion-focused optimization using Amazon’s first-party signals. With Ariat’s large and varying product catalogue, we wanted to understand whether automation-driven modeling could outperform our existing audience-layered structure in efficiency and scale. For mature Amazon brands, Performance+ represents a scalable path to incremental growth when implemented with disciplined testing, strategic oversight, and clear performance guardrails.
Rather than pre-defining who we assumed might convert and the cost we would be willing to pay for conversion, we allowed Amazon’s algorithm to identify high-probability shoppers based on real-time behavioral and retail signals.
We monitored performance against efficiency benchmarks established from historical DSP campaigns, with particular attention to learning-phase volatility in the first 30 days.
While bidding and audience expansion were algorithm-driven, strategic levers such as budget scaling, efficiency thresholds, and product prioritization remained actively managed by the Blue Wheel team.
Aggressive ROAS goals constrained scale; loosening targets unlocked incremental volume without materially sacrificing blended efficiency.
Blue Wheel designed a three-month controlled test to evaluate Amazon DSP Performance+ against Ariat’s standard product retargeting. Both campaign structures targeted shoppers who viewed a product detail page but did not purchase, while budgets, creatives, and flight timing were aligned to maintain consistency. This framework enabled a fair comparison and allowed the team to measure the incremental impact of Performance+.
Performance+ leveraged Amazon’s first-party shopping signals and machine learning to dynamically adjust bids and delivery at the user level based on recency and engagement behaviors. By prioritizing high-probability shoppers and optimizing in real time, the solution aimed to improve acquisition efficiency, engagement, and return on ad spend beyond traditional fixed-bid retargeting. Minor adjustments to ROAS targets significantly impacted scale, highlighting the importance of strategic guardrails.
"Bringing our DSP advertising under the Blue Wheel umbrella has allowed us to manage our marketing portfolio holistically, gain insights from our campaigns from both the display and sponsored perspectives, and create efficiencies in the ability to pivot quickly based on trends and optimizations."
Ariat
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