In our latest MyFBAPrep interview, learn all about Amazon DSP, dayparting, tips for growing your eCommerce business, consumer spending habits, and much more in our discussion with Nadine Schöpper, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of BidX. Check out the recording and transcript below.

Transcript below.

From business information systems and data analytics to launching a machine-learning Amazon ad tool

Rachel Andrea Go: First off, thank you, Nadine, so much for coming on to the MyFBAPrep interview series and sharing some of your really interesting background and how you got started in eCommerce. So, to kick off, can you share a little bit about where you got started, how it led to where you are today, and kind of the steps in your career?

Nadine Schöpper: Definitely. Thank you for having me, Rachel. So, I originally started to study business information systems, and during that time, I was working at a start-up, and that was my first experience with start-ups and building your own company, kind of. And I got very close to the founder as well, and that was very beneficial also later for us at BidX. And I still wanted to also see other companies like big corporates, so I was also working at KPMG, but in the field of data and analytics. So, it was kind of also like a small start-up within KPMG, focusing on data analytics and machine learning and that kind of stuff. But you very quickly could figure out that it’s—it wasn’t really competitive because, at KPMG, you have all this risk management and so, whatever you wanted to do, you had to get your approvals, and that took a lot of time. So, you weren’t really competitive with the actual start-ups out of KPMG.

And then—we were still at college when me and my co-founders then found BidX. So, it was Max, me, and Dominic, we were three co-founders who found BidX, and that was out of that, my co-founder, Max, and now husband, he was selling on Amazon and he was selling baby safety products, and he was responsible for the ads. But, at that time, there was no tool that was helping you with the ads. So, I had my background in computer science and business information systems so that I was like, “Let’s automate it.” I mean that’s, like, kind of easy. It was 2017, 2018, so the ads were all so kind of … much easier than today.

So, it developed a lot over the years, and then we built the software tool and, in the beginning, it also wasn’t really the idea to monetize it. But then, when we actually had the tool and we were talking about it in Facebook groups, they were like—the other sellers were like, “Oh, we need this too.” There were, like, 500 sellers reaching out to us who wanted to have this tool, since there was none at that time. And that’s kind of how we then started BidX and now we are here with a team of 45 people and constantly growing.

Launching a startup in college

Rachel Andrea Go: What a cool start-up story. Can you tell me a little bit more about how you basically launched a business from—while going to school?

Nadine Schöpper: Yeah, that was kind of challenging, but at the same time, I would say it was beneficial because, when you start a start-up, you usually don’t make a lot of money in the beginning. So there’s—like, [in] the first one to two years, it was, like, not a lot of revenue. We had a small business angel investment in the beginning, but that was not enough to, like, pay proper salaries for us, and we had employees that were getting proper salaries before we even got proper salaries. So, it was kind of good to still be at college, where you don’t have high standards. So you are used to living in shared apartments and not having whatever, so it was good that we didn’t have the high standards and that we didn’t have to pay us a high salary right from the beginning. So I can imagine that it’s much harder when you actually start a start-up at 30 or 40 where you have had a proper salary before. Maybe you also have, then, some savings or more savings to actually start a start-up.

But that was pretty fun, and then, at the same time, the university was also supporting us. So, they had programs where they gave us the first room where we could actually work in together with other start-ups, and they also made the introduction to the business angels who eventually invested in us. So, that was—it was a good ecosystem, I would say.

Lessons from KPMG

Rachel Andrea Go: You mentioned you were also with KPMG doing data analytics, and so it sounds like you’ve done quite a bit at such an early age and stage of your career. Can you tell me about how you made the switch from data analytics to eCommerce and what lessons you took from your other roles?

Nadine Schöpper: Yeah, definitely. I mean, the position at KPMG with data analytics was also beneficial for BidX since we work with AI in the background, so I had the knowledge [of] how to actually implement something like that into the tool and, at the same time, I saw how a corporate works, and we were able to implement some structures from there to BidX in the end. So, like, how do you do hiring? How do you manage your team and whatever? So, I mean, we were still super young at that time when we found BidX. So, it was pretty good to have people and to also have mentors — I mean, I’m still in contact with people from KPMG and also from the start-up that I was working with first.

So, we got the structures, data analytics was beneficial for BidX and for the AI and the background and, yeah, that’s kind of it. But then, my husband was—he had the ecom business, and at that time, I was also supporting him, like, in the background for the ecom business, and that’s kind of how I got into it and it was good to combine, then, the data analytics and the machine learning with the ecom business that he had.

What is BidX?

Rachel Andrea Go: We’ve been talking quite a bit about BidX and mentioning it here and there, but can you tell us exactly what BidX is, what it does?

Nadine Schöpper: Yeah, sure. So, we do Amazon PPC and DSP. So, we optimize and automate Amazon PPC and DSP. And we do everything, like—it’s a software solution, and we do everything around it. It’s the bidding, the keyword harvesting; we do dayparting, we have all sorts of analytics around it, and we do the campaign creation. And with DSP, for example — that’s the Demand Side Platform we started that in maybe 2019, 2020 I would say — at that time, there was no API for it. So, it was all manually, and there was more of an agency service. But now, we also automated that and have a software solution for that. So, yeah, that’s kind of what we do. So, whenever there’s anything regarding Amazon ads, maybe PPC or DSP, that’s what we do. And PPC is only for sellers, but DSP is also very beneficial for other companies that can use the whole network of Amazon there.

What is dayparting in advertising?

Rachel Andrea Go: You mentioned dayparting. Can you tell us a little bit more about what that is?

Nadine Schöpper: Yeah. So, dayparting means that you increase and decrease or also pause bids and budgets for a certain time of the day. But not only that—I mean, “dayparting” kind of sounds confusing here, but you can also do that based on the stock level, for example, or the bestseller ranking, so. And that’s pretty beneficial for—let’s say you are selling a gaming computer and you know your audience is usually awake at night. So, you want to have your products present at that time, and then you can increase the bids and budgets at day—at night time and decrease it during the day, or when you have a lead-up phase for a specific deal day like Prime Day, you can increase the bids, like, two weeks before this event, and we actually had an internal study that showed when you have a lead-up face where you actually promote your products more during that time, the people are more likely to buy your products and more—most of the sales on deal days had an interaction with an ad before. So that’s also very, very beneficial for dayparting.

About Amazon DSP

Rachel Andrea Go: Can you tell me a little bit more about Amazon DSP as well and how that works?

Nadine Schöpper: Yeah, sure. So, Amazon DSP — that’s the Demand Side Platform. And while PPC is only available for sellers, DSP is available for kind of everyone. So, let’s say you are an insurance company and you could also run ads through the Amazon DSP. And Amazon’s collecting so much data all the time so, from everyone who’s buying on Amazon, they know what is your salary or they can estimate what your salary is. They know, do you have pets? Which car are you driving? So, they know so much about you. And then these companies — a car manufacturer, insurance company, or whoever — can use this data, build audiences, and then advertise their products, and not only on Amazon but also off Amazon. So, for example, on the website of the New York Times or wherever you see ads on websites, these Amazon DSP ads can then be shown.

And also Amazon sellers can use this, of course, and then it kind of depends on where you are in your advertising stage. So, when you’re still beginning with advertising, I would always recommend to first do PPC. So, we usually see that sellers start to do DSP as well when they totally leverage the PPC and have an ad spend of around, let’s say, $15,000 a month in PPC, and then you can also go to DSP. Or, when you have a product that is very innovative. So, you have a product where you don’t have any search volume for, because nobody has ever searched for it; it’s so new and it’s super innovative, then you can also run ads with the DSP and target audiences instead of keywords, because there are no keywords with search volume for this product. So that’s also a good use case for DSP for sellers.

Amazon advertising tools to leverage

Rachel Andrea Go: That’s awesome insight, thank you. What are some Amazon advertising tools or programs you’ve found to be most beneficial to sellers?

Nadine Schöpper: That’s—for example, Sponsored Brands video, because you get really quality visibility but relatively low cost per click, which is pretty nice. So, people should use that. And then there is the Amazon DSP, which I was just talking about, and the AMC, which is the Amazon Marketing Cloud.

So, with the Amazon Marketing Cloud, you can see the whole journey of a customer; you can see which ads did the person click until he bought the product. And our AMC dashboard — we came up with that one when one of our customers—he was doing DSP ads as well and then he was wondering if it actually was worth it and if he should continue doing DSP because he couldn’t really see the relation between his actual sales and DSP and PPC and how that all interacts. And then, when we had the AMC, he was like, “Oh, wow, actually, there are a lot of steps where DSP is a part of it.” So, it’s very—it gives you a lot of insights into how your customers interact and what they actually do.

Common oversights in eCommerce advertising

Rachel Andrea Go: What are the big mistakes or oversights that you see all the time in eCommerce advertising?

Nadine Schöpper: That’s a good one. The biggest one is probably not having a good listing. So, when you want to run your ads, you first need to make sure that your listing is awesome. It should be PPC ready. And we see a lot of sellers that have a very bad conversion rate, and that’s not the fault of PPC, that’s the fault of the listing. So, you first need to make sure that your product is good, that your listing is good, and that you leveraged everything there that you can and that it looks appealing.

Then, not doing data-driven decisions. So, have a tool in the background where you can actually see the impacts and have analytics and then make decisions based on that. And do A/B testing, especially for your creatives. When you have videos or pictures for your ads, definitely make sure that you pick the right one and do A/B testing there.

Consumer buying behavior

Rachel Andrea Go: And what changes are you seeing in consumer buying behavior lately?

Nadine Schöpper: So, it’s a lot going towards mobile lately, and there’s a higher price sensitivity now that there’s kind of a recession and people are looking to save their money more. We see a lot more price sensitivity. And then, at the same time, people like convenience, so more demand for fast and free shipping. So, make sure you have your prime batch and have everything, like—have a good listing, have the Prime badge, and make sure that people don’t have any obstacles to go for your product.

Rachel Andrea Go: Absolutely. And do you think those behaviors are a Q4 thing or just a product of the times?

Nadine Schöpper: I say that’s more a product of the times right now. In Q4, we see, like, more, yeah, seasonal products that are more interesting. When it comes to Christmas, it’s more about entertainment instead of buying, I don’t know, kitchen tools or whatever. I hope no one is buying kitchen tools for Christmas. But yeah, so, I would say that’s more of, like, the time right now and last Q4.

Using AI to make ad campaigns smarter

Rachel Andrea Go: I saw BidX uses AI to make their campaigns smarter and identify budget waste. Can you tell me a little bit more about this and how it works?

Nadine Schöpper: Yeah. So, we optimize based on the ACoS and the TACOS and the budgets. And in budgets, you mostly see, for bigger brands—so, they want to—they have, like, a certain budget for their ads. It doesn’t really matter if it’s, like, a good ACoS or not; they just have a budget, and you should exceed that one, so.

And then we collected a lot of data over the past six, seven years. And at that time, we were actually the first tool on the market. So, we have a huge data set, and that’s what we are using to find the best bits and budgets for the ads. So, we do the bidding, increasing and decreasing bids, and then we also do the keyword harvesting as soon as we identify a keyword that is performing very, very well. We put it into the exact campaign, for example, and we also identify new keywords that fit very well to the product that are trending, and so on. So, that’s what the AI is doing in the background.

Advice for long-term growth

Rachel Andrea Go: What’s your advice to merchants looking for long-term, sustainable growth?

Nadine Schöpper: Yeah. Still most important is the listing: Make sure it’s optimized before you start running ads. Otherwise, you just waste money on ads, and you don’t want that. Leverage the full funnel and all ad types. So, Sponsored Brands video, Sponsored Display ads, do retargeting — that’s kind of the low-hanging fruits, and you should definitely leverage that. And then make decisions based on data. So, that’s very important. And as soon as you reach a certain level, you can also use the DSP. That’s kind of the best way and the most sustainable and growth-promising way that we see.

Deciding which conferences and communities to join

Rachel Andrea Go: Awesome. I know you’ve also been to a few conferences lately. So, can you share a little bit about how you decide where to invest time in?

Nadine Schöpper: Yeah. I would say, like, now from a seller perspective, it depends on what the goal is. Do I want to learn, or do I want to network and have fun? So, for learning, I would always recommend to join master classes or masterminds. And that’s where you gather with other sellers and you have your problems and your challenges in mind, and then you discuss these with the other sellers, which is super beneficial when it’s—when you’re more advanced and you have very specific challenges. And mostly other sellers had the same or similar challenges, so then you can support each other on that, and [it] should always be, like, a safe room where you feel like you can discuss whatever comes up in your business.

I really like that for learning, but also there are, like, other conferences where it’s more about networking, in my opinion, but also learning about the trends. So, if you want to see where’s the market heading to, then go to conferences like the Prosper Show, Amazon Accelerate, or AMZ Innovate. And there are plenty of others that I’m not naming here, but that’s, like, what I had in mind now.

And then preparation for those would always be: Have a look at the agenda and then pick the most interesting topics for you. Go there and also have a look at the partners who maybe have a booth there and then with the visit these partners and see if they can somehow help you grow your business. That’s how I would approach a conference. And also, when there is a conference, it’s all about networking, so maybe make sure, when there are side events, go there, [and] network with people. So, that’s what I see as being most beneficial for sellers.

Hire the right people from the start

Rachel Andrea Go: In addition to your expertise around Amazon ads and, you know, conferences and all of the Amazon ecosystem, you’ve also built a business. So, do you have any advice for people who are looking to grow their business in eCommerce, whether it’s B2B or B2C, or just start something of their own?

Nadine Schöpper: Yes, it’s all about the team. Make sure you have the right people in your team that you can trust and that are performing the way you wanted to because, like, the first people you are hiring will be the people who hire the next generation too. So make sure that you hire the best people right in the beginning. I know it can be very tough because, usually in the beginning, you don’t have the money to hire these people, so it’s kind of a weird situation. But then you can also work with these ops or you have virtual stocks there. So, it’s definitely about the team whenever you found a company. It’s all about the team.