Sponsored Products optimisation roadmap

To get the best results from your Sponsored Products campaigns in the Ad Manager, you'll need to monitor and optimise them regularly. Use this roadmap to guide your campaign management before, during and after launch. You'll also find advanced budget pacing techniques and expert advice for sales events.

Before your campaign goes live, please define your objectives.

Use these recommendations to set up your campaign:

Once your campaign is live, check its performance at least twice a week.

Use this checklist to keep your strategy on track.

1. Confirm campaign status: verify that your status in the Ad Manager is Running.

2. Check Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): review your attributed sales and Return on ad spend (ROAS) in the reporting deep-dive.

3. Monitor revenue allocation: see how your sales and Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) are split across countries, products, ad locations and days.

To maintain optimal performance and achieve your strategic goals, monitor your campaign results a minimum of twice a week and make necessary adjustments.

1. Verify stock availability: ensure you have enough products and stock depth in all markets. You'll need to meet all product (SKU) requirements at all times to keep the campaign effective.

2. Track performance against objectives: analyse sales, ROAS, spend and Cost per click (CPC). If an item has a high CPC but low sales, it might be draining your budget. Remove these products or move the budget to markets that deliver stronger results.

Selected Sponsored Products: remove underperforming products based on ROAS and CPC. Add new items to ensure you always have at least 20 active products.

Dynamic Sponsored Products: add new items to your Zalando assortment; the tool will automatically promote the most eligible ones.

• Expand your reach: if you're live in multiple markets and have enough stock, consider extending your campaign to new regions.

• Shift your budget: gradually move your remaining budget from low-performing markets to your best-performing ones. Always keep a minimum of €35 per day, per market.

• Extend your runtime: if you have budget left, extend your campaign duration. If you can't maintain the €35 daily minimum across all markets, only extend the campaign in your top-performing ones.

• Top up your budget: if the results meet your expectations, you can maximise performance by increasing the budget or extending the campaign runtime.

Budget pacing gives you greater control over your campaign spend and helps you reach your marketing objectives. You can adjust your daily spend by entering a percentage between -50% and +200%.

1. Define your campaign goals: decide if your priority is visibility, conversions or reaching a specific Return on ad spend (ROAS). Learn more about campaign strategy in this article.

2. Review your past performance: use campaign reports to see how your results align with your goals.

3. Adjust your pacing: modify your settings based on your data:

   • Increase pacing if your ROAS is strong and you want to drive more sales volume.

   • Reduce pacing if you're low on stock, in a slow season or if your ROAS is weak. This helps you save budget for better periods.

4. Monitor and refine: track your performance after every change. Fine-tune your pacing regularly to stay aligned with your goals and market conditions.

Budget pacing gives you more control over your daily spend. The system uses a two-step process to adjust your budget based on the percentage you enter (from -50% to +200%).

For example:

Positive pacing (+50%): if your baseline is €100, the system will aim to spend €150 per day.

Negative pacing (-20%): if your baseline is €100, the system will reduce your spend to €80 per day.

To get the most out of your Sponsored Products campaigns, review your data to identify your best-performing products (SKUs) and markets. Use these insights to set up your next Dynamic or Selected Sponsored Products campaigns for even better performance.

To get the most out of your campaigns, you'll need to monitor them regularly and use Ad Manager automation to your advantage.

1. Monitor regularly: Check your performance daily. At least twice a week, perform a deeper review of your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), such as ad spend, product availability and Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) growth.

2. Leverage automation: If a Selected Sponsored Products campaign isn't performing well, try switching to a Dynamic Sponsored Products campaign to benefit from automated optimisations. Learn how to edit running campaigns here.

3. Distribute your budget: If you're selling in multiple markets, use Global Budget to automatically distribute your spend to the regions where it will have the most impact.

While your campaign is running, you can:

• Switch between Dynamic and Selected products campaign types.

• Choose to promote discounted items, full-price items or both.

• Change the brands in an active dynamic Sponsored Products campaign.

• Use the Estimated Return Rate filter (0–100%) to exclude high-return items. This can help to protect your margins and boost profitability.

During high-traffic events, your strategy needs to be agile.

Follow these best practices to maximise your results:

• Optimise your markets: for Country Budget campaigns, move your budget from underperforming markets to those with the best performance

• Refine your article selection:

  • Selected Sponsored Products: prioritise items with strong Return on ad spend (ROAS) and a competitive Cost per click (CPC). Remove underperformers and ensure you have at least 20 active products (SKUs).

  • Dynamic Sponsored Products: regularly update your Zalando assortment so the system always has fresh items to promote.

• Use strategic discounting: if you're a Partner Program partner, increasing your discount rates during peak days can boost performance as customers look for deals.

• Avoid product overlap: don't promote the same articles in the same market and timeframe across multiple campaigns. This prevents you from bidding against yourself.

• Monitor your performance frequently: use campaign breakdown reports to track performance in real-time during high-traffic periods.

• Secure stock levels: ensure you have enough stock available. If you're a Partner Program partner, replace low-stock items immediately to maintain momentum.

Review your results to gain insights and refine your strategy for the future.

Use these steps to improve your next campaign setup:

1. Evaluate at the product (SKU) level: identify your bestsellers and low-sellers. Consider creating dedicated campaigns for specific product categories or performance tiers to gain better control.

2. Review at the market level: determine if dividing your markets across different campaigns could improve your efficiency and budget control.

3. Revisit your objectives: use these insights to adjust your campaign goals, setup and product selection for your next launch.