How Vinculum streamlined its ad management with Xmars

Challenges

Vinculum, a full-service multi-channel agency, was seeking a comprehensive ad management tool to streamline Amazon Ads management for over 40 brands across various categories. Their goal was to optimize ad spend while retaining the flexibility to meet various client needs. The primary requirements included:

• Mitigating client transition pains: Vinculum had previously struggled with challenges when migrating campaigns to new ad management tools. The enforced campaign structures of these tools limited customization, making transitions difficult and time-consuming.
• Meeting high client expectations: Clients naturally want high-performing and stable campaigns. However, past transitions to new tools led to significant performance fluctuations, causing client dissatisfaction. Vinculum required a tool that ensured campaign stability and allowed ad managers more control to meet diverse needs.
• Balancing automation and manual adjustments: There was a need for a tool that could seamlessly balance automation with manual adjustments, allowing for tailored campaign strategies based on specific product needs.
• Efficiently scaling ad management: To manage an increasing number of clients without overwhelming the team, Vinculum needed a solution that would efficiently complement and scale their internal ad management processes.

After evaluating several platforms including Quartile, Perpetua, and Pacvue, Vinculum found the flexibility of Xmars, with its blend of AI-driven, rules-based, and manual control options, was the ideal solution to address these challenges.

Objectives

The primary goal was to make ad management more efficient, reduce the team's workload, and improve campaign performance and stability for all clients. Specifically, Vinculum wanted to leverage AI to automate 80-90% of day-to-day ad management tasks.

1. Allow for flexible, manual adjustments to fine-tune campaigns.
2. Achieve measurable improvements in key performance metrics such as ACOS and TACOS.
3. Enable ad managers to focus more on strategic initiatives and less on manual tasks.
4. Work with a solution partner who could support transitioning over 40 brands in a short time frame.

Approach and solution

Vinculum’s strategy was to fully utilize Xmars’ advanced features to enhance their ad management efficiency and performance. They relied on Xmars’ AI Copilot to manage repetitive tasks, while still being able to make manual adjustments for specific product and campaign needs. This combination allowed for tailored product-level ad management by balancing automation with human control, even for the most competitive product categories.

A central element of the approach was Xmars’ robust campaign structuring and targeting capabilities. This enabled Vinculum to group and target keywords more effectively, breaking them into different campaigns and segmenting by root word. This precise control over keywords significantly boosted campaign performance.

Additionally, Xmars’ flexible campaign structures allowed Vinculum to retain their existing ad setup intact while making any needed adjustments without causing major disruptions.

"The breadth of tools in Xmars gives us greater control over all our strategies, enabling us to spend more time strategically thinking about accounts instead of getting bogged down in details."
‍- Drew Hart, CEO

Effective budget management was another key aspect. Xmars provides advanced budget controls, which enabled Vinculum to allocate monthly budgets efficiently, plan for special events like Prime Day, and dynamically reallocate funds as needed to maximize performance.

By automating routine tasks with Xmars, Vinculum’s ad managers saved significant amounts of time. This freed them up to focus more on strategic planning rather than manual input, leading to better overall results for the brands they managed.

How Vinculum made the switch

Over six weeks, Vinculum was able to successfully integrate Xmars into their ad management processes with a four-step approach.

Beginning with initial campaign migrations, Vinculum was able to keep all the existing campaign structures and easily import campaigns into Xmars.

Next, because Xmars allows users to apply its AI to any existing campaigns, Vinculum then activated Xmars AI Copilot to automate repetitive tasks, thereby freeing up time and allowing the team to focus on strategic elements of the campaigns.

This is where the flexibility in managing campaigns either manually, through rules-based automation or with AI Copilot truly shined, as the team utilized Xmars’ flexible controls to make manual adjustments for specific products, ensuring tailored strategies for each client.

Finally, training sessions were held to familiarize Vinculum ad managers with Xmars' features and benefits, ensuring they could leverage the platform effectively.

"Xmars makes it easy to switch back and forth between automated and manual controls, allowing us to address specific nuances in each product."
‍- Brian Kinney, VP of Delivery

Results

1. Significant performance improvements

The integration of Xmars led to notable enhancements in campaign performance across Vinculum’s client portfolio. For instance:

• Improved ACOS and TACOS: One client experienced a remarkable reduction in Advertising Cost of Sales (ACOS) from 15% to 10%, and Total Advertising Cost of Sales (TACOS) improved by 3% to 5%. This optimization contributed to a 30% increase in weekly sales without increasing the ad spend.

• Breaking through stagnant growth: Another client, previously experiencing stagnant sales growth, saw their TACOS improve from 10% to 7% while maintaining the same sales level. This enhancement increased profitability and impressed the client, showcasing Xmars' capability to drive growth even in challenging scenarios.

2. Enhanced operational efficiency and flexibility

Xmars provided Vinculum with the tools needed to manage campaigns more efficiently and adaptively, allowing for greater control and strategic focus:

• Keyword segmentation and optimization: The platform's advanced segmentation capabilities enabled Vinculum to break down products, such as dog vitamins, into specific campaigns based on ingredients like probiotics and glucose. This precise keyword targeting improved campaign performance and efficiency.
• Flexible budget management: Xmars' advanced budget controls allowed Vinculum to allocate client budgets effectively, distribute a $10K monthly budget daily, and reallocate funds for high-impact events like Prime Day. This ensured optimal budget utilization and maximized performance throughout the month.
• Time savings: Automation of routine tasks with Xmars saved 8-10% in resource time, enabling each team member to shift more of their time on other client needs. The time saved allowed the team to focus more on strategic planning and growth initiatives.

Conclusion

"With Xmars, our clients believe in our ability to hit strategic goals, shifting conversations from identifying problems to focusing on growth and profitability strategies."
‍- Drew Hart, CEO

Integrating Xmars has transformed how Vinculum manages Amazon Ads, making the process more efficient for their agency and more effective for their clients. The platform’s flexible combination of AI and rules-based approaches, along with its robust keyword segmentation, flexible campaign structures, and advanced budget management, has significantly reduced manual workloads. This has freed up Vinculum’s ad managers to focus on strategic planning, resulting in better performance metrics and higher client satisfaction. Xmars has proven to be a critical platform in driving Vinculum success in Amazon ad management.

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