How Symprove Scaled Premium Acquisition with AMC & DSP

The challenge

Despite a growing UK gut health market, this Symprove faced stagnating Amazon sales due to a heavy reliance on customer retention rather than new-to-brand (NTB) acquisition. A significant hurdle was their premium price point (3.5 times more expensive than category competitors), which demanded a high level of consumer education regarding their unique liquid delivery system. Previous programmatic efforts were hindered by unoptimised budgets, lack of cross-channel attribution, and targeting that was too narrow, focusing solely on "healthy and wealthy" demographics.

The brief: scale acquisition across Amazon and the open internet without letting acquisition cost run away.

The approach

To scale Symprove’s premium offering, we leveraged Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) to transition from demographic targeting to intent-based behavioural modelling. AMC insights revealed that shoppers interacting with Sponsored Ads were 3.5x more likely to convert via DSP; we capitalised on this by building custom "Add to Basket" and "Multiple Detail Page View" audiences in Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC).

We implemented a sophisticated programmatic mix across Amazon O&O and the open internet supply. A key differentiator was our link-out campaign, driving high-intent traffic to Symprove’s direct-to-consumer (DTC) website. By deploying the Amazon Ad Tag, we captured on-site event such as page views and conversions, enabling us to optimise bidding based on total brand impact and retarget DTC visitors back on Amazon to close the loop.

To maximise efficiency, we utilised Performance+ for automated bid optimisation and dayparting to focus budget during peak conversion windows. We balanced reach and effectiveness by prioritising high-performing O&O inventory (which delivered a 3.7x higher ROAS than 3P supply) while maintaining strict frequency caps on link-out tactics to prevent creative fatigue. This integrated approach expanded the top-of-funnel reach while significantly lowering blended acquisition costs through technical, cross-channel precision.

The result

Record new-to-brand growth at lower cost. Blended CAC fell 44% against a category baseline. Amazon O&O supply returned an improved ROAS of 3.7x versus the third-party benchmark.

Symprove’s UK category share rose 2.5 points, moving the brand to #3 in the category. Engagement quality moved with it: click-through rate up 115% and conversion rate up 23%, confirming that AMC-informed audiences were reaching shoppers ready to be educated on a premium product.