Where they were
For three years running, Ironvale had sold out of its two best colours by the second week of December and then watched the Buy Box go to resellers at inflated prices. Rank on the terms they had spent all year building collapsed each January and took until April to recover.
Their listings were also fighting them. The hero product, a 6 quart Dutch oven, had a main image shot on a dark counter that disappeared in Amazon search results next to competitors on white. Twelve of the top twenty questions on the listing were about oven temperature limits, which the copy never answered.
What we did
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01
Work backwards from the shipping cutoff
We built the Q4 plan in June, not October. Starting from the last Prime delivery date, we worked back through Amazon’s inbound receiving times, the factory lead time in Portugal, and the sea freight window, which gave Ironvale a purchase order deadline of 4 July. They hit it with two weeks to spare for the first time.
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02
Reshoot the images that were losing the click
New main images on pure white, with the 6 quart shot at an angle that shows the interior enamel. Image two answers the oven temperature question in the first line. Image five is the size comparison people kept asking for in the reviews. Conversion on that ASIN went from 12.1% to 17.9%.
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03
Defend rank in the quiet months
Rather than going dark in February, we kept a small always on budget against the twelve terms Ironvale needs to own by October. It cost about $1,200 a month through the spring. It meant they entered Q4 already ranking, instead of buying their way back up in the most expensive eight weeks of the year.
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04
Split the colours out
The two colours that sold out were doing so because they were the only two with review volume. We split the campaigns by colour variation, put the slower colours behind their own budget, and used the review syndication in the parent listing to give them a chance. Three of the five colours now sell in meaningful volume.
Where they are now
Q4 revenue came in 61% above the prior year with no stockouts on the hero SKUs. The January rank collapse did not happen. Ironvale entered the following spring holding position on nine of their twelve target terms.
The part the founder mentions most often is the boring one. They knew in July what they were spending in November, and they stopped having the conversation about air freight in week two of December.
Every previous December I spent on the phone with freight forwarders. Last year I spent it looking at sales. That is the whole review.
Figures come from the client’s Seller Central and advertising accounts over the period described. Past results are specific to that brand, that catalogue, and that category.
