NTB (New to Brand) - Amazon Glossary

NTB (New-to-Brand) is a suite of advertising metrics on Amazon that determines whether an ad-generated purchase was made by a first-time buyer or an existing customer. Amazon classifies an order as new-to-brand if the shopper has not purchased from the brand within the prior 12 months.

Tracking these metrics allows brands to accurately measure the efficiency of their top-of-funnel marketing strategies and evaluate their true Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC). Distinguishing between new customer acquisition and repeat purchases prevents brands from overspending on campaigns that merely cannibalize organic sales, thereby optimizing long-term cash flow and profitability.

Why Does New-to-Brand Tracking Matter?

For brands registered under Amazon Brand Registry, scaling a catalog requires a clear understanding of where advertising capital goes. Traditional advertising metrics like Advertising Cost of Sales (ACoS) or Return on Ad Spend (RoAS) treat every transaction equally. They do not distinguish between a loyal subscriber who buys your item every month and a shopper who has never seen your brand packaging before.

Relying exclusively on ACoS can cause brands to misallocate their marketing budgets. Brand defense campaigns - such as bidding on your own trademarked brand name - typically deliver low ACoS and high RoAS, creating the illusion of supreme efficiency. However, analyzing these campaigns through an NTB lens often reveals a near-zero new customer acquisition rate. The ads are simply intercepting shoppers who had already decided to buy from you. By monitoring NTB data, you can isolate which keywords and target profiles actively expand your customer base versus those that simply charge you a fee for repeat traffic. This insight is critical for managing your Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) and projecting reliable corporate growth.

How Do You Calculate New-to-Brand Performance?

Amazon automatically provides raw NTB orders, NTB sales, and the percentage of NTB orders within your downloadable advertising reports for specific ad types. To evaluate campaign efficiency, senior strategists calculate relative performance metrics using standard accounting logic.

The proportion of ad-generated orders originating from new shoppers is determined by the NTB Order Rate:

$$\text{NTB Order Rate} = \left( \frac{\text{New-to-Brand Orders}}{\text{Total Ad-Generated Orders}} \right) \times 100\%$$

To determine the financial weight of new shoppers relative to your total advertising revenue pool, apply the NTB Sales Percentage formula:

$$\text{NTB Sales Percentage} = \left( \frac{\text{New-to-Brand Sales}}{\text{Total Ad-Generated Sales}} \right) \times 100\%$$

Finally, to calculate the direct capital required to attract a single new customer to your catalog, evaluate the Cost Per New-to-Brand Customer (CPNTB):

$$\text{CPNTB} = \frac{\text{Total Campaign Ad Spend}}{\text{New-to-Brand Orders}}$$

How Does NTB Vary Across Advertising Formats?

New-to-brand metrics are not universally available across all Amazon advertising vehicles. Amazon currently restricts these data points to Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display, and the Amazon DSP (Demand-Side Platform). Standard Sponsored Products campaigns do not generate NTB data.

Sponsored Brands campaigns are structured specifically for upper-funnel discovery, making them prime drivers of high NTB performance. These ads feature your brand logo, a custom headline, and multiple products prominently above the search engine results page, capturing shoppers before they settle on a specific listing. Sponsored Display and DSP campaigns expand this capability off-platform, allowing you to retarget lookalike audiences or contextually target shoppers browsing complementary categories. Because these formats focus on awareness and consideration, they inherently operate at a lower immediate conversion rate and higher baseline ACoS. However, evaluating them based on CPNTB often justifies the upfront capital allocation by proving a steady influx of fresh customer profiles.

Does Fulfillment Infrastructure Impact NTB Strategy?

Your fulfillment model alters how you operationalize high-NTB traffic spikes. When you deploy aggressive customer acquisition campaigns, you must align your logistics to handle potential order volume spikes safely.

For listings utilizing Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), winning a new-to-brand customer requires an immaculate Buy Box presence and the Prime badge. First-time buyers are risk-averse; they rely on Amazon's fulfillment infrastructure to guarantee swift delivery speeds and friction-free returns. If your FBA inventory levels drop too low, Amazon's algorithm reduces your ad visibility, throttling your high-NTB campaigns to prevent poor customer experiences.

For Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM) operators, capturing a new customer places full operational pressure on your private warehouse logistics. First-time buyers who encounter delayed tracking updates or missed carrier handoffs rarely convert into repeat purchases, permanently destroying your projected CLV. FBM sellers must ensure their picking, packing, and automated manifest workflows process high-volume acquisition spikes without violating late shipment thresholds.

Real-World Operational Scenarios

In Practice

For a 2lb premium organic coffee bean blend in the Grocery & Gourmet Food category, a private label brand maintains a standard retail price of $30. They launch a Sponsored Brands video campaign targeting generic search terms like "whole bean dark roast." Over 30 days, the campaign spends $3,000, generating 200 orders and $6,000 in total ad sales. The report logs 160 NTB orders and $4,800 in NTB sales. The metrics show an 80% NTB Order Rate and a CPNTB of $18.75. Because coffee is a consumable item with high repeat purchase intent, the brand accepts the initial $18.75 acquisition cost, knowing the shopper's lifetime value will yield net profits over the subsequent 12 months.

Common Mistake

A seller launches an acquisition campaign for an identical coffee blend but judges success solely on a low ACoS metric. They identify a campaign targeting their own brand name with a flawless 12% ACoS and scale its daily budget aggressively. When they pull their Brand Analytics reports, they realize the campaign's NTB rate is under 4%. They have poured thousands of dollars into an ad group that merely targets their existing, organic customer base, wasting working capital that should have funded top-of-funnel discovery keywords.

SoldScope Expert Tip

Do not terminate an active advertising campaign simply because its immediate ACoS sits above your break-even profit margin. First, pull your historical customer retention data to calculate your trailing 12-month repeat purchase frequency. If your data proves that an average shopper buys your product 4 times a year, your true revenue yield per customer is far higher than a single transaction. A campaign with a 65% ACoS that boasts a 75% NTB rate is highly profitable in the long term, as it functions as an automated customer engine feeding your high-margin organic retention loop.

How SoldScope Helps

The SoldScope platform replaces fragmented spreadsheets with automated, API-integrated workflows that centralize your market intelligence into a single command center. Before launching expensive new-to-brand acquisition campaigns, sellers can utilize the Product Research tool to isolate competitor financial metrics and verify if a category supports sustainable customer acquisition margins. Once your campaigns are live, the Keyword Research tool identifies high-impact long-tail terms to expand your top-of-funnel presence, while the Listing Analyzer ensures your copywriting, imagery, and review sentiment are optimized to convert first-time visitors into long-term brand advocates.