Prime Day Success: Custom Strategies and Advertising Tactics for Amazon Sellers

Plan your Prime Day deals to attract early shoppers and maintain momentum. 

Lead-in and lead-out strategies are essential for Prime Day success. Start your deals in the weeks leading up to Prime Day to attract early shoppers and extend promotions in the days following to catch those who missed the event. Offering slightly lower discounts during these periods can maintain momentum and boost overall sales, engaging window shoppers and latecomers. 

Understanding consumer psychology is key. Put yourself in the shopper’s shoes: a 20% off limited-time deal with a big red badge on the search results page is more impactful than a simple 10% or 20% off coupon. Shoppers are drawn to the thrill of limited-time and Lightning Deals. 

Implement these tactics to maximize Prime Day sales if you missed the deadline for Lightning Deals. 

When Lightning Deals are no longer an option, don’t panic; there are other ways to attract early shoppers, maintain momentum and drive conversions. For example:

• Run traditional promotions. To attract attention, use Best Deals or coupons with significant discounts. Best Deals provide red badging and placement on Amazon’s Deals page.

• Offer Subscribe & Save coupons. Convert one-time shoppers into repeat customers with a 15% discount on the first subscription, particularly effective for frequently purchased items.

• Bundle products for added value. Create product bundles to increase the average order value and provide better deals to shoppers.

• Invest in sponsored campaigns. Boost your Sponsored Product Ads, Sponsored Brand Ads and Sponsored Brand Video Ads. These ads appear at the top of search results, featuring multiple products and directing shoppers to a specific deals page within your Brand Store. Video ads are a cost-effective way to increase brand recall and engagement. 

• Retarget with Amazon’s Demand-Side Platform (DSP). Use DSP to retarget shoppers who have interacted with your brand to boost loyalty and drive repeat purchases. Sponsored Display Retargeting is a viable alternative for smaller brands without a DSP budget.

• Leverage Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC). Use AMC to target shoppers who added products to their cart but didn’t complete the purchase. This is effective in the lead-out phase to convert undecided shoppers. This capability is not available in the DSP portal and requires an advertising partner with AMC access. 

• Keep the momentum going after Prime Day. Continue retargeting and cross-selling for about six weeks after Prime Day. Adjust your bids to match post-event conversion rates, but maintain your budget to stay visible. Use DSP to retarget non-converters and cross-sell to those who purchased during Prime Day. 

Learn how to optimize ad placements and bids for increased Prime Day sales. 

Another important factor that will determine your success on Prime Day is visibility. There are certain strategies brands can use to maximize impact:

• Increase top-of-search visibility. Consider strategies to ensure your ads appear at the top of search results, where shoppers are more likely to notice them. This can significantly impact your ad’s visibility and click-through rate. 

• Plan your budget strategically. Break it down daily for the weeks leading up to, during, and after Prime Day. Focus on upper-funnel activities like DSP and audience targeting to build brand awareness. During Prime Day, shift to mid and lower-funnel tactics to capture the increased demand. After Prime Day, revert to normal bids and budgets to avoid off-peak overspending.

• Utilize data from past events. Analyze historical data to understand which products and ad types performed best. This will help you focus your efforts on the most effective strategies and ensure you’re investing in the areas that will yield the highest returns. 

• Ensure 24/7 ad activity. Prime Day traffic and conversions happen around the clock, so make sure your campaigns are active and visible for the entire 48-hour event to avoid missing out on potential sales during off-peak hours.

• Make real-time adjustments. Keep a close eye on your campaigns and be prepared to make real-time adjustments. Adjust allocations to maintain visibility if you notice campaigns running out of budget. Remember, the 14-day attribution window can improve ROAS by 10-20%.

Evaluate your Prime Day success with these key performance indicators. 

Understanding your Prime Day performance is essential to gauge the impact of your promotional efforts and investments. By carefully considering the following metrics, you can evaluate the effectiveness of your strategies and make informed decisions to maximize future performance:

• Top-Line Sales: Review your overall sales growth year over year to gauge the success of your Prime Day efforts. Once Vendor Central metrics are available, this should be your first metric to check. 

• Total Advertising Cost of Sale (TACoS): TACoS offers a holistic view of your advertising efficiency by measuring total ad spend relative to overall sales. It helps you understand the impact of your ad investments. 

• Conversion Rate: Compare your Prime Day conversion rate to the rolling four-week period leading up to the event. This will help you evaluate the effectiveness of your sales and promotional strategies. 

• New-to-Brand Percentage: Track the percentage of new shoppers acquired during Prime Day. A high number of new customers can indicate future growth potential and brand expansion. 

• Share of Voice (SOV): Measure your brand’s visibility compared to competitors. A higher SOV suggests greater brand awareness and market presence during Prime Day. 

• Return on Advertising Spend (ROAS) and Advertising Cost of Sales (ACoS): Analyze ROAS to see the revenue generated per dollar spent on advertising and ACoS to understand the percentage of sales spent on advertising. Comparing these metrics year over year helps assess ad spend efficiency. 

Wrapping up your Prime Day strategy for maximum impact.

To make the most of Prime Day, understand consumer psychology, plan strategically, and tailor your approach based on your brand’s category. Success involves a mix of stacked promotions, mid-funnel advertising, strategic budget pacing, and dynamic adjustments based on real-time performance. Start your preparations now, as CPCs are expected to rise by 50% on Prime Day. Mid-event adjustments will be more expensive and challenging, especially for non-branded keywords. A well-crafted strategy will help you capture shopper attention and maximize returns. 

In a nutshell, Prime Day shoppers are hunting for the best deals. Decide your strategy ahead of time: if profitability is your goal, be more controlled with your deals; if growth is your goal, be more aggressive with promotions. 

Finally, remember that a solid Prime Day strategy is only as good as the results it delivers. Analyze your outcomes to refine your approach for future events. 

Ready to optimize your Prime Day strategy? 

We specialize in enhancing Amazon product listings and understanding shopper behavior to ensure your brand stands out and achieves maximum returns. Contact us for more strategic insights and techniques to maximize Prime Day results.