Amazon Prime Day Advertising Strategy
Amazon Prime Day is less than 3 weeks away and so now is the time to review your advertising strategy and make necessary amends, if you want to succeed during this important two day event.
In this blog post, I’ll walk you through the main tactics you should be using during Prime Day, which will help your business thrive. Whether you’re a small business owner looking to expand your customer base, or an established brand aiming to maximise your online presence, this guide will equip you with the strategy and insights needed to successfully navigate Amazon Prime Day.
Disclaimer: I will only be focusing on advertising, but if your product listings are not retail ready or you’re facing ‘lost buy box’ or out of stock issues, these tips aren’t for you.
New Campaigns Creation
I’m not a fan of creating new campaigns for a short period of time, because Amazon’s algorithm won’t kick in in time, and you just end up wasting your advertising spend. Also, if your advertising strategy is in place, then you’re already bidding on the main keywords. However, I still like to create two types of campaigns during this major shopping event:
- Sponsored Product campaign to target ‘Prime Day deals’ keywords. This is the only time when these keywords are trending, and customers are actually searching for them. If you’re willing to increase your advertising spend include new keywords and target ‘prime day’ phrases.
- Sponsored Display Campaigns. OK, I know what you’re thinking. These campaigns drive a lot of spend but not revenue. However, if you use them in the right way, they can actually work well. Originally, Sponsored Display campaigns were created to increase consideration. So, you need to give a reason for your potential customers to choose your product over the competition. The best way to do this is to target your category and select the products that have a higher price point than yours.
Bids Optimisation
Prior to and during this sales event, your bids could get out of control if you don’t manage them properly. The first thing you should do is to make sure your bidding strategy is set to ‘dynamic bids – down only’ or ‘fixed bids’.
Secondly, review your placements. Again, during Prime Day, everyone increases their advertising bids, so make sure you’re comfortable with the bids you set up by placement type.
Thirdly, focus on exact keywords. You have full control of how much you can spend, so instead of going for broad targeting, select your priority keywords, optimise and focus on them, instead of going for full category search terms.
Budget Control
This really depends on your available budget.
However, a weekend before Prime Day I recommended doubling your daily budget as this is when customers start adding products to their wish lists ahead of their Prime Day shopping.
During the Prime Day event, you should triple your budget and following this, keep your budget at least 1.5 times your normal daily spend for the rest of the week.
If however, you are operating on a tight budget, I recommend selecting time slots that best reach your customers. For example, target morning shoppers (run campaigns up till midday) or evening shoppers (start campaigns from 5pm).
Listings Selection
Focus on the listings that have discounts. Pause all other listings on your advertising campaigns. This is the time when customers are really looking for a deal, so the products without promotions will drive spend but won’t generate revenue.
After Prime Day is finished you can swap the ASINs back again and continue your normal advertising strategy.
Post Prime Day Strategy
This is where DSP campaigns come in very handy. If you are running DSP advertising, create a campaign to target the past 14 days’ product viewers. This way you will give your customers a ‘chance’ to reconsider their decision and increase the likelihood they will reconsider buying your products.
Final Thoughts
Prime Day is a very exciting period for consumers but time spent planning ahead is an enormous factor on whether you have a successful sales event or not. I hope my tips help you optimise your performance and help make Prime Day even better than ever.
Happy selling!
Also, check out my latest blog post:
Amazon Brand Story – Why Is Important
Amazon Organic Ranking: How to Improve it