Amazon Holiday Prep Series: Key Timeframes for Ad Campaigns

The Amazon holiday prep series will run throughout Q4, as well as the weeks leading up to and following the peak selling season. It will focus on relevant e-commerce holiday news, as well as actionable strategies you can implement to achieve your sales goals and carry momentum into the new year.

We know that holiday shoppers go to Amazon to research, consider, and ultimately purchase products. In this article, we discuss best practices from Amazon — with a specific lens on advertising — to generate an increase in traffic and sales this holiday season. 

Amazon Advertising can help you drive results by improving the performance of promoted products, engaging new audiences with your brands and products, and activating the brand halo to increase sales across product portfolios. You can leverage increased shopper traffic and intent to generate sales from both new and existing audiences to bolster your baseline for 2020.

Key Timeframes to Consider

• Prior to November: According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), 39% of consumers planned to start their holiday shopping before November. 
• Nov. 1 to Nov. 12: Last year, consumers began researching for holiday gifts as early as the first two weeks of November. 
• Nov. 23 to Nov. 28: Online sales grew 38% on Thanksgiving Day 2018 compared to 2017. With mobile penetration on the rise, deals and discounts are more and more accessible on various devices. 
• Nov. 29 to Dec. 2: Black Friday sales increased 28% in 2018 versus 2017. Like last year, Cyber Monday is on pace to be the heaviest online spending day during the holiday season, with sales predicted to hit $9.4 billion.
• Dec. 3 to Dec. 17: The holiday stretch is critical for holiday gift inspiration, research, and purchase.
• Dec. 18 to Dec. 24: During this period, last-minute shoppers peruse and buy gifts in time for Christmas.
• Dec. 26 to Dec. 31: Amazon is the top destination for last-minute holiday gifts, with 60% of consumers citing the marketplace for this purpose. The platform typically runs year-end deals where consumers can capitalize on holiday clearance, overstocks, and steep price markdowns.

According to Amazon, when analyzing the three months prior to the holiday season, search impressions attributed to advertising were:

• 1.7x higher in the 14 days before Black Friday
• 3.9x higher during the weekend of Black Friday and Cyber Monday
• 2x higher in the 14 days after Cyber Monday

Leveraging advertising during the holiday season can help you drive immediate results and near-term growth, offering you an opportunity to finish the year strong and set up your business for success in the new year.

Adding more keywords and advertised products may increase your visibility and drive more impressions for your campaign. You can also consider increasing your bids and advertising budgets during the holiday season so your ad is more likely to show up. To ensure product detail page readiness, ask yourself these questions:

• Do I have sufficient inventory available?
• Am I winning the Buy Box?
• Do I have enough positive reviews?
• Are the images on my product detail pages attention-grabbing?
• Are my product descriptions clear and informative?

Final Thoughts

On a weekly basis during the holiday season, review your week-over-week advertising performance and any poorly performing campaigns. By doing this and monitoring your advertising traffic, you will be equipped to make optimizations on an ongoing basis to yield more impactful results for your catalog.