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Prime Day Gear Up: Ad Edition
Discover the best strategies for creating a successful Prime Day ad campaign in 2022, including insight into the lead-in and the lead-out of the event.
Stay on top of the latest e-commerce and marketplace trends.
Amazon Prime Day 2021 saw an increase in ad spend across the board in part due to growing competition. Specifically, ACoS rose 22%, with CPCs increasing 28% across all categories.
However, for many sellers, the benefits of advertising surpassed the increased cost of advertising. In 2021, planned and increased advertising investment helped brands and retailers drive Prime Day returns and increase brand awareness, and we expect the same results in 2022.
Another change that happened last year was Amazon Prime Day returning to the summer months which received positive feedback from Amazon brands and sellers alike.
Over 2/3 of surveyed brands felt positive about Prime Day in June, compared to the event being hosted later in the year. This may be the reason why Amazon has already confirmed that Amazon Prime Day 2022 will be happening in July.
Continue reading for our tips to use your advertising budgets strategically to beat out the growing competition and get the results you are looking for leading up to Amazon Prime Day 2022.
Need more Prime Day Planning resources? We’ve gathered the latest research, trends, and best practices in one place.
Inspiration for this post came from Feedvisor’s webinar “The 4 Pillars of Amazon Prime Day Optimization” with Amazon Ads guest speaker Rotem Cohen, Head of Marketing at Feedvisor, Michal Shtofman, and Head of Sponsored Ad at Feedvisor, Ohad Yarel.
If you have an Amazon Store, don’t forget to add your Prime Day Deals to your brand store.
Amazon Advertising Tips to Prepare for Prime Day
1. Offer Competitive Prime Day Deals and Discounts
What is the biggest attraction for customers on Amazon Prime Day? Deals! While we have seen differing performance across ad types during events like Amazon Prime Day, deals remain the most important. In 2021, Brands that were running deals saw a 5.2x sales lift compared to the daily average. In contrast, brands without deals saw a lighter lift of just 1.3x average daily sales.
Deals, bundles, discounts, and competitive pricing give you an advantage on Prime Day because many customers are looking for “the best deal” and not necessarily a specific product.
If you missed the deadline for Lightning Deals on April 29, 2022, there are still many other ways to utilize different pricing and deal strategies to win on Prime Day. Upcoming Amazon Prime Day deal and discount deadlines include:
- June 10 – Coupon Submission Deadline
- July 8 – Prime Exclusive Discounts Deadline
- 2-4 weeks before – All Other Available Promotions
Our advice? The best deals are the ones that will guarantee you a Prime Day Deal badge during the event.
Further Reading: Did you know that Alexa can notify customers before a deal becomes available with prompts for customers to add to their shopping cart?
During Prime Day, product offers with a Prime Exclusive Discount will show a discounted price with the regular price crossed out. All of the prices that have been adjusted for discounts will be displayed on the Featured Offer detail page for Prime members.
Once you have those deals, discounts, and coupons in place, that is where you can begin to use advertising to your advantage leading up to, during, and after Prime Day. We suggest focusing your energy on creating sponsored Prime Day ads around your deals.
Before submitting your discounts or deals to Amazon, don’t waste time or money creating deals for every product in your catalog. The best practice is to audit your best-selling listings and focus your deal strategy around those listings. Try to spread out these deals across your segments of products. Another critical consideration is your stock levels. If you don’t have enough stock, don’t choose that product for your deals.
Pro Tip: You can also use deals to help eliminate inventory taking up space. If liquidation is your goal, Prime Day is a great time to free up storage space to avoid upcoming fees.
Leverage retargeting ad strategies that encourage repeat customers and cross-sales after Prime Day
2. Define Your Goals:
You’ve heard of SMART goals before, but only because they are essential in creating an effective plan, especially for advertising campaigns.
Use the SMART goal methodology and define your goals for Amazon Prime Day by referencing your overall business goals, quarterly goals, advertising budget, and last year’s Prime Day performance to create an attainable goal and pair well with the other goals you are working towards.
Examples of more general goals you can have for Prime Day include:
- Reaching new audiences
- Increasing consideration
- Driving sales
- Building loyalty
Further Reading: 10 Amazon Advertising Metrics You Should Know
No matter the goal you choose, remember to continue tracking this goal for at least 14 days following the event. Prime Day is more than just the 48-hours of sales. Prime Day traditionally leads to higher sales 14 days following the event.
Take advantage of the higher trafficked site by lengthening your campaign to include the lead-out of Prime Day.
Consider leveraging retargeting ad strategies that encourage repeat customers and cross-sales. Continuing to promote the value of your deals and brands across your advertising mix, you will be able to generate incremental sales and capitalize on the exposure you received during the high-traffic event.
For example, try retargeting users who viewed Amazon listings during the event but didn’t convert or users who did purchase your products during Prime Day with ads featuring compatible products as a cross-sell strategy.
You can’t just increase your bids; you also have to increase your campaign daily budget cap
3. Optimize Your Amazon Budgets and Bids
According to Feedvisor data, ad spend was up 93.6% during Prime Day 2021 compared to 2020.
Though it is best practice to begin advertising campaigns 2 to 3 weeks before the turn-key event begins, keep in mind that with the increase in traffic and ad spend, you might notice a decline in the conversion rate during the lead-up to Prime Day. This is likely due to people researching products and waiting to purchase when the Prime Day event starts.
But don’t let lower conversion rates scare you away from increasing your budget leading into Prime Day. People begin to search for deals and products to add to their Amazon Prime Day list early. That is why you must stay visible during these times.
Adjusting Bids for Prime Day
Adjust your bids to be more competitive in the Cost-Per-Click (CPC) auction throughout Prime Day. Doing so will help you gain and maintain visibility in prominent ad placements during peak traffic.
Remember! You can’t just increase your bids; you also have to increase your campaign daily budget cap – otherwise, due to the increased traffic and higher CPCs, your campaigns will run out of budget before the end of the event.
You can prepare ahead by setting campaign budget rules. This feature allows you to schedule budget cap increases based on a specific date like Prime Day or performance like RoAS or conversion rate goals.
Further Reading: How to Set Effective Goals For Your Amazon PPC Campaign
4. Bring it Full-Funnel
Depending on your goals and budget, leveraging a full-funnel approach on Amazon, especially around Prime Day, will help you prepare for a diverse range of customer journeys.
Advertising on Amazon is evolving toward more holistic strategies that combine upper- and lower-funnel tactics. Advertisers who take a full-funnel approach to Amazon Ads see more success than advertisers who hone in on a single funnel stage.
Top of Funnel
At the top of the funnel, merchants may look to invest in Demand Side Platform (DSP) delivered on-site, off-site, or on streaming video. The purpose of using DSP is to help build demand before the heaviest promotional periods and may offer a competitive advantage over what many brands are doing.
Audio ads in particular are becoming more interactive, creating an even more exciting advertising opportunity. It is an advertising trend that is expected to continue to grow this year and beyond. Amazon DSP, which includes audio ads, works in tandem with Sponsored Ads to cover the whole Amazon shopper consideration funnel.
Bottom of Funnel
Near the bottom of the funnel, this is more of an opportunity to tell your brand story and inform consumer purchase decisions with more creative Amazon Advertising options such as:
Amazon Stores are a great way to showcase your brand and get shoppers more familiar with what makes you stand out. Stores can be used to promote your brand and highlight your deals, bundling, and upselling.
With Amazon Stores, there are options to handpick products to feature in your store or use dynamic widgets to automatically populate different product displays, such as best-selling products or featured deals, to help you optimize and update the products that appear in your store.
There are many Amazon ad solutions that can help you achieve the unique goals in each stage of the funnel. From OOT and audio ads that will expand your reach and introduce your brand to new audiences to brand stores and posts that may help drive brand loyalty and repeat purchases.
Further Reading: The Best Features of Amazon Stores
Final Thoughts
Feedvisor is an Amazon Ads Verified partner. As a registered partner, we receive access to the latest Amazon Ads marketing and educational content, webinars, and events to help enhance our team’s expertise, and we share the expertise with our clients.
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