5 Amazon Prime Day Tips

1.Don’t Dive in Without Goals

Be honest with yourself about what you’re looking to get out of Prime Day. More sales - of course - but from who? Set TACOS, ACOS, CR and relevant metric goals around two core groups:

• Current Customers/Returning Consumers - Cross Sell, Upsell, Loyalty Goals
• New Customers - Consideration and Awareness Goals

Each will come with their own buyer intent, their own idea of a ‘good deal’ and ways in which they get to your product detail pages. Breaking it down further by personas you’ve built around your own brand will only add to clarity around goal setting.

These goals will sit across each element of your Amazon Prime strategy. From store insights to category conversions, the clearer you are on what you’re looking to achieve, the clearer your post Prime Day analysis will be.

2. No deal vs deal strategy

In prime day 2020, we saw CPCs during the two prime day dates vs the previous 10 days increase by +75%. In prime day 2021 this wasn’t quite as severe, with CPCs increasing +24% during the peak days.

According to Criteo, participating retailers (on a global scale) saw +19% traffic, +45% sales, and +23% conversion rate.

So based on the above we know two things:

1. Traffic (demand) will increase, presenting an opportunity to drive further sales and;
2. There will be an increased cost for driving that traffic. In 2021 we noted in our prime day roundup blog post, that those without deals saw up to a -75% decrease in ROAS whilst those that ran deals saw up to a 350% wow increase in sales, with flat or improved efficiencies.

3. External Traffic is More Important Than You Think

Ranking authority and traffic are two core parts of what makes your product detail page views increase, and stay valuable. Where Prime Day will see a natural increase in CPCs and ad spend (An aggregate of Tambo’s clients saw a 24% increase in CPC during 2021), as more consumers hit the site, there is more than one way that you can work with Amazon as part of your full marketing strategy in order to drive traffic to your best deals.

The likes of social media, including Pinterest, TikTok, Facebook/Instagram, are all incredibly powerful ways in which you can tie in your best offerings on Prime Day to get even more consumers to your product pages. Not only do these platforms provide traffic, but they also give your products a window into a whole new group of shoppers who are brand focussed, brand loyal and are open to brand exposure.


4. The Amazon Flywheel

Events like prime day reiterate the need to consider the full Amazon Flywheel - Paid & Organic working in tandem. Ensure all activity is aligned so that every pound, dollar or euro (or other currency) spent on advertising is given the best chance of driving conversion & ranking improvement.

As always, check inventory levels, use A+content and imagery, focus on products with a 3.5 star rating or higher and optimise your listings.

A couple of additional points to consider here:

Search term behaviour - Consumers expect Prime Day now. In relation to this, they are now more savvy than ever when it comes to using the best search terms possible to find great deals. Simply put, search terms will typically change over events like Prime Day as shoppers scan the site for stand out promotions. Using intent based terms, such as ‘prime day deals’, ‘lightning day deals’ within your search strategy, as well as specific product and category based terms in relation to Prime Day can help to match your sponsored ads strategy with your organic push on Amazon’s search result pages.

Content Optimisation - To help your PDPs reach their full potential for Prime Day, here are some top tips for Amazon content optimisation:

1. Do your keyword research: Amazon is a research platform as well as a marketplace, so incorporate high ranking and relevant keywords into your product copy to boost your product’s search ranking;
2. Engage your audience with educational on-brand content; good lighting, high resolution and premium visuals can be optimised with USP callouts and infographics to further educate your customer;
3. Drive conversion with A+ Page or Enhanced Branded Content and a Brand Store - these free content offerings provide additional features such as shoppable modules or videos (Brand Store only) so you can further educate on your full range and brand values. Further drive traffic to your Brand Store by posting the unique URL on your social media.

5. Lead In, Peak, Lead Out: Full Funnel Utilization

Prime Day lead in has started so if you haven’t started yet, start now. Start testing terms in order to stay on top of trends during the event period. And begin to ramp up using awareness & consideration activity as part of a full-funnel advertising strategy.

A full funnel approach (awareness-consideration-purchase-loyalty) allows you to build & convert demand as effectively as possible. DSP really has a role to play here now. In particular, utilising in-market audience targeting to engage audiences already shopping within your category is a good way to build the demand.

During peak, dial up your best performing purchase level activity and adopt a planned-flexible approach when it comes to budget. As CPCs rise, ensure budgets are prepared so you don’t run out during key hours but continue to review in case there are areas that may need topping up due to performance.

Lead out, increase retargeting activity in order to re-engage users that have viewed but not purchased or indeed to cross-sell purchasers with other parts of your range.

Final Word

Q4 is coming, and with rumours of an additional October Prime day plus the ever larger Black Friday & Cyber Monday period, we expect it to be one of the biggest ever. Prime Day is not just a potentially very important sales opportunity, but it’s a fantastic way of honing your strategy ahead of what we expect is going to be a HUGE Q4 this year.

Prime day this year will also be a good gauge of the overall consumer buying confidence. There’s no doubt that the increased cost of living will affect buying behaviour overall: will that mean more people wait for discounts during events like prime day or will this drive an overall reduction in YOY e-retail sales growth? Prime day will be a first look at what’s to come.

The same governing principles still apply for all brands: Know your audience, plan across their purchase funnel, use data to inform decisions and consider your brand & product messaging on & off Amazon. Right time, right place etc..

For more information contact us.

Tambo Advertising Manager, Sophie Down

Check out out 10 tips to help you make the most of Prime Day