Since its inception in July 2015, Amazon Prime Day has become one of the premier shopping events of the year. It elicits excitement from shoppers and trepidations from Amazon professionals. And no one’s trepidations are greater than those of the Paid Media Manager.
Despite seeing an ACoS consistent throughout the year, come Prime Week, all can go to hell. But fear not, Amazon Ad managers. Trepidation is easily solved by preparation and we’re here to help.
Over the past six years, we’ve learned the Top 6 Actions you need to take to ensure you have a successful Prime Day.
1) Make an Aggressive Prime-Day Specific Ad Plan—and STICK TO IT
More so than you are used to, advertising plays an essential role in your Prime Day success.
As a Seller, you need to be ruthless with how you use your budget. Bid, overbid and overbid some more. I know, it sounds more reckless than ruthless, but we’ve found that there’s no end to the demand for a well-positioned and correctly-priced product on Prime Day.
It’s common knowledge that Amazon data lags even in the slowest times of the year and on Prime Day, it does so by a significant margin. That means for most of Prime Day, you’ll be running your program blind and you might be tempted to be conservative with your budget. Don’t be. If you believe in your plan, follow it through until completion.
2) Make Sure Your Plan Includes Separating Out Top-Performing Products into Their Own Ad Group
This sounds simple, but during every Prime Day planning meeting, this topic comes up and I must shout from my seat “We need to target our top performing products individually!“
Since it’s targeting just the top performing product individually, there’s nothing to weigh it down and on a day like Prime Day, you cannot worry about the lower performing ASINS. Focus on what works and ride it all day long.
3) Don’t Forget to Optimize Your Ads for Placement
Another tip that gets forgotten is that where your ads appear are just as important as the keywords you’re using to bid on.
Leverage the Ad Placement Report to understand which placement location works best for your keywords and make sure to adjust your bids accordingly.
With the Ad Placement Report, you can see which positions drive the most conversions and you should use this data to set the placement bidding multiplier for each ad. Using this data as part of your strategy will ensure you are fully optimized for Prime Day.
4) Restructure Your PPC Strategies for Prime Day
Every year, millions of customers flock to Amazon in search of Prime Day savings. Naturally, that also means Prime Day brings out heightened competition among sellers fighting for every click.
Your normal PPC campaigns are unlikely enough to guarantee a successful Prime Day, especially if traffic is in more competitive categories or use keywords where sellers are guaranteed to increase their advertising budget.
Start looking through your PPC strategies and budgets beforehand so you aren’t caught in a bind when competitors increase their bids or try to steal your spot as the featured product.
For an event as big as Prime Day, plan on spending extra money to stay competitive on your highest performing keywords and highest-margin items. Conversely, you may never know which of your products will pop off when the deals start flying. Be ready to reallocate your advertising funds into keywords or products you didn’t expect to perform as well as others.
No matter how you decide to spend your PPC budget on Prime Day, make sure you test different options and strategies in the weeks leading up to the event to have as up-to-date data as possible.
5) Micromanage Pricing for Each Product
Over 76% of consumers say price is a very important factor when it comes to making a purchase—a statistic that surprises no one. With nearly every seller on Amazon upping their game for Prime Day, effective pricing strategies play an even bigger role than usual.
Rather than applying broad changes or discounts across all your products and calling it a day, maximize your profit potential by utilizing a SKU-by-SKU strategy. Take the time to optimize pricing for each individual product—it’ll be worth it.
Consider partnering with experts who can adjust the prices of each SKU in real time to increase your returns on every purchase.
6) Update Your Product Listings
You only get one chance to make a first impression, especially on Prime Day when your products are surrounded by millions of other deals. Errors such as an incorrect keyword in your title, confusion in your description, or an outdated picture can cause hundreds or thousands of potential customers to click on a competitor’s listing instead of yours.
It is essential you update the key product listings you’re promoting on Prime Day for maximum visibility and improved conversion rates.
Take an SEO-oriented approach to your Amazon product listings as search volume will be at the absolute highest. Decide what your top keywords are beforehand and update all your listings accordingly. This will ensure your ads are as relevant to your products and categories as possible, resulting in higher search volume.
However, try to avoid “keyword stuffing” when redesigning your titles, bullet points and descriptions. Having too much jargon can confuse shoppers and drive them to competing products that focus on clarity rather than searchability.
Important Amazon Ad Components to Keep in Mind for Your Product Listings
Titles and Descriptions: Concise, “snackable” copy that clearly explains your products and looks good on mobile.
Backend Search Terms: Include relevant keywords that are not are not in your listings, but remember to never repeat keywords or use competitor brand names.
Product Images: Use high-resolution, engaging, descriptive images that highlight the benefits of your products.
Key attributes: Include detailed descriptions that cover all major selling points and pre-answer any questions customers may have about your products.
If you have any questions or would like to know more about how Blue Moon Digital can help you increase your Prime Day profits, please drop us a line.
