Amazon Prime Day Strategies

It’s that time again! 2024 will mark the ninth year of Amazon’s major annual sales event. With current Amazon Prime memberships surpassing 170 million in the U.S. alone, having a strong Amazon Prime Day strategy is paramount for ecommerce retailers of any kind.

We’ll keep this article updated consistently leading up to Prime Day as new information is released about the event. Bookmark this article so that you don’t miss out on any of the insights including predictions, strategies from our in-house Amazon experts, and more so that you can help your business build a strategy that hits all of your Prime Day goals!

Use the links below to jump to each section:

Looking Back on Prime Days Past

Some of the Lightning Deals that customers got to take advantage of during Prime Day 2023 were:

20% off iPad Mini
45% off Vitamix blender
30% off Yeti tumbler
$300 off Roborock robot vacuum cleaner
35% off Nespresso coffee & espresso machine

Every year, ROI Revolution helps consumer brands exceed their Prime Day goals to achieve very exciting success during the event. Last year, some exceptional Prime Day wins from ROI Revolution clients included:

A home improvement brand grew average order revenue by 128% with a 74% increase in glance views
An electronics brand grew year-over-year ad revenue 57%, resulting in over $1 million in new revenue
A food & beverage brand grew ad revenue by 246%
An apparel brand saw a 62% increase in ad revenue

How much do people spend on Amazon Prime Day? Here are some the key stats from Prime Day 2022:

46% of Prime Day shoppers spent more during the 2022 event than in 2021
Prime Day 2022 delivered over $12 million in sales, representing 8.1% YoY growth
3P sellers during last year’s Prime Day saw 11.7% sales growth YoY
40% of customers made purchases outside of Amazon during Prime Day

In 2022, the average order value (AOV) on Prime Day was $52.26, representing 17% growth over 2021. 20% of Prime Day shoppers said that they purchased more expensive items that they would only purchase on sale. This year, as higher inflation and an impending recession crowd the minds of consumers, it’s possible that AOVs will decline. Shoppers will likely be on the hunt for good deals, so make sure you’re catering to what they’re looking for as much as you can while still ensuring you get a good return.

Partnering with experts like the team at ROI Revolution can help you determine the best selling strategy for your brand. Book a meeting with our team today to explore the strategies we can develop for you to tap into unexplored growth opportunities for your business on Amazon.

You also won’t want to ignore the non-Amazon marketplaces like Target, Walmart, and Best Buy. All of these major retailers tend to host their own major sales events around the same time as Amazon’s Prime Day. In both 2021 and 2022, around 40% of consumers made purchases from outside of Amazon during Prime Day.

There are two categories that saw impressive growth last year: third-party sellers and CPG brands. Third-party product sales grew 11.7% last year, while Amazon product sales grew 6.1%. CPG brands saw purchases from 29% of all Prime Day customers.

Strategies for Prime Day Preparedness

What day is Amazon Prime Day? While we don’t know the date of Prime Day, it’s a safe bet to be ready the second week of July. Make sure to check industry news in the weeks leading up to July and stay updated on Amazon’s various social outlets!

One of the biggest areas of opportunity during Prime Day is Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA). FBA is one of the most seamlessly dynamic fulfillment networks in the world. Prime Day is where you and your business can take full advantage.

Evaluate FBA inventory and consider increasing stock levels on best-sellers if you anticipate high Amazon Prime Day sales. Remember: FBA receiving is likely to slow down the closer we get to Prime Day, so be proactive about your inventory.

If possible, offer incentives like free shipping on Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM). It’s common knowledge to never compete with Amazon on price. But partnering with their inherent service features to minimize additional consumer costs goes a long way.

Even with all the planning that goes into building your Prime Day strategy, you can’t afford to set it and forget it. Your retail campaigns need attention, and with everything going on during the event, careful monitoring will go a long way.

Remember that your approved Lightning Deals only run for four hours on Prime Day. You should check their performance periodically. Submit a few different kinds of products for Prime Day deals (as Amazon will only choose a few), and then compare product performance across the day.

Make sure you’re also monitoring your campaign budgets throughout the event. A surge in traffic could max out your budgets earlier than you think. You don’t want to run out of budget too early and miss out on additional sales as the event progresses.

Don’t forget to use Amazon Sponsored Products to promote Lightning Deals before and during Prime Day events. This will help increase awareness of the product in anticipation of heightened purchase intent.

Furthermore, consider Enhanced Brand Content (EBC) to really get the word out. Optimized content often drives stronger conversion rates, which leads to more sales and mitigates the cost of steeply discounted products and rising advertising costs.

EBC should be considered sooner rather than later due to the approval process of Brand Registry and time involved to create content. It’s an extremely useful tool if properly utilized!

Consider driving traffic from social media to your Amazon pages in order to highlight any promotions you’re running. It’s not only good advertising practice, but social media is where many shoppers go for information on Prime Day promos in the first place. You can also consider running promotions on your own website to capitalize on increased purchase intent created by Prime Day.

Create special bundles of products that have the look and feel of a one-off promotion with deep savings (regardless of whether there are actual savings or not). While centered on the Prime Day opportunity, this can also be a chance to see what promotions work best for your business.

Review previous years’ performance and learn what did and didn’t work. What findings and competitive leverage can you make use of for this year? Best sellers, promotions, Lightning Deals, FBA – any insight into any metric or function can help you optimize and tip the scales in your favor this year!

For those who are new to Prime Day, take things slow and try to relax. Monitor your product listings and promotions, and don’t freak out if you don’t see an immediate lift.

Prime Day may not be for everyone, but careful preparation and partnership with Amazon can lead to great retail success. There’s still time to organize your campaigns and listings, so don’t miss out!

Strategies to Leverage in the Weeks Before Prime Day

Prime Day is one of the most competitive sales events of the year. Is Prime Day better than Black Friday? With sales numbers that rival those of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Amazon has changed how digital retailers approach mid-year marketing.

Digital marketers across the globe are asking themselves how to maximize Prime Day performance for their brand. We’re here to reveal the secrets that will help you get there!

The first step is to change how you view the event. Prime Day isn’t just a two-day sales event – it’s a 6–8-week event that requires a separate full-funnel strategy that kicks off roughly a month before Prime Day and wraps up about a month after, depending on your sales goals and inventory.

An effective lead-in strategy focused on brand awareness drives your company and products to the top of consumers’ minds. A well-designed lead-out strategy acts like a vacuum, sucking up all the customers who didn’t make the purchase during the event.

With more and more retailers participating in Prime Day, competition increases every year. You’ll have a competitive advantage if you identify a strategy to stand out well before Prime Day kicks off.

One way to do this is to create Sponsored Brands campaigns supported by Prospecting Display campaigns. 2-3 weeks before the event, start to promote Sponsored Brands campaigns featuring the products you want to push during Prime Day. This will build awareness and plant the seed in the minds of your target audience early. Prospecting Display campaigns allow you to hit customers both on and off Amazon to cast an even wider net to catch consumers’ attention.

We recommend devoting 60-70% of your budget leading into Prime Day to brand awareness and prospecting in order to fill as much of the upper funnel as possible.

Remember: Campaigns need to be approved before they go live. The closer to Prime Day you plan to launch, the slower it will take to be approved. Submit your campaigns for review at least a week in advance to avoid a disaster.

Strategies to Leverage in the Days Before Prime Day

Close your eyes and imagine that the big event is just a few days away.

You’ve watched impressions and clicks increase over the last few weeks thanks to your lead-in strategies. What’s next?

The next step is to determine your budget plan for each Prime Day. Are you splitting your budget evenly over both days or devoting more to day 1?

Front-loading your budgets is a risky Prime Day strategy. If you blow through those budgets early, you’ll miss out on peak sales hours throughout the rest of the event. Keep budget in reserve to add to campaigns that are driving sales but capping out. You can also shift budgets from campaigns that aren’t performing as well.

Bids are also tricky to plan for Prime Day. While you may have a good idea of what demand for your products will be, it’s hard to predict where to start with your bids. The best course of action is to start low and build up so that you have the flexibility to pivot if one product takes off while another lags behind.

Now, imagine that the two days of sales have ended. Your work isn’t finished yet!

You’ll want to push retargeting Display campaigns for the three weeks leading out of Prime Day to draw in the stragglers who missed out on Prime Day. You can also target competitors during this time by using Sponsored Products and Sponsored Display to get your ads onto those competing product pages and driving them back to your own pages.

Now is also the time to do some analysis, either on your own or with your agency if you work with one. (ROI Revolution’s Amazon experts are highly skilled in helping with that.) What products did best? How did conversion rates, CPCs, or ROAS compare to previous years? What new search terms popped up?

There’s a lot to learn from Prime Day beyond how much money you made or spent. These learnings can provide valuable insights for future Prime Day strategies as well as evergreen strategies.

Prime Day is a daunting event for digital marketers, especially during times of economic uncertainty. Taking the time to plan your strategies for more than just the days of Prime Day can prevent a lot of headaches and frustration. The more you prepare for and anticipate, the less you’ll be caught off guard on Prime Day.

Prime Day Success Stories

Among those successful brands were several ROI Revolution clients. Let’s take a look at three examples directly from our clients, and the unbelievable success they achieved.

One of our clients in the homecare and natural beauty products category was looking to double down on Prime Day. They’d seen tremendous success with limited advertising the previous year and were looking to significantly expand their reach.

They turned to the experts at ROI Revolution to optimize ads, update keywords, and improve overall campaign structure.

The first thing our team did was build out Prime Day-specific campaigns featuring the clients’ highest converting products. This was combined with an increase in keyword bids across the board. We raised budgets for the highest performing manual campaigns to avoid capping out on such a high volume timeframe. With bigger budgets and bids, the client was able to get their products in front of a lot more consumers, leading to greatly increased sales volume. Their ads saw a greater than 600% increase in revenue compared to the previous year!

Another of our clients specializing in gourmet foods and beverages also saw big success in 2018. With a strong focus on Amazon Sponsored Products and Headline Search Ads, the client nearly tripled Prime Day revenue YoY for both advertising formats. Additionally, their overall sales on Prime Day nearly quadrupled!

One of the client’s main concerns was running out of budget on Prime Day. We ensured that all campaigns had increased budgets and bids for Prime Day. We got extremely aggressive with our bids and budgets for products that had Lightning Deals and remained competitive on all other products.

By focusing on Sponsored Products ads on Prime Day, a brand in the tools and home improvement vertical was able to 7x their revenue over the two-day shopping holiday. They were also able to see vast growth in Headline Search ads revenue, an area where they’d previously seen very limited success.

So how did they achieve these phenomenal results? We increased aggression with respect to bids and budgets across the board to remain competitive, especially for the products they were discounting for Prime Day. Additionally, we launched a Headline Search campaign with aggressive bids for all products with discounts running.

They had one deal running through Amazon for a top product, and we focused a lot of attention on this product. This product was one of many within a specific product category, so we launched additional automatic and manual campaigns that only included this product with higher bids than the other products in the category. This product was responsible for 44% of the brand’s revenue on Prime Day!

These were just a few of the many success stories our clients saw on Prime Day. By focusing on increased bids, budgets, and investing in Lightning Deals, Amazon Sponsored Product ads, and Headline Search ads, our clients were able to drive jaw-dropping results and YoY revenue growth while maintaining and often improving ROAS.

10 Tactics to Dominate Amazon Prime Day

Implement these ten tactics into your Prime Day strategy to maximize your success during the shopping holiday!

1. Inventory Management

Make sure that you thoroughly evaluate your Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) inventory prior to Prime Day. With the vast increase in impressions you’re likely to see, being proactive is essential!

You should consider increasing stock levels on your best-sellers if you anticipate high Prime Day sales.

Additionally, since FBA receiving is likely to slow down the closer we get to Prime Day, getting your inventory sorted in advance will help you avoid any headaches as the date approaches.

FBA inventory must arrive early to ensure it’s received and available for Prime Day. This deadline changes every year.

If you’re fulfilling orders yourself through FBM (Fulfillment by Merchant), it’s recommended that you offer free shipping in order to compete with Prime-eligible sellers or Amazon itself. Without free shipping, you’re likely to lose out on the Buy Box far more often – even if you have a lower price point.

2. Deals

If you’re a Prime Day seller, Lightning Deals are an excellent way to boost your sales and quickly burn through inventory. Although they only run for a limited amount of time, they’re a powerful advertising option with the ability to monumentally increase your sales in a very short amount of time!

If you’re serious about sales on Amazon Prime Day, you should consider submitting multiple products to Amazon for Prime Day deals. Amazon will be flooded with submissions for deals, so make sure that you put your best foot forward with the products and pricing that you offer.

Amazon will likely only choose a few of your submissions, so make sure they’re all winners that exceed your profitability targets.

Let this be a lesson for every Amazon Prime Day: Be prepared early!

If you’re too late to submit a Lightning Deal, consider implementing a price discount or coupons to remain competitive to shoppers who are looking for deals.

3. Sponsored Products

One of the most powerful ways to promote your Lightning Deals prior to and during Prime Day is through Sponsored Product Ads. This will help increase awareness of your products in anticipation of heightened purchase intent.

4. Enhanced Brand Content

Optimizing the content that appears on your product listing pages is always important. On Prime Day, it can be a gamechanger.

Optimized content, such as videos, often drives stronger conversion rates, which leads to more sales and helps to mitigate the cost of steeply discounted products and advertising costs.

Keep in mind, Enhanced Brand Content (or A+ Content) should be considered sooner rather than later due to the time involved to create the content and Amazon’s approval process.

5. Sponsored Brands

Like Sponsored Product Ads, Sponsored Brands Ads are a great way to showcase multiple products and share your brand message in prominent ad placements. You can set your Amazon Store as the landing page to drive traffic to all your products and improve the shopping experience.

6. Amazon Store

Your Amazon Store is one of the few competitor-free spaces on Amazon. It gives you the ability to showcase your catalog of products all in one place. By creating a brand store, you ensure that all the new customers that come to your page during Prime Day are connecting your products to your brand.

Having a store that a customer can visit also increases the chances that they buy multiple products, rather than just the original product they were searching for. You can also add a “Featured Deals” widget to your page to showcase your Prime Day deals so your customers can easily see how your deals compare to other brands.

If you have a strong following on social media, it can be beneficial to drive some of that traffic to your products on Amazon. You can highlight any of the promotions you’re offering, and if your margins allow it, even offer an additional incentive to drive more traffic.

You can also drive traffic straight to your Amazon Store (rather than to a specific product page) to showcase your entire catalog of products.

8. Bidding & Targeting

You can adjust bid modifiers for Sponsored Products Top of Search & Product Page placements. To remain competitive, you should increase your default bid by up to 900% for top of search or product page placements.

If you want to increase your exposure during Prime Day, you should target specific competitor ASINs through Sponsored Product campaigns. You can also target categories through Sponsored Product campaigns, which can be refined by certain price points or review star ratings.

9. Review Past Success or Failure

Review your past Prime Day performance to learn what did or didn’t work. Can anything from your findings be leveraged this year (best-sellers, promotions, Lightning Deals, FBA, etc.)?

You’d be amazed at the quantity and quality of insights you can gain just from looking at your previous year(s) of data.

10. Keep Calm & Sell On!

Most importantly, don’t freak out if you don’t experience a lift!

Even if you see a decrease in sales during or after the event, don’t panic. Prime Day isn’t for everyone. But testing out the opportunity can have a huge positive impact for many brands and retailers.

If you’re nervous about not achieving your desired results, start small. Only work with the products that have the best margins and be cautious with your offers.

Additional Prime Day Guide Resources

Is your brand prepared for Prime Day? Take a deep breath and relax. There’s no need to stress. Treat yourself to our latest Prime Day resources and feel confident for the major shopping holiday.

A Checklist to Maximize Your Prime Day Potential

Many marketers make the mistake of thinking that Prime Day is a two-day event.

The most successful marketers know that Prime Day is a six- to eight-week event, with a strategy that spans from brand awareness to remarketing.

In this checklist, you’ll unlock the secrets to laying a strong foundation and exceeding your sales goals this Prime Day, including:

A clear list of what to accomplish before, during, & after the event for full-funnel success
Lead-in strategies to prime customers to buy from your brand when the event comes
Industry-specific tips to strategically plan your budget across the two days of Prime Day

Webinar Replay: Prepping for Prime Day

Imagine: It’s Amazon Prime Day, one of the most high-revenue (and high-pressure) days of the year for your business. You’re resting easy as the sales roll in. You know that your year-over-year numbers are going to be something to celebrate.

Every digital marketer wants this scenario, but it’s not easy to achieve in a constantly shifting ecommerce landscape.

Don’t let your Prime Day success hinge on factors that are outside of your control. In this insight-rich webinar replay, you’ll discover:

Real stories & actionable takeaways from prior Prime Days
Lead in & lead out strategies to achieve Prime Day profitability
Answers to marketers’ most common Prime Day questions

Don’t risk underperforming on one of the year’s biggest shopping days. Take control of your brand’s Prime Day success. Watch the video.

It’s one thing to know how to achieve your goals this Prime Day – it’s another to have the time to do so. The Amazon experts at ROI Revolution can help with that. Primed with knowledge on Amazon, Target, Walmart, Home Depot, and the other major retail marketplaces, your business can thrive with a team of experts dedicated to ensuring your business has long-term success. To explore the opportunities we can help you uncover, book a meeting with our team today.

Sources

New York Post, Amazon Prime Day 2023 live updates: Best Lightning Deals of Day 1.