It’s not yet been officially confirmed, but this year’s Amazon Prime Day is expected to take place on Tuesday 11 July and Wednesday 12 July.
With just weeks to go, that means the clock is already ticking on the amount of time you have to get your Prime Day marketing strategy in place.
What Is Amazon Prime Day?
First launched in 2015 to mark Amazon’s twentieth anniversary, Prime Day is one of the biggest and most lucrative events on the shopping calendar.
Rivalled only by Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Prime Day is a major source of revenue for Amazon sellers.
Despite what the name suggests, Prime Day is actually a two-day event. Last year’s Prime Day was the largest ever, with more than 300 million items sold worldwide.
That equates to more than 100,000 products sold every minute. Adobe estimated an 8.5% year-on-year increase, with £9.55 billion ($11.9 billion) worth of sales recorded in the USA alone.
Using Amazon Ads for Prime Day
Because it’s traditionally held in the summer months, the annual Prime Day shopping event can help sellers to boost their sales figures during what could otherwise be a slow part of the year.
Using Amazon Ads to promote products and special Prime Day deals is a smart way to ensure higher visibility during this shopping bonanza.
Marketing Strategies for a Successful Prime Day
Raise Bids
Rather than just increasing budgets across the board to lure in bargain hunters, you’ll need to formulate a specific Prime Day 2023 strategy.
It goes without saying that competition ratchets up amongst advertisers in the build up to Prime Day. With more traffic and the potential to make significantly more sales across the two days, you should plan to raise your bids to remain competitive.
Lifting bids across the board isn’t advisable. If you do this, you run the risk of using up valuable budget on low converting keywords and could run out of funds during peak shopping hours. That could be hugely costly. With 68% of shoppers likely or highly likely to buy products after clicking on an ad, you could miss out on substantial sales if your budget is depleted too early and your ads are turned off.
Review your campaign analytics (including any previous Prime Day ad campaign data you may have) to identify your most profitable and best converting keywords. You can then determine how you’ll allocate budget and how much your bids should be raised by.
It’s a good idea to increase your bids a short time before Prime Day itself to gain visibility on your most important terms. Amazon says that brands advertising both in the lead up to Prime Day and during Prime Day can expect a 216% increase in awareness and 214% increase in considerations.
Leverage Existing Customers
It may seem unfeasibly early, but many shoppers use the Prime Day sales to kick-start their holiday shopping. Google research confirms that 21% of shoppers across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) begin their holiday shopping in June.
With the cost of living crunch placing enormous pressure on households, it’s fair to expect that more consumers than ever will use Prime Day to source great deals on holiday gifts. With that said, make sure that you don’t overlook the purchasing power your existing customers have.
Those who have already tried and liked your products can be targeted with special promotions, discounts and tailored content to get them excited about your Prime Day sales. This is an easy way to drive traffic to your listings, as some element of brand loyalty should already exist. What’s more, if those consumers have previously enjoyed a great experience with you, they’re more likely to advocate for your brand and spread the word to other shoppers, helping to boost sales further.
Offer Promotions & Deals
The biggest lure for Prime members during Prime Day is the promise of great deals. Plan ahead to ensure your promotions are as compelling as they can possibly be. Popular options include buy one get one free offers and percentage discounts.
Lightning Deals
For your most popular products and those with higher conversion rates, consider creating Lightning Deals to boost sales. You’ll need to submit your planned Lightning Deal to Amazon well ahead of time – the deadline for doing so is 28 April. To submit your deal, log in to Seller Central, navigate to Advertising and then Deals.
Coupons
Discount coupons are an easy way to attract shoppers. You’re in full control of the percentage discount you wish to offer. To help you gauge what this should be, keep a close eye on what other brands are offering so you can be assured that your offer is equally attractive.
Prime Exclusive Discounts
You can also create Prime Exclusive deals to give Prime members additional incentives to purchase your products during the shopping event.
Display Campaigns
Sponsored Display ads are useful for increasing brand discovery and building awareness. This is particularly important in the run up to Prime Day when consumers are researching and shortlisting desired products, ready to checkout when Prime Deal deals kick in. Sponsored Display ads can appear both on Amazon (in search results, product detail pages and on the home page) and off Amazon (on third-party sites and apps).
Sponsored Display campaigns can be especially powerful in the run up to Prime Day because they can be used to target new-to-you shoppers who have browsed similar products. With 80% of shoppers using Amazon to discover new brands and products, this is an excellent way to capitalise on the increased traffic that floods Amazon during the shopping event and give your brand a boost at the same time.
Optimise Product Listings
Product listing optimisation is something you’ll carry out throughout the year but it’s especially important to include this task within your Prime Day strategy as it can make or break your sales performance during the two-day event. Try to:
- Confirm your product title is as clear as you can make it. It should include your most relevant keywords, the brand name, size, item description and product features.
- Include at least five to seven images, with the product shown from every angle.
- Upload video in your product listings where possible.
- Review key product features text. Ensure you’re using all five bullet points and are as descriptive, informative, and accurate as possible.
- Triple-check your product description for keyword use and accuracy.
Competitive Shipping Rates
Prime Day is about making savings and grabbing great deals ahead of the holiday season. If your shipping rates aren’t competitive, shoppers can see their savings evaporate which means they’re more likely to continue shopping around for an alternative product. Offering fast, reliable, and fairly priced shipping is non-negotiable. If you don’t have robust logistics capability, consider joining the Fulfilled by Amazon program or sourcing a reliable logistics partner to assist. Most Prime members will expect free shipping, so this is also something to keep in mind.
Use Amazon Attribution
Amazon Attribution helps you to understand the impact of your cross-channel marketing activities on Amazon. This data is invaluable when it comes to planning your Prime Day strategy as it gives you a clear idea of which non-Amazon channels are driving traffic to your audience listings. Understanding how those shoppers then engage with your Amazon listings will also help you to identify new sales opportunities and help you decide where to allocate budget.
If you’re running Google Ads campaigns too for example, Amazon Attribution can help you to pinpoint which of those keywords are driving the most conversions on Amazon. That knowledge can then be used to optimise your Amazon ads strategy. It also helps you to see where you should focus your off-Amazon attention to drive the most qualified traffic to your Amazon listings on Prime Day.
Omnichannel Amazon Marketing
To truly maximise the sales and revenue potential on offer on Prime Day, you’ll need a well-rounded omnichannel Amazon marketing strategy. This means bringing all your various marketing activities together to offer a seamless customer journey and elevated customer experience. The ultimate aim should be to reach the right audiences at the right time and make the buyer journey as effortless as you possibly can. Each interaction should bring the shopper one step closer to converting on Amazon.
Paid Search
Paid search can be used to target shoppers both on and off Amazon. Amazon Ads cover the full funnel and offer a targeted presence on strategically important pages such as search results and product details pages, as well as on selected third-party sites and apps where your target audiences may also be researching their product needs. Paid search is also fully measurable – the data you gather here can be used to inform other cross-channel activity.
Paid search keywords that generate higher levels of conversions should be integrated into your SEO strategy and content marketing for example. This not only increases your organic search visibility on those lucrative terms but also allows you to offer more detailed and meaningful information to consumers using those search terms to move them further along the path to purchase.
Email Campaigns
Email is consistently cited as one of the best marketing activities for ROI. It’s low cost, convenient and easy to execute. It’s also a great way to create anticipation ahead of Prime Day. Amazon has its own email marketing feature which can be used at no cost to deliver personalised product recommendations, drive traffic to your Amazon store and share discount codes.
Organic & Paid Social Media
In the run up to Prime Day, you’ll need a store of social media posts prepared and scheduled to drive traffic to your listings. Social media is increasingly used for product discovery and research. In fact, 22% of consumers now prefer to find new products on social media – so images, videos, product information and paid spots can all help lead new-to-you customers to your Amazon listings.
PR and Affiliate Marketing
Leveraging third-party networks is a smart way to tap into wider audience pools to build your brand’s visibility. PR and affiliate marketing are popular tools for building a buzz. You can use PR to generate earned media coverage (for example by sharing product samples with journalists for review) to add credibility to your brand. Securing a feature in a national or industry title can also deliver high volumes of traffic and brand awareness.
Optimised Content & SEO
A strong organic presence can support your paid search efforts. Creating useful, informative and helpful content which is easily discoverable via search can support shoppers through the awareness, consideration and decision stages. Consider how your content can support shoppers – popular formats like case studies, how to’s and product comparisons can be used to move consumers through the buyer journey and ultimately grow your Amazon sales.
Cross-Channel Best Practices
Before you begin to execute your omnichannel Amazon Prime Day marketing strategy, keep these best practise tips in mind:
- Have clearly defined customer personas. Refer back to these personas as you develop content and ad campaigns, so each piece of activity is precisely targeted.
- Develop detailed customer journey maps for each channel. This helps you to pinpoint expected customer interactions and begin to understand what kind of support and content you’ll need to offer along the way to move that customer closer to conversion.
- Create unique content that’s personalised to each of your buyer personas.
- Set up analytics so you can measure performance and make data-led improvements as your campaigns progress.
If you’d like expert support to prepare for Amazon Prime Day 2023, get in touch with us today.
