As an Amazon seller, you’ll understand that the e-commerce landscape is dynamic and ever-changing.
To succeed in this competitive marketplace, you need to stay one step ahead of your competition, be committed to a process of continual optimisation and know exactly how to use Amazon’s array of seller tools to your advantage.
Understanding Amazon seasonality is part of this process and could be your secret weapon if you’re struggling to find a competitive edge.
Picture this: you’re running a thriving ad campaign, attracting hordes of eager shoppers, and raking in sales like never before. But suddenly, sales plummet, and your campaigns lose their magic. What happened? Chances are, you overlooked the crucial factor of seasonality.
Seasonal demand management is the key to unlocking the full potential of your Amazon PPC campaigns.
It’s the art of recognising and capitalising on the recurring patterns and trends in consumer demand throughout the year (aka the seasonal cycle). From the peak shopping seasons to the influence of holidays, weather changes, and cultural events, seasonality shapes the ebb and flow of product demand on Amazon.
But how, exactly, does seasonality work? Read on to learn how seasonality impacts your sales.
We’ll also share helpful strategies to optimise your campaigns, and guide you through budgeting, keyword targeting, and tracking the impact of seasonality for your business.
What is Seasonality on Amazon Marketplace?
Amazon seasonality refers to the changing patterns and trends in consumer demand for products throughout the year.
These patterns are influenced by factors such as public holidays, weather conditions, cultural events, and shopping events. This includes Amazon Prime Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
To put this into context, let’s consider where we are right now. The summer season is rapidly approaching, so many of us are gearing up for outdoor gatherings. Therefore, it’s peak season for products such as barbecues, BBQ accessories, and patio furniture.
Understanding seasonality is crucial for Amazon sellers. When you understand seasonality, you can precisely align your marketing strategies with the changing needs and preferences of shoppers.
Analysing Amazon Seasonality
To effectively optimise your ad campaigns for seasonality, you’ll need to analyse historical data and identify patterns in product demand. You can access your historical data via Amazon Advertising Reports and Seller Central.
Examine the data to identify your business’s peak seasons – keep in mind peak season will differ depending on the nature of your business. Aim to pinpoint which products sell well during specific periods (such as per quarter or around key shopping dates).
Once you have a good idea of when consumer demand begins to ramp up, you can make data-driven decisions to take advantage of those peaks and troughs.
How Seasonality Impacts Sales
Understanding the hidden dance between seasonality and success is the key to crafting a successful strategy. Here are a few ways in which seasonality can influence your sales:
Peak Seasons
Certain periods of the year correlate with a surge in consumer demand. In 2022, Black Friday sales reached a record $9.2BN. In the same year, sales during the holiday season increased by 3.5%. Identifying and preparing for these peak seasons allows you to allocate resources and adjust your Amazon PPC campaigns to capture maximum sales opportunities.
Seasonal Products
Some products have inherent seasonality, such as swimwear in summer or winter clothes during the colder months. By recognising the seasonal appeal of your products, you can plan your ad campaigns accordingly and align periods of greater spend and increased activity with the relevant buying season. That could mean launching eye-catching Sponsored Brands Video Ads during key months of the year, or dialling down spend as you approach the end of the seasonal window.
Search Results
You’ll obviously want to achieve good search visibility on the results pages in the periods leading up to peak season. Consider creating a seasonal keyword list which you can use to tailor your ad campaigns and product listings at the points of the year that are most lucrative for your business.
Optimising Amazon Ad Campaigns for Seasonality
From exploiting peak sales periods to capitalising on shifting consumer trends, thinking seasonally is a smart way to grow your Amazon business while maintaining an acceptable total cost of sale. To make the most of seasonality on Amazon, it’s important to adjust your ad campaigns accordingly. Here are some of the strategies you should consider:
Budgeting for Seasonality
When it comes to budgeting, you’ll need to allocate an appropriate amount of your advertising budget to ride the wave of seasonal demand.
During peak demand season, you’ll likely need to increase your budget so that you don’t miss out on the higher volume of search queries. Conversely, during slower periods, you can lower your budget to ensure a more efficient use of resources.
Yearlong Campaigns Vs. Pausing Campaigns
While it’s important to align your ad campaigns with seasonal cycles and trends, you shouldn’t necessarily pause your Amazon PPC campaigns during off-peak periods.
Instead, consider running yearlong seasonal campaigns with variations in messaging and targeting appropriate to the time of year.
This approach ensures you have a consistent presence on Amazon and are positioned to make sales even during slower periods.
Seasonal Keywords
Before setting up your Amazon advertising campaign, conduct keyword research to understand which keywords are popular during specific seasons or events. There are plenty of tools – such as Ahrefs – that can help you discover relevant seasonal keywords.
Focus on keywords that are highly relevant to your products and have a higher search volume. If you sell gardening tools for example, you may want to target relevant keywords like “spring planting essentials,” “gardening gloves,” or “pruning shears for maintaining your garden” during the spring season.
By aligning your keywords with the specific needs of gardeners during the prime gardening months, you can attract customers who are eager to equip themselves with the necessary tools for their outdoor projects.
Tracking the Impact of Seasonality for Your Business
As you navigate the ever-changing tides of consumer demand, it’s vital to measure the effectiveness of your strategies, so that you can change course if needed. Tracking metrics is the key to unlocking all the possibilities of seasonality on Amazon. Here are some of the metrics that will shape your success:
Sales Performance
Pay attention to your sales data to identify patterns through the year. This information will allow you to compare sales figures year-over-year or month-over-month to understand how seasonality affects your revenue. This analysis can help you make informed decisions about budget allocation and marketing strategies.
Advertising Metrics
To ensure your Amazon ad campaigns are fuelling your business growth, you’ll also need to keep a close eye on ad metrics:
- Click-through rates (CTRs): Your ad’s click-through rate reveals the percentage of users who clicked on your ad after seeing it. A higher CTR indicates that your ad resonates with users and entices them to click. A lower CTR may suggest the need for adjustments. As an example, during the holiday season, you may find that holiday-themed ad creatives generate higher CTRs. This signals a stronger connection with shoppers seeking seasonal products.
- Conversion rates: Conversion rates measure the percentage of users who not only click on your ad but also complete a desired action, such as making a purchase. Comparing conversion data for different periods of the year can tell you when you should expect to make more sales. This information can fuel budgeting decisions and help with stock management.
- Return on ad spend (ROAS): ROAS is a vital metric for measuring the success of your Amazon PPC campaigns. It tracks the amount of revenue generated in relation to the amount spent on advertising. This data tells you how profitable your ad campaigns really are.
With the knowledge gleaned from these advertising metrics, you should now have a clear understanding of how your ad campaigns perform from season to season.
Customer Feedback
In the world of e-commerce, customer feedback is a goldmine of information.
Customer reviews can provide valuable insight into how your products are perceived during different periods.
By paying attention to this data, you will be able to address any seasonal concerns or issues raised by customers promptly. This is an easy way to enhance customer satisfaction levels and improve your sales performance.
Competitive Analysis
As with all marketing strategies, it’s useful to keep an eye on what others are doing.
Monitor your competitors’ ad campaigns, product offerings, and pricing. Study their messaging, promotions and creatives and then use that information to offer a more compelling experience via your own campaigns.
Ready to get started?
Looking to make the most of the peak seasons? With our expertise and industry knowledge, we can help your Amazon business to leverage seasonality for improved performance and business growth.
To find out more about how we can help, schedule a discovery call with us.
