Get Ready for Amazon Prime Day 2022!
Amazon Prime Day continues to be one of the biggest online retail events of the year. The last year 2021, Prime Day hit $11.19 billion globally over the two-day period spanning June 21st and the 22nd. This was an increase of 7.6% over the same two-day period the year prior in 2020 when sales hit $10.39 billion.
This year, Prime Day will likely happen around the same dates in June, and while that may seem far in the future, Amazon sellers should begin preparing now. On this monumental day in the retail world, it is so important to have all your ducks in a row: your PPC (pay per click) advertising, inventory, and any promotions you may be running – these should all be set up early, so you can be well-prepared to reap the benefits of Amazon Prime Day.
The History and Success of Prime Day
The first Amazon Prime Day was in 2015 when the retail giant celebrated its 20th year in business. Since then, it has been a tremendous money maker for all sorts of brands across a wide variety of industries. Year over year, third-party sellers (that’s you) as a whole have surpassed $3.5 billion in 2020, and that number continues to rise.
But Prime Day is about so much more than a “deal event.” Here are three ways Prime Day can support your brand that goes beyond the limited-time deals:
It gives sellers a great opportunity to engage with shoppers before, during, and after Prime Day.
It helps to drive sales for non-Prime Day products in your product portfolio. An average of 66% of products see a lift in traffic during Prime Day, with a higher daily sales average for about two weeks after Prime Day when compared to average sales prior to the event.
It increases new-to-brand shoppers. Their participation in Prime Day gives sellers a wonderful lift in sales, with an overall average of 3-4 times sales lift over a regular sales day.
How to Select Products to Promote on Prime Day
Naturally, you would want to promote everything in your store, right? However, that is not the most lucrative approach. Instead, you as an Amazon seller will want to focus on your top selling products. Make sure these products have plenty of inventory and are easy for you to replenish should you need to. Also, make sure your product listings are optimized to the fullest extent:
Product images are optimized – let’s face it. Online shopping is here to stay, and having high-quality images that accurately portray your product is of utmost importance. Shoppers rely heavily on these images, so make sure you use all of the photo slots available to you that speak to the product and help answer questions.
Reviews of your product – Amazon is fairly strict in this area, but the up side is that it benefits you as an Amazon seller. Consumers have become quite savvy in spotting fake reviews, and that also jeopardizes your credibility as a seller.
Optimize for keywords throughout your product content – keywords drive shoppers to your product page. However, once a shopper sees your page, you’ll want to keep them there, so make sure the keywords fit your product. Ensure your product title, bullet points, and description is written in such a way as to accurately inform the shopper about your product, and give them incentive to purchase.
Your Amazon Prime Day Strategy
To get yourself ready in plenty of time for Prime Day, Amazon recommends a three-pronged approach:
Lead-up – begin promoting your deals and brand to interested shoppers before Prime Day
Prime Day – engage with shoppers that are 1) already aware of your brand, and 2) more likely to purchase your products
Lead-out – re-engage with your audience at scale
Amazon helps out a bit by building awareness for Prime Day by holding events such as live concerts that are streamed by millions of people worldwide. And while the average Amazon seller obviously cannot do this, you can ride those coattails by increasing awareness of your own brand and showcasing your products by:
Sponsored Ads – to help engage shoppers who are searching for products within your category and similar categories
Display Ads – to help drive visibility for specific product deals to help build your Prime Day audience
Sponsored Brands – to drive shoppers to your Amazon store to push sales. Sellers that link sponsored brands to their store and not to individual product pages can realize up to a 22% ROAS increase
Test Your Audience
In the weeks leading up to Prime Day, implement a series of tests in an effort to learn strategies across these various ad types. This will help you figure out what works best for your brand to help you optimize ads as Prime Day gets closer.
Test your Amazon audience and product strategies to figure out the best way your products are displayed in the ads and brand store. Explore several different variations across different ad types to see what your audience responds best to. This will help you optimize your ads effectively as Prime Day draws near.
This is a great time to revisit your ad campaign budgets and increase spending where you can. Remember, Prime Day is one of the most competitive shopping days of the year (following close behind Black Friday), so if your budget doesn’t compete, you’ll quickly get overrun by your competition. As a rule of thumb, we recommend increasing your ad budget by up to 200% in your daily campaign spend during this time.
On Amazon Prime Day
Once the big day arrives, your deals are live and you can turn on your Sponsored and Daily Ads to drive shoppers to your deals and product sales. Sponsored Ads target shoppers who have a good idea of what they want, but are not beholden to any specific brand or product. This is your chance to get their attention about your product at the category level. Use both branded and category keywords to reach your audience, as well as those shoppers who are still undecided and can be swayed to your products.
Similarly, Display Ads are great for expanding your reach on Amazon and beyond. On Amazon Prime Day, you can use Display Ads to market to those already considering your brand. This is your audience who have already viewed your promoted products or have searched for keywords related to your products.
After Prime Day
Don’t make the mistake of slowing down your marketing efforts just because Prime Day 2022 is over. Your brand and your products are still in the minds of your target audience, and many of them are continuing to shop at high volumes after the event. Fun fact: higher category search volume has consistently been seen in the 14 days after Prime Day than even in the two weeks before the event.
Now is when you should be re-engaging your audience to drive that sale. This can drive loyalty and convert those shoppers who did not buy from you during Prime Day. In addition, Sponsored Ads can be used to upsell, resell, and cross-sell those who have already purchased from you. Likewise, Display Ads will retarget those who have yet to make a purchase.
Measure Your Success
After it’s all over, it’s important to assess the success of your campaigns to determine which strategies and ads garnered the most success. This step is crucial and will inform your marketing efforts moving forward and especially for next year’s Prime Day.
Amazon reports certain data for you to assess by giving you insights into how your Prime Day campaigns contributed to searches for your brand. They give you new-to-brand metrics to help you assess which campaigns garnered new customers. Finally, retail insights give you an overall view of customer shopping activities before, during, and after Amazon Prime Day.
