Profit or Growth? Crafting a Winning Prime Day Strategy

Here’s how to tailor your Prime Day strategy to meet your objectives.

If your Prime Day goal is profitability, the key is to be strategic with your spending and focus on products with healthy margins. Here are some steps to consider:

• Allocate your budget to a few key ASINs to minimize wasted spend and maximize ad efficiency. This focused approach helps you manage your resources effectively.
• Use historical data and competitive analysis to understand the market landscape. Look at what your competitors are doing. How much are they spending? Are they running limited-time Lightning Deals or Prime-exclusive discounts? This information helps you decide where to allocate your budget effectively without overspending on inflated CPCs, which can rise by 30-40% during Prime Day.
• Understand that consumer buying behavior has shifted to shoppers spending less on ecommerce. This makes it even more important to be even more strategic. If you can't compete with the big spenders, lowering your bids and maintaining efficiency might be smarter rather than chasing inflated cost-per-clicks.

If your Prime Day goal is growth, you might need to be more aggressive with your advertising and promotions. Here's how to approach it:

• Increase your ad spend and run more extensive deals to capture a larger market share. To ensure your efforts are effective, you need a thorough understanding of your competitors’ actions and current consumer trends.
• Understand that consumers want deals with big red badges, not regular-priced items. Think like a shopper: If your item is priced the same as it was yesterday, they'll likely wait or go elsewhere.
• Use all available data to make informed decisions. Failing to do so will make your efforts more expensive and less effective. In some cases, if you can't afford to run deals or compete with high ad spending, saving your budget for after Prime Day when competition normalizes might be wiser.

Learn the importance of lead-in and lead-out strategies for Prime Day.

Whether your goal is profitability or growth, a comprehensive lead-in and lead-out strategy is what will drive and maximize your Prime Day success. The lead-in phase is about building awareness and interest and familiarizing Amazon shoppers with your brand, while the lead-out phase is about capturing residual demand and maintaining momentum to drive additional sales even after Prime Day ends. Here’s how to build awareness before the event and maintain momentum afterward. 

Lead-In Strategy: Starting Strong. The lead-in phase is about building awareness and familiarizing shoppers with your brand. This is not the time to focus on high ROAS; instead, run video placements, streaming TV ads, and Sponsored Brand Ads to move consumers down the funnel. 

Budget Pacing: Timing Your Treasure. When preparing for Prime Day, aligning on which products to push is important. These discussions should start early, ideally in February or March, to determine which products will be promoted and how the budget will be allocated. Planning your budget structure—whether to pull spending from August into July or otherwise—is key. Strategically plan your budget down to the day, considering how much to spend in the weeks leading up to Prime Day. This early alignment ensures that you are well-prepared and not scrambling at the last minute. During Prime Day, shift to lower-funnel tactics to capture demand, using Sponsored Product Ads and Sponsored Display retargeting to drive high returns.

Lead-Out Strategy: Finishing with Flair. Don’t let your efforts end when Prime Day ends. Many shoppers continue to shop in the days following the event. Extend your deals slightly and continue advertising to capture these late buyers. This approach can help you maintain momentum and capture additional sales. Focus on bottom-funnel ads like Sponsored Product Ads and Sponsored Display Retargeting to capture residual demand. This can help you ride the wave off of your competitors coming out of Prime Day.

Pave the way to Prime Day success.

Identifying your goals for Prime Day will set you on the path to incremental success on Amazon. By focusing on strategic spending, analyzing historical data, and understanding consumer behavior, you can develop a tailored approach that aligns with your specific objectives. Whether your aim is profitability or growth, early alignment on product promotion, a well-planned advertising strategy, and a comprehensive lead-in and lead-out approach are key to success. Additionally, creativity in ad placements and leveraging advanced targeting options like Sponsored Display Retargeting can further enhance your campaign's effectiveness.

By starting preparations early and thinking strategically, you can maximize your returns on Prime Day.

Looking to make the most out of Prime Day? 

Media.Monks specializes in crafting tailored strategies that help brands achieve their goals, whether profitability or growth. Let us guide you through the process with expert insights and proven techniques. Reach out to us here.