The Acceler8 Labs
Amazon Prime Day Playbook
Dive into our playbook and ignite the biggest Prime Day your brand has ever seen.
Prime Day Playbook: Maximize Your Sales in 2024
Welcome to your essential guide for Amazon Prime Day 2024, powered by Acceler8 Lab’s insider info to help your brand turn this global shopping event into a spectacular success both on Amazon, and beyond.
Prime Day isn’t just another sale—it’s Amazon’s largest event, driving incredible traffic and sales volumes. This year it falls on July 16th and 17th, so get ready!
This playbook provides a easy to use framework to enhance your performance, focusing on listing optimization, inventory management, and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) strategies you can get started using today.
Prime Day success hinges on setting clear goals and tailoring strategies to meet them so let’s dive on in: each section is designed to build upon the last, ensuring a step-by-step approach to your Prime Day preparations that will help you win big.
Get ready for Amazon Prime Day 2024 on July 16 and 17!
What is Amazon Prime Day?
Launched on July 15, 2015, to commemorate Amazon’s 20th anniversary, Prime Day started as a 24-hour deal frenzy across nine countries. It has since grown into a much-anticipated, multi-day global event. Each year, it extends its duration and adds new countries, setting new sales records as it expands.
This event isn’t just a promotion; it’s a phenomenal opportunity to catapult your brand into the spotlight, attracting millions of Prime members eager to snap up deals, which drives significant sales for Amazon and third-party sellers like you.
Here’s a great example: The maker of the Theragun massager had a standout performance during Prime Day 2023. The company invested heavily in advertising, including an Amazon-based streaming campaign leading up to the event.
The real secret: Therabody also maintained high prices for a month before Prime Day to maximize the impact of their discounts. When Prime day hit they were ready, dominating the fitness and health categories and blowing the competition out of the water.
By the Numbers:
- In 2023, Prime Day set a new record by generating a staggering $12.7 billion in sales.
- Throughout Prime Day, 375 million items were sold worldwide, exemplifying the global reach of this event.
- Demonstrating widespread interest from American consumers, 37% of US households participated in Prime Day 2023.
Defining What Success Means Is Crucial
Finding Amazon Prime Day success isn’t a one-hit wonder: it comes from a combination of competitive pricing, personalization, strategic advertising, and offering products that align with consumer demand during the iconic event, all working in harmony.
Understanding and defining your actual strategic goals for Prime Day is crucial. Whether it’s acquiring new customers through aggressive promotions or maximizing profit margins, setting clear targets allows brands to tailor strategies effectively and make the most of it.
It’s not always about moving the most units on Amazon.
Sometimes, as we’ll see later with The Honest Company, you can use the momentum of Prime Day to kickstart sales days or months down the road.
This clarity in objectives helps guide your inventory management, social and PPC strategies, ensuring they are in-line with your overall business goals and not stuck on one single metric.
INSIDER INFO:
According to Shopify, 91% of shoppers read at least one review before making a purchase. By incorporating reviews, video testimonials or press reviews into your product pages you’ll be able to give customers the assurance they need and help complete their journey
Leverage Personalization for Prime Day Success
In today’s digital marketplace, personalization is not just beneficial; it’s expected by consumers.
Tailoring your Prime Day promotions to meet the unique interests and purchasing behaviours of your audience can significantly enhance engagement and boost sales, and it can help make sure the right promotions are seen by the right customers.
Here’s how you can incorporate personalization into your Prime Day strategies:
Break down your customer base into segments based on their past purchasing behaviour, demographic data, and engagement levels. This segmentation allows you to tailor your messaging and offers to match the specific interests and needs of each group.
Use the data from your audience segmentation to send personalized email campaigns. For instance, customers who have previously shown interest in electronics can receive targeted emails showcasing your best deals on gadgets. Include product recommendations based on their browsing history to make the emails even more relevant.
Customize your PPC campaigns to reflect the preferences of different audience segments. Use dynamic ad features to display products that individual customers have viewed but not purchased, encouraging them to revisit these items during Prime Day.
Create landing pages tailored to different segments. For example, if you have a segment interested in kitchen appliances, your landing page for that segment should highlight Prime Day deals in that category. Tailored landing pages increase the relevance of the content, which can improve conversion rates.
Utilize social media platforms to run interactive, personalized campaigns. Ask followers to share their wish lists or preferences and use this data to offer personalized deals. Engaging with your audience in this way not only enhances customer experience but also builds stronger brand loyalty.
Implement retargeting strategies to bring back visitors who didn’t make a purchase. Show them personalized ads based on the items they viewed, with special Prime Day discounts to sweeten the deal.
By integrating these personalization tactics, your Prime Day promotions will be more targeted, relevant, and effective, leading to higher engagement rates and increased sales.
Personalization helps your brand stand out in a crowded market and can be integrated into each of subsequent the strategies shared below.
Not having great shipping & delivery can cost you sales
Properly managing inventory is pivotal for a smashing Prime Day. It’s about more than just having enough stock; it’s about smart stock.
Reflecting on last year’s data helps forecast demand and adjust your inventory accordingly. For any and all products, ensure your top sellers are well-stocked by June 20, 2024, to avoid any out of stock issues.
By treating inventory management as a dynamic part of your Prime Day strategy, you position your business to capitalize on increased traffic and maximize sales. Plus, smart inventory decisions reduce the risk of overstocking while ensuring you don’t miss out on potential sales.
📦 INSIDER INFO:
Implement Fulfilled by Merchant (FBM) as a backup for your Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) items. If your FBA stock runs out, you can still meet customer demands via FBM, ensuring continuous sales flow and customer satisfaction. This way, you’re always prepared to meet customer demand without missing a beat.
Analyze Past Prime Day Performance
Let’s break down the 4 key learnings from past Prime Days you’ll need to remember for successful inventory management:
Reflect on Last Year:
Start with a review of last year’s sales and inventory data. This isn’t just about counting what sold; it’s about understanding which items flew off the shelves and which didn’t. Use this insight to predict which products will be popular this year and ensure you have enough to meet demand.
Assess Current Stock:
Take a close look at what you currently have. For your first Prime Day, you’ll want to stock up, aiming for at least four to five days’ worth of inventory based on last year’s sales. Remember, running out of stock is more than a missed opportunity—it can also harm customer relationships.
Leverage Search Data:
Dive into last year’s Search Query Performance (SQP) data to uncover the keywords that performed well. In simpler terms, SQP measures how often your product appears in search results and how often customers click on it when it does appear. This metric helps Amazon understand how relevant your product is to customers’ searches, and helps you understand customer search behaviour and optimize your inventory to include products that are likely to be searched during Prime Day.
📊 Analyze Trends:
Use tools like TripleWhales Historical Trend Finder to compare your performance against competitors and identify trending products or keywords. This helps you anticipate demand and adjust your inventory accordingly.
Listing Optimization Leads To More Sales
Optimized listings are essential for attracting customer interest, involving not only updating content but also updating listings with search trends and customer preferences to capture their attention.
This enhancement of product visibility is essential to support your PPC efforts, ensuring that when customers arrive at your optimized listings, they are met with engaging product pages, clear instructions, video guides and high quality photos…so that you’re not spending good money on bad listings.
Enhancing Product Visibility and Appeal:
Optimized listings are crucial for attracting customer interest in a sea of options. This involves not only updating content but also aligning listings with search trends and customer preferences.
Optimize your listings for cross-sell and upsell opportunities:
Make full use of your platform to seize every sales opportunity. You can do this by developing a Brand Story Carousel and using the Premium A+ Content Comparison Chart.
Elevate your imagery and content with strategic differentiation:
How can you distinguish your product from the competition in a way that makes customers choose you? How do you stand out and get your brand image to stay top of mind?
Be clear about your brand’s identity, your target customer base, and what makes you unique in your images and content. Don’t phone it in, images are crucial to your sales success.
🧠 INSIDER INFO:
A Baymard institute study found that users extend their disappointment beyond the specific product that they are viewing to the brand itself. Low-quality images affect not only how people perceive a particular product but also how they perceive the brand that sells it. Bad images won just hurt your prime day sales, they can hurt your brand for years to come!
Choose The Right Keywords
Choosing the right keywords for Prime Day is a must, even if your product isn’t seasonal. Use a Historical Trend tool such as TripleWhale’s to identify potential keywords that customers could use to find your product.
Review the previous Prime Day to discover keywords that you and your competitors leveraged, along with their search volume and rank, to find the right combo that works for you.
Step into your customers’ shoes by searching your target keywords and think like a shopper. This will help you understand how you can modify your title and main image to stand out, while playing nice with Amazon’s guidelines.
Amplify Your Prime Day Sales With PPC
It might be obvious, but making the most of your Amazon Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads can be a huge driver of visibility and sales. By strategically selecting keywords and adjusting bids, Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) brands ensure their products are seen by the right audience at the opportune moment during the chaos of Prime Day.
This approach must be tightly integrated with your inventory and listing optimizations to ensure a consistent message and strategy across all platforms. If you’re stretched thin, it might be time to consider an agency partner to handle your PPC campaigns.
Prime Day attracts many shoppers to Amazon, all seeking great deals. This leads to an increase in clicks, conversion rate, and consequently, higher spend.
Our expert advice? For all campaigns performing within your expected Advertising Cost of Sale (ACoS) / Return on Advertising Spend (RoAS), consider increasing your budgets during Prime Week.
📦 INSIDER INFO:
Our Insider data from Prime Day 2023 shows that Sponsored Products were the most effective ad type, accounting for 70% of Prime Day sales, followed by Sponsored Brands at 26%. By leaning into what works best, you’ll have a better chance for success from the start.
Stock Up On Defensive Ads
Every Amazon product has a unique number to set it apart. Think of an ASIN like a social security number for products.
Just as a social security number identifies a specific person, an ASIN identifies a specific product on Amazon.
Make sure you are product targeting for all of your OWN Amazon Standard Identification Numbers (ASINs), because during Prime Day, customers tend to browse, and you don’t want them to leave your listing for a better offer from a competitor.
This strategy defends your listings from competitors and cross-sells your products at the same time. It’s a win-win.
Make Descisions Based On Data
Having a winning Prime Day is dependant on having great data. Ensure all your decisions on ad spends are based on up-to-date metrics and high quality signals, allowing you to maximize your performance.
Adjust Bids for Products with Deals:
With a Prime Day deal or discount, its almost certain you can expect an increase in your conversion rate. You might want to increase your bids on high-converting, high-spending targets to drive sales.
Without a Prime Day deal or discount, your conversion rate may decrease — consider lowering your bids on targets below your ACoS to save money during this competitive time.
Retarget with Sponsored Display Campaigns:
Use Sponsored Display Views re-marketing campaigns to serve ads to customers who viewed your products but didn’t purchase, taking advantage of the additional traffic long after Prime Day ends. It’s like a tidal wave you can surf to long-tail sales!
Maximize Prime Day Exposure with Updated Ads:
If you’re offering deals or discounts, update your ads. Focus on Top of Search for products with deals to maximize traffic, create ASIN-targeting campaigns for products you sell at a lower price or have better reviews.
💰 INSIDER INFO:
The week leading up to Prime Day traditionally has one of the lowest conversion rates for advertising on Amazon. You may want to lower bids during this time to increase efficiency, which means you’ll be paying less for the same or better results.
Prepare Prime Day Deals & Drive Outside Traffic
Maximizing Prime Day’s potential requires more than just participating in Amazon’s exclusive deals; it’s about creating a comprehensive strategy to drive traffic from various external channels. Here’s 5 ways how your brand can broaden your reach and capitalize on Prime Day’s extensive traffic.
✏️ Sign up for Prime Day Exclusive Discounts:
Register for Prime Exclusive Discounts for your accounts and products by the required deadline. Note: you can only create deals for accounts and products with a rating of 4 stars or higher.
🎟️ Generate a discount code on Seller Central:
Create a discount code on Amazon and distribute it to your email list for an exclusive Prime Day discount.
🛍️ Add coupons to your listings:
If you’re not participating in Prime Day Exclusive Deals, you may want to add a coupon or a strikethrough price to your listing to stay competitive. Here’s a chance to add some personality or tie in a larger product campaign to increase engagement with a unique promo code.
🤳 Collaborate with influencers to increase traffic:
Consider partnering with influencers to promote your products for Prime Day. Start contacting them early to ensure any products sent for promotional purposes arrive in time for Prime Day content creation. To track your performance and receive a 10% return, use the Amazon Brand Referral bonus.
🚀 Launch social media ads:
Consider advertising on social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok to promote your Amazon products. These ads can have long-term impact on your brand beyond short term Prime Day sales.
📧 INSIDER INFO:
Pro-Tip: Health and Baby brand The Honest Company extended their Prime Day promotions with a special offer sent the day after, keeping the sales momentum going and directly engaging customers beyond Amazon’s platform for weeks after.
Use Multichannel Marketing Techniques
🐝 Build Social Media Buzz: Prime Day is more than a sales day; it’s a major event! Start teasing your audience with previews of the deals to come.
This is your chance to get creative on platforms like Instagram and TikTok, where visuals really pop. Share countdowns, behind-the-scenes looks, and sneak peeks to keep your audience engaged.
Consider how Chime interacted with its community by asking what deals they “scored” on Prime Day, which sparked real conversations and deepened customer relationships by aligning their interactions with their brand’s personality.
The company actively participated in the conversation by promptly replying to comments with relevant and meme-ready responses. This helped reinforce their brand identity and connect with their audience in a more personal way, going beyond simple likes or shares.
📫 Email Excellence: Think of your Email marketing list as a treasure trove of Prime Day potential. Tailor your emails to fit the past buying patterns of your subscribers, making each message feel personal and direct.
Before Prime Day kicks off, whet your customers’ appetites with exclusive sneak peeks or special discount codes. This not only primes them for the upcoming deals but also boosts customer loyalty.
🏆 Content That Converts: Use your content as a powerful tool to educate and entice your audience. Write blog posts or articles about your best sellers, explaining why they are the perfect buys for Prime Day. Highlight unique features and how to use them. Then, share these insights via emails and across your social networks to maximize engagement.
By weaving these tactics into your Prime Day strategy, you’re doing more than just selling products; you’re creating a memorable experience that keeps customers returning.
Your Prime Day Playbook
Essential Checklist
Ensure you’re fully prepared for Amazon’s biggest sales day by following this playbook. From inventory preparation to strategic advertising, each step above was designed to optimize your sales and enhance your brand’s presence on Amazon.
There’s no shortcuts, but if you lay the groundwork early your Prime Day sales will flourish.
Inventory should be reviewed, evaluated, and ensured to be ready. Listing optimization involves increasing product visibility and appeal, optimizing for cross-selling and upselling opportunities, and setting keywords for Prime Day.
PPC campaigns are essential for driving traffic, staying within budget, protecting market share, adjusting bids, retargeting, and maximizing exposure. Prime Day deals should be prepared, and outside traffic should be driven through exclusive discounts, coupons, influencer collaborations, and social media ads.
Lastly, advanced marketing techniques include building engagement and anticipation through email marketing and social media platforms.
This may seem like a lot to do, but trust us, it’s worth it. Below, we’ve created a tactical checklist to make sure you’ve got everything ready for Prime Day 2024!
Decide if your main focus for Prime Day is to draw in new customers or to maximize the profit margins on each sale. This decision will shape your entire strategy.
Define what success looks like for you this Prime Day. Whether it’s hitting a sales target, reaching a certain number of new customers, or achieving a specific return on ad spend, having clear metrics will help you measure your performance.
Look back at your sales performance from previous Prime Days to predict how much inventory you’ll need.
Double-check that all your stock has arrived at Amazon’s fulfillment centers well before the big day. Missing the deadline could mean missing out on sales.
Refresh your product titles, descriptions, and images to align with current trends and customer preferences, ensuring they stand out on Prime Day.
Make the most of Amazon’s A+ content feature to enhance your product listings. This can include detailed descriptions, high-quality images, and comparison charts that help highlight your product’s benefits over competitors’.
Revise your SEO strategy by updating the keywords for your product listings to increase visibility and attract more targeted traffic.
Anticipate more traffic on Prime Day by increasing your advertising budgets to maintain visibility in a crowded marketplace.
Tailor your ad copy and keywords specifically for Prime Day searches. Focus on what customers are most likely to be searching for during this sales event. Put yourself in their shoes.
Plan and execute a dynamic social media campaign that starts early to build anticipation and engages your audience through to Prime Day.
Use your email list to send out targeted messages with exclusive offers to engage your subscribers and drive them directly to your deals on Prime Day.