After a strange October Amazon Prime Day in 2020 (and a strange 2020 and 2021 altogether), you may be wondering what is in store for this year’s Prime Day. The big event is June 21 and 22 of this year. We did a deep dive into data on Prime Day stats for 2020 and learned, that despite the odd timing, it was still a lucrative event for sellers and brand owners. This year’s Prime Day should be too. So how do you stand out from your competition during this important sales opportunity?
In a word (or, acronym), Amazon DSP.
Why Prime Day Is Such A Big Deal
Amazon has over 200 million members in the Prime membership program across the globe, with 147 million in the US alone. Prime Day 2020 saw $10.40 billion in items sold, but that was in part because the event was so close to the holiday season. Remember, though, that in 2019, $7.16 billion in items were sold. Considering there are 50 million more paid Prime members worldwide, and 35 million more in the US, we can expect Prime Day 2021 to be a good, great, or amazing sales day, depending on your strategy.
For brand owners looking to make a splash, Amazon DSP should be part of that strategy. You can use it to:
- Develop audience demand
- Capture increased traffic
- Retarget traffic after the event – use a more aggressive AMS search spend in the days leading up to the event
Developing Your Audience Leading Up To Prime Day
In the weeks leading up to Prime Day, Amazon will see more traffic as customers research potential purchases in anticipation of the cost-savings event. This is an excellent time to showcase your brand’s value and to develop more brand awareness. This is the time to ramp up your DSP spend, especially in your upper funnel (or “higher funnel”) targeting. The idea is to incrementally increase your audience size so that you can grab those shoppers on Prime Day dates.
Amazon’s In-Market audiences use purchasing and viewing behavior to place shoppers in that audience – these are people who have recently searched for products in your category. Catch the eye of these “ready to buy” and “likely to buy” shoppers with great images and videos with DSP, driving traffic to your Amazon Store and introducing new eyes to your brand and products.
Another upper funnel prospecting activity is Lifestyle, which uses purchasing behavior and other signals to place people into groups like “new parents,” “garden lovers,” and more – interest groups that habitually buy from a certain category. Casting the net wider with a bigger spend in the weeks leading up to Prime Day will get more traffic to your listings when it counts.
Capture Increased Traffic With Amazon DSP on Prime Day
Consumers flock to Amazon to look for deals on Prime Day. Make sure you’ve increased your daily budget caps – it’s time to focus on that middle to lower funnel prospecting. In the weeks leading up to Prime Day, your prospecting should have driven a large amount of new user traffic to your listings. Make the most of this with high budget caps frequency, and bids. It will be pricey, but don’t miss the chance to get those shoppers that have shown intent in the last couple of weeks.
Also hone in on audiences in-aisle, looking for a deal, and ready to buy. Draw them to your brand and make that conversion. Consider offering Prime Day deals to incentivize purchases and develop new-to-brand customers.
Retarget Lost Audiences After Prime Day
After the big day, there is still opportunity to capture conversions. Use Amazon DSP to re-engage audiences with reselling, cross-selling, and upselling. Customers who were happy with purchases they made on Prime Day may be swayed by that positive experience and consider purchasing again.
Shoppers who engaged with your products, but didn’t buy on Prime Day, can still be retargeted and brought back to make the purchase. The most successful retargeting window varies, depending on the product and category, so use good data analysis to make the most of the audiences you created leading up to, and on Prime Day.
DSP’s Impact on AMS Search
Amazon DSP operates as a complementary channel to the existing AMS search efforts. Non-branded, Competitor, Auto and Branded campaigns help fill DSP’s retargeting pool. DSP also impacts Search. In-Market, Lifestyle, and Conquesting Presence can lead to additional impressions and a boost in volume on Branded campaigns within search.
Prepare Early And Be Ready To Adapt
2021 is still full of uncertainty. As of writing time, there have been more FBA inventory restrictions, delays in shipments from overseas, and all sorts of things to challenge brands that sell on Amazon. You need to be able to respond to events, Amazon policy changes, and more. Retargeting can help you stay in front of your customers and potential customers, and that audience you capture during Prime Day can help a lot.
Evaluate DSP performance by new-to-brand and branded search metrics and leverage that Prime Day data to increase your brand’s exposure.
