How To Build a Winning Amazon Advertising Strategy for Prime Day

Massively boosting your brand’s revenue in just one day — mid-summer, no less — sounds like any ecommerce professional’s “Oh, I am dreaming about work again” dream, but a dream nonetheless.

However, on Amazon Prime Day, it’s possible.

With the fluctuating dates to be confirmed by Amazon each year, this major selling event is an enormous opportunity for brands worldwide. Fail to plan, however, and your dream of big sales numbers for your brand can quickly become a nightmare.

Learn more about advertising, also called retail media, specifically for Amazon Prime Day, and what goes into an amazing Amazon advertising strategy. Plus, gain knowledge about ad tools available on Amazon, tips for creating compelling copy, and learn how to optimize your campaigns. 

How Brands Can Best Use Amazon’s Advertising Tools

According to Amazon Ads, boosting your discoverability and reaching more shoppers is attainable for every budget in just a few minutes. However, there are different types of Amazon ads to consider: What’s the difference, and how do you know which one to use?

Amazon offers Sponsored Products ads, Sponsored Brands ads, and Sponsored Display ads. Below are quick hits on each, as well as how brands can benefit.

What Are Sponsored Products Ads on Amazon?

Sponsored Products ads on Amazon “improve visibility of individual products” and appear along relative shopper queries. This makes them great for brands with a limited catalog or trying to promote the potential virality of one product.

However, keep in mind that your product will only show to consumers already searching for something similar. It’s important to help make your product stand out from other options. For example, include visuals that are better than your competitors or really hit heavy with FAQ answers or testimonials on your product detail page (PDP).

What Are Sponsored Brands Ads on Amazon?

Sponsored Brands ads on Amazon “boost brand awareness” and can feature custom headlines, videos, and images. This makes them great for brands trying to boost their overall presence on Amazon or reinvent themselves with a fresh attitude or renewed use case for their products. (Hint: Think 111-year-old Stanley’s omnipresent tumbler.)

What Are Sponsored Display Ads on Amazon?

Sponsored Display ads on Amazon “further extend your reach” on and off Amazon, making you potentially visible on thousands of touch points. This makes them great for brands wanting to cast a wide net and capture new customers beyond the native Amazon browser.

Rather than capturing consumers through keywords and search queries like Sponsored Products ads, it’s your visuals — especially video — that can drive interest to your PDP.

How To Write Ad Copy That Converts

As part of your Amazon advertising strategy, you obviously need compelling ad copy to drive those clicks and conversions. And, maybe, selling on Amazon is only as easy as your copy is, not only good but “clear and accurate,” per Amazon’s policies.

Straightforward enough.

But, taking it a step further, here are the elements to not miss in your Amazon ad copy:

• A concise headline that clearly describes your product and/or includes keywords;
• Product copy or a short descriptor that shares your product’s best feature(s);
• Callouts for Prime Day or other discounts; and
• A clear call-to-action (CTA), like “Shop Now” or “Buy With Prime.”

The limited physical space of ads means less room for a long sales pitch — and also less room for content errors. It’s important to pack a punch and drive attention to your brand and clicks to your PDP, whether shoppers are discovering, considering, or actively purchasing on Amazon or off.

Keeping your brand’s presence consistent across the digital shelf, and especially between your PDPs and ads, is crucial to optimizing your retail media spend.

How Brands Can Optimize Their Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Campaigns

Luckily on Amazon, many typical barriers to purchase are removed, as the majority of consumers are already logged in or have their credentials saved. Amazon wins consumer trust like no other. It stands to reason that more voting Americans trust Amazon (46%) than the federal government (26%) with their data, according to the Center for Growth and Opportunity.

Maximizing your return on investment (ROI) and return on ad spend (ROAS) from your campaigns for Prime Day and beyond doesn’t have to be complicated.

Consistency and Quality Drive Conversions

There’s a significant overlap between the power level of your PDPs and retail media. More so, there must be a significant overlap between what you present on your PDPs and the ads you create — disparity here, especially, can send consumers running for the hills.

If a consumer clicks your ad featuring callouts of “luxury” or a “lifetime warranty,” they’re likely expecting to be brought to a champagne-showering PDP, with high-quality visuals, feature bullets, and other enhanced content. Instead, if your product page offers something closer to a light beer spritz, with a poorly descriptive product name, no specs, and two static images shot on an iPhone-less-than-five, something’s amiss.

According to research by the Digital Shelf Institute (DSI) and Stratably, 71% of digital leaders from 78 consumer brands say PDP quality significantly influences their ROAS.

Consider you’re a brand catering to outdoor enthusiasts (or those who at least like a patio now and then), trying to develop ad copy and content. A product like NATPAT Buzz Patch Mosquito Patch Stickers offers quality inspiration for how to reach an even broader audience. (They say for kids, but kids be damned if they think they have the monopoly on sticker technology.)

Image Source: Amazon

Consumers will likely be even more pleased to find the below-the-fold, aka rich, aka Amazon A+ content on the NATPAT page like below, showing celebrity endorsements, their proud Australian origin, and all-natural standing. 

Image Source: Amazon

Great product content does more than please Amazon’s algorithm, it helps your brand resonate with consumers. Take a page from NATPAT’s book when looking for Amazon advertising examples.

Be Clear on Your Offer

Consumers are looking for deals, and that should surprise no one. 

When Prime Day and other shopping holidays roll around, you likely want to attract a mix of planners — those surefire purchasers — and impulse buyers who simply get swept away by your brand in the scroll.

Advertising deals early and often preceding these dates for your target consumers or across the digital shelf with Amazon Display ads, can only help solidify your brand’s presence on their list.

According to Salsify’s “2024 Consumer Research” report, 58% of shoppers abandon a sale due to high prices, and 39% increased their focus on budget-friendly options last year.

But showing up and flashing a deal is just one element — consumers are constantly (even subconsciously) looking for products that suit their needs — make it clear to them how your product can do so.

Otherwise, 42% of shoppers abandon a sale due to poorly written product titles or descriptions, and 41% abandon a sale due to inconsistent product information across different websites, per Salsify research.

For example, brands seeking consumers in hot pursuit of perfect summer days outside may find their listing in Amazon’s “home picks for summer.” However, what your brand can do better is a clearer product title than “BUG-A-SALT Yellow 3.0” to describe a table-salt-powered bug gun. (Yes, it’s real.)

Image Source: Amazon

Also seen in the example above are indicators of price reductions. Spelling out your discount or deal in your campaign (i.e., reflecting it in your ads and on your PDP) makes it that much easier for consumers to complete their purchase when the time comes.

How Brands Can Utilize Retargeting Strategies

Amazon Prime Day is a prime time as ever to collect more than just the passing glances of consumers, but their business — especially the business of consumers who’ve stolen glances at your products before.

Using retargeting strategies, that is, serving up ads of a product a consumer has already viewed on Amazon, can help remind them of what they might be missing out on.

The fact that they didn’t purchase your product right away isn’t a bad thing — absence makes the heart grow fonder. Or, more likely, they got distracted, are awaiting a potential discount, or don’t need your item just yet.

Showing the product with a Sponsored Display ad from Amazon, for example, increases visibility as the consumer is likely to surf other channels besides Amazon, perhaps comparing prices or reviews, before Prime Day.

Ad copy like “Take Another Look” or “See Why We Have Over 5,000 5-Star Reviews” can prioritize your product’s purchase or, at least, have it put on the consumers’ “saved for later” list. 

Having an Amazon Advertising Strategy Adds Up

Don’t shy away from investing in Amazon ads — and, all the while, ensure copy across touch points is clear, compelling, and consistent. Share those deals, and make some noise.

Employing these tips for your Amazon advertising strategy can turn your dream of big sales on Prime Day and beyond into a reality (and allocate plenty of time to daydream in between).