Prime Day presents brands with an invaluable opportunity to increase sales by leveraging millions of shoppers on one of the world’s most popular ecommerce sites. This year’s edition of Prime Day spanned July 16th and 17th and reported higher overall metrics than it has in the past few years.
Failing to tap into the millions of consumers who both flock to Amazon for Prime Day and start that journey by using Google to search for products is a serious miscalculation, but how can you ensure you capture the most sales?
All of the data below is derived from our client portfolio.
Week Before Prime Day
July 9th to 15th, 2024
It’s evident from the Ampd data that shoppers started searching for products in anticipation of Prime Day over a week before the event itself – Google searches were up 17% from the week before (July 2nd to 8th, 2024). In addition to a 21% increase in clicks, it shows that shoppers were researching products long before the event and making use of Google as a critical part of their research.
In that same week, add-to-cart rates increased by 19%, with conversions going up by 12%. This data emphasizes the necessity for brands to start their Google ad campaigns early in order to capture those early bird Prime Day preppers. It also tells us that while consumers may not be completing their purchases, they are adding items to their cart, which means the brands chosen by early shoppers have likely already done the majority of the hard work.
Prime Day
July 16th & 17th
As predicted, there was a noteworthy increase in add-to-cart and conversion rates during the Prime Day sale versus the two days before (July 14th & 15th). The differences in add-to-cart and conversion rates between Prime Day(s) and the same two days one week before (July 9th & 10th) were not as extreme as some might have forecast, which showed that consumer attention scaled up as the Prime Day event drew closer.
The metrics paint a picture of staggered increases, corresponding directly to the countdown to Prime Day. Amazon runs pre-Prime Day sales, which can also inspire increased attention from shoppers. As a brand, your strategy needs to keep these shopper behaviors in mind when determining when to initiate your campaign.
Prime Week
July 15th to 22nd
The shopper activity during the week of Prime, paired with Ampd’s advanced strategies, boosted the revenue of Ampd clients by 40% and ROAS by 20%, in comparison to the week before (July 7th to 14th).
However, as demonstrated by the data from the week before the event, Prime Day drew impressive stats across the metrics we measured. Both searches and add-to-carts during Prime Day week were up 39% from the two weeks prior, showing the critical importance of Google in product research for consumers and that shoppers are starting their Prime Day purchasing campaigns over two weeks before the event itself.
How Can Your Business Use This Data?
There are a couple of really critical takeaways that we can pull from these data insights. First, businesses need to start scaling their Google ad campaigns a minimum of two weeks before Prime Day or other tentpole events, whether it be Cyber Monday or Walmart’s Holiday Deals Kick Off. We know from the data above that Google searches were up for Ampd clients by 39% in the run-up to Prime Day. If you aren’t running ad campaigns linking Google to Amazon, you could be missing out on considerable customer engagement and sales.
Second, the Cost Per Click is cheaper the earlier you start running your campaigns. While it’s tempting to think that shoppers don’t prepare for events like Prime Day, we know that is not true. To increase ROAS, ad campaigns should start earlier and take advantage of pre-Prime Day research traffic for a much lower cost compared to the same ad campaign running two days before Prime.
Third, waiting to start your campaigns not only costs more but also excludes early bird shoppers. Consumers sometimes make purchasing decisions in the run-up to major sales events, whether that be to purchase the item then and there or to wait and see if the item will be discounted. Either way, that sale has been won; it just depends on the timing of when the consumer makes the actual purchase. By starting your campaign two days before Prime, you’ve missed those additional opportunities.
In Conclusion
To make the most of any Google Ad campaign in the run-up to big ecommerce events like Prime Day, brands need to deploy their ad placements more than two weeks before the event. This strategy taps into the shopper behavior that our data has outlined above and can encourage higher add-to-cart and conversion rates.
To prepare for the next big ecommerce event and learn how to strengthen your links from channel to marketplace, contact our experts here.
