The biggest shopping event of the summer, Amazon Prime Day, is just around the corner. While the ink has been dry for some time on your Prime Day marketing plans, Skai’s retail media experts have some final advice to help you navigate the season successfully. Today, Skai’s VP of Media, Kevin Weiss, shares some tips on how to set the right measurement foundation for the three phases of Prime Day.
The impact of Amazon Prime Day on your business cannot be overstated. Outside the holiday season, this event is a key gauge of consumer interest in your products. So, in this game, it’s all about having the right mindset—especially when it comes to measuring your performance.
Whether launching new products or trying to sell through older inventory, ensuring you have the right metrics, the right mindset, and the right tools in place to measure and optimize performance is essential to making the most out of Amazon Prime Day—as well as next years because of what you will learn this year with a proper measurement approach.
When it comes to Amazon Prime Day, it’s crucial to recognize its three distinct phases and tailor your measurement approach accordingly: the lead-up, Prime Day itself, and the lead-out.
During the lead-up, about four weeks before Prime Day, the focus is on preparation. This is a critical time to promote your brand and deals to audiences already considering their Prime Day purchases. More importantly, this phase provides an opportunity to refine your measurement strategies. Assess different measurement tactics, test their effectiveness, and pinpoint what delivers the best results. Consider metrics such as traffic, ranking, and inventory levels, using Skai’s advanced analytics tools to track these changes in real-time.
When Prime Day arrives, your primary goal is to convert brand-aware audiences into buyers. Your measurement strategy should shift towards real-time monitoring and swift adjustments. The emphasis is on keeping your team alert, frequently refreshing reports, ensuring that deals operate as planned, and monitoring campaign momentum. Skai’s platform, with its real-time data tracking abilities, is especially beneficial during this high-stakes period.
Following Prime Day, the lead-out phase lasts for about 2+ weeks. During this time, the objective is to re-engage your audience at a broader scale. Now is not the time for complacency; it’s an opportune moment to dig deep into the data at the brand, campaign, and product levels. Assess both the main and complex metrics to gain a comprehensive understanding of the true value of your advertising spend.
Getting your KPIs and metrics right is the backbone of successful Amazon Prime Day marketing. There’s an art to measurement, and when done right, it can significantly influence your overall performance.
Before prime day: building momentum
In the buildup to Prime Day, measurement helps to keep your business on track. Avoiding out-of-stock situations, ensuring inventory is loaded into the fulfillment network, and pushing for momentum are all crucial steps. All of these things require a solid foundation for you to track these details accurately.
Depending on your measurement strategy, be it for new products or increasing cart value on your existing products, different metrics come into play. You need to keep a keen eye on traffic, ranking, inventory levels, and other KPIs like add-to-carts to build up your Prime Day splash. Tools like Skai’s Automated Actions and Automated Keyword Harvesting can help streamline this process and enable you to capitalize when the traffic influx begins.
During Prime Day: stay on top
When Prime Day arrives, the rules of measurement change. It’s no longer business as usual but rather a period of heightened alertness. Implementing different rules, checking reports, and ensuring things are progressing as expected are crucial. Remember, you are keen on indicators of success, so keep your budgets on, don’t go dark, and stay alert.
Another beneficial tool is Amazon Stream. Using Skai’s platform, you can tap into this real-time data and see intraday metrics on performance to make sure your programs are progressing as expected. If not, the intraday insights will help you adjust in real-time to target competitor products or pivot strategies that aren’t yielding as planned.
After Prime Day: studying the performance
Once Prime Day is over, the focus shifts to studying your performance. Take time to delve into data at the brand, campaign, and product-level, examining your main and more complex metrics. This will give you a holistic view of the value of your advertising spend, not only throughout the event but also the effects it will have in the following months.
With Skai’s Custom Dashboards and advanced Scheduled Reports tool, you can get an in-depth analysis of campaign performance and make informed strategic decisions for future endeavors. Amazon Stream and Amazon Marketing Cloud can be incredibly useful at this phase for analyzing your impact.
Skai’s omnichannel platform has the measurement tools you need to master Prime Day and beyond!
As you prepare for Amazon Prime Day, remember that measurement is a three-part journey. Each phase—before, during, and after Prime Day—has its unique requirements and strategies.
Skai’s platform can help you navigate through each phase effectively, keeping your KPIs and metrics right and eventually making the most out of Amazon Prime Day. Remember, your approach to measurement can be the difference between a good Prime Day performance and a great one.
Skai’s Retail Media solution empowers brands and agencies to plan, execute, and measure campaigns on 100+ retailers in one unified platform with best-in-class automation and optimization capabilities.
We invite you to schedule a brief demo to see all of our cutting-edge innovation for yourself and to get answers to all of the questions you may have.
From the Skai family…have a great 2023 Prime Day!
