No deals doesn’t always mean less success, though. When a brand opts out of competitive pricing, it’s important to recognize that there are still ways to take advantage of the increased traffic on-site. Here are a few tactics we can utilize through Search Advertising to capture demand:
Budget Flighting
Flighting refers to allocating advertising budget to maximize exposure during optimal periods. The goal here is to capitalize during active periods while conserving budget during slower periods to maximize the impact of our ad dollars.
So, what does this look like for T5? One suggested approach is to spend heavy during the weeks leading up to the event to help drive brand awareness as shoppers start flooding the platform, as well as set aside ample budget for the 5 day event itself, especially on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, to ensure you’re getting in front of those in-aisle shoppers as they’re more inclined to make a purchase.
However, this year there are additional considerations with the Presidential Election. Code3 Strategists are recommending brands reduce spending during the election week and consider pulling back in the days leading up to it. Budget shifts should prioritize upper funnel tactics like brand awareness and consideration in early October, with a slow spend during Election Week to avoid competing with political content saturation. Once the election is over, it’s time to rapidly ramp up for the 5-day event.
Additionally, by analyzing data and insights from Amazon AEs from past tentpoles, brands can uncover optimal time windows throughout the day where traffic, engagement, and/or sales are the most elevated for your brand and disperse budget accordingly. For example, if your brand has historically seen searches peak in the early morning hours of 9am-11am and the after-work hours of 5pm-7pm, you should allocate most of your daily budget towards those time slots to get the most bang for your buck.
Increasing Bids + Implementing TOS Bid Multipliers
To set your brand up for success during T5, it is essential to own Share of Voice (SOV) where traffic is heavy and placements are plenty. In order to better your brand’s chances of showing up, you will need to increase bids to best compete in the space. The Search Engine Results Page (SERP) is where brands have the most opportunity to draw in potential customers, and given the various ad placements available, your brand has the power to truly own real estate here by bidding aggressively.
Setting Top-of-Search (TOS) bid multipliers within Sponsored Product campaigns is a great way to maximize above-the-fold exposure on the SERP as these multipliers are applied to all of the enabled targets in each respective campaign. For example, if you implement a 150% TOS bid multiplier for a specific Sponsored Product campaign, all bids will automatically be amplified by 150% over the duration that the bid multiplier is enabled, which increases your brand’s probability of showing up and maintaining TOS visibility.
Product Detail Pages (PDPs) also offer numerous ad placements to inhabit, so whether you’re targeting competitor products or safeguarding your own PDPs, bump up those bids to ensure you’re taking up space. Of course, with higher bids comes increased spending, so make sure you have enough budget set aside for the event and/or provide a recommendation for incremental ad budget if you feel it necessary and can present the forecasted impact of those additional dollars.
Sponsored Brand Creative Capabilities
Sponsored Brand/Sponsored Brand Video offer a variety of ways for brands to drive engagement and boost sales. Sponsored Brand lifestyle images and video assets serve to best showcase your brand/product offerings through storytelling and captivating visuals that demonstrate a product’s use-cases and most suitable environments.For the holidays, your creative can also inspire gift-giving opportunities. Brands can also use headlines and/or messaging within the assets to call out any distinguishable features about your brand/product that draws consumers in and sets you apart from competitors.
Don’t have these types of assets ready? There are capabilities within the Amazon Ad console that allow advertisers to create their own assets via AI generation or the video builder.
Another benefit of Sponsored Brand/Sponsored Brand Video campaigns is the ability to direct shoppers to the Brand Store or a custom landing page. Driving consumers to your brand’s store on Amazon is a great way to build credibility as you’re providing shoppers with a centralized, cohesive space to browse your brand’s catalog and offerings. Custom landing pages can also be incredibly useful if your brandwishes to showcase certain products as a means to spread awareness/promote new items, as well as sell through products if you’re dealing with excess inventory.
Promotions are an effective way to increase sales and target new audiences during the competitive Q4 time period, but it’s not always an option for brands. If your brand is not running deals - or is only doing so during a portion of the shopping event - there are still effective strategies to capitalize on the surge in site traffic. A few tweaks and additional attention to overall strategy can help increase success. By leveraging tactics such as budget flighting, increasing bids, and implementing Top-of-Search bid multipliers, brands can maximize their visibility and capture demand. Additionally, utilizing Sponsored Brand creative capabilities, including lifestyle images and videos, allows brands to engage shoppers and drive them to a brand store or custom landing page. These approaches ensure brands can still thrive during Turkey 5, even without relying on promotional discounts.