Prime Big Deal Days Results Recap: What’s Next for Brands?
Last year, Amazon surprised sellers and consumers with the announcement of Prime Early Access Sale taking place in early October. Last year’s new tentpole event was an early kickoff to the holiday shopping season, selling over 100 million products from Amazon selling partners, even with little notice. However, the surprise event left sellers not able to plan accordingly with advertising budgets and inventory. This year, advertisers anticipated the fall shopping event, and were able to prepare for this year’s Prime Big Deals Days. Preparation paid off, as early Amazon reports state that over 150 million products were sold this year, outpacing last year’s event.
Last year, summer Prime Day results correlated closely with fall Prime Early Access Sale results - Code3 saw lower CPCs and increased ROAS across accounts during the fall 2022 shopping event. This year, however, Code3 saw increased CPCs during fall compared to both the summer event (+$0.15) and the fall 2022 shopping event. Additionally, conversion rates were lower, an anticipated figure, given that consumers are researching and comparing more this year to ensure they are getting the best deals for their dollars. ROAS dipped due to the elevated CPCs driving up cost for each click and lower conversion rates overall.
Similar categories were top converters across both summer and fall shopping events this year, including Toys & Games, Office Product and Grocery. These categories fall in line with a lower average spend per order reported by market research firm Numerator. Numerator reports roughly 60% of items sold on Prime Big Deals Days sold for less than $20, and just 4% were more than $100.
Keeping in line with similar tentpole shopping events, shoppers are not eyeing just big ticket items. Protein shakes, batteries and hydration packets were among top items purchased, pointing to consumers using the shopping event to stock up on basics. Home & Kitchen and Health & Household categories were also leaders in more competitive CPCs for Code3 clients in both 2023 Prime events.
What Do These Prime Day Results Mean for My Brand?
Whether Prime Big Deals Days was a successful part of your brand’s strategy to start Q4 or not, the traditional holiday season is quickly approaching and some would argue it’s already here. Brands should recognize there are learnings to be had to evolve strategy for anticipated ‘T5’ shopping events and the remainder of the year in whole.
There will likely be more to come as more results from Prime Big Deal Days are reported, but quick, actionable insights include two important facts:
- It’s not just big ticket items selling on deal days.
- DSP remarketing can make the dollar spent during tentpole events go further.
Now is the time to take a closer look at planned holiday deals and ensure the offering is a mix between big ticket and smaller items. Keep in mind the average spend per order during Prime Big Deal Days event was $53.47, and don’t underestimate the power of lower priced items during the holiday season.
DSP can be an effective tool on the day of a tentpole shopping event, but is even more effective during the lead-out period and post-event. Right now, leveraging DSP remarketing for viewers who have not purchased (your products or others) can make the dollar spent during PBDD go further.
Code3 Programmatic Strategists are able to create AMC audiences for specific actions that occurred during a deal timeframe such as those who viewed a product but didn’t purchase or who bought one item but not another. These audiences can then be used on the next big shopping event or during the holiday season to target those shoppers. This important audience is different from normal remarketing audiences because the lookback window trails a number of days. With AMC, strategists are able to stop the lookback window from moving forward, ensuring future audiences targeted are shoppers who did specific things on specific days.
For many marketers, the push to Q4 and the holiday shopping season has officially kicked off. Leveraging any and all learnings to influence holiday shopping strategy is critical, and it should begin with a close look at overall and brand-specific PBDD results. If you could use a strategic partner for the upcoming holiday shopping season, contact us today.