• by Drew Kraemer , June 11, 2021

Amazon’s annual Prime Day Event will take place June 21 - 22. For a long time, preparing for Prime Day was limited to what brands and advertisers should do on Amazon alone. While ramping up and polishing efforts on Amazon is crucial ahead of this peak time period, there’s more to it than that.

Brands need to be everywhere, all the time. This mindset should also be applied to Prime Day and inform why a comprehensive strategy must involve efforts across the major social platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and more. Here, we break down misconceptions about Prime Day and offer strategic considerations to make the most of this year’s event.

Misconception vs. Reality

Cleaning up your catalog and advertising on Amazon is necessary to succeed during Prime Day. However, it's not everything, and it’s certainly not enough.

Due to the evolution of how people shop in 2021, a brand’s efforts on channels outside of Amazon can directly influence its performance on Amazon. For example, a TikTok campaign about chlorophyll and its health benefits recently went viral. Subsequently, this campaign landed “chlorophyll” as the number two search term on Amazon. If a social media campaign can skew the volume of search terms on the largest online retailer, why not lean into that power?

The Prime Day Effect 

In recent years, additional marketplaces have launched their own major shopping events. While most are simply an attempt to replicate Prime Day and its results, many have become successful in their own right. One of the most commonly known is Way Day for online furniture company Wayfair.

How Social Comes Into Play

Whether it’s via organic or paid social, creating buzz makes a difference, especially when offering a sneak peek into the deals shoppers will find for your products during Prime Day.

Here’s how brands can leverage a variety of channels for Prime Day:

Creative is critical. Assets must be eye-catching and showcase a deal or promotion to generate and increase awareness.

To make the most of your advertising efforts, use a traffic objective for broad audiences. This helps drive the most shoppers to your product detail pages. Ad types we've found to be effective across platforms include video ads, carousel ads, promoted pins, in-stream video, and offer ads. That said, we recommend leaning into what has worked best for your brand in the past to drive performance during this important time.

You must generate awareness well in advance of Prime Day. In general, best results come from social campaigns beginning at least a week beforehand. 

Regardless of the social platforms you leverage, using relevant keywords and hashtags is crucial.

Once your brand has its plans in place, take some time to set up A/B tests. Historically, we’ve created a variety of creative and targeting tests to garner meaningful learnings from the day of the event. The amount of traffic with high purchase intent Amazon receives during Prime Day is a gold mine of knowledge that can be leveraged in the future on all platforms.