• by Julie Spear , Op-Ed Contributor, October 16, 2025

Prime Days 2025 were markedly different from 2024. For July, the event doubled in length, expanding from two days to four, and Adobe Analytics reported only a 4.9% YoY sales lift when including the two days that followed the actual event in 2024. The more telling outcome, however, was not the sales number itself, but the shift in customer behavior and the signal it sent to advertisers.

The longer event created new complexities that highlighted the limits of the traditional “one-dimensional” approach, where brands concentrate spending during the event window with coupons and sponsored ads. Many who followed that formula hit diminishing returns as customer engagement spread unevenly across the extended period.

Following last week’s two days of Amazon Prime Day Deals, the lesson for marketers is simple: The one-dimensional approach needs to go 3D. A 3D approach capitalizes on emerging realities and technologies. 

Make pre-event a priority. Brands that invested steadily in awareness advertising, particularly online video leading up to the July event, saw substantially higher Prime Day results without spending more on Amazon itself. They built velocity leading into the event, starting 60 days out with online video and streaming TV; then they retargeted those customers during Prime Day and demonstrated a direct return on investment. 

Flight, don't fight. Sales event traffic isn’t linear. Day one still captured the most single-day action, but days two to four eclipsed it in total volume. Traffic is highest at different times of day, and this varies by category. The essential new approach is to follow, not fight, consumer gravity by setting spending according to known patterns and being prepared to adjust it as needed. Smart brands held their budgets for peak hours to dominate search during those times.

Take a full-funnel approach. Once a reporting toolkit, Amazon Marketing Cloud has become a complete targeting and measurement system. By allowing marketers to create and target custom audiences with sponsored product ads, AMC makes it possible to quantify how pre-, during, and post-event advertising generates sales activity. This new capability, introduced on the eve of Prime Day, provides more impetus and accountability for starting early with awareness efforts that prime the system to support a full brand catalog.  

Marketers need to think of Prime Day like the Super Bowl. Plan on marketing to and through the event. When the actual event sales register over four days, the opportunity really unfolds over more of a season.