Amazon Prime Day 2024: Master Ad Types for a Full-Funnel Portfolio

In the first post of this Amazon Prime Day 2024 series, we explored that today, with Amazon’s diverse ad formats, you no longer need to rely solely on other channels to drive traffic and conversions. While you should most assuredly continue leveraging external channels to drive internet users to your product detail pages, mastering the ad formats available on Amazon allows you to engage in a full-funnel strategy to build brand awareness, foster consideration, and ultimately convert customers.

In today’s post, we will explore the various Amazon ad types and how they can be strategically used at each stage of the funnel to ensure the success of your Prime Day campaigns on July 16th and 17th. 

The Prime Day funnel 101

At the top of the funnel, the goal is to get your brand noticed by potential Amazon customers who may not be familiar with it. This stage focuses on broad-reaching ads that build brand awareness and capture the interest of a wide audience. Sponsored Display ads, Video Ads, and Audio Ads are particularly effective here. 

Sponsored Display ads reach customers on and off Amazon, appearing on product detail pages, amidst customer reviews, and within shopping results, as well as on third-party websites and apps. Video Ads and Audio Ads capture attention across multiple solutions, including Amazon Music, Alexa News, and Amazon-owned websites. These ad types help introduce your brand to new audiences, making them aware of your products and starting them on the path to purchase.

In the mid-funnel stage, the objective is to engage and educate customers who are already aware of your brand and considering purchasing. This stage involves providing more detailed information about your products and brand to help potential buyers make informed decisions. 

Sponsored Brands ads, Amazon Posts, and Amazon Live are ideal for this purpose. Sponsored Brands ads showcase a selection of products along with a brand logo and headline, driving sales across your entire product catalog. Amazon Posts function similarly to social media posts, offering compelling imagery and copy to tell your brand story. Amazon Live sessions allow you to engage with audiences in real time, demonstrating products and answering questions to build trust and interest. 

At the bottom of the funnel, the focus is on driving sales by reaching customers ready to purchase. This stage is all about conversion, and highly relevant ads are key. Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Amazon DSP Display Ads are particularly effective here. Sponsored Products ads capture purchase-ready customers by appearing at the top of search results and on product pages. Sponsored Brands ads continue to drive interest with a focus on specific products. 

At the same time, Amazon DSP Display Ads use advanced strategies to reach customers who have shown interest but haven’t yet converted. Remarketing strategies can also be employed to re-engage these potential buyers, offering them a final nudge towards making a purchase. By focusing on these bottom-funnel tactics, you can ensure that interested consumers are successfully converted into loyal customers.

Sponsored Ads

Sponsored Ads are Amazon’s most classic form of advertising. They appear in organic search results, product pages, reviews, and even on external websites, and they often serve as the cornerstone of a successful Amazon ad strategy.

Sponsored Products

These ads are the most fundamental type of Amazon ad and are great for discovering audiences as they browse categories. Sponsored Product Ads appear at the top of organic Amazon search results and blend seamlessly with other listings because they’re identifiable only by a small tag that labels the ad “sponsored.” When consumers click on Sponsored Product ads, they’re taken to a specific product page. The ads are sold on a standard cost-per-click (CPC) model, meaning that the advertiser only pays when users engage with the ad. Advertisers bid on relevant keywords to buy a Sponsored Product ad, with the highest bidder winning the ad placement.

How to Lean into Sponsored Products for Full-Funnel Prime Day

• Ensure your campaigns do not run out of budget by planning budget allocations throughout the day.
• Review historical Amazon Marketing Stream hourly metrics to understand previous Prime Day trends and plan budget allotments accordingly.
• Monitor your campaign performance in real-time and adjust bids and budgets to maximize visibility during peak shopping hours.
• Utilize negative keywords to avoid wasting budget on irrelevant searches.
• Optimize product listings to improve ad relevance and increase the likelihood of conversion.

Sponsored Brands

Sponsored Brands ads appear at the top of search results and operate on a keyword bidding and CPC model. Unlike Sponsored Products, which feature details and imagery of a single relevant product, Sponsored Brands include a brand logo, headline, and selection of products. Sponsored Brands are great for reaching audiences in the discovery and research phases of the purchase funnel since they can help drive sales across an entire product catalog.

How to Lean into Sponsored Brands for Full-Funnel Prime Day

• Maximize this ad type by implementing lifestyle or other custom imagery that shows your brand’s personality and helps your ad stand out at the top of search results.
• Create compelling headlines that grab attention and clearly communicate your value proposition.
• Use A/B testing to determine the most effective combinations of images, headlines, and product selections.
• Take advantage of Amazon Ads’ options to reach the most relevant audience segments.
• Track performance metrics and continuously optimize your campaigns to improve ROI.

Sponsored Display

Sponsored Display ads reach customers across both Amazon and external websites. On Amazon, Sponsored Display ads appear on product detail pages, amidst customer reviews, within shopping results, or beneath featured offers. Outside Amazon, they appear on third-party websites and apps. Advertisers can use Amazon’s tools and proprietary signals to curate highly targeted audiences based on a range of characteristics.

How to Lean into Sponsored Display for Full-Funnel Prime Day

• If you’re not running Amazon DSP but want to extend your reach and have more custom creative options, start small by testing out Sponsored Display capabilities.
• Use Sponsored Display as an ad type to help drive brand awareness before the event starts.
• If the budget allows, shift your strategy to onsite placements during the event or reduce coverage to fund your important Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands ads properly.
• Experiment with different creative formats and messages to see what resonates best with your audience.
• Utilize Amazon’s audience insights to refine your reach and improve ad relevance.
• Monitor performance closely and make signal-driven adjustments to enhance campaign effectiveness.

Ad Formats

Amazon offers various ad formats to reach targeted audiences across different channels and devices, ensuring your message reaches potential customers wherever they are.

Sponsored TV and Prime Video ads

There are several types of branded video options available to advertisers. Streaming TV video ads are non-skippable video ads that appear before, during, or after TV shows, movies, and live entertainment on mobile, desktop, or connected TV. Online video ads appear on Amazon-owned and third-party publisher websites across multiple devices, including desktop, mobile, and tablet. Sponsored Brands video, like other Sponsored Brands ads, appear in search results and on product pages. Sponsored Display video can help brands connect with audiences on the Amazon homepage and detail pages while reaching audiences on Amazon-owned websites, third-party websites, and IMDb.

How to Lean into Sponsored TV and Prime Video Ads for Full-Funnel Prime Day

• In the weeks leading up to Prime Day, leverage offsite ad formats to drive brand awareness and bring your products into more consideration stages as a way to pique interest in your promoted items.
• Use eye-catching and engaging content to capture attention and effectively convey your brand’s message.
• Test different video lengths and formats to see what performs best.
• Use clear and compelling calls to action to encourage viewers to take the next step, whether visiting your product page or making a purchase.
• Monitor video performance metrics like view rates and conversions to refine your strategy and improve ROI.

Audio Ads

Audio ads help brands reach audiences wherever they’re listening to their favorite music or podcasts, whether through the Amazon Music ad-supported tier, Alexa News, Twitch, or Amazon Publisher Direct.

How to Lean into Audio Ads for Full-Funnel Prime Day

• Utilize audio ads to capture the attention of users who may be engaged in other activities but can be influenced by audio cues about your Prime Day deals.
• Create high-quality, engaging audio content that resonates with your target audience.
• Use clear and concise messaging highlighting your Prime Day offers and encouraging listeners to visit your Amazon store or product pages.
• Take advantage of Amazon’s reach capabilities to reach the most relevant audience segments.
• Track the performance of your audio ads and adjust your content and reach based on listener engagement and conversion rates.

Display Ads

The Amazon DSP is a complex technology that offers a simple solution for finding audiences across devices based on their interests. Display ads purchased through Amazon DSP can appear on devices like Fire TV, the Amazon website, or Amazon-owned properties like Twitch. Amazon offers tools to help brands create targeted content on the fly to capture highly segmented audiences wherever they’re watching, shopping, or browsing.

How to Lean into Display Ads for Full-Funnel Prime Day

• Use display ads to drive awareness and create brand reach early on. On Prime Day, leverage remarketing built up by your lead-in strategy, using onsite placements with custom creative.
• After Prime Day, maximize remarketing and use newly gained success to rebuild fresh audiences and target customers who may have missed out on event days but are still interested in purchasing. 
• Create visually appealing and compelling display ads that grab attention and convey your message quickly.
• Test different creative variations to determine what resonates best with your audience.
• Use Amazon’s audience insights and reach capabilities to ensure your ads reach the right people at the right time.
• Continuously monitor and optimize your display ad campaigns to improve performance and ROI.

Building an effective Prime Day strategy is about finding the right mix of top, mid, and bottom-of-the-funnel ads to ensure your best deals are highly discoverable when the big day arrives. Each category offers you direct access to customers, but together, they build a brand experience that educates, engages, and converts. By leveraging the full spectrum of Amazon’s ad formats, you can create a comprehensive and effective advertising strategy that maximizes your impact on Prime Day and beyond.

Brand Shopping Experiences

Within the Amazon Ad solution, there are several effective and free ways to grow your brand and educate audiences, akin to what advertisers expect from websites and social media. While these aren’t technically ads, these tools help build a stronger brand presence for consumers at every journey stage and should be part of a full-funnel Amazon Prime strategy in combination with ads.

Stores

The Amazon Store tool is free to build a beautiful, immersive webstore. Like a branded website, stores are landing pages dedicated to showcasing products and telling your brand’s story in one convenient location within the Amazon channels.

How to Lean into Brand Stores for Full-Funnel Prime Day

• If you have high-priority items for Prime Day or are running any sort of promotion, create a separate page in your brand store to showcase your featured ASINs.
• Then, use this as your landing page for Sponsored Brands campaigns. Ensure your store is visually appealing and easy to navigate, with clear calls to action and comprehensive product information.
• Use high-quality images and videos to highlight your products’ features and benefits.
• Regularly update your store content to keep it fresh and relevant for visitors.

Posts

Similar in appearance to Instagram posts, Amazon Posts are a visually appealing way to offer compelling imagery and copy that helps tell your brand and product story. Posts appear in searches and on details pages. Additionally, within Amazon stores, posts appear in the sections marked Brand Feed, Related Feeds, Category Feeds, and Style Feed.

How to Lean into Posts for Full-Funnel Prime Day

• Use Amazon Posts exactly as you would social media posts to showcase and educate audiences about your best products.
• Create engaging and informative content that highlights the unique aspects of your products.
• Use a mix of lifestyle images and product shots to capture attention and tell your brand story.
• Post regularly to maintain visibility and keep your audience engaged.
• Analyze the performance of your posts and adjust your content strategy based on what resonates most with your audience.

Amazon Live

Amazon Live is the company’s attempt to rival QVC with a shopping-focused channel accessible through Prime Video, Freevee, and the Amazon website. Amazon Live offers round-the-clock programming featuring popular creators and celebrities demonstrating the hottest products on Amazon. Viewers can seamlessly browse and purchase items showcased by influencers through the Amazon Shopping app on their mobile devices or on desktop.

How to Lean into Amazon Live for Full-Funnel Prime Day

• Engage with influencers and use Amazon Live to create engaging, real-time content that can drive immediate interest and sales.
• Plan your live sessions strategically, focusing on peak shopping times and featuring your best Prime Day deals.
• Use live sessions to answer questions, provide product demonstrations, and highlight special promotions.
• Promote your Amazon Live sessions through your other marketing channels to drive traffic and increase viewership.
• Track the performance of your live sessions and use the insights to improve future broadcasts.

Amazon Prime Day 2024: Full-Funnel Ad Portfolio

Using Amazon’s ad types effectively means building brand awareness, fostering consideration, and driving conversions within the Amazon Ads solution. This balanced approach captures interest from a wide audience, keeps your brand top-of-mind, and converts interested consumers into loyal customers.

By mastering Amazon’s ad formats and understanding how each can be strategically employed, you can create a comprehensive advertising strategy that maximizes your impact on Prime Day and sets the foundation for continued success throughout the year.

Master the ad formats with Skai for Prime Day and beyond

Skai’s Retail Media solution empowers marketers to plan, execute, and measure digital campaigns that meet consumers when and where they shop. As part of our omnichannel platform, we connect the walled gardens and manage campaigns on 100+ retailers, including Amazon, Walmart, Target, and Instacart, alongside major publishers across paid search, paid social, and apps.

For more information, schedule a brief demo to see how our Amazon Ads support can help boost your full-funnel Prime Day strategy.