Amazon Prime Day 2022: Tinuiti Client Wins and Expert Takeaways
It’s been more than a month since Amazon Prime Day 2022 came to a close, with 300 million+ items purchased, and over $1.7B saved thanks to stellar Prime Day deals and discounts.
With a potential Prime Day 2 in the works for Q4, many brands and advertisers are closely analyzing the strategies they brought to July’s event. Some are hoping to pre-solve for any issues they ran into during previous Prime Days, while others have a goal of repeating the same success they saw with last month’s savings spectacular.
In this post, we dive into success stories from 3 Tinuiti clients who came into Prime Day with a well-planned and executed strategy, and saw their sales skyrocket.
Magna-Tiles
Magna-Tiles designs modern takes on classic learning and creativity toys for kids that are truly fun for the whole family. Their extensive selection of magnetic building sets are designed with safety and durability in mind, making them a favorite of children, parents, experts, and educators alike.
Increased Pre-Prime Day Non-Branded Exposure
Magna-Tiles already came to Tinuiti with a stellar selection of products; they just needed more folks to know about those products so they could experience them first-hand. In the months leading up to Prime Day, Tinuiti’s teams worked to steadily build non-branded awareness ahead of the event.
Sponsored Display Enters the Mix
As Prime Day drew closer, we accelerated advertising in early June, launching Sponsored Display campaigns targeting folks shopping categories that aligned with being parents of a young child; these categories included children’s bedding, snacks, and educational books. While these shoppers weren’t expressly looking for toys at the time, we were interested in increasing parents’ awareness of the brand in the month leading up to the event.
In July, we slowly increased spend in the days leading up to Prime Day, and prepared for the sales impact of our months-long strategy. Spoiler alert: It worked.
Responsive Adjustments
On Prime Day (day one), Magna-Tiles hit their initial Search budget by early afternoon. We worked with the client to quickly design a revised plan of action for the remainder of the day.
With a primary target audience of parents of young children, we decided to increase the budget, fully ramping things back up in time to hit shoppers nearing the end of their workday, or shopping on the train ride home, keeping ads running for the remainder of the day.
Magna-Tiles Prime Day Results
Thanks to months of planning coupled with same-day responsive adjustments, Magna-Tiles closed Prime Day (day one) at 7.54% ACOS. Despite CPCs climbing throughout the day, our teams secured 81.5% NTB (new-to-brand customers) on Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display campaigns for Search. By day’s end, Magna-Tiles hit their largest POS day in company history.
And their stellar results didn’t go unnoticed by Amazon themselves. Magna-Tiles was among the Prime Day winners featured in Amazon’s Press Release following the event.
Milani
Milani Cosmetics offers prestige-quality, cruelty-free makeup and skincare products in an extensive range of formulas and shades to complement a variety of skin types and tones, and personal styles. A budget-friendly brand, Milani products are widely available in stores and online—including, of course, on Amazon!
Early Planning Helped Break Records
Knowing that supply chain concerns are an ongoing, evolving issue, we worked with Milani to prioritize inventory management in the first half of the year; this ensured that come July’s Prime Day event, Milani’s shelves were fully-stocked in preparation for the increased demand.
Our Commerce Operations team also worked closely with Milani’s Social Media Team, and Tinuiti’s Paid Media Team, to drive strong external traffic to Milani’s Amazon Store. This collaboration led to a 60% increase in visitors, many of whom came prepared to shop.
Milani Prime Day Results
On Prime Day (day one), Milani reached their average total daily sales by noon, achieving what would become their all-time highest sales day by end-of-day. On Prime Day (day two), the momentum only continued, breaking their record for highest sales day yet again.
“From the start of our engagement with Milani, we focused on gaining operational efficiency and reducing complexities for their internal warehouse team. We created new forward looking forecasts and had meetings multiple times a week to review replenishment orders. It was our goal to ramp up inventory at Amazon FCs while maintaining stock at the warehouse for other channels. Spending our Friday afternoons pouring over lines in Excel was completely worth it knowing promotional success wouldn’t put us out of stock. Seeing the sales soar was the cherry on top!”
— Megan King, Sr. Account Manager, Commerce Operations at Tinuiti
On Campus Marketing (OCM)
On Campus Marketing (OCM) offers a wide selection of affordable, on-trend bedding, towels, decor, storage solutions and more. Among their key audiences are college students and parents of college-aged students shopping for dorm room essentials, and young adults venturing out into their first apartment.
Given that back-to-school shopping season is already in full swing for many, Prime Day was perfectly timed for OCM to reach their target market with some stellar deals—catalog-wide promotions of 15-20% off all ASINs. And reach them they did!
Preparation from All Angles
Prime Day itself may happen within a 48-hour window on Amazon’s website, but the work that goes into preparing for that day begins many months before, reaching both within and far outside the walls of Amazon.com.
Firming the Foundation
To kick off their months-long Prime Day strategy, OCM optimized their product page content to ensure they were providing shoppers with all the necessary information to confidently make a purchase; this included adding refreshed images and keyword-optimized copy. Product level optimization is a time-intensive process when working with a robust catalog, but its benefits extend far beyond Prime Day.
During this optimization phase, Tinuiti worked with OCM to revamp their campaign structure, maximizing keyword harvesting opportunities in Mobius to extend their campaign reach.
Stocking the Shelves
Supply chain issues are unfortunately not going away anytime soon, but OCM was intent on not letting them cool their Prime Day fire in 2022. After running into inventory issues during a previous Prime Day, ensuring that they were fully-stocked for a burst of sales was a top priority.
Planting Seeds
With their product content fully optimized, and shelves fully stocked, OCM was ready for the next phase of Prime Day Prep—increasing brand awareness to drive new-to-brand purchases. These seeds were planted through Sponsored Brand ads and Sponsored Brand Video ads.
OCM also went beyond digital marketing, sending direct mail advertisements to their loyal customer base to drive additional traffic to Amazon leading up to Prime Day.
Running Defense
Once the preparation was complete and Prime Day was in full-swing, Tinuiti ran defense on all the hard work that led up to it. This included investing in defensive product targeting Sponsored Product and Sponsored Display ads, defending OCM’s product pages from competitor placements, while taking advantage of cross-sell and upsell opportunities.
OCM Prime Day Results
Defense was successful, and those planted seeds sprouted, with On Campus Marketing’s new-to-brand sales on Prime Day increasing 27% YoY. They also saw 100% YoY growth in ad sales, and a 116% increase in total Prime Day sales YoY. It’s safe to say lots of this year’s incoming students will be bringing some very stylish essentials along on move-in day!
“OCM saw incredible success on Prime Day, and performance exceeded our expectations. The success we saw was the result of a combination of factors including: an improved operational foundation with enhanced product page content and inventory planning, engaging creative for Sponsored Brands, robust keyword targeting, and a strong defensive advertising strategy. These were opportunities we found from the year prior, and incorporated into our Prime Day strategy this year to maximize conversion rate during this high traffic event.”
— Chloe Villanueva, Associate, Marketplaces at Tinuiti
“OCM had a stellar back-to-college season on Amazon, supported by a broadened assortment, optimized copy, imagery and A+ content, and a well-structured intricately-managed campaign portfolio at Tinuiti. Tinuiti’s nimbleness and attention to detail helped us elevate our year-over-year results.”
— Michael Kimmons, Chief Transformation Officer at On Campus Marketing
Additional Prime Day Insights from Tinuiti’s Amazon Experts
We asked a few of our in-house Amazon experts to share their thoughts on this year’s Prime Day, including general observations leading up to and throughout the event. Here’s what they had to say…
“Prime Day now officially running for two days has been an interesting addition to the Mega Event—and also slightly odd, considering we still call it Prime Day. Although seemingly odd, my sales data has provided some validity. Sales for one of my clients was nearly the exact same on both days of Prime Day. Another participating client saw just 15% fewer sales on Day 2 in comparison to Day 1.
This shows me that adding an extra day to the event really makes a difference, and is utilized well by Amazon users. I believe two days is so effective from the perspective of a consumer because it allows them more time to think and make decisions without rushing in a 24-hour period. For sellers, it’s obviously very helpful for them to stay highly visible for double the amount of time. The success of the extra day makes me wonder when they will add a Day 3! I foresee Amazon.com initiating this in the very near future.”
— Gabe Thornton, Strategist, Marketplace Search at Tinuiti
“The presence of a Prime Day Deal badge is more important than the presence of a % off, or larger discount, on a product without a badge. The badge itself is not only eye-catching, but gives access to a line/carousel within the SERP that is above the fold, and in some instances ahead of the second line of organic results. This new line in the SERP is not present on normal days. One may have a discount running on their product of -30%, and similar products could have the -20% discount + a Prime Day Deal Badge. The product with the badge has access to the carousel/line reserved exclusively for products with badges.”
— Nick Sandberg, Strategist, Marketplace Search at Tinuiti
“Tiktok ads for Prime Day really picked up this year as the platform has been a huge opportunity for brands to gain popularity through influencers and their shop links. The ads on TikTok this year focused on influencers branding specific categories and items rather than advertising the tentpole event as a whole.”
— Lauren Wood, Team Strategist, Marketplaces at Tinuiti
“A few clients were skeptical going into Prime Day because of all the additional factors this year. From heavy inflation, to other marketplace deals, to a 2nd Prime Day in the Fall, there was some concern over how much traffic and increased sales would come on the day. But many were pleasantly surprised that these external factors seemed to not have had much impact, and Amazon again had its biggest Prime Day showing.”
— Scott Semel, Associate, Marketplace Search at Tinuiti
“Whether due to concerns with inflation, outside competition, or slowing Prime subscriptions, Amazon seems to have at least altered (if not diminished) its advertising focus on Prime Day. One of the most notable missing pieces from this year’s Prime Day was the exclusion of a Prime Day concert, which has previously hosted big name artists such as Taylor Swift & Billie Eilish.”
— Justin McCurdy, Team Strategist, Marketplaces at Tinuiti
“One of my clients who did not participate in Prime Day last year still saw highly elevated CPCs, a huge jump in spend, and a 230% lift in ACoS during the event. This year, with their deals running, they spent 63% less and saw a 30% lift in revenue from last year. Although they saw the same traffic during 2021 Prime Day, not having deals running had a very negative impact on their overall efficiency.”
— Jenny Simpson, Associate, Marketplace Search at Tinuiti
“It’s more beneficial to have your deals run on the first day of the event. When your deals run the first day, you capture immediate attention and benefit from the conversion boost on the second day. Additionally, you can leverage your data from Day 1 to inform strategy for Day 2. If your deal only runs on the second day, you may be deterred by less stellar performance on Day 1, and assume a more cautious approach to bidding on Day 2, thus missing opportunities.”
— Nick Sandberg, Strategist, Marketplace Search at Tinuiti
“I saw more tech articles this year advertising ‘Anti-Prime Day Deals’ at Walmart, Best Buy, and other Amazon alternatives than I feel I did last year. While Prime Day was the ‘biggest ever’, anti-Amazon sentiment is still present and loud. Earlier this year, Amazon rolled out a test of their Small Business Badges/tags. I really think they can benefit smaller clients on the marketplace whose consumers may have some hesitancy in shopping on the ‘massive, faceless marketplace.’ I think it will do well, and then also be more prominent in 2023 or later this year.”
— Ryan Yamamoto, Team Strategist, Marketplaces at Tinuiti
Want to work together to help your next Prime Day sales exceed your goals? Reach out today to chat with an expert!
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