As expected, Amazon is forecasting its biggest Q4 sales ever. The Black Friday/Cyber Monday period, through the end of the year, is traditionally a high sales season. Combine this with the increase in online shopping due to the pandemic, and this makes for one of the highest traffic periods ever on Amazon.

Which leads sellers to ask…

Which types of campaigns should I use to sell more during Black Friday and Cyber Monday?

‘Tis the season for some holiday campaigns! Sponsored Brand campaigns that direct traffic to your storefront are always a great idea, but combining this with customization to your storefront (and subpages) is an excellent way to drive home holiday deals and build credibility.

Create custom holiday lifestyle images for your products to use in Sponsored Brand Ads & decorate your landing page with snowflakes & lights! Don't forget those holiday based headlines.

Another way to entice a potential customer to your listing is a beautiful holiday video ad. You may repurpose your existing video assets currently running in campaigns to give them a holiday feel or simply create one from scratch.

And finally - Sponsored Brand ads targeting virtual bundles! Creating virtual bundles can increase revenue and even create a "gift basket" feeling.

What advertising strategy works best to take advantage of the increased traffic on Amazon during the holidays?

During the holiday season, consider running expansion strategies more frequently. Whether you’re increasing bids, budgets, or simply discovering new profitable search terms to target, the traffic is available to sellers who want to be more aggressive. If your typical schedule for expansion is weekly, try switching to twice per week.

Fine tune your ranking campaigns as well; increase bids or placement modifiers to make sure you are staying competitive for top performing keywords. Many competitors pop up for the holidays, then disappear, so you’ll be facing off against more competition than usual. Increase budgets accordingly.

Remember that it isn’t all about expansion. Now is the time to chop those high ACoS targets! This is a great way to redirect ad spend towards targets statistically proven to be money makers.

While we do not recommend bidding on generic holiday terms such as "holiday gifts for men," we do recommend a combination of gift + your product based terms to help narrow your target audience. A good example of this is "wallet gifts for men."

When should I start my Amazon ads for the holidays?

Right now. Campaign research and creation for the holidays should begin at the beginning of November. This gives you time to properly get together lists of updates for keywords to target, adjustments to make to listings, and also gives your newer campaigns time to age.

Want Expert Advertising Management For a Fruitful Q4 and Beyond?

If you’re concerned that you may not be properly taking advantage of the increased sales opportunities that come with Q4, now is a great time to speak with Entourage Management Services.

A team of Amazon advertising experts is ready to take over the day to day grind of creating and running ads, and can put together a PPC strategy designed to scale your brand. Click here to learn more.

Entourage: Software to Scale Amazon Ads and Results Driven Management.

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