Ad Intel: 5 Amazon shopping event advertising tips from Nectar
Jason Landro on extending event campaigns beyond the event days, and weighing contribution margin and lifetime value against ROAS.
Amazon Ads featured Jason Landro, Co-CEO and Co-founder of Nectar, in its expert advice library with five tips for advertising around Amazon’s biggest shopping events. The advice applies to Prime Day, Prime Big Deal Days and the Q4 holiday events, including Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
The thread running through all five: plan before the event, measure on profit rather than ROAS alone, and keep working the audience once the event is over.
Key takeaways
- Start before the event with a lead-in strategy built on baseline data.
- Define success by contribution margin and new-to-brand acquisition cost, not ROAS alone.
- Use the real-time feedback loop during the event to adjust bids and targeting.
- Remarket to shoppers who viewed or carted without buying, then review the whole event.
1. Build a lead-in strategy
Before the event starts, collect baseline data on sales, cost per click and sales velocity to find the products with the most potential. Use Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display and Amazon DSP for early visibility, raise Sponsored Products investment on relevant keywords, and A/B test creative and keywords while there is still time to act on the results.
2. Define success beyond ROAS
Set goals around business health: profitability and new-to-brand customer acquisition cost, tracked alongside sales velocity, CPC and conversion rate by product. One CPG brand made exactly this switch.
| Measure | Result |
|---|---|
| Goal | Moved from a 4x ROAS target to contribution margin per unit and new-to-brand acquisition cost |
| ROAS | Dipped to 3.8x |
| Net profit | 15% higher net profit contribution than the prior year |
3. Act on real-time insights
Shopping events give Amazon advertisers a fast feedback loop. Watch KPIs as the event runs, find underperforming keywords, spot shifts in audience behaviour, and adjust bids and targeting based on sales velocity, CPC and conversion rate.
4. Remarket after the event
Use Sponsored Display, Amazon DSP and audience bid adjustments to reach shoppers who viewed products or abandoned their carts. Build custom Amazon Marketing Cloud audiences for non-purchasers and use dynamic remarketing to show them the exact products they engaged with.
5. Run an after-action review
Review sales, traffic, conversion rate, CPC and ROAS across the whole event to see which tactics worked and what to change before the next one.
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