Prime Day PPC Strategy: How to Plan Bids and Budgets Before, During, and After

A strong Prime Day PPC strategy has three phases. In the two to four weeks before, build awareness and collect data while CPCs are still normal. During the event, raise budgets substantially and bid more aggressively on proven keywords, especially if you are running a deal. Afterward, keep retargeting and branded campaigns running to capture shoppers who browsed but did not buy. The biggest mistake is letting profitable campaigns run out of budget on event days.

How Prime Day changes the auction

Prime Day is Amazon's member sales event, typically held in July and in recent years running for several days. Amazon announces exact dates each year, so check its announcements before you plan. During the event, traffic rises sharply, many advertisers raise bids and budgets at once, and CPCs typically go up. Conversion rates often rise too, especially for products with deals, because shoppers arrive ready to buy. Whether your ACoS rises or falls depends on which of those two forces is stronger for your product.

Shoppers also browse heavily in the days before the event, adding items to carts and wish lists. Some of that activity shows up as lower conversion rates in the lead-in period, followed by a spike once deals go live.

Phase 1: Two to four weeks before

• Confirm inventory. Running out during the event wastes the spike and stops your ads. Plan FBA shipments early, since inbound timelines can stretch before big events.
• Decide on deals. Prime Exclusive Discounts, coupons, and other deal types can add badges that lift CTR and conversion. Check Seller Central for current deal types, eligibility, and submission deadlines.
• Clean up waste now. Negate non-converting search terms and fix over-target keywords so event budget goes to proven terms. See cut wasted ad spend on Amazon.
• Launch or refresh Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display campaigns early so creative clears moderation.
• Build retargeting audiences with Sponsored Display so you can reach shoppers who viewed your products in the lead-in.
• Record baseline numbers: daily spend, CPC, conversion rate, and ACoS for your top campaigns, so you can compare during the event.

Phase 2: The event days

Budgets

Raise budgets well before the first event day starts, ideally using schedule-based budget rules set for the event dates. How much depends on your past event data. If you have none, a common starting point is to raise budgets on your profitable campaigns by 2 to 3 times normal levels and monitor several times a day. Amazon also shows budget recommendations around major events, which can help you see which campaigns are likely to run out.

Bids

Recalculate your max bids with event conversion rates in mind. The formula is the same as always: max bid = average order value x conversion rate x target ACoS. If you are running a deal, the order value falls and so does your margin, which lowers your break-even ACoS. Use the break-even ACoS calculator at your deal price.

Consider moving your best exact-match campaigns to Dynamic bids - up and down for the event window, and raising top-of-search placement adjustments on keywords that convert well there. Put a reminder in your calendar to switch them back. Amazon bidding strategies explained covers the mechanics.

Monitoring

• Check campaigns for 'Out of budget' status several times a day.
• Watch live signals like impressions, clicks, CTR, and CPC. Sales attribution lags, so same-day ACoS is unreliable.
• Watch inventory. If a product is close to selling out, lower its bids to slow sales rather than going out of stock mid-event.
• Avoid big structural changes during the event. Stick to budgets and bids.

Worked example: planning event budgets

A seller's top campaigns normally spend $200 a day combined at a 28% ACoS on $714 in daily ad sales. The plan for a four-day event:

During the event, the seller checks results each evening. If a campaign shows strong CTR and orders and is running out of budget, its budget goes up. If CPCs have jumped but orders have not followed, bids come down on those keywords for the next day.

Phase 3: After the event

Do not turn everything off the moment the event ends. Shoppers who browsed and did not buy are still in the market, and some were waiting to compare. Keep Sponsored Display retargeting and branded campaigns running for one to two weeks. Bring budgets and bids back to normal over a few days rather than all at once, and switch any campaigns you moved to up and down bidding back to down only.

Then review. Compare the event period with your baseline on ad sales, total sales, ACoS, TACoS, and new-to-brand metrics if you ran Sponsored Brands or Display. Note which campaigns ran out of budget and when, so next year's plan is based on your own data. The TACoS calculator is a quick way to see whether the event lifted total sales, not just ad sales.

Should small sellers bother with Prime Day ads?

Usually, yes, but with a focused plan. If you are not running a deal, competing on broad, high-volume keywords during the event can be expensive. Concentrate budget on branded terms, long-tail keywords, and retargeting, where your conversion rate is highest. If you are running a deal, the badge can make even generic keywords more profitable during the event. Either way, protect your brand searches. See defend your brand on Amazon ads.

Prime Day mistakes to avoid

• Raising bids without raising budgets, so campaigns run out early on the first morning.
• Running a deal without recalculating break-even ACoS at the discounted price.
• Judging event performance from same-day ACoS before attribution has caught up.
• Forgetting to reverse event bid strategies and budgets afterward.
• Running out of stock on the second day of the event.

Prime Day uses many of the same principles as the holiday season. For the Q4 version of this playbook, see our Amazon PPC Q4 holiday strategy.

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