Prime Day is on the horizon, and it’s time for brands to start preparing. Amazon recently announced key Prime Day dates and provided early planning documents for brands. The major shopping event is likely to happen in July, so now is the time to align on priority ASINs and promotions, and along with this, auditing the PDPs of those primary ASINs is critical.
A brand’s search and DSP advertising will drive incremental traffic to priority products leading up to, during, and following the event, so it’s important that the PDPs entice consumers to make a purchase. This includes informative titles and bullet points, compelling imagery and A+ pages, an optimized Brand Store, and a technically sound backend. Updating your priority products' PDPs early and ahead of Prime Day, in May or June, can also help the listing achieve a higher ranking on the product results page.
At minimum, brands should be auditing and updating the PDP of their Prime Day priority products in May and June. If time allows, review your entire catalog and make adjustments overall.
Keep reading to learn more about how to audit and prepare your Amazon PDPs ahead of Prime Day.
Amazon Content and Creative Updates
To begin, review the title, bullet points, and description content, as well as imagery, to ensure you’re meeting Amazon’s guidelines and best practices. Key best practices to keep in mind:
- Keep content within Amazon character limits for titles, bullet points, and descriptions
- Main image is on a plain white background
- Have a total of 6-7 images and video
- Utilize lifestyle imagery
Brands should audit their keyword usage to ensure that top-searched terms are within the content, especially in the title and bullet points. This can help with rankings on the product results page, and also ensure that the correct audience is landing on your PDP. Use a variety of keywords with higher and lower search volume amounts for wide coverage.
When reviewing the content on a PDP, also ensure there is adequate keyword usage and that the information is complete. The title and bullet points should be accurate, detailed, and informative, leaving consumers with no lingering questions about the product, its features, benefits, and what they’ll receive.
Preview imagery to ensure that the gallery is complete, with 6 images and a video. Product images should complement the PDP content with as much detail and similar phrasing as possible. It’s also important to utilize lifestyle imagery and text callouts to highlight the product, catalog, and brand.
Additionally, an A+ page should be completed and updated, if necessary. Important best practices to keep in mind include:
- Utilize all 5 available modules
- Incorporate a variety of modules, using large images, live text, and a comparison chart
- The comparison chart can cross-sell your catalog
With Prime Day falling within the summertime and just before back-to-school shopping starts, a seasonal update to image and language may further entice shoppers.
Furthermore, a Brand Store allows consumers to easily and visually browse your entire catalog. It can also connect with advertising plans as landing pages. For best results, Amazon suggests for the store to have 3-4 pages.
Amazon Catalog Updates
Amazon organizes its search functions around both product details and the information found in the backend, so product data completeness is critical for not only Prime Day, but for general catalog maintenance. Amazon can often make updates to the backend product attributes without notification, so scanning the attributes and data in May or June is an essential task.
To remain successful, brands should ensure all product attributes, even those not required, are filled out properly. This means they have content that fits under the maximum threshold of characters and follow Amazon-provided options when possible.
Taking a strategic look at product variations is another important task. Priority products can be variated with other product options, so shoppers can discover and compare options as they may experience shopping in a brick-and-mortar store. A well-variated PDP can improve the shopper experience and SERP discoverability.
Third-party sellers can also be an issue during Prime Day. To combat and stay ahead of this issue, take a look at how the products in your catalog, especially Prime Day priorities, and top-sellers, appear in the SERP. Monitor closely for any duplicate third-party sellers on branded and high-traffic searches of your brand’s products, and any third-party hijackers that show up on your variations as different pack sizes, colors, etc., or as product duplicates. This is a task that is best completed weekly ahead of Prime Day, or even daily in the immediate timeframe leading up to the shopping event.
Once you identify third-party sellers, it’s critical to merge any of those ASINs with your own to keep your offers as competitive as possible, and to remove any hijackers from your listings. Third-party sellers and hijackers can confuse customers, create a negative customer experience attached to your brand, and take sales away.
Being prepared for Prime Day is a big undertaking, but the work can strongly impact sales for the better. With your incremental budget pushing shoppers to Prime Day PDPs, and the influx of shoppers on the site in general, it’s critical that your PDPs are retail ready. If you could use a strategic partner in preparing for Prime Day and beyond, contact us today.
