The Ultimate Amazon PPC Strategy for Q4

My team and I spend $13m/year on Amazon Ads.

We noticed some weird things about selling on Amazon in Q4.

And I’m here to share ’em!

I also shared similar insights on the Firing the Man Podcast ep. #150 yesterday, if you’d prefer to watch/listen.

Here’s my Amazon Q4 playbook:

(1) A STRANGE, SLOW START

Things start slower than you’d think. In October & November, it’s almost like consumers are “holding their breath” in anticipation of December spending. It’s never the groundswell I think it’ll be. The first hint of insanity is Black Friday/Cyber Monday in late November.

But, that doesn’t mean sellers can be idle. Oct/Nov is the time to “data harvest”.

Run lots of Automatic Amazon PPC campaigns. We have to find what keywords generate real PROFIT, and which ones don’t. And this has to happen in advance of the December rush.

There’s a saying: “sweat in practice so you don’t bleed in war”.

Quite true.

You’ll want a roster of profitable ad terms IN ADVANCE of December (i.e. Oct & Nov). Sellers that are doing keyword discovery in mid-December are too late.

(2) A COLD DECEMBER

Stranger, still: December itself starts slow! Lots of folks do their holiday shopping at the last minute.

The real rush starts around December 12-15th.

You’ll also want as much inventory in FBA as possible, here. There are probably inventory restrictions in place, so consider pulling slow-movers to increase FBA inventory on best-sellers.

Around December 12, start going hard on holiday related terms in ads.

I dropped this tip the other day. Instead of bidding on really generic holiday ad terms like “holiday gifts”, go a little bit more longtail with it: “holiday gifts for coworkers”, “secret santa presents”, “gifts for mom”, “gifts for lawyers”, etc. Whatever is relevant to your product. This way, you still benefit from holiday traffic without paying a (gingerbread) arm and a leg.

Monitor your Amazon PPC budgets daily from December 15-23rd because they’re likely to exceed the normal ad budgets you’ve previously set. If a campaign goes out of budget but has a profitable ACoS/TACoS, you’ll want to increase the budget. But, please keep notes about what the old budget was. You’ll see why in Part 4 below.

(3) AMAZON BEING SANTA

Amazon, in the spirit of their #1 principle (“Customer Obsession”), delivers packages until the last possible day! It seems to get later every year as delivery speeds up.

Product listings are marked with things like “This product WILL arrive before Christmas” or “It may not arrive before Christmas”.

By December 22-23rd, it becomes impossible for Amazon to guarantee that packages will arrive by Christmas Eve, so orders slow down.

And just like that: our Amazon seller “superbowl” is over.

Now, stop bidding on all holiday-related terms.

(4) POST-HOLIDAY BLUES

Remember the budgets we’d previously increased in Part 2 above?

Cut them now!

i.e. return them to the normal levels that you noted down.

We made this mistake in our 1st year: if you don’t return the ad budgets to normal post-Xmas rush, Amazon will still spend that much from December 25-January 1+. But there’s a huge problem: the conversion rates after December 23rd are absolute trash! After Xmas, people are window shopping, not buying! The credit cards are maxed out, and purchase intent is gone.

So, lower budgets again to avoid nasty, unprofitable spending.

And then, sadly:

For most folks, January will deliver the WORST revenue numbers of the year. But don’t worry. It gets better month-over-month after that.

(Unless you sell supplements or exercise equipment! Those categories see a sales spike every January because of New Years resolutions lol)

And that, my friend, is my prediction.

🔮😉

I know it’s right because I’ve seen it for 5 years now 😉

I hope this helps. If you have any questions as you prepare for Q4, my team is standing by and here to help. You can now book a free call with us where we’ll give you a tailored action plan (no commitment required, of course):