Amazon’s Turkey 12: Things to Look Out for During These Tentpole Days
Are you ready for Amazon’s Turkey 12 (T12)? This twelve-day sales event that includes Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Thanksgiving weekend, and Cyber Monday is barreling toward us quicker than we even realize, and, according to EMARKETER, this holiday season is going to be the biggest yet:
Holiday e-commerce sales (November ‘24–December ‘24) are projected to increase +9.5% from last year, reaching a whopping $267B.
Per usual, Amazon is anticipated to be a massive player, projected to hit $112B from November–December, while other big players like Walmart.com and Target.com will only earn $22B and $6B, respectively.
And competition on Amazon continues to grow, with total ad revenue on the platform increasing from $34B in 2023 to $42B in 2024 (+24.7% YoY).
With Amazon’s holiday season anticipated to be its strongest yet, and more brands coming into the fold and continuing to spend more, it’s not enough to set your deals and advertising strategy and then say “Amazon’s influx of traffic will do the rest of the work for me”. Your competitors will take the extra time to figure out and enact additional nuances during T12 that set themselves apart from the rest, and if you don’t do the same work, your brand will get lost in a sea of other products.
So you’re probably asking yourself, “What are some things I can do mid-event to ensure my brand experiences the highest success possible?” Check out some key tips from our GO team members below.
Tip 1: Check Your Product Detail Pages (PDP)
On event days, particularly during Black Friday & Cyber Monday, it’s critical to regularly review the detail pages of your ASINs on deal to maximize your sales potential. Sam Cychosz, an Account Manager II at GO, recommends focusing on the following:
Are your deals live? It may seem obvious, but if your deals aren’t live, you’ll miss out on sales you could have gained during the tentpole event. If your deals aren’t live and you submitted them through Self Service, check the dashboard where you submitted them. If everything looks correct but the issue persists, contact Amazon Support. If an Amazon representative submitted your deals, reach out to them for assistance in resolving the problem.
Are your titles, bullet points, and image carousels up to date? Retail readiness is always essential for strong conversion, but it’s even more paramount during high-traffic events like T12. If you notice during the event that your titles aren’t optimized, you’re falling short of 5 bullet points, or your images aren’t telling a compelling visual narrative, be sure to submit updates promptly.
Are your variations set up correctly? Ensure your variations are live and contain all the products you intended. Additionally, double-check all modules within the variation, as a well-structured, detailed variation enhances the customer experience.
For more insight into GO’s approach to retail readiness, check out our “Hunting for Profitability” blog.
Tip 2: Monitor Your Inventory Standing
You’ve ideally already used forecasts to estimate product quantities needed for T12 and the rest of the holiday season, but the work doesn’t stop there. Emily Chen, a Brand Manager II at GO, talks about the importance of continuing to monitor your inventory during the shopping event:
Accurately calculating the right amount of stock to meet consumer demand during T12 is critical. It’s especially important to do this before Q4 because fulfillment centers enforce stricter quantity limits and experience delays in receiving and processing due to the high demand. But even if you’re confident in your inventory forecasts and your products have been successfully processed into Amazon warehouses, it’s still essential to closely monitor your inventory position during the event. This helps ensure you are utilizing advertising dollars to drive traffic to items that are available to purchase.
Curious how GO helped a client adapt its advertising strategy to avoid wasting budget on out-of-stock products? Take a look at this case study.
Tip 3: Ensure You’re Owning Must-Win Terms
Amazon brands should have a list of top keywords they strive to rank highly for in search results, whether through organic or paid strategies. Maddy Jaeger, Sponsored Advertising Manager at GO, explains why this is especially important for tentpole events like T12 and how brands can work to accomplish high search rankings as the event is still happening:
Which keywords have historically been the most relevant to your brand and driven the highest search volume? Which ones have consistently performed best for you? Use this information to create a “must own” keyword list, and prioritize these keywords when adjusting bids, reallocating budgets, and making real-time search updates throughout the tentpole event. This assists your brand in appearing in top search placements for critical terms, helping capture consumer attention and drive traffic to your product detail pages for purchases as the event is still occurring.
Want to see how focusing on must-win keywords played a key role in a GO client quadrupling their Amazon sales? Dive into this case study to learn more.
Tip 4: Keep an Eye on the Digital Landscape
You might be doing everything right — running your deals, managing your advertising strategy, maintaining retail readiness, etc. — but if you aren’t keeping up with the evolving digital landscape throughout the tentpole, you’ll miss opportunities to capitalize on the current moment. Account Manager II Sam Cychosz offers a few tips on how to stay on top of this:
What are competitors doing? Since your brand won’t be the only one participating in T12, it’s important to monitor the deals your competitors are running on Amazon throughout the tentpole. This can help you adjust your strategy in real time, such as tweaking your advertising approach. For example, if a competitor is running deals on Amazon and you’re driving the majority of your ad traffic to non-deal ASINs, it would be wise to redirect spend to deal ASINs, allowing you to capture consumers from the competition and drive more volume.
What’s happening on other eCommerce retailer sites? Check out big names like Walmart.com and Target.com to monitor deals you and your competitors are running on those platforms. This broader view of the event landscape can help you make informed strategic decisions, both on Amazon and beyond. For instance, if you’re a Seller Central brand running a T12 deal for a product on Target but not on Amazon, be cautious. Amazon may deactivate your Seller Central listing until you match Target’s pricing. Stay alert and be ready to quickly adjust your Amazon prices to avoid losing the Buy Box.
Interested in seeing how GO took advantage of competitor insights to generate incremental sales during Prime Big Deal Days? Explore this case study.
Tip 5: Periodically Review Retail Sales
One of the great advantages of Amazon is its real-time data access for both vendors and sellers. This is particularly valuable during events like T12 as it allows you to track progress toward your tentpole goals and adjust your strategy mid-event if you fall behind. Here’s what’s available to vendors and sellers:
Vendor Central: Real Time Sales Dashboard. This feature lets you monitor the performance of your deal ASINs during the event.
Seller Central: Business Reports. You can track real-time sales performance by hour during T12 by accessing this report on the homepage. Note: This report only displays the total performance of the brand and does not provide ASIN-level sales tracking on the day of.
If these dashboards indicate that you aren’t on pace to meet your event objectives, analyze your traffic and conversion opportunities to ensure your strategy is as optimized as possible. From a traffic standpoint, confirm that your ad strategy is prioritizing deal ASINs. If that’s looking ship-shape, examine your detail pages to see if any factors might be causing conversion to dip.
Want to see how GO helped a client exceed their Prime Day sales goal by 22% by utilizing real-time data to make mid-event adjustments? Take a peek at this case study.
Tip 6: Ideate Your Lead Out Ad Strategy
As the tentpole comes to a close, begin imagining how you can maximize your ad dollars to reconnect with customers who expressed interest in your brand during the event. Here are some thoughts from Karina Cubillos, a Lead Display Media Strategist at GO, on how to achieve this:
For event lead-out, it’s important to re-engage with shoppers who interacted with your brand during the tentpole but didn’t make a purchase. These customers clearly showed interest and are in the market for your product, so it’s your opportunity to encourage them to complete their purchase. You can accomplish this via display media ads by retargeting PDP visitors, customers who added your items to their carts, or shoppers who added your items to their lists.
For more information on how GO thinks about DSP retargeting post-event, read our “DSP Blast Strategy” blog.
If you’re looking for even more inspiration for this year’s tentpole, take a peek at our T11 takeaways from last year:
Looking for more customized mid-event tips to achieve greater tentpole success?
The tips above provide a solid foundation for success, but they won’t take you 100% of the way. Your brand requires a customized approach that aligns with your unique goals to achieve the results you are looking for. That’s where our experienced, full-service agency comes in. With our extensive knowledge across all critical disciplines on Amazon, we can enact in-depth, tailored strategies to set your brand up for success, especially during tentpoles. What are you waiting for? Connect with our team today!