Amazon Prime Day 2024 was the biggest ever, with record sales and more items sold than any previous Prime Day. In 2025, the stakes are even higher for brands to capture a share of this explosive growth.

Prime Day isn’t just another sale—it’s a 48-hour e-commerce frenzy poised to shatter records yet again. If you’re a C-suite leader or brand manager, you’ve seen the headlines:

• Prime Day 2024 saw American shoppers spend over $14.2 billion in just two days.
• Prime Day 2025 promises even more, and the countdown has begun.
• Nearly 80% of Amazon sellers now participate in Prime Day (up from 69% a year prior), meaning your competitors are all-in.

The message is clear: 

Either strategize for Prime Day, or risk missing out on one of the best e-commerce opportunities of the year.

In this strategic guide, we’ll walk through a complete Amazon Prime Day 2025 PPC strategy—from pre-event preparations to real-time tactics and post-event leverage—grounded in data and case studies from Amazon and top consulting firms.

Let’s make sure your brand not only rides the Prime Day wave but dominates it.

Prime Day 2025: Why This Year Matters More Than Ever

When is Prime Day 2025?
Amazon has confirmed it will take place in July 2025, likely mid-month (July 15–16). This mid-summer timing is deliberate as it captures:

• Back-to-school shoppers
• Mid-year consumer demand
  

Key Highlights from Past Events:

• Last year’s Prime Day was Amazon’s largest ever, with independent sellers (mostly small businesses) selling over 200 million items.
• Third-party sellers now account for more than 60% of Amazon’s retail sales.
• 60% of Prime Day purchases typically occur on Day 1—making it a “make or break” day.
• Nearly 48% of US consumers planned to shop Prime Day for back-to-school items in 2024 (up from 39% in 2023).

The customer frenzy is so intense that even Amazon’s own advertising systems have felt the strain (the Amazon Ads console famously crashed at the end of Prime Day Day 1 in 2024 due to activity spikes). In short, Prime Day 2025 is a high-stakes arena with immense reward for brands that execute well, and steep opportunity cost for those who sit it out. 

Prime Day 2025 will be one of the year’s biggest e-commerce events. If you’re not prepared with a strategic PPC plan, rest assured your competitors are. This guide will ensure you’re not left on the sidelines while others cash in on the Prime Day surge.

Countdown to Prime Day: Pre-Event PPC Prep for 2025

Successful Prime Day campaigns begin weeks or months in advance. Think of the period leading up to Prime Day as the “pre-game” where you lay the groundwork for conversion frenzy. 

Here’s how to maximize the lead-up:

1. Lock in the Date and Plan Backwards

Mark your calendar for Prime Day 2025. Create a countdown schedule: for example, four weeks out, two weeks out, one week out, and so on. This helps ensure you’re not scrambling last-minute. Also, remember to coordinate with your supply chain, inventory planning is critical. Make sure you have enough stock of your hero products and avoid costly stockouts – Prime Day shoppers won’t wait for a restock; 75% will switch to a competitor after just two stockout incidents. Conversely, don’t overstock so much that you’re stuck with excess – use Amazon’s inventory tools to gauge a realistic forecast.

Avoid these pitfalls:

• Running out of stock on your hero products.
• Overstocking and being left with excess post-event.

2. Analyze Last Year’s (and Last Prime event’s) Data

Dig into your performance from Prime Day 2024 and any other peak. 

• Which products and keywords performed well?
• What categories saw major gains (e.g., home goods, electronics, beauty)?
• Identify top performers to double down on and laggards to reconsider.

Identify your “Prime Day winners” – products with high conversion that you can double down on – and laggards that might not be worth heavy investment. For instance, look at what categories boomed last year: during Prime Day 2023, home goods, electronics, and beauty were top sellers. If you play in those categories, expect fierce competition and plan your bids accordingly. Conversely, if you’re in a niche category, examine if Prime Day lifts your sales or if your audience isn’t Prime-minded. Let data, not hunches, inform your strategy.

3. Optimize Listings and Ratings

Prime Day traffic won’t convert if your product pages turn shoppers off. In the weeks leading up, ensure your product detail pages are polished:

• Concise, keyword-rich titles
• High-quality images
• A+ Content
• 4+ star ratings (if possible)

Strive to boost your ratings now: many shoppers sort by rating or are drawn to products with 4+ stars. If you have less than 3.5 stars on a hero product, consider efforts to improve customer satisfaction before Prime Day. 

Also, double-check that your listings are indexed for the keywords shoppers might use (e.g., “Prime Day deals today 2025 on 4K TVs” – make sure if you sell TVs, your ads appear for those deal-seeking queries).

4. Set Your Deals and Coupons Strategy

During Prime Day, shoppers expect jaw-dropping deals, some essentially clearance prices. Decide which products you will put on special promotion: 

• ​​Lightning Deals
• Prime Exclusive Discounts
• Coupons or general markdowns

Best practices:

• Promote best sellers and top-rated products
• Avoid over-investing in slow-movers (if an item hasn’t sold all year, a Prime Day ad blitz might not save it)
• Consider bundles or launch promos
• Submit deals before Amazon's deadline

Some brands also use Prime Day to introduce new products with an irresistible launch discount, or to bundle products into special Prime Day bundles (as NIVEA did with skincare bundles in a successful Prime Day campaign). 

Whatever your tactic, get those deals submitted in Amazon’s system ahead of deadlines. 

5. Ramp Up Early Visibility (Without Blowing Budget)

In the final week before Prime Day, consider running some “countdown to Prime Day” campaigns. Many shoppers start browsing early, adding items to wish lists or carts, ready to check out if a deal appears. You can capitalize on this by running ads that tease your Prime Day deals (“Save on [Product] this Prime Day”) to build awareness. Amazon sometimes allows “Prime Day Early Access” or early deals for Prime members; if those are available, try to participate so your customers can shop early. Early visibility can improve your organic ranking just in time for Prime Day’s surge. 

Pro tip: Also use this time to negative-match irrelevant keywords and refine targeting so that during Prime Day, your budget isn’t wasted on poor clicks.

6. Coordinate Cross-Channel Buzz

Prime Day is largely on Amazon, but savvy brands create omnipresent hype.

• Notify your email list about upcoming Prime Day deals
• Post on social media (“Countdown to Prime Day: 3 days left for our biggest sale…”)
• Consider brief Google Ads pointing to your Amazon listings (“Brand X Prime Day Deals”). 

This can drive additional traffic and signal strong demand to Amazon’s algorithm. Just be sure any external traffic lands on a well-crafted Amazon Store or landing page for best conversion. 

Worried you might be missing something in your Prime Day prep? Even a quick consult with an expert can reveal hidden profit leaks and opportunities. It’s not too late to refine your plan with an expert.

By Prime Day, your campaigns should be fully primed, optimized, and ready to fire.

The Prime Day PPC War Room: Bidding Strategies for Day 1 and Day 2

When Prime Day officially kicks off, it’s a 48-hour sprint. Treat it like a "war room" scenario—many top brands literally assemble teams to monitor performance hour-by-hour.

Here’s how to execute a winning in-event strategy:

1. Aggressive but Smart Budgeting

Expect:

• Traffic spikes (one analysis found sellers spent about 14% of their Prime Day revenues on Amazon ads)
• Increased competition
• Higher CPCs

In simpler terms, be prepared to allocate a significant budget to remain competitive. 

What to do:

• Set budgets 2–3x higher than normal
• Use Amazon’s Budget Rules for automatic boosts
• Monitor closely and reallocate funds in real-time
• Front-load Day 1, but keep resources for Day 2

You can always taper on Day 2 if needed. Some categories, like toys and home office, saw notable growth on Prime Day’s second day in 2024. So keep enough fuel in the tank for the finale.

2. Bid to Win (Especially Early)

Top ad placements will be extremely competitive. CPCs typically jump 10–15% (or more) during Prime Day. For example, in 2022, CPCs on Amazon.com rose ~9.4% vs. the prior period, and by 2024, some categories saw spikes of 30–47%.

Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands spots are hot real estate. Focus on your highest-converting keywords and best-margin products. Increase bids as Prime Day begins or use “Dynamic Bidding – Up & Down.” Defend your brand terms to block competitors, and bid offensively on rival keywords or broad category terms to capture new shoppers. Just monitor your spend—broad terms can burn budget fast if they’re not converting.

3. Leverage All Ad Formats

During Prime Day, the advertising real estate is rich – make sure you’re occupying as much of it as possible. Own the space with Sponsored Products (often ~64% of ad spend distribution), Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display. Sponsored Brands video ads especially stand out in crowded results. If you have access to Amazon DSP, use it to retarget cart abandoners or drive brand awareness. Flood the zone with overlapping ad formats to boost visibility and conversion. 

Prime Day is a time to go full-funnel – capture people actively searching, but also those browsing and comparing. And don’t forget to update your ad creatives if possible to align with Prime Day (“Prime Day Deal”, etc.), especially for Sponsored Brands custom images or Store spotlight ads.

4. Monitor Hourly and Stay Adaptive

Shopper behavior shifts fast—clicks may spike at specific hours (e.g., 7am, 6pm). Use tools or assign team members to track CTR, CVR, ACOS, and spend pace. Reallocate budget to top performers and adjust underperforming campaigns in real time. If a product’s selling fast, raise its budget cap. If stock is running low, pause ads. Check for suppressed listings or technical issues. If a certain campaign is underperforming by midday, don’t be afraid to pivot – adjust bids, refine keywords, or reallocate budget to better performers. 

Treat this like a live, hands-on campaign—not a “set and forget.”

5. Capitalize on Prime Day Trends

Shoppers exhibit some unique behaviors on Prime Day. One is a tendency to shop lightning deals and time-sensitive promos heavily. If you’re running Lightning Deals, coordinate your PPC to support them during the deal window. That means spiking your bids when your deal is live to drive it up Amazon’s deal rankings. 

Another trend: mobile shopping is huge on Prime Day. Ensure your ads look good on mobile and consider higher bids for mobile placements if relevant. Also, consider dayparting if you have historical data – for example, if late-night conversions drop but clicks continue, you might lower bids overnight to preserve budget for peak times (however, note that Prime Day is global, so there’s traffic around the clock; many sellers just run 24/7 but monitor ROAS by hour).

6. Watch Competitors and Adjust

Track competitor pricing and promos closely. If a rival cuts prices on Day 1, you may need to respond—either by adjusting your pricing or emphasizing your product’s unique value in ads. Brands often run out of stock by Day 2, creating opportunities to capture their traffic, so consider increasing bids where competitors drop off.

The landscape shifts fast. Use real-time monitoring tools if possible—or manually check top keywords to see who’s winning placements. Many brands rely on agencies or advanced tools to manage this in real time. If it feels intense, that’s because it is.

By the end of Day 2, you’ll have fought hard for every sale—but the job’s not done. To get the most from Prime Day, you’ll need a smart post-event strategy. Let’s dive into that next.

Managing all of this is intense. Top brands often rely on specialized tools or agencies to optimize bids in real-time. Don’t hesitate to leverage technology or expert partners to stay ahead of the curve.

From Prime Day to Long Play: Post-Event Retention and Optimization

When the Prime Day dust settles and the tidal wave of orders has been shipped, many brands make a mistake: they breathe a sigh of relief and go back to business as usual. Not you. Smart e-commerce leaders treat Prime Day as a springboard, not a one-off spike. 

Here’s how to turn Prime Day success into sustained gains:

Measure and Learn

After the event, run a full post-mortem. Pull Amazon Advertising reports and third-party analytics to identify:

• Which campaigns delivered the best ROAS or ACOS
• Which keywords blew through budget with poor returns
• Whether you gained a halo effect in organic rankings

Document everything while it’s still fresh. These insights will inform your next Prime Day, but also help with Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and future big pushes.

Answer “Can You Return Prime Day Deals?” – and Plan for Returns

Yes—Prime Day purchases follow Amazon’s regular return policy (usually 30 days). Expect an uptick in returns, especially on discounted items. Factor that into your post-event net revenue. You can also proactively reduce returns by following up with customers through Amazon’s Buyer-Seller Messaging or via insert cards that confirm product use or satisfaction.

Track which items had higher-than-usual returns to spot issues. Was it the targeting? The listing? The product itself? Understanding the “why” behind returns can improve your next campaign.

Retarget New Customers

You likely gained a wave of new-to-brand customers. Now it’s time to turn them into long-term loyalists. Use:

• Sponsored Brands retargeting
• Sponsored Display audience campaigns
• Amazon DSP audiences like “Prime Day buyers of my brand” and retarget them off-Amazon with ads or videos
  
  • According to Amazon, brands that run awareness campaigns during Prime Day often see a sustained lift in branded searches thereafter.

If someone bought your coffee maker, follow up with coffee beans. If someone shopped your skincare bundle, show them your cleanser or travel kit. Amazon says brands that run retargeting campaigns post-Prime Day see a sustained boost in branded search volume. Keep showing up.

The key is to turn one-off deal hunters into loyal customers.

Tidy Up and Reallocate

Pause or update any Prime Day-specific campaigns to avoid burning budget on expired offers. However, don’t pull the plug on advertising entirely – there’s often an afterglow period. 

• Keep evergreen top performers running at a reduced but steady budget
• If you overstocked an underperformer, consider a post-Prime-Day coupon or “clearance” push
• Reallocate budget to restocked items or products with renewed potential

Some shoppers specifically search for “Prime Day leftovers” or “final clearance,” so keep that in mind when crafting your post-event messaging.

Celebrate Wins & Gather Feedback

Debrief with your team. What worked? What didn’t? Share hard results across the company:

• % lift in sales vs. a normal day
• Number of new-to-brand customers acquired
• Average ACOS or ROAS
• Notable success stories or learnings

If you had a winning strategy—document it. These case studies are gold, and Amazon often features brand success stories that nailed Prime Day execution. For example, Amazon’s success story about a K-beauty brand that doubled Prime Day sales and saw new-to-brand sales jump 426% week-over-week through savvy advertising. Such examples might inspire your team’s strategy next time (and hey, maybe your brand will be the next featured success story!).

Plan for the Next “Prime” Event

Prime Day isn’t a one-off anymore. Amazon has introduced events like Prime Early Access in October, and “Big Deal Days” leading into the holidays. If you crushed it in July, roll your learnings into Q4 campaigns.

Apply what you’ve learned to BFCM as well. Consumer behavior may differ, but rapid bidding, creative rotation, and full-funnel strategy still apply.

Finally, remember that Prime Day is a marathon, not just a sprint. You’ve captured a surge of revenue and customers in a short time; now nurture those gains for long-term brand growth. 

Many leading brands report that major shopping events like Prime Day contribute over 10% of their annual e-commerce revenue. 

Prime Day 2025 is a massive opportunity—but only if you’re ready.

With competition high and billions at stake, your PPC strategy can make or break your success. Prep early, act fast, and stay sharp after the event to turn Prime Day into a long-term win.

Want expert support? Our Amazon PPC team is here to help you build a strategy that delivers.

The countdown is on. Let’s make this your biggest Prime Day yet.