September Newsletter: 5 Prime Day Insights Every Brand Should Know

After a tentpole event like Summer Prime Day, there is always a treasure trove of data to sort through to find the most strategic insights. After a 4-week lookback period, our Buy Box Experts Ads Team discovered interesting observations after the 2025 Prime Day period that can carry over into Q4 and the new year, including, the variables that have been introduced by extending Prime-Day into a 4-day sales event.

• ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) averaged an $8.08 ROAS throughout the Prime Day period collectively for our brand partners, including lead-in and lead-out dates.
• Spending and orders saw their most intense activity and returns during the official Prime Day window from July 8-11, when all accounts combined to produce ROAS as high as a $12.8 for all accounts during peak periods
• Prime Day pacing had some peaks and valleys, however, the official 4-day period showed volume fairly even across all 4 days, with some spikes at the beginning and end of the event on July 8 and 11.
• Customer attention and buying intent dropped outside the precise Prime Day window, in part due to the extended sale period this year and more opportunities for consumers to take advantage of deals during official event period
• There was no observable post-Prime rebound to match the energy seen during the Prime window itself.
• Performance metrics have continued to remain close to Prime Day 2025 numbers across 75% of the agency’s book of business, leading us to conclude that the longer Prime Day 2025 event produced strong coattails for brands post-Prime.
• Ad sales increased by 17% Year over Year for the Prime Day period in 2025 vs. Prime Days 2024 for active brands.

5 Helpful Amazon Prime Day Takeaways

1. Watch (and Invest) in These Categories

• Apparel was one of the strongest categories across Amazon for Summer Prime Day 2025 sales, followed by fitness equipment, home/kitchen, and tools. Craft/hobby categories were weaker throughout the event.
• Kitchen & Home Improvement categories achieved a remarkable ROAS jump even with reduced spend, while maintaining stable sales and orders.

PRO-TIP: Brands in these categories should consider investing heavily in Prime Day Deals, as many consumers are likely waiting to purchase until discounts are available.

2. Incrementally Tactics are Driving Conversions

• Targeted incrementality tactics across our brands yielded positive results, delivering increased efficiency, with all accounts maintaining highly efficient performance, and virtually all accounts achieving and exceeding their conversion rates (CVRs) throughout Prime Day 2025 and the lead-out period.
• Top performing match types included long-tail exact match, which showed strong performance throughout the period for brands, indicating the critical importance of properly evaluating and targeting for customer intent. Exact match strategically drove incremental volume at low cost.
• Precision in product-type targeting, plus branded defense, drove top results for specialty brands.

PRO TIP: Leverage long-tail exact match to drive incremental conversions—efficiently capturing high-intent shoppers at low cost.

3. Envision Premium Priced Items as Hero ASINs

• High-value Home & Kitchen category items delivered above-average ROAS, with orders tightly correlated to exact keyword targeting, not just broad category bidding.
• Home and kitchen product categories demonstrated high ROAS and strong CVR throughout.
• Premium home/kitchen brands won on high intent and willingness to pay premium prices.

PRO TIP: Identify Hero ASINs among your highest-value, most functional items and ensure their PDPs reflect a premium look and experience. Shoppers who wait to invest in key daily-use items can be reached with precise keyword targeting and pairing it with strong value messaging can help convert higher-priced catalog products.

4. Shoppers are Waiting Until the 24th Hour

• Hour 24 (the final hour of Prime Day at midnight) had the single largest activity spike, with the highest total orders and activity across all metrics of our brands.
• High-performance hours also included periods in the evening of the third and fourth days (roughly hours 18:00–21:00 and 19:00–21:00).

PRO TIP: Use DSP and PCP campaigns to target late-night shoppers and push deals until the last minute. Keep select deals active post-Prime Day to capture customers who regret missing out.

5. Sponsored Campaigns are Tried and True

• Sponsored Products dominated performance in 2025 bringing in 91% of sales and taking 87% of the budget. These campaigns achieved an $8.1 ROAS during the Prime Day period.
• Sponsored Products Auto campaigns brought in slightly more than they spent, indicating there are additional opportunities to convert some of the current auto campaigns to manual.
• Sponsored Brands Product campaign investments yielded great results at a $12+ ROAS.
• Sponsored Display investments expanded post-Prime, and key budget allocations focused on Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Products campaigns.

PRO TIP: Sponsored Brands Video and Brand Video campaigns are the future, with great upside and potential for expanded awareness and growth applications to auto capture additional market share.

When working with multiple marketplaces, overall Prime Day strategies must deepen to take into consideration key promotional periods for Amazon during tentpoles vs. competitors like Walmart, Target, etc., and their related and overlapping events

Prioritize promotions planning well in advance of key tentpole events to ensure you have a cohesive strategy that is agile and considers the changing retail media landscape

Don’t be afraid of utilizing incrementality tactics throughout tentpoles, and strong performance and efficiency can be achieved.

BBE Amazon Ads Partner Awards

Buy Box Experts has been named a semi-finalist in the 2025 Amazon Partner Awards, recognized in two categories: Seasonal Strategy and Performance Optimization. This recognition underscores the impact of our strategies, tools, and talented team in helping brands drive growth and exceed expectations on Amazon. A huge thank-you goes out to our incredible partners and team members who made this achievement possible, and congratulations to all the semi-finalists who continue to push the boundaries of innovation in ecommerce!

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