Three weeks to Black Friday: the Amazon ads mistake that costs big brands the most

Every year, the same pattern shows up in large Amazon accounts during Cyber Week.

Brands raise budgets. Then their best campaigns run out of money by early afternoon, right when traffic and CPCs peak. The rest of the day's spend drifts into weaker campaigns. The week looks fine in the report, because the averages hide it.

If you manage a sizable Amazon account, three things are worth checking before Thanksgiving.

1. Find your "out of budget" hour

Pull hourly data for your top campaigns over the last two weeks. If they regularly run dry before 3pm, they'll run dry even earlier on Black Friday, when more shoppers are searching and clicks cost more.

2. Compare conversion by time of day

Many categories convert better in the evening than in the morning. If your budget is gone by then, you're paying for the cheapest traffic and missing the best. Look at conversion rate and ACoS by hour, not just by day.

3. Separate "budget" from "bids"

Raising a daily budget doesn't change where the money goes. It only delays the moment it runs out. Small bid changes by hour, lower in weak hours and higher in strong ones, often do more than a bigger budget.

The takeaway

None of this needs new tools. It needs someone looking at the account more often than once a week, especially during the five days that make the quarter.

ASIN Rocket manages Amazon Sponsored Ads for brands selling $10M+ a year. This kind of hour-by-hour work is what our team spends most of its day on. Learn more.