Try Day Parting to Boost Your Amazon Ads

As more sellers compete for limited ad space on Amazon, the cost per click (CPC) they pay goes up. In fact, the cost of advertising on Amazon has risen 50% over the last year — putting increasing pressure on sellers to use their ad spend wisely. 

Advertisers are turning to day parting — scheduling pay-per-click (PPC) ads to run only during certain days and times — to better optimize their ads on Amazon’s marketplace. The tactic helps sellers reach more consumers, boost conversions, and drives down costs. 

With more sellers increasing investment in Amazon Advertising, all sellers need to monitor their ad campaigns more closely to keep CPC costs optimal. To meet this challenge, advertisers should consider day parting to increase the impact of ad dollars and boost sales on Amazon.

What is day parting, and why is it so effective?

Although day parting is not new to marketing, it is new to the Amazon marketplace. 

Day parting enables a higher degree of control than traditional advertising. Rather than running your campaigns 24/7, sellers can turn ads off during certain times of the day or week. Although it may seem counterintuitive to turn off advertising, the practice can help focus your limited spend on high-impact hours when shoppers are more likely to make a purchase. 

Most ad platforms, like Amazon and Google, require advertisers to set a daily budget for ad campaigns. As sellers’ daily budgets diminish throughout the day, bidding wars are less competitive and the average CPC decreases. This means that CPCs are likely to be higher earlier in the day and lower at night. 

Data collected by my company, Kaspien, found that clicks late at night or early in the morning produce fewer sales at a higher advertising cost of sales (ACOS) than clicks during business hours or in the early evening. By running ads at specific times, advertisers can stretch out their daily budget, decrease their CPC, and increase sales. 

The bottom line? Day parting results in increased advertising revenue at a lower advertising cost. 

As a seller ourselves, we’ve seen a 33% improvement in our average ACOS on Amazon by using day parting. On average, day parters experience a 40% decrease on their ACOS, which translates to an improved ROI on every ad dollar spent. 

Best practices for Amazon day parting 

Day parting gives sellers more control over their advertising and improves the impact of campaigns. While the tactic can be useful (and profitable) if done correctly, it also takes time and effort to implement. If you’re considering day parting on Amazon, you should be aware of the following best practices: 

• Establish a baseline: It’s recommended to run your ad campaign for at least two weeks before implementing day parting. This will help you collect enough data to determine the most and least profitable timeframes. You’ll want to compare and contrast how your ad campaigns perform with and without day parting to determine if the tactic is right for you. Repeat this test quarterly to ensure your ads remain optimally scheduled, as the marketplace is in continual flux.

• Reevaluate day parting regularly: Just because you can set and forget a day parting strategy, doesn’t mean you should. When implementing day parting, you’re only able to collect data during the hours your ads are running, meaning you have no insight into consumer behavior during off hours. Be sure to constantly evaluate your data during active advertising hours and make adjustments as your key performance indicators (KPIs) improve or decline.

• Adjust for changes in seasonality: Consumer shopping habits, their intent to purchase, and your product’s relevancy may change depending on the time of year. For example, a swimwear company may want to turn off day parting during high-traffic periods — like the summer or prior to school vacation times — to maximize sales potential. 

• Look for user-friendly partners: Amazon’s native advertising console does not offer day parting, but the capability is available on a few select ad management applications. Because even small tweaks to day parting strategy can impact your bottom line, you’ll want a platform that is user-friendly and has easy to interpret analytics. 

It’s helpful to assess the impact of day parting for yourself. The key to day parting success is regular assessment and adjustment, with the help of a campaign management software. Some sellers may find they prefer to run ads without day parting, but the majority can enjoy better control, lower ACOS, and more profitable Amazon campaigns.

Mitchell Bailey is COO at Kaspien.