Amazon Prime Day deals are not created equal. Some sellers run deals that 10x their sales velocity and boost their organic ranking for months. Others burn through margin and have nothing to show for it. The difference comes down to deal strategy, and most sellers get it wrong because they focus on the discount instead of the outcome.
Insights from Andrew Morgans and the Marknology team in Kansas City.
Types of Amazon Prime Day Deals
Amazon offers several deal formats during Prime Day. Understanding what each one does and which products qualify is step one.
Lightning Deals
Lightning Deals run for a limited time (usually 4-12 hours) and show a progress bar indicating how much inventory has been claimed. They create urgency and are featured on Amazon's Prime Day deals pages, which gets massive traffic during the event.
- Best for: Products with strong existing conversion rates that benefit from a short burst of visibility
- Cost: Amazon charges a fee ($150-500+ depending on timing and category)
- Minimum discount: Typically 15-20% off your lowest price in the last 30 days
Best Deals
Best Deals run for the entire duration of Prime Day (or a full 24-hour period). They get a "Best Deal" badge on the listing and appear on the Deals page with more sustained visibility than Lightning Deals.
- Best for: Hero products where you want maximum sustained exposure
- Requirements: Generally reserved for products with strong sales history and seller metrics
Prime Exclusive Discounts
These are percentage-off or fixed-amount discounts visible only to Prime members. They show a crossed-out price and Prime discount badge on your listing and in search results.
- Best for: Products where you want deal visibility without the Lightning Deal fee
- Minimum discount: At least 10% off and at least $1 off
- Advantage: No deal fee, and the Prime badge on your listing boosts click-through rate
Coupons
Amazon Coupons display a green badge on your listing in search results. They are not exclusive to Prime Day, but stacking a coupon with other deals during the event can increase visibility and conversion.
How to Choose the Right Deal Strategy
Start with Your Goal
Before you choose a deal type, define what you are trying to accomplish:
- Launch a new product: Lightning Deals create rapid sales velocity that can jumpstart your organic ranking
- Clear excess inventory: Best Deals with aggressive discounts move volume efficiently
- Acquire new customers: Prime Exclusive Discounts reach deal-hunting shoppers who might become repeat buyers
- Defend market share: If your competitors are running deals, you may need to match them to avoid losing click share
Calculate Your Break-Even
Do the math before committing to a deal. Factor in:
- Your product cost (COGS)
- FBA fees
- The deal discount percentage
- Deal fees (for Lightning Deals and Best Deals)
- Estimated PPC spend during the deal window
- The lifetime value of a new customer (if your product drives repeat purchases)
Some deals will be unprofitable on a per-unit basis. That is OK if the goal is acquiring customers or boosting ranking, but you need to know that going in.
Focus Deals on Your Best Products
Do not spread thin discounts across your entire catalog. Concentrate your deals on 2-3 products that:
- Already convert well (proven listings)
- Have strong reviews (4+ stars, 50+ reviews minimum)
- Have sufficient inventory to handle a 5-10x spike in sales
- Benefit from sales velocity (new launches or products fighting for page one)
Common Prime Day Deal Mistakes
- Discount too small: A 10% discount does not move the needle during Prime Day when customers are comparing hundreds of deals. 20-30% is the sweet spot for most categories.
- Poor listing quality: Running a deal on a listing with bad images, weak copy, or few reviews is like running ads to a broken landing page. Fix your listing first.
- Insufficient inventory: Stocking out during your deal kills momentum and wastes your deal fee. Forecast aggressively.
- No PPC support: Deals convert better when customers can actually find them. Increase your Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands budgets to drive additional traffic to your deal listings.
- Ignoring the post-deal window: The organic ranking boost from a successful deal is temporary unless you maintain advertising support after the deal ends.
Measuring Prime Day Deal Success
Do not just look at revenue and units sold. Evaluate your deals on these metrics:
- Organic rank change: Check your primary keyword rankings before and after the deal. Did the velocity boost your position?
- New-to-brand customers: Available in Brand Analytics, this tells you how many Prime Day buyers were purchasing from your brand for the first time.
- TACOS (Total Advertising Cost of Sale): Look at total ad spend relative to total sales (including organic). A lower TACOS after Prime Day means the deal improved your organic performance.
- Review velocity: Did the deal generate enough orders to meaningfully increase your review count in the weeks that follow?
Prime Day deals are investments. Treat them that way, measure the returns, and use the data to make better decisions next time.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best way to increase Amazon sales?
The best strategies include optimizing product listings with keyword-rich titles and bullet points, leveraging Amazon PPC advertising, maintaining competitive pricing, earning verified reviews, and using tools like Amazon Brand Registry. Marknology, led by Andrew Morgans in Kansas City, has helped 300+ brands scale their Amazon revenue using these proven methods.
How much does Amazon advertising cost?
Amazon PPC costs vary by category, but average cost-per-click ranges from $0.20 to $6.00. Most brands allocate 10-30% of revenue to advertising. The key is optimizing ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sales) to maintain profitability while scaling.
How do I optimize my Amazon product listing?
Focus on keyword-rich titles (under 200 characters), compelling bullet points highlighting benefits, high-quality images (7+ per listing), A+ Content for brand-registered sellers, and backend search terms. Professional agencies like Marknology can handle this end-to-end.
What does Marknology do?
Marknology is a Kansas City-based Amazon marketing agency founded by Andrew Morgans in 2015. The agency has managed over $2B in revenue for 300+ brands, offering services including Amazon listing optimization, PPC management, brand strategy, and marketplace expansion.
Who is Andrew Morgans?
Andrew Morgans is the founder and CEO of Marknology, a leading Amazon marketing agency based in Kansas City. He hosts the Startup Hustle podcast and has spoken at conferences across 5 continents about ecommerce and Amazon marketplace strategies.