Prime Day 2026 will put brands under pressure with its move to late June, its extended 4-day format and the rise of the Agentic Consumer. But there is an elephant in the room that every e-commerce manager knows all too well when it comes to major retail events: the surge in advertising costs.
During Prime Day, CPCs (costs per click) on traditional search regularly spike between 40% and 60%.
In such a hyper-competitive context, relying only on standard Search strategies and traditional DSP campaigns risks drastically eroding brand margins. To capture truly incremental growth and protect profitability, brands need to move one step ahead and activate advanced advertising formats.
Let's look at the three key activations to focus on this year to protect traffic and convert more effectively.
1. Homepage Takeover (HPTO): intercept users at the front door
Standard Search is a reactive tool: it intercepts users only when they already know what they want to search for and type a query. The Homepage Takeover (HPTO) completely reverses this paradigm, acting proactively at the exact moment a potential customer opens the Amazon app or website.
How the strategic activation works:
- Lead-In phase: deploying high-visibility HPTO banners in the weeks before the event helps intercept high-purchase-intent traffic. In this phase, traffic is strategically directed to the brand's Brand Store, allowing users to discover the full catalog and start planning their purchases.
- Peak phase (Live Event): during the 4 days of Prime Day, the Homepage Takeover flow is instantly redirected to the Deals Page, the dedicated offers page, to push immediate conversion from purchase intent.
The hidden advantage: this massive initial exposure does not only generate immediate sales. It also allows brands to build large first-party audience pools, which are essential for feeding subsequent retargeting campaigns through Amazon DSP.
2. Sponsored Brand SOV: a defensive shield on keywords
Many brands believe that a classic brand-protection campaign on Sponsored Products is enough. In reality, traditional defense often leaves strategic ad placements uncovered within search results pages, giving competitors a way to steal customers at the very last moment.
The Sponsored Brand SOV (Share of Voice) activation is designed to eliminate this vulnerability by applying a true defensive lockdown.
The goal is to secure 100% Share of Voice by acquiring all Sponsored Brand placements positioned at the top of the page (Top of Page) for every keyword associated with the brand. This ensures that anyone actively searching for your brand sees a strong, consistent presence with no distractions or competitor alternatives.
3. Product Page Spotlight: seal the funnel and prevent traffic leakage
There is a critical point in the Amazon purchase funnel that is too often underestimated: the product detail page (Product Page). You have done excellent awareness work, the user has clicked your ad, landed on your product page and is one step away from clicking the Buy Box. Right below, however, competitor banners with aggressive offers appear.
Product Page Spotlight is the new format designed specifically to remove this threat.
The closed-loop conversion strategy:
Instead of allowing rivals to buy ad placements on your product pages, this activation targets your own ASINs across all available ad slots on the product page.
By replacing competitor ads with cross-selling and up-selling strategies from your own catalog, brands not only block traffic leakage before the final click, but also encourage an increase in average order value (AOV) by offering complementary products from the same family.
Is your planning ready?
Prime Day 2026 will not reward brands that simply repeat last year's strategies. With the natural increase in advertising costs, the difference between a loss-making event and a highly profitable one lies in the ability to secure Amazon's exclusive touchpoints before competitors do.
Owning the entry point with Homepage Takeover, protecting searches with Sponsored Brand SOV and sealing product pages with Product Page Spotlight are the three moves needed to safeguard your business in June.
Have you already included these advanced activations in your strategic planning for the next Prime Day? If you want to discover how to implement them effectively across your catalog, our teams are ready to support you with the operational setup.
Want to prepare an advanced strategy for Prime Day 2026?