Amazon Ads success story · Pickleball paddle and gear brand

How a pickleball gear brand sold 14 times a normal day on Prime Day with Amazon ads.

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CRBN Pickleball competes in one of the fastest-growing and most crowded categories on Amazon. Search data pointed to a product shoppers wanted, and a full Prime Day plan across product ads, brand ads and a first live stream turned two days into the brand’s biggest sales event.

Business: CRBN Pickleball
Market: United States
Goal: Stand out in a crowded category and win Prime Day

Two blue pickleball paddles and three yellow balls resting by the net on a clay court

The results.

Prime Day 2024 sales compared with a normal day. The new-product increase covers the 48-hour Prime Day event, which also brought 2 million ad impressions.

14Xsales on Prime Day 2024 compared with a normal day
700%increase in sales of a new product during Prime Day
39Ksearches for the brand within two days

Data provided by the brand to Amazon Ads, 2024. Amazon featured this brand in its Rising Stars small-business series, and says the businesses in that series were compensated for taking part.

The challenge.

Pickleball is growing fast, and so is the number of brands selling paddles on Amazon. CRBN, founded by two players, needed shoppers to remember the brand, not just click on whichever paddle looked cheapest.

It also wanted to use Prime Day 2024 to launch a new product, protective glasses for players, in front of as many new customers as possible.

Illustration of a daily sales chart with two tall bars on peak sale days

What they did.

Sponsored Products · Sponsored Brands and video · Brand Store · Amazon Live

Sold the brand, not one paddle: A Brand Store with Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Brands video promoted the whole range, so shoppers met the brand before comparing single products.
Found a product in the search data: Keyword research showed an 80% increase in searches for pickleball protective eyewear. The brand created a product to meet that demand.
Planned Prime Day as one campaign: Product ads, brand ads and the brand’s first Amazon Live stream ran together, aimed at shoppers who did not know CRBN yet. Sponsored Products caught the high-intent searches.

Why it worked.

Our read on the decisions behind the numbers, and what any business can take from them.

Search data is product research: Shoppers told Amazon what they wanted before any competitor made it. Reading that data turned a trend into a new product with built-in demand.
Big days reward preparation: Prime Day traffic is huge but short. Budgets, creative and the new product were ready before it began, so nothing was wasted while the window was open.
Brand ads created searches: Thousands of people searched for CRBN by name within two days. Shoppers who search your name are the cheapest and most likely to buy.
Every format had a job: Video built interest, the store told the story, product ads closed the sale and the live stream added sales on top.

How we would run this play for your business.

You do not need a national budget to use the same ideas. This is how Overtop Media Digital Marketing puts them to work in our amazon ads management.

A plan for your peak days: Prime Day, Black Friday, holidays or your own season: we plan budgets, offers and creative weeks ahead, then manage them hour by hour on the day.
Turn searches into ideas: We review rising searches in your category and bring you new product, bundle and content ideas.
Grow searches for your name: Brand and video ads are measured by how many more people search for you by name, not just by clicks.
Peak days beyond Amazon: Shoppers compare across sites on big days. Our Google Ads and Meta ads teams plan the same event across every channel.