LAST UPDATED - August 2022
If an image is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a million! If you are a Brand Registered seller on Amazon, you should be running Sponsored Brands - Video Ads. Amazon has made a bunch of updates to support video on and off their platform. Let's find out more...
Why Video Ads are Great for Advertisers
Videos take up 4x the space on the search results page, helping you knock out potentially 3 competitors who might have occupied that space. Further, because of how visually engaging they are, these ads have 6x the click-through-rate and a very high conversion rate. Advertisers can literally showcase their product's USPs right on the search results page, without shoppers having to even click through to your page or storefront where a video might live - a great way to pre-qualify the right target audience.
What are Video Ads?
Video ads (for mobile and desktop) are part of “Sponsored Brands”. While these ads are very different from the traditional headline search ads we know of, the one thing that’s common with Sponsored Brand ads is that they capture a very large portion of the real estate on the search results page.
The ad shows up in the middle of the Search Results page on desktop and at about position #20 on mobile. Recently Amazon has also started showing these ads on Product Detail pages.
Here are some characteristics of this type of ad:
Displays in the middle of the Search Results page
May lead to a product detail page or storefront (available to select accounts)
Is auto playing, no clicks required
Loops endlessly
Is muted by default, and can be unmuted by shopper
Can be no longer that 45 seconds, recommended 15-30 seconds
Here is an example of a video ad on mobile devices:
Setup, Reporting and Performance Metrics
On the setup and reporting side, here are some additional details about this type of Ad:
This is a pay-per-click (PPC) ad, as opposed to the pay per impression (CPM) model on the managed services side
Supports keyword targeting with broad, phrase and exact match types
Supports product targeting and category targeting
Supports negative keywords and negative product targeting
Has reporting on new-to-brand metrics
Reports are combined with Sponsored Brands, can be pulled from the standard location and can also be scheduled on a recurring timeline.
How to succeed with Video ads
Everyone knows that video is huge. I am reminded of this interview by Rick Cesari titled Video persuasion on Amazon which is packed with great insights on how top sellers are using video to engage customers and drive conversions.
The way to engage customers with these (mostly) top-of-funnel ads is to create really engaging and eye-catching content, that rapidly progresses from idea to idea.
Ideally you want to showcase the:
Product - Close-up, 360 view and usage-in-context
Benefits - One or two key benefits
Key features - One or two key features, if your product cannot be explained with less
Since these ads run on infinite loop, don’t just focus on the opening shot but on all of it. Consider the video as a collection of mini-videos that could each stand alone. Since the ad loads at page load, by the time a buyer scrolls down to the ad, it is already in motion. Keep that in mind when you get to the creation step.
This ad type has been available for almost 2 years now and is till underutilized. Refer to our comprehensive guide to creating Sponsored Brand Video Ads
if you want to build video ads yourself.
Additionally, Amazon now provides 2 ways to create your own video ads:
Video Creative Builder (available through the DSP console as well as via your Amazon Rep
Video Builder here https://advertising.amazon.com/video-builder?entityId=<YOUR ENTITY ID>
To Wrap Up
If you are not running video ads, you are missing out! Instead of getting paralyzed by the idea of building professional, studio-quality videos, just get started with a simple template based ad that can start delivering results right away.
Did this post spark your curiosity or trigger a question? Comment below or email us at support@ppcninja.com. We'd love to hear from you!
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