What are the new Amazon video ads?

For the thousands in attendance and the millions watching around the world…

FINALLY, Amazon unveiled its new set of Amazon video ads at UnBoxed 2022 conference. 

This announcement got us so excited that we had no other choice but to put on our party hats. 

Why?

That’s because we love videos. 

But there’s one thing we love more, i.e., helping small and medium-sized Amazon sellers like you grow. 

The latest Amazon video ads features will now empower advertisers of all sizes to create immersive video ad content easily using Video Builder’s ready-to-use customizable templates.

Another good news – if you love Sponsored Display ads, you’ll be happy to know that Amazon added the video format to its Sponsored Display Program. 

Before we talk about these new video ad features in detail, let’s understand why you, as an Amazon seller, should care about Amazon video ads.

Should You Run Amazon Video Ads? Why?

Let’s get the elephant out of the room – Amazon text-based ads are not convincing. While writing this article, I looked up “men’s bag” on Amazon search and here’s an example of some text-based Sponsored Product ad I came across:

Yes – factors like 8,092 reviews and the low price tag will make some buyers (who are ready to purchase) click through. But for me, there wasn’t any WOW factor here. 

As I moved further down the Amazon SERP – I found this video ad that caught my attention immediately – 

Made me fall in love with video ads – all over again.

Here’s something I realized – I love video ads over text-based ones. 

And it’s not just me.

Wyzowl reported that about 73% of consumers prefer video ads to discover more about products and services. And 88% have claimed that video ads are so powerful that they convinced them to purchase a product or service. 

Well-crafted engaging video ads are extremely powerful. 

But if you want your video ads to work and help you increase your click-through + conversion rate, you need to make sure they’re convincing as well. From coming up with an engaging hook to targeting your audience’s problem to delivering a persuasive call-to-action (CTA) – you need to do it right.

YOU NEED TO DO IT RIGHT – this statement is the reason why most Amazon sellers are afraid of investing in video ads. 

Most Amazon sellers don’t really know how to produce jaw-dropping video ads – and it’s totally understandable. 

Another big myth among marketers and advertisers is – producing engaging videos is costly. Yes – it’s hard to produce engaging video content – there’s no denying it. However, producing videos is not costly at all – you just need to figure out the right way to do it. Amazon reached out to a few third-party sellers – who reported:

As we mentioned before, the latest Amazon video ads features empower advertisers of all sizes to create immersive video ad content easily using Video Builder’s ready-to-use customizable templates. 

Let’s dive into this.

Let’s Talk About Latest Amazon Video Ads Features!

Here’s a quote from our CMO Will Gasner on this subject, “Video is the way of the future, and data across many brands running advertising campaigns shows that video ads can decrease costs up to 5X, increase conversions by 3X, and boost social engagement rates by 40%. Due to these reasons, it makes sense why marketplaces like Amazon are investing so much in offering new types of video advertisement options to sellers since the more sales sellers get, the more the marketplace makes.”

Following are the three new Amazon video ads features announced at UnBoxed 2022:

• Expanded Public Beta Program for Amazon’s Video Builder

• Ability to Drive Traffic to Store with Sponsored Brand Video Creatives

• Addition of Video to Sponsored Display

Expanded Public Beta Program for Amazon’s Video Builder

Most brands struggle with video production, especially small and medium-sized Amazon brands due to lack of resources and manpower. 

Want to produce video tutorials or product demo videos yet don’t have the budget to hire a video producer and/or editor?

Good news – you don’t need to spend too much time, effort, and money anymore. You don’t need to learn how to use a video editing application like Adobe Premiere Pro. And you don’t really need to hire a video editor anymore.

With Amazon’s Video Builder (beta mode), you can produce highly engaging and compelling videos in no more than ten minutes. Here’s a screenshot of Video Builder’s customizable templates:

From categories to themes and more, the platform is loaded with so many templates to choose from. According to Heather Kehrberg, Director of Global Creative Success at Amazon Ads –

All you need to do is pull product images + copy, upload creative assets, find the right template, and BOOM – you’re done. With Amazon’s Video Builder, producing compelling and action-driving video ads has now become easier.

Ability to Drive Traffic to Store with
Sponsored Brand Video Creatives

Want to drive traffic to your Amazon store rather than your product listing? Amazon, at its UnBoxed 2022 conference announced that sellers running Sponsored Brand video ads can now redirect ad traffic directly to their store landing page.

You can choose whether you want to drive traffic to your Amazon store (including subpages) or product listing:

Addition of Video to Sponsored Display

Up until the UnBoxed 2022 conference, advertisers could only run video ads using the Sponsored Brands option. But now, the video format is available on Sponsored Display Ads. 

Wohoo!

Now, you can show off your Amazon products on and off the platform through immersive storytelling and in an engaging manner – as you can run Sponsored Display video ads of up to 45 seconds. 

Example:

We reached out to a few more experts for their statements on Amazon’s new video features and here’s what they had to say:

1. Elliott Davidson, Contrast

“Amazon video ads are so powerful as they give you a way to stand out from your competitors. Instead of just a basic image if you have a strong hook you can drive a decent click-through rate and then hopefully conversion rate for your product listing. This announcement from Amazon is the logical next step as it opens up the platform to lots of new brands. Typically speaking video is expensive so this move to help make it more assessable to SMEs will only help Amazon increase its ad platform revenue. The reason SMEs will benefit more from the tools is that they’ll better aid in the video creation process to make this easier for them, thus being better able to produce higher quality videos at a lower price and without requiring them to put in too much effort and time.”

• Paul Armstrong,  Editor, ‘What Did Amazon Do This Week?’

“The new ads are a boon for Content Creators around the world as they’ll mean more work and a better way to sell services and content like streams or events. Brands will want to deliver engaging content that leads to purchases using influencers via demos, tutorials, unboxing, etc. Aiming the new ad formats at small and medium-sized businesses is a smart move as this means those businesses can now compete more with larger brands which will further put money in Amazon’s pockets. The time they take to create is also interesting, Amazon says 10 minutes which means that such content could be a lot more reactive and fast-moving. A bonus for live streamers specifically. Amazon’s latest series of ad announcements show a hungry ad department looking to develop its existing tools during a period of economic uncertainty.”

Ready to Dive into the World of Video? Running Micro-Influencer Campaigns is the Best Way to Generate Engaging Video Ad Creatives

We fell in love with these new Amazon video ads features immediately. 

Why?

That’s because we help Amazon sellers generate a lot of influencer-generated content. 

We talked with a few of our clients – who built video ads using influencer-generated content. And trust me on this one – they were all praises.

The thing is – influencer-generated content is powerful. That’s because it’s not coming from your brand directly – but from influencers that people look up to. Build your video ads using this content – and you can knock your video advertising efforts out of the park. 

At Stack Influence, we motivate brands to incorporate influencer-generated content into their other marketing campaigns. When you work with us, you’ll own 100% rights to content piece from the campaigns.

Click here to go through our process.