Amazon Listing Optimization with Amazon video ads

Brand storytelling is an influential narrative to establish a strong connection between a brand and its audience. Videos provide brands an opportunity to tell a compelling story within a short span. Video ads are more impactful as they carry sensory information. According to a Hubspot report, 85% of online users want to see more video content from brands.

About Amazon Advertising 

Amazon made a recent transition from Amazon Marketing Services (AMS) to Amazon advertising. Amazon made this change to include all its services under an umbrella brand in September 2018. Earlier Amazon as AMS (in 2012) was offering three services- sponsored ads, product display ads, and sponsored brands. Now, Amazon advertising offers an Amazon Advertising Platform, Amazon Media Group, and Amazon Marketing Services. This shift was to lessen the complexity of usage by advertisers. The Amazon advertising console offers the following products-

• Sponsored products
• Sponsored brands
• Display ads
• Video ads
• Amazon DSP
• Custom ad services and Amazon attribution

What is Amazon Video Ad?

  Amazon video advertising is of two types-  

• Over-The-Top video ads
• Out-stream video ads  

Over-The-Top video advertising directly reaches customers by advertising over streaming video services or devices. According to a study by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, streaming video viewership makes up around 80% of the online traffic. OTT authorizes advertisers and brands the freedom to bypass media distribution control. Essentially, OTT permits a brand to reach its audience without any pre-planned broadcast schedule or geographical barrier. 

Outstream video ads are a form of native advertising where muted video ads pop-up while reading an online article or other non- video (editorial) content. It is non-disruptive as the ad runs only while viewing.

It is more commonly termed as ‘in-read’ or ‘native video’.  Amazon beta also offers sponsored video ads. These videos remain embedded around related product listings in the Amazon search engine result pages. These videos can easily trigger customers with high purchase intent to make a sale. 

Amazon Video ads can appear either within video content or as a creative element within a display ad. Amazon OTT offers restrictions of the skipping of ads by viewers. Thus, users have to view them until completion. Amazon doesn’t display outstream ads within video content. They use the space reserved for a display ad on a website or app. Amazon displays them over its subsidiaries like IMDb and across the web as independent videos.

Benefits of Amazon Video Ads

According to a 2019 study, 75% of Amazon customers use the Amazon marketplace for discovering new products and brands (Source: CPC Strategy and Survata).  Amazon offers massive online traffic for businesses. Higher traffic translates to higher exposure for your product ads. Additionally, Amazon video ads improve visibility through higher click-through rates. These clicks ultimately lead to more conversions. Amazon customers usually have a high purchase intent. It means that they visit Amazon with the intention to buy a product over Amazon. Consequently, brands and advertisers can easily convince them for a sale as they are already at the bottom of the marketing funnel. 

Having said that, Amazon video ads bring the following benefits for a business-

• Out-stream video ads target the right audience. Businesses can target more specifically and be certain about their customers across different locations.
• Amazon permits first-party sellers to customize their videos. It empowers brands to provide relevant content.
• Amazon places out-stream video ads along with a display campaign. It provides better targeting of the active purchasers or can simply be used for brand awareness.
• These ads run smoothly across all devices such as mobile phones and laptops.
• Sponsored Brand Videos target online shoppers via keywords and direct them straight to a brand’s product page.

  These benefits ultimately meet the bottom line of a business, i.e., generating higher leads and more ROI. Amazon video campaigns are cost-saving since they enable advertisers to bid on every impression without any fees.

How amazon video ads differ from normal ads?

Amazon video ads differ from the traditional online ads in the following ways-

AMAZON VIDEO ADS

• They are specific and enables targeted advertising over the amazon platform and its subsidiaries. Brands can target their niche market better for sure sales. 
• Ad keywords are based on targeting options that include relevant product or service category, buyer interests, and product types.
• Amazon levies a minimum ad spend.
• Ad bidding strategies include dynamic bidding, fixed bids, and placement bidding. Brands employing these strategies ineffectively can end up paying more than they anticipated. However, the most commonly used strategy is Cost-Per-Click (CPC). 
• The average conversion rate for amazon ads is 10% with a CPC of  $0.96.

TRADITIONAL ADS

• Traditional advertising services like Google ads offer a wide range of targeting. This enables businesses to discover and capture new markets.
• Google does customer targeting based on demographics, affinity, intent, similar audience, and remarketing.
• There’s no minimum ad budget. However, minimal ad spend can result in lower rankings as Google takes ad bids into account.
• Besides, CPC, Google ad bidding strategies include cost-per-view (CPV), and cost-per-acquisition (CPA). 

Conclusion

There’s no clear winner since both of them have their own advantages. Businesses can use both the strategies to gain higher revenue, expand their brand awareness, and acquire more customers. Online Marketing Agencies dealing with Amazon listing optimization and Amazon SEO services can provide the right skill set for the growth of a business. They can enable a business to achieve a milestone within a time-frame. In short, Amazon Video advertising has revamped video advertising standards by providing an overall sensory experience for consumers. If you would like to know more about how to put these services in use for your business then let’s connect.