Leverage Amazon Sponsored Brands Video Ads

Brand videos on Amazon everywhere. Searching for competitive products will almost always produce video content. The above example shows what appears when searching “smart speaker.”

Amazon brand ads come in a variety of formats which include text, images, and video. The only thing that makes Amazon-sponsored brand’s video ads unique is that they are solely used by those who qualify for the sponsored brand program.

The sponsored brand program is for Amazon brands willing to pay for Amazon’s unique PPC platform. These ads feature the following:

• A unique headline
• Your brand logo
• Multiple products from within the brand

Sponsored products that receive the spotlight are those who are considered part of the brand. This first means you must register the brand from Seller Central. Once your brand is part of the Amazon Brand Registry, you can utilize this program.

To become part of the registry and be able to create brand videos on Amazon, you need to meet these requirements:

• You must have an active trademark in the country where you enroll in the program. A pending trademark might also work.
• The trademark must be a text-based mark or an image-based mark with words, letters, or numbers.
• You must be the trademark owner.
• You must already have an Amazon Seller account.

The Amazon Brand Registry Program is only also available in a few countries. Check out the official page for the registry here.

Brand videos on Amazon work by injecting themselves as you would see traditional advertising. In most cases, you will see the among search engine results. The example above is the result of me searching “hat.”

The structure of the advertising holds all the same forms you would expect to see from a standard listing:

• Name of product
• Shortened product details
• Cost of product
• A label for prime shipping

The only addition is the inclusion of the video, which includes a play, pause, and mute option.

Brand videos on Amazon are more than generic Amazon video advertising. Instead, they include a unique toolset that allows you to hit narrow targets with your product catalog. Brand analytics are specific to those who qualify for the Brand Registry.

Information on your customers can bed done with a deeper dive using data from analytics. You can even create a unique storefront that is not for standard sellers (Amazon Stores). For detailed information, check out our blog on Amazon Brand Analytics and how to use it to increase your sales.

If you already have a Seller Central (or Vendor Central) account, the following four steps are just above. Below, we will detail what this process looks like:

The first step of any Amazon video advertising project is to set a budget. Your budget competes with the allocation of all other companies involves. Whoever bids more for the slot will receive the most exposure and typically the most sales.

The amount you are willing to spend will depend on your market niche. Competitive markets with many people will typically require a willingness to pay more. That threshold generally is part of how you set your prices on Amazon.

Advertising generally costs around six percent of your expected gross sales. Depending on your desired profit margin and competitive pricing, you won’t want to go very far beyond that unless other costs are meager.

As a brand, you will have already created a logo. But the need for engaging product titles and descriptions is essential. Amazon video advertising also must be concerned with the quality of the video, which is a problematic area by itself.

You can follow many of the rules mentioned on our guide to creating a winning product details page. Here’s a quick summary of some tips for engaging titles and description:

• Make sure your title is clear, descriptive, and eye-catching.
• Make sure your image is high-quality and meets Amazon’s image requirements.
• Think about what your audience needs from this product.

The product category and threshold for advertising costs will change what keywords you target. You want to be sure that the keyword gets enough search volume, but it isn’t so competitive that it’s entirely out of budget. The balancing act can feel impossible.

Also, unlike Amazon SEO, PPC keywords won’t benefit you with the A10 search algorithm. While there is some crossover on PPC and SEO keywords, the two should have different considerations. Outbidding competitors is your key to maintaining a high PPC rank.

DataHawk Advertising is a system you can use for easier and faster reporting on your PPC ads. This tool allows you to track and focus on the most effective ad campaigns. This system prevents you from wasting money on campaigns going nowhere.

Once you’ve checked over your brand videos on Amazon, you can move to the submission process. From the graphic above, remember that it can take up to 72 hours for your ad to be approved. Common reasons for declined video ads are below:

• Your video includes customer reviews
• Your video includes Amazon brands or logo
• You have empty frames at the start/end of your video
• Your video ends abruptly and needs editing
• Your text obstructs or confuses the interface (ex. you have something behind the play/pause button).
• Your text is below 30pts.
• Your video is not in the correct language of your target region.

For more details on ensuring your video meets the acceptance process, check out the Sponsored Advertising Guidelines and Acceptance Policies. 

Amazon-sponsored brands have a lot of responsibility on their hands. When creating brand videos on Amazon, that responsibility can increase a bit. To simplify some of that process, check out our suggestions for the best practices of Amazon video advertising for sponsored brands.

Standard Amazon brand ads are simple and display a product image by default. When creating a video about the product, it’s easy to get lost and focus on another video aspect. It’s good practice to show the product within the first one or two seconds of a video.

Doing so creates a focal point for your prospective customer. If your first shot is of the attractive person using your product, they aren’t likely to be thinking about your product for very long.

Advertising blocks come in both 15- and 30-second durations. Amazon brand ads are no different, as the attention spans of most ordinary people are relatively low. Whether they be desktop users or mobile shoppers, it is your job as an advertiser to catch their attention in a short time.

Giant advertisements regularly work. Short, punchy advertisements that get straight to the point do.

Humans have been storytellers for as long as we can remember. A creative product video built around a story is far more memorable than a video with a boring list of features.

While it’s important to mention the benefits, remember that people want to see how the product works. You can do this easily by associating that product with touching moments or silly situations.

All good advertisers respect their prospective buyers. One way to do that is to engage the watcher through a CTA which asks them to click on the product. If you don’t ask them, they aren’t likely to take your offering seriously.

Text sizes need to be a minimum of 30pts, but that can be challenging to read. Instead, your focus should be to make the text as large as possible. This text size ensures the watcher can easily read any pertinent data on your ad.

The ad should be effortless for your prospective buyer. So make sure everything is clear, engaging, and understandable. While you are at it, don’t forget to include your logo nearby the text!

The music should be suitable for the content of the video. Serious topics need music that isn’t too jumpy or silly. You also wouldn’t pick a sad piano rift for your outdoor fun product.

Think about the feeling you want customers to experience when looking at your video. That feeling may dictate their excitement for buying your product.

Below are some simple questions associated with the service:

You typically find these advertisements along the bottom of search engines. They are less effective when watching videos on Amazon Prime because they interrupt the user experience.

When you target keywords, you are already focusing on someone who has the intent to buy. A video watcher may have expressed intention to purchase prior, but you won’t typically see those ads appear on Amazon Prime.

To do this, you need to determine a reasonable range for your desired profit margin. Advertising on Amazon is a good portion of the Cost of Goods Sold (COGS), so you will need to include potential advertising costs with that figure.

How much you should spend depends on how long it takes to cut into your desired profit margin against advertising costs. If you are burning money, stop spending money on advertising.

ACoS, or Advertising Cost of Sales, is one of the most important figures you can find through data on Seller Central. ACoS typically runs at about 30% of your total sales on Amazon, but that figure can be very different depending on your niche.

To calculate it, take your total ad spend, divide it by total sales (money), and multiply that figure by 100. For example, if you spend $50 and sell a product for $100. Plugging it into the formula tells us you are paying 50 cents for every dollar you make. ACoS would be 50% (50 cents times 100).

If your profit margin (excluding advertising costs) is 20%, that means 30% of the sale is returning to the business. Typically, profit margins do not consider indirect cost impacts (overhead for owning a physical location, the electric bill, etc.).

Advertising any product on Amazon can add a unique punch to your business your competitors may not have. Whether it’s uncommon for your niche or in heavy use, keeping up and finding ways to stay ahead using those advertising targets are a great way to boost your sales rank. On Amazon, unique and creative advertising receives higher sales as a reward.

To ensure your advertisement is effective and informed, use DataHawk’s Amazon Product monitoring system. Data is king when it comes to determining your next move.