Video Content For Amazon

Amazon video content overview for PPC, product listings and Storefronts, plus a downloadable pdf with specs and upload steps.

The uniformity of content on the Amazon channel is both a blessing and curse for brands. On one hand, Amazon has refined and continues to perfect a standardized marketplace format that promotes conversion and customer loyalty. But the downside is that quality products have the same general appearance and layout to less than superior offerings.

However, with video content, brands now have a powerful tool that can customize their Amazon presence to win more market share.

In this article Nikola Basic, Bobsled PPC Manager, has provided some useful tips about how to harness video for Amazon PPC and Marija Granic, Bobsled Account Specialist, explains how video can be incorporated into product listing pages and storefronts.

Why should brands be using video on the Amazon channel?

NIKOLA: Sponsored Brands Video Ads, also called Video in Search, is a new ad type available for select brands. With this ad type, sellers are able to showcase their product in a more compelling way, especially if a product has specific features that are hard to describe solely with copy on the product page. 

Brands should also consider using video ads as a point of differentiation. Every new feature that Amazon rolls out could give you an advantage over the competition, and video ads are no different. A well-crafted video can outline your product’s unique selling points more succinctly compared to long-winded bullet points and product descriptions. 

On the left: PPC Manager Nikola Basic

MARIJA: Adding videos to Product Detail Pages and Storefronts can help increase your conversion percentage. Videos can also prevent negative reviews, reduce the number of returns and improve the overall customer experience. If you define the most common issues that your customers are having by checking negative reviews and return reasons, you might use the videos to address those issues and concerns (e.g. if the customers complain about the wrong size, try to explain the dimensions and how to define the correct size before they purchase the product).

Who can upload video content to Amazon?

NIKOLA: Sponsored Brands Video ads were released only a few months ago. They are still in the beta phase which means that this new feature is invite-only. Since they are under the Sponsored Brands ad type, sellers need to be brand registered in order to run this ad type. 

MARIJA: In order for you to upload video content to product display pages or storefronts on Amazon, you must be a Professional seller registered with Amazon’s Brand Registry and sell on Amazon.com. Both Vendor and Seller Central sellers can apply video content if they follow Amazon’s Video Content Policy.

On the right: Bobsled Account Specialist Marija Granic

Where does video content appear on the Amazon marketplace?

NIKOLA: Originally, we only saw video ads in one place - the bottom of the 1st result page (desktop only). Amazon calls this ad placement ‘Rest of search on Amazon’ which we can learn from the Advertising Reports. 

But just in the last few days, Amazon Video Ads have started showing in the second row of the search results, right after the Sponsored Products. Amazon is also testing a new ad placement that is right after the first line of Sponsored Products. These recent developments are really exciting!

MARIJA: You can upload product info videos to your Product Listings and Storefront. 

Product Listings

Videos on Product Listings will appear in the image carousel (left or below the Main Image, depending on the category):

In order for a video to show in the Image Carousel, there must be less than 6 images.

Videos on Product Listings will also appear in the Video Carousel which shows all the videos for this product, along with the videos for related products. Video Carousel can be found above the Customer Questions and Customer Reviews section of the page (bottom):

Storefront

Video Content can be applied to the Storefront as well. Amazon offers 4 types of video tiles - Full Width, Large, Medium and Small. Here is an example of a Large Video Tile: 

What is the video content creation process like for Amazon?

NIKOLA: Creating quality video ads takes time and effort, so most brands should focus on their best sellers and/or products that are difficult to properly describe with words only. For more info check out Amazon Sponsored Brands Video Ads Best Practices.

MARIJA: Picking the right products, aligning video content with brand messaging, ensuring the final product showcases your product in the best light possible - there’s a lot that goes into creating product info videos for Amazon. If you don’t have a good in-house video content creator, we’d highly recommend using one of Bobsled’s trusted partners such as Lemonlight who can help you create fantastic content tailored for the Amazon marketplace.

What are the specs and how do I upload the content to Amazon?

MARIJA: I’ve gone ahead and created a pdf with the specs and upload process for both video ads and info videos. You can download the pdf below.

Download FREE PDF

How do you track the performance of video content on Amazon?

NIKOLA: Amazon has provided a robust list of Advertising Reports which can be used for analyzing collected data. Available reports include:

• Sponsored Brands Video Keyword report
• Sponsored Brands Video Keyword Placement report
• Sponsored Brands Video Campaign report
• Sponsored Brands Video Campaign Placement report
• Sponsored Brands Video Search Term (New) report

With these reports we can measure ad results and optimize accordingly. Unfortunately at this point in time Video ads still can’t be optimized with bulk operations. 

MARIJA:

Video Content on Product Listings

The Video Dashboard allows you to track:

• Total views in the last 30 days (per video)
• The average percentage of the total video viewed by shoppers in the last 30 days (per video)

However, it’s important to track the overall listing engagement (impressions, clicks, conversions) in order to determine if the conversion percentage increases after a product info video has been uploaded.

Video Content Storefront

You can only track the page performance on the Storefront, but not its elements. Therefore there isn’t a way to see views/conversions from Storefront video content. However, one could extrapolate the potential impact of the update by capturing baseline performance data pre-video and then tracking performance after the addition of video content to the Storefront.

What are results you have observed from brands who have launched video content on Amazon?

NIKOLA: I have shared some preliminary Sponsored Brands Video ads results here.

MARIJA: We recently launched Product Page video for a Bobsled client and the average percentage of the total video viewed by shoppers is over 83%. We can safely assume that the videos had a strong impact on overall performance as sales have increased by +200% in the first month, compared to the previous month (when the product listing didn’t contain videos).