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Amazon Sponsored Brand Video Ads 101: A Beginner’s Step-by-Step Guide

By Guest

In the competitive world of Amazon, driving visibility and engagement for your products is the key to success. With video becoming increasingly dominant in overall marketing strategies, sellers who leverage this feature are more likely to stand out.

One of the most powerful tools to achieve this is Amazon Sponsored Brand video ads. They empower sellers to create compelling advertising experiences, capture leads’ attention, and draw possible customers to product listings. In this article, we’ll explore what Amazon Sponsored Brand videos are, their benefits, and how they work hand in hand with Sponsored Brand video ads to enhance your Amazon advertising strategy.

Amazon 🤝 Videos

As consumers increasingly favor video content on social media platforms, Amazon’s algorithm is geared toward surfacing this engaging format. Videos provide a more immersive and engaging experience, allowing potential customers to see products in action. As a result, studies show that watching a video can compel 84% of people to buy a product.

Amazon recognizes this shift in consumer behavior, and by giving preference to video ads in search results, they enable sellers to capture more attention. Further, according to BrightEdge Research, 26% of searches on Google include video results, often from YouTube​, making it clear that video content is now a crucial part of any eCommerce strategy.

Amazon Sponsored Brand video ads are video-based ads designed to promote a brand’s products at the top and middle of the marketplace’s search results. Unlike static ads, these videos offer a dynamic, engaging way to showcase your product in action, helping potential buyers visualize its benefits and uses.

The videos are an extension of Amazon’s Sponsored Brands ads, which typically feature company logos, custom headlines, and a range of products. The Amazon Sponsored Brand video ads take this further by creating an immersive ad experience, grabbing attention in a busy search result page.

Why incorporate them into your Amazon marketing strategy

Amazon Sponsored Brand video ads yield several benefits to sellers, with some of the most significant being:

  • Increased engagement and conversions: Video content is proven to be more engaging than images or text, leading to higher CTR and conversions. A compelling video can showcase the unique features of your product in a way that static ads can’t match.
  • Visual storytelling: With Amazon Sponsored Brand video ads, you can tell a story in a matter of seconds. Whether it’s displaying how your product works or how it can solve a common problem, videos convey emotion and practicality better than text alone.
  • Higher visibility: These ads appear in prime locations, such as the top of the search results page or within product listings, ensuring your brand stands out from competitors.
  • Greater trust: By giving potential customers a detailed look at your product; including how it’s used, you build trust. That transparency often results in higher purchase intent, as customers feel more confident in their buying decisions.

To earn the greatest results from your Amazon Sponsored Brand video ads, it’s important to understand best practices that can help drive clicks and conversions. Here are six tips we recommend for maximum effect:

  1. Keep it short and engaging: Amazon suggests keeping videos around 15 to 30 seconds, which makes the first few seconds of it crucial. This ensures your message is delivered quickly and effectively before a potential customer moves on. Focus on your products’ key benefits and make them stand out within the first five seconds.
  2. Include a clear call to action (CTA): Whether you want to encourage viewers to learn more, make a purchase, or visit your Amazon storefront, your CTA should be straightforward and leave no room for deviating actions. That single path will guide shoppers towards the next step with ease.
  3. Show the product in use: Displaying your product’s unique selling proposition (USP) in real-world scenarios builds trust and highlights how it solves a problem or adds value.
  4. Invest in high-quality production: While you don’t need a Hollywood-worthy production, investing in good lighting, clear audio, and professional editing will elevate your video. Poor-quality productions can hurt your brand’s image, so ensure the video is polished and professional.
  5. Optimize for mobile: Over half of Amazon shoppers browse and buy on mobile devices. So, optimize your video for both desktop and mobile, focusing on clear visuals and text that are easy to read, even on smaller screens.
  6. Leverage reviews and social proof: Include customer reviews or testimonials in your video to boost credibility. When shoppers see others benefiting from your product, they’re more likely to purchase it themselves.

Check out this example made for a client:

Before uploading your video though, make sure it meets the following requirements:

  • Video duration has to be between 6 and 45 seconds.
  • Supported video dimensions are 1920 x 1080px, 1280 x 720px, and 3840 x 2160px.
  • The file size has to be smaller than 500MB.
  • The file format has to be .MP4 or .MOV.
  • The aspect ratio is 16:9.

The Marvel Technique: A superpowered strategy for Amazon Sponsored video ads

The Marvel Technique is a proven approach that helps sellers maximize the effectiveness of their Amazon Sponsored video ads and boost performance across the board. Grounded in precision and agility, this technique focuses on five core principles to improve the impact of your ad campaigns:

  1. Know your market: Learn your target audience inside out, as well as the keywords they use. Hone in on popular keywords that match what customers search for.
  2. Use data wisely: Regularly check your ad performance reports to see what’s working and what’s not. Use that information to make smarter decisions for your campaigns.
  3. Make quick changes: Be flexible! Adjust your ads based on performance — raise bids for ads that work well and lower or stop the ones that don’t.
  4. Feature engaging visuals: As the “Marvel” movies have shown, visuals matter. Use high-quality images or videos to grab attention quickly and keep customers engaged.
  5. Have a strategy: Don’t rely on luck. Make decisions based on data and trends, targeting the right audience at the right time for the best results.

Amazon Sponsored Display is a PPC and CPM marketing product that allows you to reach customers who are already looking in your category or using terms similar to your product. It boosts your listings’ visibility and will even place you on your competitors’ listings to help you draw in more views, which translates into clients.

The biggest difference between Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display is the first two leverage keywords to hone in on potential customers, whereas Sponsored Display employs demographics to target audiences based on their shopping behavior.

To craft a Sponsored Display ad:

  1. Select your targeting strategy (product targeting of audiences).
  2. Set your bid and daily budget.
  3. Choose the products you’d like to promote or select the audiences you want to reach.
  4. Your team automatically creates your ad, which will then appear on or off Amazon, depending on your chosen targeting strategy.

In the world of Amazon advertising, it’s important to adopt a multi-channel approach. Amazon Sponsored Brand video ads and Sponsored Display ads work hand in hand to provide a holistic advertising strategy through:

  • Enhanced visibility across touch points: While Sponsored Brand videos capture attention on Amazon’s search results pages, Sponsored Display ads allow you to retarget customers across the platform’s network. These ads can appear on product detail pages, in buyer reviews, and even third-party websites, thus reinforcing brand visibility.
  • Targeting new and returning customers: Amazon Sponsored Brand video ads excel at attracting new shoppers who are searching for relevant products. Meanwhile, Sponsored Display ads help retarget customers who’ve already visited your product listings but haven’t yet made a purchase. This complementary approach keeps your brand top of mind at various stages of the buyer’s journey.
  • Broader audience reach: Sponsored Display ads extend beyond Amazon to include placements on external websites and apps, which gives you access to a wider audience. When combined with the rich media content of Amazon Sponsored Brand video ads, you create a comprehensive narrative that reaches and resonates with both new and returning shoppers.
  • Unified branding: By using both ad types, you can ensure consistent messaging and visuals across multiple channels. This builds a strong, cohesive brand presence and increases the likelihood of conversion.

What is the future of Amazon advertising?

Amazon’s approach to video marketing is like a well-oiled engine — constantly evolving and accelerating, with each new feature turbocharged to reach more customers. Let’s take a look at the key trends driving the future of Amazon video marketing:

  • Amazon Live: Brands and influencers are using Amazon Live to create shoppable live streams where viewers can interact with hosts, ask questions, and purchase products in real time​. This “shoptainment” trend shortens the buyer’s journey by combining entertainment and shopping into one seamless experience​.
  • Shoppable videos on Prime: Shoppable carousel ads and interactive pause ads are being integrated into Amazon Prime Video so viewers can shop without leaving their content. These new ad formats are reshaping the way consumers discover and purchase products.
  • Increased interactivity: Videos are becoming more interactive thanks to clickable hotspots and embedded product links, allowing users to engage with products directly within the video itself.  This interactivity enhances the overall shopping experience and increases conversions.
  • Video as a dominant medium: Video streaming is expected to account for over 80% of global internet traffic, highlighting the need for brands to invest heavily in both live and pre-recorded video content​. As Amazon continues to push these formats, sellers must adapt or risk falling behind in an increasingly video-first world.

Wrapping up — Upgrade your Amazon marketing efforts with Amazon Sponsored Brand video ads

Incorporating Amazon Sponsored Brand video ads into your advertising strategy is a must to drive engagement and conversions. They not only enhance brand visibility but also allow sellers to tell a compelling product story. When used alongside Sponsored Display ads, you can create a multi-channel strategy that reaches customers at every stage of the buyer’s journey.

Want to learn more about Amazon advertising strategies? Contact us today, and let’s optimize your listings for maximum performance!

This is a guest post from Rafael Veloz. Rafael is a three-time Telly Award-winning entrepreneur in marketing and film. With over 14 years of experience, he’s worked with big names like Nickelodeon, CNN, RedBull TV, Telemundo, and Viacom, as well as in high-level commercials and feature films.

In 2018, he founded Share It Studio, an Amazon marketing agency that sets itself apart with a data-driven approach and custom, full-package creative services exclusively for the Amazon platform. With their effective formula, they won the multi-agency global competition “The Amazing Listing” hosted by PickFu and Helium 10 in 2021.

For the past six years, the studio has boasted over 500 successful Amazon listings, with an average sales increase of 77% within the first month of launching. That success earned them the title of “Jungle Scout Market’s freelancer of the month” more than five times in their first three years alone.