Amazon Sponsored Brands Video ads: A Complete Guide (2024)

Amazon video ads when done right are a superpower. If you can get it right you can clean up your whole competitive landscape in a way that nobody else can. The reason is that this is one of the few aspects of Amazon that comes down to raw creativity.

Creating successful Amazon Sponsored Brands Video Ads requires strategic planning and creative execution. That's why we will also discuss the steps involved in creating effective video campaigns. These ads are not just about making your products visible; they're about captivating your audience, sparking their curiosity, and driving them to click and explore further.

In this guide, we're going to delve into the world of Amazon Sponsored Brands Video Ads. We will explore what these sponsored videos are, how they can transform the way you promote your products on Amazon, and why they are an essential tool in your marketing arsenal.

‍

What are Amazon Sponsored Brands Video Ads?

Sponsored brands videos, one of Sponsored brands ads format, is something you may have noticed yourself when using Amazon. Video ads are a very powerful way to promote your products. Amazon video ads on average convert between two and a half times for the click-through rate, so they have two and a half times a greater click-through rate than regular sponsored product ads which show up in the same place in search results, and they have between two times more conversions and lower ACOS.

‍

If you have noticed these videos appearing as part of the search results. I am sure many of you have, so it doesn't matter what device you're using you might see it in a slightly different format, but you will see the video alongside the product itself.

It has a really low ACOS, for this it's really good for getting attention when you look at the search results something like that is always going to stand out.

‍

Why you should create Sponsored Brands Video ads?

The primary objective of a sponsored brands video isn't to sell the product directly to the viewer. Instead, it is crafted to pique their interest, to intrigue them enough to make them want to click on the product listing. The emphasis here is on driving traffic to the product page through clicks rather than pushing for immediate sales. Once the viewer has been drawn in and has clicked through to the product listing, the intent shifts. Every element on the product listing - from the video and images to the descriptive text - is meticulously designed to sell the product.

The sponsored brands video must have certain interesting and unique features. It should not be purely for the sake of entertainment, instead, it should be engaging in a way that stimulates curiosity, inspiration, or an emotional connection with the product. The entertainment factor is crucial but it has to be directly related to the product. It should steer clear of general amusement and instead, the excitement, entertainment, or information offered by the video should be intricately woven around the product. The viewer, after watching the video, should not only be entertained but also feel a connection to the product, which in turn, motivates them to explore further by clicking on the product listing.

‍

Sponsored Brands Video Ads Format Guideline

Sponsored brand videos are available in both desktop and mobile versions, with a large percentage of their traffic coming from mobile usage., so it is really important to know the guidelines especially screen text guidelines the type of fonts to use and how to space it and stuff like that. Here is the Amazon sponsored video guidelines.

‍

Creative best practices

• Keep it short, less than 30 seconds: Amazon's recommendation is between 15 and 30s. The sponsored video should have an impactful introduction to keep the client's attention to show him all the key selling points of your product.
• Choose an outstanding introduction image: The first image should have a catchy background different from the white background of all the products displayed on the search result’s page. You should avoid all logos and fluffy intros.
• Optimize for sound off displays: The default mode is muted on Amazon, most customers won’t activate the sound, concentrate on the images more than the sound.
• Focus on the product features and capabilities: The main thing to be displayed is the product and nothing else, every second of the video should have a purpose in terms of convincing the user to buy your products.
• Make it loop-friendly: The video will loop automatically, make the transition between the end and the start smooth.

In addition to those best practices for Amazon Advertising Video, you can find below the details Video Specs and content guidelines from Amazon website:

‍

Video specs

• 16:9 aspect ratio
• 1280 x 720px, 1920 x 1080px or 3840 x 2160px
• 23.976, 24, 25, 29.97, 29.98, or 30 fps
• 1 Mbps or higher bit rate
• H.264 or H.265 codec
• 6-45 sec long
• 500 MB or smaller
• MP4 or MOV file
• Main or baseline profile
• Progressive scan type
• 1 video stream only

‍

Audio specs

• 44.1 kHz or higher sample rate
• PCM, AAC or MP3 codec
• 96 kbps or higher bit rate
• Stereo or mono format
• Not more than 1 audio stream

‍

Where do you create Sponsored Brands Video (Step-by-Step)?

Creating Amazon Sponsored Brands Videos is a process that can be accomplished in several ways. The first method is through the Amazon Seller Central account. This method involves making a new campaign and selecting 'Sponsored Brands,' which will guide you to the correct section for creating your video. On the other hand, you can opt to use our dedicated PPC tool, M19, which offers a streamlined and user-friendly experience for setting up your Sponsored Brands Video. Both methods cater to different preferences and are designed to help you create effective video ads for your products.

‍

Set up SB Videos in Amazon Seller central

In Amazon seller central when you create a new Sponsored Brands Video campaign make sure you click on sponsored brands and that will take you through to the correct section.

‍

Step one: Create a PPC campaign

Here we are on the create campaign page all you need to do is pop in your own campaign name choose whether it's part of an existing portfolio or not, the start date will usually be the date you're creating the campaign and then pop in your daily budget.

‍

Step two: Create a Sponsored Brands Video campaign

The most important thing here as you scroll down is make sure you select the video beta box here.

‍

Step three: Select your keywords or product ASINs

Because when you select this change the options that are below it, so select your video box here then on the left-hand side will load all the products you sell. Then add them the ones that you want to target so usually one product at a time you're targeting add them here.

‍

Step four: Upload your video

You'd list your products, you'd add the one that you want to promote and as you scroll down further it will then ask you to upload the video.

‍

Now this is different to creating a normal PPC advertise on Amazon usually with a keyword or product campaign there's no approval process to go through you just create your campaign and as the advert itself is created based on your product listing there's no approval process which with the video as you could literally be uploading anything this does go through a manual review process. It takes around 8 to 12 hours for Amazon to approve them so once your video is uploaded, don't expect it to start straight away. It will stay pending and hopefully Amazon will approve it so don't expect to see immediate results it needs to be approved and then give it a few days at least to support deciding whether that advert is working for you or not.

And then once you scroll down you'll see the usual kind of keyword targeting tools you'd associate with creating a PPC campaign.

‍

You can either use their suggested keywords enter the list of your own, or you can upload a file if you've already done some keyword research. So it's kind of very similar to creating a normal campaign just with the approval process and the fact you've actually got to create the video itself it's not something that Amazon's going to automatically generate.

Set up SB Videos in m19 Platform

For efficient setup of Sponsored Brand Video ads, a PPC tool such as M19 can be incredibly useful. This tool automates the keyword bidding process, enhances the visibility of your video ads, and maximizes your return on investment. The M19 platform is a prime example of a PPC tool designed for this purpose.

‍

Step 1: Access the m19 Platform

1. Log in the M19 platform
2. Navigate to the Dashboard.
3. Go to Strategies.
4. Select Sponsored Brands.
5. Choose the option to Create a New Strategy.

‍

Step 2: Set up your SB video ads

1. Select for example “Video” as your ad format.
2. Enter the basic details of your campaign, such as the campaign name, algorithm mode and your ACoS Target budget.

Step 3: Upload the Ads Elements

1. Upload Your Landing page which is either product listing or your Amazon store.
2. Upload your creative assets: Your video.
3. Select ASINs you want to promote.

Best Practices for your Sponsored Brands Video

There is a certain formula that works. You have to apply the creativity. Every product and every category are different so let's go into it.

‍

Engage Visual Clickbait

Sponsored brands videos show up in the middle of search results. It's like this on desktop, and it's like this on mobile. The video itself takes up the entire width of the screen on desktop. The primary image of the product you see when you run an Amazon product video ad not having visual clickbait.

Now one thing that's super important to notice is that sometimes the video plays as soon as you scroll onto it or when 50 of the frame has entered the screen and on mobile you know this happens more often that sometimes you have to click to play the video. Now why are users going to click a video that's showing a screen that doesn't look interesting at all. This is one of the biggest mistakes that sellers make is not having interesting visual clickbait on their sponsored brands videos. Clickbait is just something that gets them to click.

‍

Action

The very first thing in the first couple of seconds has to be action. Don't start off with something boring. Now what can action be? Action is something anything striking. It does make you want to see what's going on, like it makes you curious to see what's going on. It shouldn't be a static background what it shouldn't be is just the product sitting there this is not enough action the first few seconds the only goal for the first like one and a half to five seconds is to get them to watch the rest of the video and the total video time should be between 15 and 45 seconds.

‍

Problem-Solving

After the action you immediately show the problem being solved by the product. Your ad should show for which problem your product is capable for providing solution. It has to say enough about the product or shows the product in action and shows the problem being solved.

‍

Visual Text

There should be enough visual text showing the features and benefits of the products in the video and this is what many sellers don't do it in a right way. You don't just blast them with features and benefits and all kinds of cool stuff. You can do that later the first thing you do is different. Ad should be entertaining something that you want to watch and continue watching.

‍

Show Features and Benefits together

After this we're going to show shots that show features and benefits together. This is what you can only do with video when you're typing out text the way to do it in the bullet points. You're showing the benefits that you either solve a problem or feed a passion and then the features that deliver those benefits. In video, you can actually do both at once, since it's a live moving dynamic system of video you can show the features delivering certain benefits live.

‍

Text Overlay

Now one important fact of this is that there has to be text overlay because you're not going to communicate verbally with a significant portion of the viewers of this video. More than half majority will not be using audio on the video, so you have to be able to show these features and benefits visually through the shots and with text overlaid.

‍

Show the Brand

So the bulk of the video showing the problem being solved in real life and showing the features and benefits together of the product and there are a lot of creative ways to do that, and we're going to walk through a couple of those the last thing that you do is show the brand. So brand logo and any other brand assets that you have or anything related to the brand but definitely the logo and tagline.

‍

‍

Conclusion

Amazon sponsored videos are doing really well, they're getting lots of attention, and they are converting very well. If you've got a product selling on Amazon, and you're currently using PPC management or maybe if you're not using PPC because it's too expensive it may be worth experimenting with these sponsored videos to see whether you can get some good results from them.

‍