Video: Amazon is embracing it and you should too

Video is the latest marketing wave to hit Amazon.com, and this is increasingly important to on channel advertisers. We’ve seen the shift to video format dominate other industries. Print market share has started to erode, Facebook’s image and posts have been edged out due to increasing video placement within feeds. Everyday there are more than 4 billion video views on facebook alone. All of this hype isn’t even including the other viral platforms that pop up and are catered to by advertisers from old school (in a relative sense) Snapchat, Instagram to new upstarts like Tik Tok. People are consuming content at all time highs as of late thanks to video.

So where exactly does Amazon fit in in the video conversation? We just want to pop on the phone, click the little blue shopping cart icon and have our Nerf Gun gift wrapped and delivered next day. While that may be the case for a large amount of purchases, there are many more out there where static images and lifestyle shots just don’t display enough to move us to the purchasing phase. We often talk about going into stores and looking the product up on Amazon to see if it’s cheaper and buying it there, but what about the opposite. How many times have you seen a product on Amazon, and gone to a store instead because you weren’t exactly sure if it’s what you were looking for? Whether this is the specific use case or just an evolution of the marketplace we’ve seen Amazon more and more start to embrace video content as of late.

Recently Amazon made available to select advertisers the ability to upload short video segments into their Sponsored Brands ads placement. Coupling this with listing videos in image placements, video for related products or Amazon live we’ve seen a huge push for video related content onto the platform. 

With the Sponsored Brands Video Ads, sellers can now select a single product and upload a video short highlighting specific features they previously would have had to rely on lifestyle images or detail page copy to highlight. Additionally, videos can help to cut down on returns and negative reviews. If you have the ability to accurately portray how your product is used you can highlight issues that often arise and help mitigate those pre purchase.

So, where exactly does video content appear on Amazon? We’ve got three prominent placements, and a hidden fourth.

Product Listings: For starters we have the video placement which is contained within images. You can upload directly to the listing replacing an image slot so when customers click on your listing and are scrolling through images your video can be played. 

Sponsored Brands Ads: The newest placement available on Amazon. Currently Video Ads are placing about halfway through the first page appearing below traditional Sponsored Brand Ads, Sponsored Products Top of Search and below the first row of organic placements.

Storefront: This placement has been around for awhile, and while it is nice to have the storefront page vetted out and optimized this generally has the least amount of visibility on Amazon for brands.

Product Listing Related Uploads: The one unknown and often underutilized video placement. You can actually upload a video directly to your listing by utilizing the “Upload your video” link. There are certain rules and limitations to this surrounding the amount of videos you can post and what will appear, but it’s always a good idea to add any additional video content to your listing if not to help sell the product but defend space from other videos on the listing as well.

Video content is very quickly becoming a key staple of the Amazon channel strategy as increasingly more content gets is moving from static to video. Being ahead of the competition with video assets and production can ultimately help your listing stand out, make your ads perform better and push you up the rankings leading to higher sales on Amazon.