In this article we present the Amazon Sponsored Brands Video Ads, which are available on the European Amazon marketplaces since September 2020. In addition, we share the experiences of our customers with these ads and give you recommendations for their use.
What are Sponsored Brands Video Ads?
The Amazon Sponsored Brands Video Ads (short: SBV) are a type of advertising within the Sponsored Brands format. As the name suggests, these ads consist of a video.
The targeting of Sponsored Brands videos is currently (November 2021) based solely on keywords. They are billed according to the classic cost-per-click model.
The most frequent placements on the desktop are within the search results. Below the video, the ad contains the same content as a Sponsored Product Ad (title, star rating, number of ratings, price and prime eligibility). However, like the Sponsored Brands, they can also be displayed above the search results.
The SBV were first released in the USA and have also been available in the EU since September 2020. They are only available for brands that are registered in the Amazon trademark register.
Special features of Sponsored Brands Video
The video starts automatically as soon as more than half of the preview image is displayed on the screen. It also plays without sound by default. The sound can be activated by clicking on the speaker icon located on the video.
The videos are short videos between 6 and 45 seconds long.
Since the ads are an extension of the Sponsored Brands, they can also be selected within them in Seller Central. After you have selected the format "Sponsored Brands", you can choose the videos.
Our Sponsored Brands Video experience
We (and our customers) are excited about this type of advertising for several reasons, which we list in this section.
Increase brand awareness
Videos stand out between pictures and create attention. If a video "captivates" the viewer in the first few seconds, interest in the content is automatically aroused. Getting attention is in most cases easier with videos than with pictures, especially with product pictures.
Conveying brand messages
Through moving images, brands can be made much more tangible for customers. Videos allow brands to convey messages and thus evoke emotions in customers, which are transferred to products of the corresponding brand. In this way, one's own products can be much better differentiated in highly competitive markets. This is more difficult to achieve with pure product images.
The market research institute Appinio has discovered in a study that the first three seconds of a video are decisive in deciding whether the video is viewed or scrolled further. If these first three seconds were exceeded, the product interest of the test persons increased many times over! The study was conducted with Instagram Videos, but we believe it can also be applied to Amazon.
Great performance
In initial comparisons we have found that Sponsored Brands Video Ads perform better than traditional Sponsored Brands in many performance-based metrics.
We found a higher Click-Through-Rate (CTR) in all investigated accounts - in some cases the video ads even have a CTR twice as high as the Sponsored Brands of the same brand! This confirms the above mentioned increase in brand awareness and the increased attention the videos get.
The Conversion Rate (CR) of the video ads in the accounts we analyzed remained about the same as the CR of the Sponsored Brands. Nevertheless, more sales were achieved in absolute terms, which is related to the increased number of clicks.
The costs per click (CPC) are currently lower than for the Sponsored Brands. This may be due to the fact that the Sponsored Brands Video Ads are (still) used comparatively little.
Video production
Our clients who already use Sponsored Brands Video Ads have either shot their videos themselves or hired a freelancer to do so. Amazon also cooperates with companies that provide templates for Amazon customers, which can be used to create videos relatively easily. You can read more about this in our recommendations in the next section.
In summary, we can say that we have had very good experiences with Sponsored Brands Video Ads and can definitely recommend their use. If you follow our following tips for use, you should definitely test the ad type for your brand. 
Pay attention to the following when using SBV
Technical requirements
Of course, Amazon has defined technical requirements for the video. You will find these in your Seller Central Account. Many of our customers ask how long the videos should be. To be eligible, a video must be between 6 and 45 seconds long. However, our recommendation is a duration of 20 - 30 seconds.
Cost-benefit consideration during production
How exactly you create your videos (or have them created) depends on you - as long as the above mentioned technical requirements are met. You can outsource the production and work with an external company or freelancer. This is the most cost-intensive option. Of course you can also create a video yourself. The easiest way to do this is by stringing together (product) images. Amazon maintains cooperations with tools like Animoto or Vidsy, which are specialized in video production. These tools provide templates with which you can easily create your videos. These videos also comply with all necessary specifications that Amazon provides.
The use of these tools is certainly the fastest and cheapest solution to create a video. When making decisions about video production, consider what your goals are with the video ads and how your products should be presented so that their benefits are best seen. If you have a rather small advertising budget and would like to test the video ads first, in our experience the creation with a video template is sufficient.
Transport content visually
Since the video is automatically played without sound, you should make sure that your video can communicate your planned content even without sound! If you want to convey product features auditively, you should remember to include subtitles or corresponding text elements in the video.
Arouse interest quickly
Since the Sponsored Brands Video Ads appear within the search results, it is important to arouse the interest of visitors who are currently scrolling through the list of search hits. This is already achieved automatically by the form of the video, as moving images stand out from the mass of purely static images. The next intention, however, is to animate visitors to watch the video for a longer period of time so that the message can be fully conveyed and in the best case a click is generated. So arouse the interest of your target group already in the first seconds of the video. Be creative and try to captivate the viewer with targeted camera work, colors, motives etc.
Focus on products
In spite of all creativity, don't forget that the video ads link to product detail pages. Therefore your video should also focus on the corresponding product. Even if it is a goal of the videos to make the corporate brand perceptible and emotionalize. If no product can be recognized, most likely no click will be made by the visitors (worse click-through rate) and if a different product than expected can be found on the detail page, most likely no purchase will be made (worse conversion rate).
If you have any questions regarding the use of Sponsored Brands Video, please feel free to contact us at hello@bidx.io
