Amazon helps grow businesses and brands of all sizes by continually increasing and updating the list of advertising solutions. Considering that viewers retain 95% of a message in a video form, compared to 10% when reading in the text, and 77% of consumers say they’ve been convinced to buy a product or service after watching a video, hence, the rationale behind Amazon including video ads in their platform.
What is OTT Advertising?
OTT (over-the-top) advertising is advertising delivered directly to viewers over the internet through streaming video services or devices, such as smart or connected TVs (CTV). The term “over-the-top” comes from the ability to bypass traditional TV providers that control media distribution, giving advertisers the ability to reach their audiences directly, without pre-planned broadcast schedules or geographic limitations.
Source: Amazon
Added benefits of OTT over traditional TV include:
- Precise customer targeting
- Enhanced ad relevance leading to better customer engagement
- Build and complement base campaigns with focused, complementary strategies: incremental reach, frequency management, focus on lapsed customers, target competitors.
- Improved accountability – optimize future campaigns.
Why Sponsored Brands Video?
This new ad format allows retailers who leverage Sponsored Brands to tap the power of video content in addition to the regular image-based advertisements. This video ad type allows you to stand out in mobile and desktop shopping results and helps customers discover your products as they shop on Amazon.
Source: Amazon
There are many good reasons to use video in general, but the Sponsored Brands program is especially attractive for the following reasons:
- Differentiated – Video in sponsored ads allows you to cater more to mobile/desktop users while telling your brand story in a more complete and compelling way.
- Relevant – You can easily reach customers searching for similar products through the effective use of keyword targeting.
- Integrated – Using the Sponsored Ads creative builder, the video ads are easy to set up.
Amazon Display Ads with OTT & Sponsored Brands Video
Using Over-The-Top (OTT), Sponsored Brands Video and display advertising in Amazon can help advertisers improve ad-attributed customer engagement across the sales funnel as measured by branded search rate, detail page view rate, and purchase rate. To examine the advertising strategies of the brands as well as the contact of the target group with advertisements, study by Amazon showed the following:
- 47% – more likely to research a brand on Amazon for audiences that saw both OTT and display ads compared to audiences that did not see both ads.
- 90% – higher in terms of customer engagement among brands that used display, Sponsored Brands Video, and OTT together compared to brands that used display only.
- 28% and 25% – more likely to view a detail page and make a purchase, respectively, for audiences exposed to both display and OTT for the same product.
Brand Comparison by Advertising Strategy
The display campaigns used by the brands were segmented based on the other ads that were run for the products featured during the same time period. The segments were:
- Display only
- Display + Sponsored Brands Video
- Display + OTT
- Display + OTT + Sponsored Brands Video
Source: Amazon
The figure above illustrates the four brand-level segments that were compared. Relatedly, when three display ad-attributed customer engagement metrics are compared across the four segments, the values are evaluated as follows:
- Branded search rate: The number of branded searches relative to the number of ad impressions. (Branded search rate = Branded searches / Impressions)
- Detail page view rate: The number of detailed page views relative to the number of ad impressions. (Detail page view rate = Detail page views / Impressions)
- Purchase rate: The number of purchases relative to the number of impressions. (Purchase rate = Purchases / Impressions)
How Different Brand Ads Strategy Affect Product Sale
According to an analysis by Amazon, different ad strategies had the following outcome:
Brands that invested in OTT and display saw an increase in ad-attributed branded searches
For brands that ran OTT and display ads, their display ad-attributed branded search rates were 47% higher than for brands that ran display campaigns only. However, when brands ran display, Sponsored Brands Video, and OTT, their display ad-attributed branded search rates were further increased 68% higher than brands that run only Sponsored Brands Video and display campaigns.
This implies that customers were more likely to shop for a brand on Amazon when they saw both OTT and display ads.
Brands that invested in OTT, Sponsored Brands Video, and display had the highest detail page views and purchase rates
For brands that invested in display, Sponsored Brands Video, and OTT campaigns at the same time had the highest display ad-attributed detail page views and purchase rates, which were up to 90% higher than brands that ran display campaigns only. Using all three ad strategies together helped engage audiences through their purchase journey.
Source: Amazon
Audiences exposed to both OTT and display ads were more engaged
For brands that used both OTT and display, the audience exposure brought about an increased customer engagement. We found that audiences exposed to both OTT and display had an average purchase and detail page view rates that were up to 28% higher than audiences exposed to display ads only.
From the deductions highlighted above, it is obvious that while the first and second insights compared differences between brands, the third compares audience ad exposure.
Conclusion
While there are differences between OTT and Sponsored brand videos, both can help you increase brand awareness and purchase intent. The crucial difference is that Sponsored Brands Video helps you to achieve that goal on the Amazon website, and Amazon OTT expands your options to other places off Amazon.
Therefore, Amazon in their study showed that OTT and Sponsored Brands Video have an optimization effect on display campaigns. It is established that OTT was most effective in driving your ad-attributed branded searches when used together with display. Both Sponsored Brands Video and OTT worked best together with display ads to improve display ad-attributed detail page view and purchase rates.
