Amazon Sponsored Brand Video Ads: A High ROAS Playbook

Sponsored brand video ads are one of the great opportunities on Amazon PPC right now because of the exposure it gives your listing, and because of the relatively cheap pricing they’re available for. 

It’s no secret to anybody in the eCommerce space that video advertising has become more and more popular as people are spending more time-consuming video content than ever. 

Amazon video advertising gives us a great opportunity to show the benefits of our product and to really market it in a professional and high-converting way.

Today I’m going to talk you through the strategy behind the videos we’re creating right now. I’m also going to show you a free way that you can create videos of your own for your product.

There’s great opportunity with sponsored brands advertising because not many people are utilizing this advertising format. Most people are focusing completely on sponsored products, which means there’s potential for cheap placements. 

That means we don’t have to bid as high for an Amazon sponsored brands video because there’s more opportunity and fewer people doing it. So we’ve been really working hard on increasing our video advertising and creating videos that are going to convert. 

Today I’ll share with you the four key things that I sent to my videographer for him to create the videos around in order to make sure they translate into sales. 

But first, let’s check the technical specs required.

Amazon Sponsored Brand video ads tech

In order to have your video approved by Amazon, it will need to comply with a number of technical specifications.

Most of these specs would be met by default when using any mainstream video editor.

However, to be sure, here’s the full list Amazon provides:

Video specs

• Aspect ratio: 16:9
• Dimensions: 1280 x 720px, 1920 x 1080px or 3840 x 2160px
• File size: 500 MB or smaller
• File format: MP4 or MOV
• Length: 6-45 sec
• Frame rate: 23.976, 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97, or 29.98 fps
• Bit rate: 
• 1 Mbps or higher
• Codec: H.264 or H.265
• Profile: Main or baseline
• Video stream: 1 only

Audio specs

• Language: Must match ad locale
• Sample rate: 44.1 kHz or higher
• Codec: PCM, AAC or MP3
• Bit rate: 96 kbps or higher
• Format: Stereo or mono
• Audio stream: 1 only

Text specs

• Font size: Must be legible on mobile
• Language: Must match ad locale
• Safe area: No text in lower right corner

Amazon Sponsored Brands video ads best practices

1. Show, don’t tell. 

It’s easy to have a talking head on a video telling someone about how good your product is. But just like a picture tells a thousand words, a video really paints a thousand pictures. 

We want to make sure that we’re showing our product being used. The first thing that needs to come up on the video is not your company logo, some text or someone’s face. You need to have a demonstration of the product in use as early on in the video as possible, so that people get an instant idea how these products are used. 

The video ad is going to come up when people are scrolling so, of course, you want to try and stop that scroll and grab attention. And if people don’t see the product that they’re searching for, and instead see someone’s face for the first 10 seconds of the video, they’re not going to be as attracted as if they see the kind of product they’re looking for in use.

2. Tell the story without sound. 

Whether it is made obvious through the visuals, with text callouts on screen, or in another way, we need to make sure that we show the benefits of the product without the need for sound.

In some of our video ads on Amazon we are testing voiceovers, because we know that some people will put the sound on, so we want to see how that impacts conversions. 

But we’re making sure even when we do have voice overs that we actually tell the story without the sound as well, because we know from our research that two thirds or more of people won’t listen to the sound when they’re scrolling through and looking at videos on their device.

3. Think mobile first.

If you’ve ever run Facebook ads or looked at your stats for your website on Google Analytics, then you will know that the majority of people are now browsing on mobile. For us, when it comes to our website traffic, over two thirds is on mobile. 

When it comes to our Facebook ads, sometimes upwards of 80% gets delivered to mobile. So I know of course, we’re talking about Amazon sponsored brand video ads, which is a different platform, but the principle remains – we need to think “mobile first”. 

We need to create our videos as if they were only being shown on mobile. So it’s really important that we have a big font size. Some videos have tiny paragraphs of text, and people on mobile just aren’t going to be able to read it – especially as sometimes on Amazon pinch and zoom capability is not there. 

Make sure that your text stands out short – a maximum of one sentence per shot and a nice, big font size. Put the product front and centre, making sure it fits the space as well as possible, so people watching on mobile can see it really well. 

4. Instantly show the benefits.

 Remember, there are so many options on Amazon. And what is going to cause your Amazon sponsored video ads to convert is by instantly showing the benefits.

Remember, we don’t want to just show the features (what the product does). We want to show the benefits, which is what the product does for the customer. 

Take a look at the video above to see me critique some real Amazon sponsored brand video ads examples, and find out which ones I think are doing a good job (or not) and why.

Next steps

If you are planning on getting a professional to make your videos for you, make sure you give them these 4 key things as part of the brief you send them. If you do that, you’ll be much more likely to get a high-converting video, especially if you aren’t working with a videographer who is familiar with Amazon video ads.

If you want to make your video ads yourself, but you aren’t sure where to start, at the minimum it’s ok to begin with something as simple as a slideshow on video. Even opting for a basic Amazon brand video ads design will be enough to get you started. At least that will enable you to actually start running these ads and growing your market share. 

You can create a free account on somewhere like Canva, select a template and do a little bit of customisation to create your Amazon video advert. For free stock footage outside of Canva, I recommend Pexels. 

There’s no need to go and sign up for an expensive Amazon brand video ads course or tutorial, because in the video above I walk you through how to create a decent video ad for free using Canva. 

Make sure you check that out for a helpful and straightforward guide to making a product video that will convert – without having to spend any of your budget on getting it made.