Want to Make Video Ads, but Don't Have Video? Amazon Has a Tool for That

Nearly four years after it first launched video ads, Amazon Advertising has released a tool in its DSP to help advertisers create video content without any video assets. “The process is quick, easy, free and does not require any prior production resources and design expertise,” said Abbas Fazalbhoy, senior product marketing manager, on the ecommerce giant's blog. Called Video Creative Builder, the tool includes customizable templates that can turn static imagery into video ads without production resources or design expertise. “If you already have video creative, this tool makes it easier for you to overlay text or Amazon co-branding such as logos,” Fazalbhoy said. “Video Creative Builder also supports square-shaped video ads that are commonly used on social media, which means you do not need to worry about editing the orientation of the ad to match a new format," he added. What’s more, once advertisers have built these assets, they can easily edit the videos to add star ratings, new products and features, or promotional updates. “Even if your brand does not sell on Amazon, we provide the templates that can help deliver your message with your brand objective in mind,” he said. According to Amazon, adding video ads to display-only campaigns can increase average detail page views by 320% and purchase rate by 150% compared to display-only campaigns. The opportunity During Adweek’s Challenger Brands summit, Alan Moss, vice president of global advertising sales at Amazon Advertising, noted the Video Creative Builder can also help advertisers test ad variations and select the highest-performing combination. Moss cited video ads as one of the formats with the most opportunity for marketers in 2021. That includes the OTT video ads that show up in movies and TV shows on streaming services because, he added, “Everyone is streaming content now, right?” Amazon is also including its livestreaming platform Twitch as an inventory source for the video campaigns available through its DSP, as well as the ability to target Twitch users. This platform, too, is another big advertising opportunity in 2021, per Moss. “Nowadays, everyone's looking for different ways to connect more than ever, and there's no better place than Twitch,” he added. Twitch boasts 2.5 million live viewers at any given moment and, Moss said, this is an audience that has historically been hard to reach. Amazon’s DSP also includes a self-service component for audio ads in Amazon Music, Echo devices and Fire TV. “And so that hopefully makes it easier to buy programmatically,” Moss added.