Amazon Sponsored TV Ads Reach Upper Funnel Audiences

This blog was updated on March 8, 2024. Amazon now offers endemic brands a cost-effective way to advertise on TV. Currently in beta, Sponsored TV makes it easy for advertisers to reach audiences streaming content on Freevee, Twitch, and Amazon Fire Apps. This article explains how Sponsored TV ads work, where they appear, and how they can help your brand grow on Amazon.

What is Sponsored TV?

Sponsored TV is a self-service advertising solution designed for brands of any size to reach and inspire audiences on the largest screen in the home. Previously, brands could only advertise on streaming services like Twitch and Fire TV through Amazon DSP, which is much more costly and challenging to set up. Sponsored TV, on the other hand, is available through the Amazon Ads console and is as easy to manage as Sponsored Products. Despite its simplicity, Sponsored TV harnesses Amazon’s exclusive signals, premium inventory, and measurement capabilities to help you achieve your marketing goals. Below is a summary of the main benefits of Sponsored TV:

• Flexibility for Your Brands No minimum spend allows you to choose a budget to fit your needs.

• Reach Millions of Viewers Watching Premium Content With an estimated reach of 155 million viewers, Sponsored TV can help get your ads in front of a wide audience.

• Tap into Amazon’s Robust Insights Amazon’s billions of buying, browsing, and streaming signals help you reach your ideal audience.

• Understand How to Optimize Your Campaigns Access Closed Loop measurements to help understand how your streaming TV ads help drive brand growth

• Invite Viewers to Interact with Your Ads Engage viewers with a CTA such as a QR code or overlay action (ex. Add to Cart).
  

Sponsored TV Placements

Sponsored TV ads can serve on up to 30+ streaming TV services, including Freevee and Twitch automatically—with no action needed. Currently, Sponsored TV ads will not show on Prime Video or Thursday Night Football. Sponsored TV also does not support supply controls or reporting and only serves ads in contexts where Amazon would be comfortable serving its own ads. This means Amazon does not serve ads to Twitch channels tagged to contexts like politics, gambling, or violence. However, brands can use Sponsored TV to reach audiences using Content Interests or In-market Categories. Content Interests enable advertisers to reach viewers who are likely to be interested in specific types of videos like documentaries or music videos. In-market categories allow brands to reach viewers likely to be interested in various Amazon product categories, such as Built-in Dishwashers or Women’s Sports Apparel. Lookback windows for Content Interests and In-market categories are up to 30 days.

Sponsored TV Analytics

Sponsored TV offers advertisers a suite of metrics to help them understand the value of their ads, including impressions, video completions, and clicks. More importantly, Sponsored TV analytics also provide engagement measurements on how ads are helping influence shopping actions with brands, including branded searches, detail page views, and new-to-brand orders. All metrics are attributed to campaigns with a 14-day lookback window using a "Last touch" attribution that prioritizes product relevance as well as ad clicks over ad views. To help advertisers understand how their campaigns are attributed, Sponsored TV engagement metrics can be viewed based on click and view attribution, click attribution alone, and view attribution alone based on the date of the shopper’s ad interaction (which may not be the same day as the shopper action).

What's the Difference Between Sponsored TV, Streaming TV and Prime Video Ads?

Amazon offers two ways to access Streaming TV ads: Through Sponsored TV and through the Amazon DSP. Both harness Amazon’s exclusive signals, premium inventory, and measurement capabilities to help you achieve your marketing goals. However, the Amazon DSP offers access to additional audiences, inventory, and controls that are not currently available through Sponsored TV. Additionally, Sponsored TV does not require a minimum spend, whereas the Amazon DSP requires a minimum spend amount of $50,000 per campaign.

Prime Video ads are available as part of Amazon's Sponsored TV program. Prime Video ads will run on Amazon Originals and licensed third-party content included with a Prime membership. The ad experience will include both pre- and mid-roll ad breaks. The experience will vary based on title with some featuring only pre-roll ad breaks. Learn more about Prime Video ads.

Channel Key Takeaway:

Brands are sometimes intimidated by TV advertising due to the cost of ad placement and video production. Sponsored TV removes both barriers. First, there are no minimum spend requirements or upfront commitments. Brands can run Sponsored TV campaigns with any budget. Second, Sponsored TV campaigns are easy to launch. Whether you have existing video assets or are starting from scratch, Amazon's video creative production and editing services can help brands produce inspiring videos for Sponsored TV campaigns. Although still in its early stages, Sponsored TV has proven successful for brands during Amazon’s beta tests. With time, Channel Key predicts Sponsored TV will become an essential part of a brand’s overall advertising strategy.