Boost Your Amazon Ads Success (Mastering Video Creative Testing)

Summary

This video addresses the challenge of assessing multiple Sponsored Brands video creatives on Amazon when working with a limited budget. The speaker provides a strategy for structuring campaigns, emphasizing the importance of testing different video assets within a single campaign using specific, high-performing search terms. The goal is to determine which creatives perform best by focusing on metrics like conversion rate and click-through rate, without muddying results with too many variables. This approach allows for a more confident rollout of a robust ad strategy after the testing phase.

Takeaways

• 🎯 Amazon recommends testing different video assets within the same sponsored brand campaign to identify the best-performing creative.
• 🧪 Running video creatives simultaneously is preferred over sequential testing for better A/B comparison.
• 📊 Focus on statistical significance when analyzing results; consider conversion rates and click-through rates as key metrics.
• ⚠️ Be cautious of relying too heavily on click-through rates for campaign optimization.
• 🎥 When testing video creatives, target search terms that are already known to work well for the product.
• 🔍 Use specific match types and limited search targets to ensure accurate testing of video assets.
• 💡 Ensure the campaign structure allows for apples-to-apples comparison by keeping variables consistent across tests.
• ⏳ Allow sufficient time (weeks or even a month) to gather enough data to assess which video creative performs best.
• 📈 After identifying the best video creatives, use them in a more robust ad structure with broader targeting.
• 💰 Consider the budget constraint and avoid overly broad testing that could dilute the assessment of the video creatives.

Q & A

What is the recommended approach by Amazon for testing multiple video assets within a Sponsored Brands campaign?

Amazon recommends running different assets inside different ad groups within a single Sponsored Brands campaign. This allows for simultaneous testing of the video assets.

Why is it important to run video creatives simultaneously rather than sequentially?

Running video creatives simultaneously allows for a more accurate comparison as it minimizes the impact of external factors that might change over time, such as market trends or competitor activities.

What should be considered when evaluating the performance of video creatives in a campaign?

Performance should be evaluated based on statistical significance, conversion rates, and click-through rates. These metrics help determine how well the video creatives engage the audience and drive conversions.

Why should click-through rates (CTR) be considered when assessing creatives, even if they are not reliable for other metrics?

CTR is particularly useful in evaluating how engaging a creative is with the target audience. While it might not be the best metric for other aspects like bid optimization, it's valuable for understanding the effectiveness of the creative itself.

How can you ensure that the testing of video creatives is done effectively given a limited budget?

To manage a limited budget effectively, focus on very specific and limited testing. Use search term reports to identify high-performing keywords and targets, and then test the video creatives against these known successful targets.

What is the potential downside of trying to build a robust Sponsored Brands video ad strategy while simultaneously assessing multiple video creatives?

Building a robust ad strategy while assessing multiple video creatives can muddy the waters, making it difficult to determine if performance improvements are due to the creative itself or the targeting strategy.

How should keywords be handled when testing video creatives in a Sponsored Brands campaign?

Keywords should be very specific and carefully selected. Use exact match types to ensure that your ads appear on specific search pages, allowing for a more accurate assessment of which video creatives perform best.

What steps should be taken once a successful video creative has been identified?

Once a successful video creative is identified, it should be rolled out to a more robust ad structure. This allows you to test other variables, such as placements and keyword strategies, without the added variable of testing new creatives.

Why is statistical significance important when evaluating video creatives?

Statistical significance ensures that the results of the test are reliable and not just due to random chance. This is crucial for making informed decisions about which video creatives to continue using.

How long should video creatives be tested to gather enough data for an accurate assessment?

The duration of the test depends on the time it takes to gather statistically significant data. This could range from a few weeks to a month, depending on the volume of traffic and clicks the ads receive.

Outlines

00:00

🔍 Analyzing Sponsored Brands Video Creatives with Limited Budget

The speaker discusses how to evaluate sponsored brands video creatives on Amazon when working with a limited budget. They explain that Amazon recommends testing different video assets within the same sponsored brand campaign, running them simultaneously rather than sequentially to gather data effectively. The speaker also mentions the lack of robust A/B testing tools on Amazon, emphasizing the need to assess performance based on statistical significance, specifically focusing on metrics like conversion rates and click-through rates rather than just time frames.

05:01

🎯 Balancing Creative Assessment with a Robust Ad Strategy

The speaker highlights the potential conflict between assessing video creatives and implementing a comprehensive ad strategy. They note that focusing too much on building a robust strategy might muddy the waters when trying to determine the effectiveness of individual creatives. The speaker suggests that the primary goal should be identifying the best-performing video creatives, particularly when constrained by a limited budget, before expanding into a broader strategy.

10:02

🛠️ Practical Steps for Targeting and Testing Video Creatives

The speaker provides actionable advice for testing video creatives, recommending a targeted approach using search terms and match types with proven performance for the product. They stress the importance of keeping tests controlled and specific to accurately assess which video creatives work best. The speaker advises against over-complicating the process by introducing too many variables, which can obscure results, and recommends focusing on a limited set of keywords to optimize budget and performance.

Keywords

💡Sponsored Brands Video

Sponsored Brands Video is a type of Amazon advertising format that allows brands to promote their products using video content. In the video script, it is central to the discussion, as the main focus is on how to effectively test and optimize these video assets within the constraints of a limited budget. The video creatives are evaluated based on their performance in driving engagement and conversions.

💡A/B Testing

A/B Testing refers to the practice of comparing two versions of a creative or strategy to determine which one performs better. In the video, the speaker discusses the limitations of conducting A/B testing on Amazon, specifically highlighting that the platform does not currently support true split testing for ad creatives. The recommendation is to run video creatives simultaneously rather than sequentially to get a better assessment.

💡Statistical Significance

Statistical significance refers to the likelihood that a result or relationship is caused by something other than mere chance. The video emphasizes the importance of achieving statistical significance when evaluating video creatives, suggesting that metrics like conversion rate and click-through rate should be assessed based on a sufficient number of clicks to ensure the data is reliable.

💡Conversion Rate

Conversion rate is the percentage of users who take a desired action, such as making a purchase, after interacting with an ad. In the video, conversion rate is highlighted as a crucial metric for evaluating the effectiveness of different video creatives. A higher conversion rate indicates that the creative is more effective at turning viewers into customers.

💡Click-Through Rate (CTR)

Click-Through Rate (CTR) measures the percentage of users who click on an ad after seeing it. The video discusses CTR as an important metric for evaluating the engagement level of video creatives. While CTR is useful for understanding how well an ad captures attention, the speaker advises not to rely too heavily on it for broader bid optimizations.

💡Campaign Structure

Campaign structure refers to how an advertising campaign is organized, including the segmentation of ad groups, targeting options, and budget allocation. The video provides guidance on how to structure campaigns when testing multiple video creatives, suggesting that different video assets be nested within separate ad groups in the same campaign for better comparison.

💡Targeting

Targeting involves selecting specific keywords, audiences, or placements where ads will be shown. In the video, the speaker discusses the importance of carefully choosing targets when testing video creatives, advising advertisers to use well-performing keywords or search terms to ensure that the assessment of the video creatives is accurate and not influenced by other variables.

💡Limited Budget

Limited budget refers to the financial constraint that restricts the extent and scope of an advertising campaign. The video addresses the challenge of optimizing video creative tests within a limited budget, recommending strategies like narrowing down targeting and focusing on statistical significance to make the most out of the available resources.

💡Creative Performance

Creative performance is a measure of how well an ad creative, such as a video, achieves its intended goals, like generating clicks or conversions. The video script discusses assessing creative performance through metrics like conversion rate and click-through rate, and how to determine which video creative is most effective in driving desired outcomes.

💡Search Term Reports

Search term reports provide data on the actual search queries that triggered an ad and led to clicks. In the video, the speaker suggests using search term reports from other campaigns to identify strong-performing keywords that can be used to test video creatives. This ensures that the testing focuses on terms that already show positive results for the product.

Highlights

The challenge of adequately assessing sponsored Brands video creatives with a limited budget is addressed in this session.

Amazon recommends running different video assets inside separate ad groups within a singular sponsored brand campaign to allow for more effective testing.

Currently, there is no effective way to perform A/B testing on ad creatives within the Amazon platform.

Simultaneous testing of video creatives across a specific date range is advised over sequential testing to avoid inconsistencies.

Statistical significance, particularly the number of clicks, should be considered when evaluating the performance of video creatives.

Conversion rates and click-through rates are key metrics to assess the effectiveness of a video creative.

Click-through rate is important for evaluating how engaging a creative is, though it should not be heavily relied upon for other metrics.

A robust ad strategy might conflict with the goal of assessing which video creative performs best due to the introduction of too many variables.

When testing video creatives, it’s crucial to use search terms and targets that have already proven effective for the product.

Testing should be done in environments (e.g., search pages) where there is confidence in the product's performance to isolate the variable of the video creative.

Specific and limited keyword targeting in the beginning helps mitigate the constraints of a limited budget while ensuring accurate assessment.

Place the same keywords into different ad groups with different video creatives to ensure an 'apples to apples' comparison.

While Amazon lacks true split testing, the approach described is the best available method for testing video creatives on the platform.

After identifying the best-performing video creatives, they should be rolled out in a more robust ad structure for broader campaigns.

By testing video creatives first, subsequent testing of other variables like keywords and placement can be more focused and effective.

Transcripts

I freaking love this question it is a

really good one and it is how do you

adequately assess sponsored Brands video

creatives especially when you have a

constraint of a limited budget

um so this is a question that was

submitted through our Amazon advertising

q a form you can find a link to it

somewhere in the description

um the question is what is your approach

when you have too many video assets to

test out across three products but your

budget is limited would you Nest video

assets into the same sponsored brand

campaign or would you create a different

campaign per video asset keeping in mind

that you probably have Target segmented

by branded product targeting non-branded

and that is further segmented by keyword

themes or commonalities thanks a lot so

I'm going to give you the first part of

the answer which is going to be how you

would actually build it out and then

what you would assess from a campaign

structure and from an analytic

standpoint and then I'm going to take it

a step further in the second part of my

question and kind of talk about your

goals and your constraints and then how

I would play that in to the actual

strategy and what I'm targeting with the

campaign structure okay the first part

of your question actually if you read

Amazon's literature on what they

recommend they actually recommend

running a different assets inside of uh

different ad groups inside of a

sponsored brand campaign and then

allowing kind of that singular campaign

to test

um the video Assets Now

I do want to preface this by saying that

there is no good way to really

adequately run a b testing on uh any

sort of ad creatives it currently inside

the Amazon platform at some point it's

possible that they might roll out some

sort of a b testing similar to what they

have with the listings however at this

point there's really not much we can do

other than run the video creatives in

tandem with each other

um across a certain date range now

um I've had extensive conversations with

other you know really good advertisers

in the space and our conclusion is that

really if you want to test it's best to

run them simultaneously not to run one

for a bit turn it off and run another

one and then if again if you read

Amazon's literature

um you can see that that's what actually

they recommend as far as putting it

inside of a singular campaign so as far

as the structure I would do it that way

now when it comes to the analytics and

determining which one has the best

performance you really want to look at

it from a statistic statistical

significant standpoint meaning how many

clicks does something get because you

know if you we all know you can have a

hundred percent conversion rates if you

have one click in one order but is that

statistically significant no so

therefore it's not like we can

extrapolate and expect to have 100

conversion rates ongoing as we you know

gain more traction for something so you

do want to keep that in mind I wouldn't

necessarily look at it as a time frame

more so as a number of clicks time frame

as far as how long I would go to assess

it now when I get into like the second

part of my answer as far as like looking

at your constraints and actual goals I'm

going to go through what I would

recommend for the targeting

um

so stay tuned for that but as far as the

analytics and assessing which one that

you perceive to be the best performing

ones I would look at it from two things

so again statistical significance I

would look at it from a conversion rate

standpoint as well as a cost or a

click-through rate standpoint

um so your conversion rate is going to

tell you a lot as far as which one

converts the best and then your

click-through rates really when it comes

to evaluating any sort of creatives how

engaging is the creative with the target

audience and how much it leads them to

visit the listing is really going to

help

um really determine which one works best

now when it comes to

um allowing click-through rates to

dictate a lot of our maybe bid

optimizations or other metrics I don't

really rely heavily nor do I believe you

should rely heavily on a click-through

rate metrics that being said when it

comes to evaluating creatives I would

lean heavily on the click-through rate

percentages too and so so again

statistical significance looking at

conversion rates and click-through rates

um that's what I would use to assess as

to which creative

um performed the you know quote Best and

then I would go from there now

um that is technically going to tell you

how to build it out right so hopefully

I've been pretty clear on that but

however if I only left you with that

information I think I would be doing you

a very like a disservice because right

now what you're doing

um is you're saying hey I gotta build

out all of these sponsor Brands video

campaigns right I really want to you

know push this product into the market

however my budget is limited so I would

challenge you this whenever you're faced

with something and you feel like

something is quote Best practice meaning

you want to Target branded and product

targeting a non-branded and you're going

to segment all of these things and

you're really going to like blow out

these video creatives

um think of it as to what is the goal in

this particular project so what you're

doing here is you're trying to assess a

bunch of video creatives and then you're

coupling that goal with a different and

actually in some ways opposing goal of

making sure that you have a very robust

sponsored Brands video ad strategy

the reason why those two goals are in

somewhat opposition to each other is the

fact that if you have a really robust ad

strategy it's going to be more difficult

to assess if a creative is the thing

that's actually working the best or is

it just the targeting that you've gotten

a little bit better and so you're going

to end up muddying the waters and you're

not going to be able to achieve your

first goal so your goal when it is uh

when you have to assess a whole bunch of

video creatives your goal is to

determine which of these video creatives

is going to perform the best the reason

why you're trying to assess if these

video creatives are performing the best

which is the correct way to do it is

because you want to get the best

performance possible out of your

sponsored Brands video ads so it's a

very good and Noble goal to have but

then you also want to couple it with the

fact that you do have a constraint on

this strategy and your constraint is

that you have limited budgets so looking

at the constraint of limited budgets and

looking at the goal to assess the video

ads and also recognizing that me

building out right now a robust

sponsored Brands video ad strategy is

actually going to be on the opposition

to the first goal and again assessing

um which video asset performs the best

is going to actually help you with the

second goal because you're building out

the robust strategy so what I would say

as far as like what you're targeting and

how to build this out I would recommend

going through your search term reports

if you're not already running video

creatives then uh you would look and I

would recommend looking at say your

sponsored product ads or other ads you

want to assess which Search terms which

targets have enough

um we have enough presence on that we

can adequately say that they work well

for the product again statistical

significance and then what you want to

do is test your video creatives against

things and again search pages that you

already are very confident that work for

the product so now when it comes to

assessing the click-through rate and our

conversion rates we can be very

confident in saying to our best ability

we've tested it in places that we

already know work well for the products

so for instance if you're building out a

whole bunch of product targeting

campaigns with your sponsor Brands video

ad

um again is it those product targets at

work is it maybe the product targeting

is showing up on search Pages as well as

product pages and maybe you do better

whether your entry entering in so many

different variables that again muddy the

waters and make it difficult for you to

really determine if this works best for

the product or you know again is it the

video creative we don't know at that

point so I would recommend doing very

limited very specific testing with what

search targets that you're implementing

into the campaign in the form of

keywords I would go a little bit more

specific with my match types because

again I want to get more specific to

which search Pages I'm showing up

because my goal my first goal my number

one goal is to adequately test which

video asset performs the best and then

again I would put these same keywords

into different ad groups with different

video creatives with the exact same

products so again I can adequately

assess you want to do it as Apples to

Apples as you possibly can and like I

said it

it will be a little bit difficult uh

there's no real true split testing but

that's really the best you're gonna get

when it comes to Amazon advertising and

then the

um the strategy of picking very limited

search targets and going very specific

in the beginning will also help you with

your second issue which is the limited

budget which is the constraint that you

have on very robust testing um so I

would say run those again you're looking

for statistical significance so it might

be a couple weeks it might be a month of

you running those to really be able to

engage which one works the best and then

you can take whatever video creatives

you might have one you might have two

um but then you would be able to say

with confidence okay I mean as certain

as I could possibly be with no clear

split testing these are the video

creatives that work well for me and then

you can take those video creatives and

then you roll them out to your more

robust ad structure because you've

already tested the video creatives

variable and then when you go in and you

test all the other keywords and

placement variable goals you're only

assessing those variables you're not

trying to assess the placements and

keyword variables and the video creative

assets

um so your budget and performance should

be better so hopefully that was helpful

I really really appreciate this question

if anyone else has any Amazon

advertising questions I have committed

myself to answering these as often as I

can also make sure you check the link in

the comments and submit your own

question maybe you'll get a video