Amazon Ads unveils self-serve TV ad format for brands

Amazon Ads has expanded its ad offering to brands in the UK that sell on Amazon.

The retail giant has unveiled Sponsored TV, which is a self-service ad solution that is available to brands of all sizes that sell on Amazon in the UK.

It enables brands to run TV campaigns on live-streamed entertainment platforms – including Twitch and streaming services – through Fire TV apps.

There is no minimum campaign spend for it, as well as no minimum daily spend and no upfront commitments for brands using Amazon Ads’ sponsored ads tools. This differs from Amazon’s Streaming Ads offering, which requires a minimum spend.

Amazon has launched the tool following its Q2 earnings report being published this month. The report revealed $12.77bn (£9.8bn) in advertising revenue, marking 20% year-on-year growth. However, this fell short of Wall Street’s expectations, which anticipated $13bn (£9.98bn) for Q2 2024.

The tech company also introduced ads into Prime Video at the start of the year to help beef up its ads business.

Patrick Miller, co-founder of digital commerce company Flywheel, which was bought by Omnicom last year for $900m (£691m), said: “TV advertising is no longer just for the big brands. With self-serve buying and closed-loop measurements, Sponsored TV makes streaming TV advertising a cost-efficient option for emerging and enterprise brands that want to connect the entertainment and shopping journey for customers.”

In addition, smaller brands that are new to streaming TV advertising and don’t have TV-quality creative can use Amazon’s creative services that can help build creative using a brand’s digital and social media assets at varying rates. 

Brands can also use their TV-quality creative across other Amazon Ads placements, including in their brand stores and other sponsored ads campaigns.

Sponsored TV has already been rolled out in the US. It was released in Beta last month in the UK, Brazil, Mexico, and Canada. 

Ruslana Zbagerska, vice president of Amazon Ads, said: “TV is an important brand-building strategy and should not be out of reach for any business. Sponsored TV campaigns provide efficient reach powered by our machine-learning optimisation models, enabling brands to benefit from Amazon’s first-party shopping and entertainment signals to create relevant ad experiences for viewers.”

David Omodia joined Amazon Ads as head of video sales specialists, Northern Europe (UK and Germany) earlier this year from Channel 4.