Image Source: Amazon Advertising
Amazon Media Group Marketing
About a week ago we wrote about the Amazon advertising options that are available through Amazon Marketing Services. Another great feature of AMS is the Amazon Media Group. AMG is a premium service that gives Amazon vendors additional chances to display their products in strategic positions on the platform. Amazon Media Group marketing opens opportunities for measurable cross-device campaigns with the Amazon Advertising Platform (AAP), Kindle, Fire tablet and Fire TV in addition to Amazon Display Ads. Shopping and media are innately interwoven in the online world, and the research opportunity that AMG presents can prove invaluable to long-term marketing goals.
Image Source: Amazon Advertising
Amazon Media Group Marketing
About a week ago we wrote about the Amazon advertising options that are available through Amazon Marketing Services. Another great feature of AMS is the Amazon Media Group. AMG is a premium service that gives Amazon vendors additional chances to display their products in strategic positions on the platform. Amazon Media Group marketing opens opportunities for measurable cross-device campaigns with the Amazon Advertising Platform (AAP), Kindle, Fire tablet and Fire TV in addition to Amazon Display Ads. Shopping and media are innately interwoven in the online world, and the research opportunity that AMG presents can prove invaluable to long-term marketing goals.
Let’s take a look at a few ways in which Amazon Media Group services can help grow your business as a brand supplier to Amazon’s retail business:
Amazon Advertising Platform
Amazon vendors can leverage this platform to reach more customers on additional Amazon sites and on third party sites as well. The platform manages the optimum placement of video ads within the natural flow of content on a website, and the insertion full-screen pop-ups. Through these ad placements, AAP ads aim to generate better quality leads and redirect this targeted traffic to vendor web pages to encourage sales. The Amazon Advertising Platform is an ideal way for vendors to reach a wider audience through several placement options.
Kindle and Fire Experiences
Image Source: Amazon Advertising
Vendors can launch visual campaigns that target Amazon customers on Kindle, Fire tablet and Fire TV. These ads can moreover be set to show in the Kindle and Fire tablets’ lock screen mode and at the top of Fire TV home screens. Amazon reports that these ads are comparable to standard web-based campaigns in promoting brand awareness, and cost the same or less. Analytics are available for these ads to measure the ad’s impact on shoppers throughout their browsing sessions.
In-stream Video Ads
This option allows in-stream video ads on the Amazon Ad Platform that meet the following criteria:
| Aspect ratio (dimensions) | 16:9 (640×360 px) |
| Frame rate | At least 15 FPs |
| Audio | 128kbps / 44khz |
| Recommended bit rate | 2Mbps |
| Preferred codec | Video: H.264, MPEG-2, or MPEG-4; Audio: MP3 or AAC |
| Recommended file size | 100MB (larger sizes are supported but may require longer SLAs) |
| Video duration | 5 to 30 seconds |
| – | – |
Amazon recommends using VAST 2 third party video tags from an Amazon certified third party vendor to ensure wide support. VPAID tags can also be used if it employs both Flash and JavaScript, from the same approved vendors. Ad servers should use a properly formatted Cross Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) header to serve on Amazon-owned sites for security reasons.
Mobile App Banner Ads
Mobile Image Banner and Rich Media ads (limited to third-party sites) allow vendors to target a wider mobile audience by expanding their reach to third-party Android, iOS, and Kindle Fire apps. The specifications and requirements for these ads are:
Image Banner Ads
| Ad Size | Creative Dimensions | Maximum File Weight | File Format |
| 320 x 50 | 640 x 100 px @2X (required) | 50 kb | JPG / PNG-8 |
| 300 x 250 | 600 x 500 px @2X | 200 kb | JPG / PNG-8 |
| 728 x 90 | 1456 x 180 px @2x | 200 kb | JPG / PNG-8 |
| 414×125 | 1242 x 375 px @3x (required) | 100 kb | JPG / PNG-8 |
| – | – | – | – |
Rich Media Ads
| Ad Size | Creative Dimensions @2X | Maximum Initial File Load | File Format |
| 320 x 50 | 640 x 100 px (required) | 100 kb | HTML |
| 300 x 250 | 600 x 500 px | 200 kb | HTML |
| 728 x 90 | 1456 x 180 px | 200 kb | HTML |
| – | – | – | – |
Creative Guidelines
Image banner ads come in 320×50 pixels (2x resolution, 640x100px,) and 414×125 pixels (3x resolution, 1242×375,) for high resolution image quality. Other banner sizes should be at least 2x resolution for best results, but lower quality designs will be accepted by Amazon. 414×125 banner ads are for the Amazon app and mobile web platform specifically
The AdChoices label must be visible in one corner of each banner ad, to be automatically overlaid by Amazon. Banners can be linked to amazon but must have either the Amazon logo or text referencing Amazon on them. Vendors can refer to Amazon’s AAP mobile app banner ads page for more details.
Mobile Interstitial Ads
Interstitial ads, or full screen ads covering an app interface, can be displayed along with banner ads on third party apps. These ads can be positioned at key natural points in the content flow of a page to maximize wait times while avoiding interruptions that can distract and annoy shoppers. These ads are integrated with the use of the Mobile Ads API and can be easily closed by shoppers at any time.
Both the Medium Rectangle and the Full Screen Image interstitial ad templates are responsive to all mobile screen sizes and work on Android, iOS, and Fire. The Full Screen Image ad features one clickable image that is automatically resized for optimal display and minimal latency. This ad template allows for the addition of a video player in the center of the sized image where shoppers can play the video, access the action links above or below the video, or close the ad. Customer reviews can also be included in this ad, formatted with Amazon branded gold stars and 48-point Arial font, and showing the date that the rating was collected.
Amazon will automatically overlay a set AdChoices icon in the upper left corner and a prominent close button in the upper right corner of each ad. Vendors can visit Amazon’s Mobile Interstitial Ads page for more information.
Desktop and Mobile Web Display Ads
The following standard ad sizes for display on Amazon and third party websites are available:
| Ad Placement | Ad Size | Creative Dimensions (2x resolution or higher) | Max. File Weight | File Format |
| Medium Rectangle | 300 x 250 px | 300 x 250 px | 200 kb HTML, 40 kb static (50 kb FR, IT, ES, JP) | JPG / PNG-8 |
| Leaderboard | 728 x 90 px | 728 x 90 px | 200 kb HTML, 40 kb static (50 kb FR, IT, ES, JP) | JPG / PNG-8 |
| Wide Skyscraper | 160 x 600 px | 160 x 600 px | 200 kb HTML, 40 kb static (50 kb FR, IT, ES, JP) | JPG / PNG-8 |
| Large Rectangle | 300 x 600 px | 300 x 600 px | 200 kb HTML, 50 kb static | JPG / PNG-8 |
| Billboard | 970 x 250 px, 800×250 pixels (DE) | 970 x 250 px, 800×250 pixels (DE) | 200 kb | JPG / PNG-8 |
| Mobile Leaderboard | 320 x 50 px | 640 x 100 px @2X (required) | 50 kb | JPG / PNG-8 |
| Mobile Detail and Search Results page | 414 x 125 px | 1242 x 375 px @3X (required) | 100 kb | JPG / PNG-8 |
| – | – | – | – | – |
Vendors can look at Amazon’s mobile shopping details page for more on the Mobile Detail and Search Results page.
Amazon Media Group Tips
It is important to note that AMG is not specifically designed to boost vendors’ ROI but to provide a means of analyzing market positioning and evaluating ad campaigns. AMG therefore requires a longer-term investment in brand awareness to build up to attaining the larger goal of capturing a bigger slice of market share. The minimum average investment required to make the most of AMG services is approximately 40,000 US dollars, a sum that requires serious thought and planning alongside alternative Amazon and third-party marketing options.
