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What is Amazon Fire Advertising?

By Tinuiti Team

Jul 22 2021

With the rise of OTT technologies, comes more advertising channels for the modern-day marketer. Amazon’s proprietary OTT offering, Fire TV, has 50 million monthly active ad-supported users, making it a leading OTT platform. The use of ad-supported Fire TV apps has only increased 300% over the past two years.

Amazon Fire also includes over 50 third-party, ad-supported apps, like AMC, IMDb TV, and ESPN. With the integration of these apps, advertisers have even more platforms to reach their target audiences.

In this post, we’ll take a deep dive into some of the nuances of advertising on Amazon Fire.

Before you start reading about Amazon Fire advertising, however, we recommend you have a basic understanding of all OTT channels, costs, pros, and cons.

What is Amazon Fire?

Launched in 2014, Amazon Fire is a video-streaming device created by Amazon. Like Roku, Google Chromecast, and AppleTV, Amazon Fire connects via HDMI to any TV, and provides instant-access to streaming channels, exclusive Amazon content, as well as music and games.

What are the Amazon Fire Types?

Amazon Fire is available in three models: the Fire Stick, the Fire Stick 4K, and the Fire TV Cube. Though they all function similarly, there are some differences. For example, the Fire Stick streams 1080P HD resolution video, while the Fire Stick 4K offers an upgraded 4K video resolution. The Fire Stick is available for $40, while the Fire Stick 4K is $50. Both Fire Sticks include the streaming box and a remote for selecting media.

The Fire Cube, on the other hand, is a bit different. At $120, it boasts a larger price point. With built-in speakers, the Fire Cube is much larger in size and also possesses an ethernet port for lightning-fast connections. And lastly, while the Fire Sticks require users to speak directly into the remote, the Fire Cube is Alexa-enabled, meaning that users can simply direct the machine from across the room – no remotes needed.

What is Amazon Fire Advertising?

As mentioned previously, advertising on Amazon Fire is similar to advertising on any OTT platform. They are unskippable ads, displayed on a recipient’s TV, that offer data-driven targeting, trackable analytics, and can be scaled as necessary as you modify your advertising strategy.

Advertising on Amazon Fire uses Amazon’s dedicated user base and first-party data from their subscribers to leverage insights for their advertisers. With Amazon OTT, brands can engage with more relevant audiences, thereby increasing the ROI on their ad spend and conversions.

“Amazon OTT ads are full-screen ads with sound and they are non-skippable with an average completion rate of 97%. Amazon OTT is also brand safe with licensed TV and movie content.”

— Karen Hopkins, Amazon Advertising Analyst & Consultant at Tinuiti

Pro-tip: For brands and advertisers, be aware that Amazon Prime has no ads.

How Much Does Amazon Fire Advertising Cost?

In most cases, Fire TV ads are sold on a cost-per-completed view basis.

Joe Pinsky, leader of the video- advertising product team at Amazon Advertising, expands further, stating that, “There are no supply-side fees with Amazon DSP because we’re accessing the inventory directly. Not only that, but our direct publisher relationships allow advertisers to bid on nearly 100% of Fire TV impressions available through APS, while other DSPs that access Fire TV inventory [through] third-party SSPs can only bid on up to 70% of available impressions.”

Additionally, Amazon claims that they help to spread your buy across their apps so that your reach and frequency of advertising is maximized.

With your spend, you can choose from a range of Amazon Fire TV ads.

Amazon Demand-Side Platform (DSP) and Over-the-Top (OTT)

What is Amazon OTT?

Amazon’s Connect TV (also known as OTT) is a part of DSP that reaches viewers while they’re watching content on IMDB TV or apps via Fire TV.

“Amazon offers streaming commercials on Amazon’s owned and operated sites / apps as well as third party apps. But keep in mind, Amazon also has creative capabilities to enhance using overlays and integrate across all Amazon-owned devices (for example, Alexa). Brands and advertisers can augment their ad creative to encourage users to take an action like saying “Add Eggos to my cart or shopping list” to ease purchase,” Teka Phan, Senior Strategist, Advanced TV and Video Solutions at Tinuiti said.

What is Amazon’s OTT Studio?

OTT Studio, a new creative feature, enables Amazon DSP advertisers to quickly enhance their brand videos using customizable templates.

Why use customizable OTT templates?

According to Amazon, OTT templates:

Easily add Amazon brand elements to video including product details, star ratings, and Prime eligibility
Create multiple video variants and experiment with different messaging and products to understand what resonates with customers
Help drive product consideration with customizable overlays and end slates

What are Amazon Display Ads?

Amazon DSP is a demand-side platform that enables advertisers to programmatically buy display, video, and audio ads both on and off Amazon. Advertisers can use DSP to run display ads on Amazon’s owned sites and apps (for example, IMBd) and across other placements on sites across the web.

What is Sponsored Display on Fire TV (beta)?

Fire TV also offers advertisers an opportunity to reach customers as they browse and discover new entertainment. Fire TV ads appear as sponsored tiles in the “Sponsored” row on Fire TV. These ads, unlike the unskippable ads, are clickable, and can be used to drive app installations, content streams, and other goals.

Below is a look at how some of these ads will display:

Inline Banner Ads

Sponsored Screensaver Ads

Sponsored Tile Ads

Feature Rotator Ads

Between OTT and the DSP, advertisers have the opportunity to reach an enormous number of viewers and based on campaign performance can further hone in on fruitful users. For more in-depth details on Amazon advertising and best practices, check out their resource center for Amazon Fire Advertising.

How do Brands Buy Amazon Fire Ads?

Amazon Fire Ads can be bought through one of Amazon’s proprietary Amazon Advertising accounts. Advertising on Amazon is simple, and consists of three main steps.

In the self-service portal, start creating your campaign by choosing a name and duration.
Set your bid and budget. Choose the targeting strategy for the campaign.
Monitor your campaign performance on the customizable reporting dashboard.

Keep in mind that ads must be appropriate for all audiences. All Fire TV ad content must conform to Amazon’s Creative Acceptance guidelines. Amazon requires that advertisers review their content with these guidelines in mind before submitting.

Best Examples of Amazon Fire Ads

While not always the case, most advertisers that choose to leverage Amazon Fire ads do so in order to grow their brand’s reach and drive awareness for new products or services.

By leveraging Amazon Fire Ads, for example, Quest Nutrition reached new unique and relevant audiences at scale. During their OTT campaign, branded shopping queries were up 8.5x and product detail page views increased by 49% compared to the previous month. Check out their case study below.

Similarly, GoNoodle, an app for kids, partnered with Amazon to drive app installs and discoverability. GoNoodle used Sponsored Display on Fire TV to help boost awareness and installs of its app. During its campaign, the GoNoodle app received more than 33.7MM impressions during the three weeks that the campaign ran. The CTR (click-through rate) was 0.37%, and the app install rate was 0.20%.

Read more about GoNoodle’s go-to-market strategy here.

No matter your advertising strategy, there are a few key principles to keep in mind while using Amazon Fire Ads.