How Amazon Ads is helping advertisers succeed with rewards-based ads

June 8, 2022 | By Dora Wang, Content Marketing Manager

Have you considered rewards-based advertising? Rewards-based ads offer consumers special incentives in return for taking a specific action, and they can help advertisers both stand out and increase audience engagement. Rewards can be anything from shopping or entertainment credits to even physical devices or digital assets.

Introducing an extra reward of immediate value can be very compelling to consumers. A recent survey of over 180,000 Amazon shoppers found that over 92% are more likely to take an action if offered an Amazon credit to do so.1 Rewards can help motivate audiences to take a specific action, and generate excitement for what they’ll receive once the action is completed.

Many Fortune 500 brands across different industries in the US have worked with Amazon Ads to use rewarded advertising in order to help create even stronger relationships with their customers. These rewarded offers can be designed to reach specific audiences, such as potential new customers, or encourage repeat purchaser audiences to consider subscribing to the product.

"Rewards aren't just a different way to discount, but they are also a value creation tool that opens the door for consumers to engage with brands and try products or experiences they might not have tried otherwise," said Nick McLachlan, the head of product marketing for rewarded advertising.

The effect of rewards on ad performance

Rewarded advertising is still a relatively young product for Amazon Ads, launching in 2019, but so far, the results have been promising.

In 2021, rewarded advertising campaigns with Amazon Ads demonstrated a positive correlation between rewards and return on ad spend (ROAS): for every $1 invested in rewards through rewarded advertising in 2021, advertisers saw a $1.19 increase in ROAS on top of their previous campaign performance.2

Rewards-based ads may also help give customers a positive reason to return to your brand. In 2021, four in five rewarded advertising campaigns with Amazon Ads had brand halo metrics (ad-attributed sales of additional products within the same brand, within 14 days) above category benchmarks.3

Rewarded advertising in action

Fox Entertainment ran a rewarded advertising campaign on the Amazon homepage in September 2021 to promote their new slate of shows. Customers don’t always watch a video from start to finish–which can make it challenging for advertisers to tell their story and capture interest. But when offering Amazon credit as a reward, Fox saw video completion rates of over 99%.

“With the landscape for content at an all-time high, creating a deeper awareness of our new releases is more important than ever. Combining high-impact placements with a reward from rewarded advertising was a great way to engage with and credit intent among our audience, and ultimately helped convert interest into viewership.”

— Natalie Park, SVP, Marketing Strategy and Media, Fox

Nick McLachlan, senior product marketing manager for rewarded advertising, said it’s easy for advertisers to see the potential value of rewards-based advertising. “When we introduce an advertiser to rewarded advertising, there’s this instance of excitement when it just clicks,” he said. “It’s a win/win for everyone.”

To learn more about using rewarded advertising in your marketing campaign, reach out to your Amazon Ads account executive.

1 Amazon, 2021, US
2-3 Amazon internal, 2021, US