Reaching relevant audiences through Amazon’s streaming TV ads
By: Jessie Liu, Sr. Analytics and Media Manager
From external and internal studies on TV viewing behaviors, we learned advertising on streaming TV (like Fire TV) can increase reach and Detailed Page View Rates, without increasing advertisers’ TV media budgets.
Story highlights:
From cellphones and tablets to computers and TVs, audiences are watching content on more devices than ever before. As such, advertisers need to be present on an increasing number of channels in order to connect with their customers. In addition, they must determine how to optimize their campaigns to each channel. In this article, we will look at the streaming TV ads channel (also known as Over-the-Top or OTT).
To develop insights and provide recommendations to advertisers, we combined internal and external research (see the Methodology section at the end of this article) on consumer media consumption habits and found:
- Streaming TV audiences differ greatly from linear TV audiences.
- Advertisers can increase reach by shifting advertising budgets from linear TV to steaming TV.
- Using Amazon audience segments can help advertisers reach the right customers.
Let’s take a look at insights on each these three areas, plus recommendations for how brands can improve their performance on Amazon.
1. How streaming TV audiences compare to Linear TV audiences
Insights
An internal, self-reported, 2019 Amazon study found three key insights about streaming TV viewers:
- Compared to other streaming TV ad-supported viewers, streaming TV users are 5x more likely to cut the cord or are already cord-cutters.
- Streaming TV viewers spend 42 hours per week streaming content over watching content on linear TV.
- Streaming TV viewers are 15% more likely to agree that advertisements can improve the viewing experience.
This same study also revealed that streaming TV owners had 81% more total purchases on Amazon than other Amazon customers year-over-year. Therefore, when advertisers use Amazon’s Streaming TV ads, they are likely to reach an audience that already shops on Amazon.
Recommendations
To improve performance and to reach more Amazon customers, advertisers should consider combining Amazon Streaming TV ads with linear TV ads to extend their reach to unique audiences without increasing their TV media spend.
2. Shifting advertising budgets from linear TV to streaming TV can increase net reach
Insights
A 2019 Nielsen study of 51 US brands1 revealed that total net media reach increased when advertisers added streaming TV to their TV media plans (without increasing their total media budget). On average, advertisers see a +276 basis points increase in total reach when adding Amazon Streaming TV ads. Comparatively, for the same ad spend, advertisers see a -56-basis points reduction in linear TV reach. In total, the study shows that the total net gain in basis points when allocating TV media spend towards Amazon’s Streaming TV ads instead of towards linear TV is +220.
Another thing to note is that the +220-net increase is consistent regardless of whether brands sell their products in Amazon’s store.
Recommendations
To increase net media reach, advertisers should consider reallocating existing media budgets to include Streaming TV ads.
3. How to activate Amazon’s audience segments
Insights
An analysis of an internal study of 28 Amazon Ads campaigns in softlines (apparel), hardlines (furniture, computers, toys, etc.), and consumer packaged goods showed that behavioral audiences had a 44% higher detailed page view rate, or DPVR (total number of promoted Amazon detail page views, divided by the number of ad impressions), than demographic audiences, on average.
Recommendations
Help drive consideration on Amazon by incorporating Amazon audience segments (such as lifestyle and in-market audiences). For example, our study showed that the “early tech adopter” audience had -60% median DPVRs than demographic audiences Similarly, the “Technology Enthusiasts” had -70% median DPVRs. On the opposite end, those same audiences saw +580% and +640% higher DPVRs versus demographic audiences in the Tech Accessories Hardlines campaigns, respectively. This analysis shows that utilizing behavioral audience segments can greatly improve DPVRs, but advertisers need to be sure they are reaching the correct audiences for their products.
Conclusion
As we’ve seen, Amazon’s streaming TV ads can help advertisers reach unique audiences who are already shopping in Amazon’s stores. To help increase the reach and relevance of their campaigns, advertisers can use streaming TV ads to advertise new products, shift media TV budgets to include streaming TV, and be sure to understand which audience segments are working and which segments are not; then market accordingly.
Methodology
To form our recommendations, we analyzed three consumer behavior studies where customers spent their time: Cord Evolution Trends 2020,2 The Nielsen Total Audience Report Q1 2019,3 and an internal 2019 analysis of category sales.
1 https://s3.amazonaws.com/media.mediapost.com/uploads/NielsenTotalAudienceReportQ12019.pdf
2 https://www.mrisimmons.com/reports/cord-evolution-trends-2020/
3 https://s3.amazonaws.com/media.mediapost.com/uploads/NielsenTotalAudienceReportQ12019.pdf