Leaked Amazon Prime Video pitch reveals new stats to entice advertisers and compete with Netflix and Disney
- Amazon expects Prime Video ads to reach more than 115 million monthly US users, according to new stats shared with advertisers.
- Amazon is heavily pitching its shopping-heavy audience to advertisers.
- Advertisers are interested in the possibility of being able to connect their ads to sales on Amazon.
Amazon revealed new viewer data to ad buyers in order to pitch Prime Video advertising, which will launch early next year.
These advertisements will be added to shows and movies in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Germany in early 2024, followed by France, Spain, Italy, Mexico, and Australia later that year. Users of Prime Video can opt out of advertising by paying an additional $2.99 per month.
According to a briefing document sent by Amazon to ad buyers and viewed by Insider, Amazon expects the Prime Video ad tier to reach more than 115 million people in the United States each month.
Amazon does not disclose subscriber numbers, but Insider Intelligence estimates that Prime Video has 157 million US subscribers, placing it third behind YouTube and Netflix.
According to the document, 54% of Prime Video viewers are between the ages of 18 and 44, and 40% of Prime Video households have children under the age of 18. According to the statistics, advertisers will be able to target younger viewers with Prime Video ads.
Amazon is also pitching advertisers on its large shopping audience. According to the document, 84% of Prime Video households purchased something from Amazon between May and June of this year. According to the document, more than 25% of Prime Video households have an annual household income of more than $150,000.
Amazon refused to comment on the metrics disclosed in the document.
According to the document, Prime Video ads will appear in Originals content as well as licensed TV and movies. Amazon also highlighted its original Prime Video programming, which includes movies like “Road House” starring Jake Gyllenhaal and “The Idea of You” starring Anne Hathaway, as well as TV shows like “The Boys,” “Cross,” and “Mr. and Mrs. Smith.” According to the document, the availability of ads in shows is subject to Amazon’s approval.
According to the document, advertisers can structure their Prime Video ad deals as premium content sponsorships, guaranteed buys, and preferred deals. Guaranteed buys and preferred deals enable Amazon to negotiate large deals with advertisers and guarantee set pricing and audiences. Marketers who want to advertise in Amazon’s “Thursday Night Football” games and its ad-supported streaming service Freevee, on the other hand, must purchase those campaigns separately.
Amazon’s massive advertising ambitions
Amazon has increased its TV ad sales efforts in order to expand its $38 billion ad business beyond its core search advertising format. For example, Amazon’s pitch around “Thursday Night Football” games is aimed at large brands that do not sell products on its platform, such as insurance and finance firms.
Agencies are drawn to the possibility of reaching a large audience with Prime Video right out of the gate, as opposed to Netflix and Disney+, which took a different approach of launching new, ad-supported tiers that required time to build an audience.
They also anticipate that their video ads will be able to be linked to product sales on the e-commerce platform, a feature that Amazon has already implemented for “Thursday Night Football” ads.
“It’s a potent use case if you’re an endemic on Amazon,” said Jon Morgenstern, VaynerMedia’s head of investment. “It’s retail media meets OTT.”
Amazon may have a couple of other advantages over Netflix. It has a well-developed ad sales team and a video ad sales business. While Amazon has not disclosed pricing for Prime Video ads, advertisers anticipate that they will be reasonably priced. Buyers, on the other hand, chastised Netflix for initially pricing its ads too aggressively.
However, Amazon is late to the ad-supported streaming game, and advertisers already have many other options for where to spend their money. “We’re definitely interested,” one buyer stated. “But it isn’t completely virgin territory.”
A big question for advertisers is whether Amazon will require clients to buy ads directly from a salesperson or whether they will be able to buy ads programmatically, as has become the industry standard. Netflix has not yet made that option available.
They also want to know if Amazon will make any of its shows ad-free, as well as how many ads viewers will see per hour, as too many ads can turn off viewers. Amazon stated that it would have a lower ad load than traditional television and other streaming services.
