Amazon launches interactive video format for Sponsored Products campaigns

Amazon introduced Sponsored Products video on November 11, 2025, marking the company's expansion into interactive video advertising within its established Sponsored Products campaign infrastructure. The new format enables advertisers to upload between one and five product feature videos per product, with shoppers viewing up to three video thumbnails displaying relevant features based on their search queries and browsing history.

The announcement came from Amazon Ads unBoxed 2025, the company's annual conference showcasing advertising solutions. According to the platform documentation, advertisers can upload videos to existing campaigns through Campaign Manager, with different feature videos applied across ad groups for the same product. The system includes bid adjustment capabilities to increase video ad placement likelihood.

The interactive experience allows shoppers to navigate between specific product features before clicking through to the product detail page. Each video thumbnail includes descriptive text explaining the featured functionality. The format integrates directly into existing Sponsored Products campaigns without requiring separate campaign creation or management workflows.

Performance metrics demonstrate engagement lift

Early testing data reveals Sponsored Products campaigns with video achieved a 9% click-through rate increase compared to campaigns without video, according to Amazon internal data from the United States in 2025. The performance differential became more pronounced among engaged viewers, with click-through rates jumping 8 times higher for the 20% of shoppers who watched Sponsored Products videos for longer than five seconds.

The engagement metrics matter for the marketing community because they demonstrate measurable performance improvements without requiring substantial campaign restructuring. Advertisers maintain familiar Sponsored Products workflows while accessing video capabilities that previously required separate creative production and campaign management. Amazon unified its DSP and sponsored ads in Campaign Manager on November 10, 2025, simplifying cross-format campaign management through a single interface.

The format accessibility extends to businesses across size categories. Advertisers can create new product feature videos or repurpose existing long-form video assets to demonstrate product highlights. This flexibility addresses production concerns that have historically limited video advertising adoption among smaller marketplace sellers.

Technical implementation and access

Sponsored Products video became available in the United States on November 11, 2025, for sellers and vendors through the Advertising console and Amazon Ads API. The API implementation includes specific endpoints for advertisement creation, updates, and queries across campaigns and ad extensions.

The technical architecture supports CreateAd, UpdateAd, and QueryAd operations through the /adsApi/v1 endpoints. Campaign-level management operates through CreateCampaign, UpdateCampaign, and QueryCampaign endpoints. Ad extension functionality handles video content through CreateAdExtensions, UpdateAdExtensions, and QueryAdExtensions operations. Moderation results for uploaded video content appear through the /moderation/results endpoint.

The infrastructure integration reflects Amazon's broader platform consolidation strategy. The company launched a unified account structure in October 2025, enabling advertisers to access all Amazon Ads products through one account without separate registrations. The account unification eliminates friction between Amazon DSP and Sponsored Ads, addressing operational challenges that complicated multi-client management for agencies.

Strategic context within Amazon's video advertising expansion

The Sponsored Products video launch coincides with significant Amazon advertising infrastructure developments. Amazon advertising revenue reached $17.7 billion in the third quarter of 2025, representing 22% year-over-year growth. Sponsored Products remain the largest contributor to this revenue, while streaming advertising through Prime Video presents substantial growth opportunities.

The company expanded Creative Agent capabilities to support Streaming TV and Sponsored TV advertising formats on November 11, 2025. The artificial intelligence tool enables professional-quality video asset creation through natural conversation, addressing creative barriers that typically require weeks of production work and thousands of dollars in agency fees.

Amazon's video advertising ecosystem now spans multiple formats and platforms. Prime Video viewership signals launched in Amazon Marketing Cloud on November 11, 2025, providing content engagement data from streaming viewership. The integration enables advertisers to examine content preferences among their customer base while analyzing overlap between customer segments and Prime Video viewers.

The measurement capabilities extend beyond simple viewership counts. Advertisers can investigate relationships between streaming consumption and purchase patterns, examining whether specific content genres correlate with shopping behaviors. This cross-signal analysis operates within Amazon Marketing Cloud's privacy-safe clean room environment.

Competitive positioning in retail media landscape

The Sponsored Products video format addresses competitive pressures within retail media advertising. Macy's Media Network integrated Amazon Retail Ad Service in early November 2025, representing the first major department store to adopt Amazon's retail advertising technology since its January 2025 launch. The partnership enables advertisers to create sponsored product campaigns appearing on Macys.com through Amazon's campaign management tools.

The sponsored product format represents the central growth driver within retail media. Research indicates 67% of brands and agencies redirected performance advertising budgets toward retail media investments in 2024, with brands working with four to six retail media networks doubling in 2025. This diversification strategy reflects advertiser demand for access to multiple retailer audiences rather than concentrating spend with single platforms.

Amazon introduced Retail Ad Service on January 9, 2025, at CES as a cloud-based advertising technology service built on Amazon Web Services infrastructure. The platform allows retailers to implement sponsored product advertisements on their websites while maintaining control over ad placements, creative formats, and frequency. Several retailers joined the beta program, with Macy's representing the largest retail partner based on annual revenue and store footprint.

Implications for marketplace advertisers

The video format introduction impacts how marketplace sellers and vendors approach product differentiation within search results. Traditional Sponsored Products advertisements display static product images with pricing and Prime eligibility indicators. The video enhancement enables dynamic feature demonstration without requiring shoppers to leave search results or browse to detail pages.

The interactive thumbnail navigation addresses a fundamental challenge in product advertising: communicating multiple features within limited ad space. Shoppers can prioritize which features they want to explore based on their specific needs, rather than consuming video content sequentially. This control mechanism potentially improves conversion efficiency by directing interested shoppers to relevant product information.

The performance data suggesting an 8x click-through rate increase among engaged viewers indicates strong signal value. These shoppers demonstrate higher purchase intent through their willingness to watch videos for more than five seconds. The engagement threshold separates casual browsers from serious prospects, enabling more efficient conversion path analysis.

Amazon released a profit analytics dashboard on September 18, 2025, combining sales, returns, fees, advertising data, and seller-provided cost data to deliver comprehensive profitability insights. The dashboard's integration with Sponsored Products enables automated collection of advertising costs, eliminating manual data entry requirements. This measurement infrastructure supports evaluation of video advertising's return on investment relative to other marketing channels.

The format's availability through both the Advertising console and API suggests Amazon anticipates adoption among advertisers with varying technical sophistication levels. Manual campaign managers can upload videos through graphical interfaces, while programmatic advertisers can integrate video management into automated campaign optimization workflows.

Industry adoption patterns for video advertising

The Sponsored Products video launch reflects broader industry trends toward video content in digital advertising. The Interactive Advertising Bureau released research on July 15, 2025, revealing that 86% of buyers currently use or plan to implement generative artificial intelligence for video advertisement creation by 2026. The study projected generative AI creative would account for 40% of all advertisements by 2026.

Major platforms have expanded video creation capabilities throughout 2025. Google launched Asset Studio on September 10, 2025, as a centralized creative platform enabling advertisers to generate, edit, and scale advertising assets using artificial intelligence. The platform integrates multiple generative AI models including Imagen 4 for advanced image creation and video generation capabilities.

Meta announced significant expansions to its generative AI advertising capabilities on June 17, 2025, at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The enhancements included upgraded video generation capabilities designed to streamline creative production for advertisers across Instagram, Facebook, and other Meta properties.

Amazon expanded Video Generator capabilities to all United States advertisers on June 10, 2025. The enhanced platform creates realistic high-motion videos showing products in active use rather than static lifestyle scenes. The Video Generator integration with Sponsored Products video provides technical infrastructure for advertisers lacking in-house video production resources.

The convergence of video advertising capabilities across platforms demonstrates industry recognition that video content drives engagement and conversion metrics superior to static imagery. For marketplace sellers, the challenge shifts from whether to adopt video advertising to how effectively they can produce and optimize video content across multiple product listings.

Measurement and optimization considerations

The Sponsored Products video format introduces new performance metrics requiring advertiser attention. Traditional Sponsored Products campaigns optimize around impressions, clicks, click-through rates, cost per click, and conversion rates. Video advertisements add engagement depth metrics including video views, view duration, completion rates, and thumbnail click-through rates.

The 9% click-through rate increase represents aggregate performance across all campaigns with video. However, the 8x increase among shoppers watching videos for more than five seconds suggests engagement quality matters substantially. Advertisers will need to evaluate whether their video content successfully maintains shopper attention beyond initial impressions.

The thumbnail navigation system enables feature-level performance analysis. Advertisers can potentially identify which product features generate highest engagement, informing both advertising strategy and product development priorities. If certain features consistently drive higher click-through rates, those features merit prominence in video content and product positioning.

Amazon introduced reserve share of voice for branded search in October 2025, enabling fixed-price reservations for branded keyword placements. The feature addresses visibility variability brands experience in search results, providing protection against competitor conquesting on branded terms. The combination of guaranteed placement through reserve share of voice and enhanced engagement through Sponsored Products video creates powerful brand protection mechanisms.

The bid adjustment functionality for video ad placement introduces additional optimization complexity. Advertisers must balance increased costs from higher bids against improved performance from video placements. The performance data suggesting 9% click-through rate increases provides initial benchmarking, but individual advertiser results will vary based on product categories, video quality, and competitive dynamics.

Timeline

• January 9, 2025: Amazon launches Retail Ad Service at CES, enabling retailers to monetize sites using Amazon's advertising technology
• June 10, 2025: Amazon expands Video Generator capabilities to all US advertisers with high-motion product demonstrations
• September 18, 2025: Amazon releases profit analytics dashboard combining advertising data with seller-provided cost information
• October 2025: Amazon launches unified advertiser accounts, enabling single-login access to all advertising products
• October 2025: Amazon introduces reserve share of voice for branded search, providing fixed-price branded keyword reservations
• November 10, 2025: Amazon unifies Campaign Manager platform, consolidating sponsored ads and DSP into single interface
• November 11, 2025: Amazon launches Sponsored Products video at unBoxed conference with interactive feature thumbnails
• November 11, 2025: Amazon expands Creative Agent to support Streaming TV and Sponsored TV advertising formats
• November 11, 2025: Amazon Marketing Cloud integrates Prime Video viewership signals for content engagement analysis
• Early November 2025: Macy's integrates Amazon Retail Ad Service for sponsored product campaigns

Summary

Who: Amazon Ads launched the feature for sellers and vendors advertising on its marketplace platform. The announcement affects advertisers managing Sponsored Products campaigns, agencies handling Amazon advertising accounts, and marketplace sellers seeking differentiation in search results.

What: Sponsored Products video enables advertisers to upload one to five product feature videos per product, with shoppers viewing up to three video thumbnails showing relevant features. The interactive format integrates with existing Sponsored Products campaigns through Campaign Manager and Amazon Ads API, allowing bid adjustments to increase video ad placement likelihood. Early testing shows 9% click-through rate increases compared to campaigns without video, with 8x improvements among shoppers watching videos longer than five seconds.

When: Amazon announced Sponsored Products video on November 11, 2025, at the company's annual unBoxed conference. The feature launched the same day with immediate availability for United States advertisers through the Advertising console and API endpoints.

Where: The feature operates within Amazon's Sponsored Products advertising platform in the United States. Advertisers access video capabilities through Campaign Manager in the Advertising console or through API endpoints including CreateAd, UpdateAd, QueryAd, CreateCampaign, UpdateCampaign, QueryCampaign, CreateAdExtensions, UpdateAdExtensions, and QueryAdExtensions operations. Video advertisements appear in Amazon search results and product detail pages where Sponsored Products placements currently display.

Why: The feature addresses advertiser demand for video capabilities within existing campaign infrastructure, enabling product feature demonstration without requiring separate video campaign creation. The interactive thumbnail navigation provides shoppers control over which features they explore, potentially improving conversion efficiency by directing interested prospects to relevant product information. The format accessibility across business sizes democratizes video advertising capabilities that previously required substantial production resources, while performance data demonstrating 9% click-through rate increases provides measurable return on investment for advertisers adopting the format.