Why Amazon Prime Day 2023 Succeeded

Why Amazon Prime Day 2023 Succeeded

by Morgan Reilly Amazon

Are you ready for the next Amazon Prime Day, which will probably happen this fall? Based on the results of the July 11-12 Prime Day, you should be. Amazon reminded everyone that the company is the top dog in e-commerce despite challenges from the likes of TikTok and Walmart. Businesses that prepare for Prime Day properly will benefit.

Amazon Prime Day Results

According to data from Adobe Analytics, the recent two-day event that occurred on July 11 and 12 witnessed a remarkable increase in year-on-year spending, reaching $12.7 billion in the United States, with a surge of 6.1 percent.

During this event, Prime members globally indulged themselves in purchasing over 375 million products, taking advantage of Amazon’s discounted deals and saving an impressive amount of over $2.5 billion.

The average Prime Day spend per order is $56.64, up from $53.14 in the same reporting period on Prime Day 2022, according to data firm Numerator.

What People Bought

Throughout the span of the two-day event, various categories played a significant role in propelling online sales. Notably, appliances accounted for 45 percent of the sales, followed by housekeeping supplies at 28 percent, and electronics at 18 percent. Additionally, there was a noticeable increase in the popularity of apparel, experiencing a growth of 17 percent, and stationery/office supplies, skyrocketing by an impressive 76 percent. These surges were partially fueled by the influx of back-to-school shoppers.

How People Shopped

Consumers exhibited a growing inclination towards adopting flexible approaches in managing their expenditures. Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) orders experienced a significant surge on both days of the event. On July 11, BNPL constituted 6.4 percent of online orders, resulting in a remarkable revenue of $461 million. This marked an astounding 19.5 percent increase compared to the corresponding day of last year’s Prime Day event. Similarly, on July 12, BNPL accounted for 6.6 percent of online orders, generating $466 million in revenue and demonstrating a notable growth of 21 percent compared to the second day of last year’s event.

Online sales were predominantly influenced by smartphones, accounting for nearly half of the total sales at 46.5 percent. This figure has seen a growth from the previous year’s 43.7 percent, indicating an upward trend in consumer confidence when it comes to shopping on smaller screens. The increase in smartphone-driven sales can be attributed to both the growing comfort of consumers with mobile shopping experiences and the prevalence of last-minute impulse purchases.

“Prime Day has become of one the biggest e-commerce moments of the year, as consumers latch onto major discounts from a number of different retailers,” said Vivek Pandya, a lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights, in a statement. “The record spending so far shows us that consumers are tapping into their inner bargain hunters, stocking up on specific categories such as electronics and apparel while the discounts remain steep.”

Across major marketing channels, affiliates/partners saw the biggest lift when it came to revenue contribution (up 11 percent). Other major contributors were email (up 10 percent), display (up 5 percent) and social (up 4 percent).

How to Prepare

Here are some tactics advertisers should take to prepare themselves for Amazon Prime Day – and start preparing now:

  • Offer exclusive discounts and bundles. Prime Day is all about deals. So make sure you’re offering discounts that will make your products stand out from the competition. You could also offer bundles of products to give customers more value for their money. Participate in Amazon’s Lightning Deals and coupon promotions to drive increased sales and conversions. These limited-time offers can create a sense of urgency and encourage impulse purchases.
  • Re-examine your search campaigns on Amazon. Given how much Prime Day shoppers seek out deals, are your keywords aligned with what value-based shoppers are looking for?
  • Optimize your product listings. Make sure your product listings are optimized for search so that people can easily find your products. This includes using relevant keywords, clear and concise product descriptions, and high-quality images. Consider using Enhanced Brand Content or A+ Content to provide enhanced visuals and detailed product information.
  • Stock up on inventory. Make sure you have enough inventory to meet demand. You don’t want to lose out on sales (and annoy Amazon) because you’re out of stock.
  • Promote your deals on social media and email. Let your existing customers know about your Prime Day deals by promoting them on social media and email. You could also create a dedicated landing page for your Prime Day deals.
  • Track your results. It’s important to track your results so that you can see what’s working and what’s not. This will help you improve your strategy for future Prime Day events.
  • Do post-Prime Day follow-up. After Prime Day ends, leverage post-event insights and customer data to retarget potential customers and nurture ongoing relationships. Develop post-Prime Day campaigns, including remarketing efforts and personalized offers, to maintain momentum and drive additional sales.

Contact True Interactive

To succeed in Amazon’s world, contact True Interactive. Our experience with Amazon Ads makes us well suited to help your brand succeed all year-round.

How Retailers Can Succeed on Amazon during the Holiday Season

How Retailers Can Succeed on Amazon during the Holiday Season

by Morgan Reilly Advertising

By Tim Colucci and Morgan Reilly

It’s a challenging time to be a merchant selling products on Amazon. In October, Amazon’s vaunted Prime Day II sale underperformed according to analysts’ analysis. And then Amazon forecast its Q4 retail sales to be $140 billion to $148 billion in the fourth quarter, far short of analysts’ average estimate of $156 billion. Meanwhile, Adobe Inc. forecast that US e-commerce sales in November and December will rise just 2.5% from the prior year.

All of this is because consumers are more price conscious amid inflation and fears of a pending recession, so they will likely spend less.

Independent sellers on Amazon’s website, who account for a majority of unit sales, are bracing for a challenging holiday season in the run-up to Cyber Week. Many of them advertise their products on Amazon via Amazon Ads. How should they adapt their approach if at all?

Here are some tips:

1 Don’t Let Prime Day Results Spook You

Klover, a company that analyzes real-time commerce and financial data, found that households spent around 40 percent less during the October event compared with the July Prime Day. But merchants were constrained by Amazon’s ground rules for selling on Prime Day II, which prohibited vendors from featuring top discounts on both October Prime Day and Cyber Week. So, many merchants likely were hesitant to feature their top discounts/promotions because they needed to save them for Cyber Week. Also, many retailers might not have been prepared to have inventory ready for two Prime Days (July and October) and Cyber Week — and in those cases, they are likely holding out for Cyber Week.

2 Focus on Value, Not Price

As a partner to advertisers this holiday season, our own experience indicates that the lowest cost item isn’t necessarily the most popular. So far we’re seeing traditionally popular sellers are doing well. Consumers are willing to pay for what they really want. They’re willing to trade down for a lower-cost alternative, but that doesn’t mean they’re going for the cheapest items on the menu. Beware inventory dumping, which burned many businesses on Prime Day. During the inflationary times we’re living in, price-conscious shoppers are less likely to buy something extra just because it’s on sale.

3 Consider Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display in Addition to Sponsored Products

For many merchants, Amazon’s Sponsored Products ad unit is the bread-and-butter of their ad spend. Sponsored products are used to promote a single product and take the consumer directly to the product page. Additional creative such as images and text are not needed, making sponsored products the simplest ad to set up. Merchants use keyword targeting to match products to a consumer’s search and show ads on the search results page or product detail page. 

Amazon Sponsored Products

Sponsored Brands allow for multiple products or titles to be promoted together using a custom headline and logo. Consumers are taken to a product page if they click on a product, or to a designated landing page if they click on the image or ad text. Sponsored Brands are good for driving awareness, in addition to sales. For example, advertisers can pair new or seasonal items with a related top seller in an ad to increase visibility in other product offerings. Or if a seller has multiple versions of the same product, using Sponsored Brand ads showcases the variety available within a single ad.

Amazon Sponsored Brands

Sponsored Display, on the other hand, makes it possible to engage with shoppers on and off Amazon with self-service display ads. Advertisers can engage audiences browsing specific detail pages, on the Amazon home page, on Twitch (owned by Amazon), and across third-party apps and websites. Amazon says that on average companies that use Sponsored Display see up to 82 percent of their sales driven by new-to-brand customers.

 

So, why do Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display matter? Because the 2022 holiday season is more competitive. As Amazon noted in its earnings forecast, shoppers are spending less. They’re choosier. So, advertisers have to work harder at the awareness and consideration phases, which is where Sponsored Brands (for consideration) and Sponsored Display (for awareness) can be especially useful by showcasing more of a product’s features on and off Amazon.

4 Know Your Cyber Week Strategy

Today merchants everywhere (whether on Amazon or not) need to manage their holiday advertising spend against an increasingly complex set of choices: Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and now Cyber Week (Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Super Sunday, and Cyber Monday).

You do want to fund your advertising for all of Cyber Week, but some days are more appealing than others depending on what you sell. Cyber Monday remains huge, especially the peak shopping evening hours. Cyber Monday will likely loom very large in 2022 as shoppers hold out for the best possible deal.

Each day a retailer gets closer to Christmas, sales will inevitably taper off, off, but retailers should keep placeholder budget in place up until the last day free shipping is possible.

Contact True Interactive

True Interactive has deep experience helping clients plan and implement holiday shopping campaigns online, and this includes the use of Amazon Ads. We can help you, too. We understand how to create nimble search campaigns and multi-channel ad outreach to target consumers with the right message at the right time. Contact us to learn more.

Why Google Upped the Ante with Visual Search and Shopping

Why Google Upped the Ante with Visual Search and Shopping

by Morgan Reilly Google

With the rise of Gen Z, Google has come to grips with the reality that people are using the Internet in a more visual way. We recently blogged about Google admitting publicly that Instagram and TikTok are challenging Google’s dominance of search with Gen Z.  Well, Google is responding. At the company’s recent Search On event, Google announced a slew of features to make search and shopping more immersive.

Search Is More Immersive

Google said that it’s making search more immersive and visual than ever. Earlier this year, Google introduced multisearch, which makes it possible for people to take a picture or use a screenshot and then add text to it (similar to the way you might naturally point at something and ask a question about it). At Search On, Google previewed “multisearch near me,” which enables people to snap a picture or take a screenshot of an item, then find it nearby instantly.

This is important because half of Google searches seek local information. According to Google, “This new way of searching will help you find and connect with local businesses, whether you’re looking to support your neighborhood shop, or just need something right now. ‘Multisearch near me’ will start rolling out in English in the U.S. later this fall.”

Shopping Is More Visual

Google is also making shopping a more visual experience. For instance:

  • Search with the word “shop.” In the United Sates, when people search using the word “shop” followed by the item they’re looking for, they’ll get access to a visual feed of products, tools, and inventory for that product. Technically this shoppable search experience has been in development already, but Google is expanding it to include more categories such as electronics and beauty.

search

  • Shop the Look: This tool will allow searchers to see options of where to buy the products you see in search. The “shop the look” feature show links to the exact product being searched for, as well complementary pieces and where to buy them.

Shop

  • Shop in 3D: Google began to roll our 3D visuals of home goods in search results, and the company is expanding 3D search to include more products such as shoes. To give merchants and advertisers better access to 3D visuals, Google is making available a new automated 360-degree spin feature that can be accessed by using a handful of static photos. The new technology will become available in the coming months.

3D shoe

These are the latest examples of how Google is changing for a more visual web. As we discussed, Google recently announced features such as Product feeds for a shoppable YouTube experience and Swipeable shopping ads in search.

What Advertisers Should Do

  • Capitalize on Google’s advertising tools that are designed to be more visually appealing. For instance, Google Discovery ads are image-rich ads designed for a more “laid back” search experience (more about that here). Google is clearly doubling down on the visual web, and advertisers should expect more visually appealing ad products as it attempts to become a stronger e-commerce player.
  • Optimize your online inventory for visual search. For instance, offer numerous images, choose high-resolution photos, optimize image titles and descriptions, add alternative text, optimize image sizes and file types, and include great captions.

Contact True Interactive

To succeed with online advertising, contact True Interactive. Read about some of our client work here.

Three Takeaways from Amazon Prime Day 2022

Three Takeaways from Amazon Prime Day 2022

by Morgan Reilly Amazon

Amazon has announced that Amazon Prime Day 2022 was the biggest Prime Day Event ever. Prime members purchased more than 300 million items worldwide during Prime Day 2022, which took place July 12-13. Amazon did not disclose sales results, but the 300 million items purchased was up from 250 million in 2021, and research firm Numerator estimates that spend per household neared $200, up from the high $150’s in years past. This is an impressive measure especially amid soaring inflation. So, who is buying all this stuff, what are they buying, and how are they buying? This is a significant question. The answers give advertisers clues about online purchasing behavior during inflationary times. Well, Numerator took a close look at the numbers. And they say a lot.

Women Drive eCommerce

High income, suburban women were top Prime Day 2022 shoppers. Compared to Prime Day 2021, this year’s shoppers were marginally older, and slightly more likely to come from middle or low income rural households.

Women dominate Prime Day

These figures validate why brands market to women. Women are responsible for most purchases in a typical household, and since there are 3.9 billion women in the world, marketers are eager to gain as much of their spend as possible. But marketers need to be mindful to tailor their advertising to women – for example by respecting their diversity and steering clear of tired themes (such as always depicting moms as caretakers and nurturers).

Amazon Wins by Tapping into Its Customer Base

95 percent of households knew it was Prime Day before shopping, and most learned about the event directly from Amazon. Among those who were aware of the sale, 41 percent say it was the primary reason they shopped on Amazon and another 42 percent said it was a contributing factor. And Amazon dominated the list of most popular products sold.

Amazon dominates Prime Day

These numbers underscore the power of Amazon to capitalize on its built-in customer base by promoting big ticket events to them. Amazon has successfully developed hundreds of in-house products and brands, and the company knows how to market them to Prime members.

This will pressure businesses to get out in front of big-tent sales such as Back-to-School, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday even more so than they have, especially by re-marketing and advertising to their own customers. This is especially true during inflationary times. One third of Prime Day shoppers waited to buy something until Prime Day, with another 17 percent using the event as an opportunity to stock up on sale items. On the flip side, over a fourth of Prime Day shoppers passed up a good deal on a non-necessity. Businesses will double down on special sale days in 2022, knowing that their customers may very hold out for promotional specials to maximize savings.

It’s also worth noting that Amazon didn’t dominate every product sold, with products such as Dawn Dish Soap, Frito-Lay, and Tide doing well. Businesses have learned that it’s better to join Amazon than to try and beat the retailing giant. And retailers who tried to compete with Amazon by creating their own quasi-Prime Day events did not succeed: although 54 percent of Amazon Prime customers considered buying from other retailers during Prime Day (particularly Walmart and Target) only 24 percent actually made purchases elsewhere in addition to Amazon, with about one-in-ten still considering a non-Amazon purchase at the time they were surveyed.

This is why Amazon Ads is succeeding: the company has monetized all the data it collects about its customers and developed attractive ad units for companies that want to reach them. The advertising arm of Amazon achieved 32 percent year-over-year growth in 2021, which amounted to $31.2 billion in revenue. Amazon Ads will continue to be a huge growth engine for Amazon, as more businesses try to reach the customers searching for things to buy on Amazon every day. (Amazon is now bigger than Google for product searches.)

Live Stream Shopping Is on the Rise

Amazon noted that Amazon Live Prime Day streams had more than 100 million views. Thousands of users hosted livestreams during this year’s event, Amazon said. Livestreaming makes it possible for advertisers to sell products via live demonstrations and promotions. Live shopping is especially big in China: according to eMarketer, live shopping accounted for nearly 12 percent of China’s retail ecommerce sales in 2021. Coresight Research estimates the live-stream shopping market will reach $20 billion in 2022 and grow to roughly $65 billion by 2023. Several livestream platforms have proliferated. But livestream shopping needs to be done well, with great production values and authentic, engaging personalities to connect with shoppers. This is why businesses are turning to ready-made platforms such as Amazon Live.

Contact True Interactive

To succeed in Amazon’s world, contact True Interactive. Our experience with Amazon Ads makes us well suited to help your brand succeed all year-round.

TikTok and Instagram Challenge Google for Gen Z Searches

TikTok and Instagram Challenge Google for Gen Z Searches

by Morgan Reilly Google Instagram TikTok

Google has a new challenger for product searches: TikTok and Instagram.

At a recent conference, a Google executive went on record as saying, “In our studies, something like almost 40% of young people, when they’re looking for a place for lunch, they don’t go to Google Maps or Search. They go to TikTok or Instagram.”

This was a surprisingly candid admission from a company whose YouTube app has been battling TikTok especially for leadership in the video space. (Insider Intelligence predicts TikTok’s advertising revenue will overtake YouTube by 2024.)

Although Google is easily the world’s most popular search engine, when it comes to searches for things to buy, the company is not quite as popular. For example, Amazon is the Number One website for people to do product searches: according to a 2018 Jumpshot report, from 2015 to 2018, Amazon overtook Google in this area, with Amazon growing to claim 54 percent of product searches while Google declined from 54 percent to 46 percent. According to Marketplace Pulse, a majority of Amazon searches—78 percent, in fact—are nonbranded. Instead of pinpointing a specific company like lululemon, say, many customers are making broad searches such as “yoga pants for women” and seeing what comes up.

And we all know how easy it is to buy something on Amazon once you are done searching, right?

Well, Google has been trying to make itself a stronger destination for shopping amid Amazon’s ascendance. For instance, Google recently launched new commerce-related features such as:

  • Swipeable shopping ads in search. A new ad display pairs organic shopping results with shopping ads, which makes online shopping more visual. The new swipeable shopping feed is available for apparel brands via Search or Performance Max campaigns. These will be clearly labeled as ads and will be eligible to appear in dedicated ad slots throughout the page.
  • Product feeds for a shoppable YouTube experience. Advertisers will soon have the ability to connect product feeds to campaigns in order to create shoppable video ads on YouTube Shorts. With YouTube Shorts, people can quickly and easily create short videos of up to 15 seconds, similar to how TikTok and Instagram Reels are used. Shoppable video ads on Shorts helps Google capitalize on social shopping.

The problem with Instagram and TikTok is that they appeal to the surging Gen Z population, who look especially to TikTok for recommendations for things to buy.  According to The New York Times, two-thirds of TikTok users have been inspired to shop, even if that wasn’t their original intent when accessing the app in the first place. The phenomenon has gained enough attention that it even has a hashtag: #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt has garnered more than 16.7 billion views on the app.

Even more worrisome for YouTube, TikTok and Instagram are both launching social shopping tools. For instance, TikTok recently launched the TikTokShop to make it easy for people to buy things right int the app. Instagram has launched a number of tools as part of Instagram Shopping, including:

  • Instagram Checkout, which facilitates simple, convenient, and secure purchases made directly from Instagram. Shopping from Instagram means protected payment information is kept in one place. So, Instagrammers can shop multiple favorite brands without having to log in and enter intel multiple times.
  • Instagram Live, which allows checkout-enabled businesses to sell products through “live shopping.” In live shopping, consumers might be inspired by a creator or brand’s live video content and subsequently buy promoted products in real-time.

In fact, 130 million people tap on an Instagram Shopping post and engage with Instagram Checkout every month.

All told, social commerce is exploding. eMarketer predicts that by 2023, 2021, U.S. retail social commerce sales will rise to $56.17 billion.

Google is also responding to these challenges. In addition to the features noted above, the company is making search more immersive and engaging by incorporating rich visual features and augmented reality. These should help the company make the search and shopping experience livelier.

Google is making progress. Morgan Stanley says that in November 2021, 57 percent of shoppers first went to Google platforms (including Search and YouTube) to research a new product, up from 54% in May 2021. In addition, the number of Amazon Prime subscribers turning to Google for initial searches increased to 56 percent from 51 percent in the same period.

What Businesses Should Do

  • Understand your audience. Are you reaching out to Gen Z? Boomers? Not all social commerce platforms are the same. As noted, TikTok and Instagram resonates with Gen Z. Boomers tend to gravitate to Facebook. Ask yourself: who am I trying to reach, and where can I find them?
  • Learn how to use the tools available to you. Each platform has its own requirements for creating content. In addition, these popular sites demand a strong understanding of how to use visuals — anymore, it’s essential that brands know how to create powerful imagery.
  • Capitalize on Google’s advertising tools that are designed to be more visually appealing. For instance, Google recently rolled out Discovery ads, which are image-rich ads designed for a more “laid back” search experience (more about that here). Google is clearly doubling down on the visual web, and advertisers should expect more visually appealing ad products as it attempts to become a stronger e-commerce player.
  • Take a closer look at video advertising and organic content sharing, given Google’s interest in building out a more robust search experience on YouTube.

Meanwhile, TikTok and Instagram will most certainly dial up their own advertising products to attract companies that want to have their sponsored content appear alongside search results. Gear up for more ad choices!

Contact True Interactive

To succeed with online advertising, contact True Interactive. Read about some of our client work here.

How Brands Collaborate with TikTok Creators

How Brands Collaborate with TikTok Creators

by Morgan Reilly TikTok

Businesses have been embracing TikTok as a place to build their brands with their own content. Many more are also finding ways to connect with TikTok Nation through relationships with popular TikTok stars. A recent case in point: TikTok influencer Bella Poarch has been tapped as an HP HyperX ambassador. Now brands are figuring out how to find influencers who can actually create content such as TikTok videos for them. Creating relationships with TikTok stars can help a brand become more culturally relevant in ways they might not be able to do acting on their own. Let’s take a closer look.

How Brands Are Finding Creators

Competitions and hashtag challenges have proven to be a reliable way for brands to connect with content makers—and essentially make creators part of their marketing team. “It’s no longer about trying to get that one creator with a giant following to mention your brand once,” notes Ali Fazal, VP of marketing at influencer management platform Grin. Rather, as Fazal points out, it’s a way to “integrate the creator into their overall marketing strategy.” The trick is to find influencers who genuinely, organically, love the brand. “Creator classes” is the term that’s been coined to describe the influencer teams that result—teams that are made up of individuals with specific interests and skill sets.

Consider the 11 influencers in the Major League Baseball’s inaugural creator class, which was curated with the help of input from die-hard MLB fans. As Kathryn Buckles, the director of brand and content marketing at MLB, notes about the group,  “One is an esports player, one is more comedic. We also have someone who focuses on youth baseball, and a food creator that likes to replicate ballpark dishes.” In short, different influencers are bringing unique skills and interests to bear. As part of the relationship, creators have access to MLB merchandise and can attend games and visit the MLB offices.

For Gatorade, its creator class, called the Social Squad, came together through “tryouts” in which TikTokers submitted videos for consideration. Nine influencers were chosen from a pool of 1,500, and this select group will be creating content for Gatorade’s TikTok through November. Again, the individuals—from Clifford Taylor IV, formerly a walk-on for the Florida Gators, to Caitlyn Schrepfer, a professional soccer freestyler—bring a variety of talents and perspectives to the table.

Diverse as creator classes can be, a common thread among the influencers should be passion for the brand: super fans are naturally going to tell an authentic story. When Chipotle used TikTok to put together a 15-person creator class, for example, they were won over by Georgian Wyatt Moss, whose video showed Moss and friends eating Chipotle—in all 50 states (since Chipotle doesn’t have a location in Hawaii, Moss took his Chipotle on the plane ride out and ate it once he arrived!). Members of Chipotle’s creator class are rewarded for their passion: they are eligible for up to 50 free entrees, and can pay a visit to the Chipotle test kitchen. They also receive priority consideration for future paid campaigns—crucial to budding creators hoping to make a living as influencers.

TikTok Creator Marketplace

These brand/influencer collaborations are definitely mutually beneficial, and TikTok is invested in helping to make them happen: TikTok Creator Marketplace, currently in beta in the United States, is the official TikTok platform where brands and creators can connect. Think of it as a sort of dating app—a way for brands and influencers to “meet cute,” or at least connect in a mutually beneficial fashion. Participating creators sign up in hopes of connecting with brands and paid sponsorship opportunities. Participating brands can view creator profiles, audience demographics, and engagement metrics, then reach out to potential brand influencers via push and in-app notifications if they sense a possible match. Creators have an opportunity to review campaign details and a contract in order to make an informed decision.

Lessons Learned

Does collaborating with an influencer on TikTok make sense for your brand? Some thoughts before you proceed:

  • Make sure you already have a strong TikTok following. Brand ambassadors won’t stick around if they don’t have an audience. Alternatively, partner with a personality that comes with their own built-in following.
  • Mix it up. As the above examples indicate, a strong creator class is made up of diverse voices. Putting together an influencer team that looks at your brand from different angles or celebrates different aspects of the experience casts a wider net—and can help you reach a new, wider audience.
  • Choose creators aligned with your brand. As noted above, passion for your company will translate into authentic messaging. Take time to understand who a creator is—and whether they are the right fit—before bringing them on board.

Contact True Interactive

Hoping to explore what TikTok and other social platforms have to offer? Contact us. We can help.

Is the Microsoft Multimedia Ads Format for You?

Is the Microsoft Multimedia Ads Format for You?

by Morgan Reilly Advertising Bing Microsoft

Microsoft Advertising recently launched a beta version of a new ad format, Multimedia Ads, that seeks to make ads in search results more visually appealing. This could be a useful format for lifestyle brands (especially smaller ones) that rely on the power of images to make their products. It’s also important that Microsoft Advertising clients pay close attention to how Microsoft is rolling out the feature.

What Is the Multimedia Ads Format?

The Multimedia Ads format consists of image-rich ads that appear on search results pages. With this ad format, Microsoft uses machine learning to suggest to advertisers the optimal combination of their own images, body, copy, and headlines for searches occurring on Bing. If you lack visual assets, Microsoft will auto-create them. (This is an approach similar to Google’s.) As reported in Search Engine Land,

The recommendations will use AI to speed up the launch of Multimedia Ads for your brand. If you’re not interested, you’ll have seven days to apply or dismiss recommendations. If you don’t choose either, they’ll be automatically applied. “You can also opt out of the auto-apply functionality at the account level,” according to the announcement blog.

Here’s how Microsoft explains auto-apply on its campaigns dashboard:

Multimedia Ads scree

Considerations to Keep in Mind about Multimedia Ads

Now, this ad format could be appealing to a business that lacks the time and resources to create a campaign – say, a small mom-and-pop business. And the visual format could be really appealing for brands in industries such as travel and hospitality, where images are even more important. Multimedia Ads gives such a business the means to vary their ads so long as the business does not mind giving up control to Microsoft’s AI engine to do all the heavy lifting. But as Search Engine Land notes, “The auto-recommendations mean advertisers will have to be on the lookout to make sure any tests or ads they’re launching don’t end up going in a direction they don’t want.”

In other words, the feature could create more work for a business.

Here are some caveats we have noticed as well:

It’s important that Microsoft clients check their campaigns dashboards. We have discovered instances where Microsoft activated the ad format automatically for a given campaign. It’s up to the Microsoft Advertising client to proactively uncheck the “auto-apply recommendations” features boxes (see the bottom of the image below – and note that we unchecked auto-apply recommendations):

Multimedia Ads campaign screen

In fairness, we should note that Google has also used the approach of automatically applying features to its advertising products, thus putting the burden on the client to disable a feature.

You might not like the images that Microsoft suggests. Microsoft might suggest generic and uncompelling stock images with its AI. We much prefer manually uploading our own images, where we have more control over their quality.

You might not like the ad copy that Microsoft suggests. Microsoft’s AI engine draws from past copy of yours to create new copy. But what worked for a previous ad might not apply to the one you want to run. If you carefully manage the tone of your ad copy, then the AI-generated recommendations might not be for you.

The format could make it more difficult for you to do A/B testing, as well.

Bottom line:

  • Multimedia Ads is a step in the right direction because Microsoft Advertising is dialing up the power of images during the visual age.
  • Microsoft still has work to do with the quality of the images its AI engine suggests.
  • Microsoft Advertising clients should review their campaign dashboards and uncheck the “auto-apply recommendations” options if you are not ready to use the ad format.
  • Whether you use the ad format’s AI features depends on how much control you want to hand over to Microsoft Advertising.
  • Consider using the feature but without the AI-generated recommendations.

Contact True Interactive

To make online advertising, including Microsoft Advertising, succeed for you, contact True Interactive. We help clients across multiple industries succeed online.

Photo by Afif Kusuma on Unsplash