Hopefully more AI-generated ads will be displayed on Amazon's website in the future.
On Tuesday, Amazon announced the US release of its AI-powered video generator tool after nine months of beta testing. We also rolled out an updated version of the image generator, which was first announced in 2023.
A free-to-use video generator for users with authenticated Amazon Seller accounts allows for the creation of 8-second video ads (meaning the company describes it as “low motion”) from existing product images.
The tool can also collect existing video assets, identify and summarize key clips, and generate new videos from them for advertising campaigns.
The AI model is trained with a variety of open, freely available data sources, including product information from your Amazon Ads account.
Do more with less
Most retailers working in Amazon ads don't have the budget and expertise of professional marketers, Jay Richman, Amazon's vice president of product and technology, told Adexchanger.
While some large retail brands embrace Amazon's image and video generation tools, the main intention is to meet the needs of small, independent businesses.
So far, there have been good adoptions. According to Amazon Ads, 50% of products advertised with AI-generated video assets are advertised for the first time, suggesting that these companies have not been able to create these types of ads before.
Amazon was unable to share whether video ads generated by AI would increase sales for businesses using them. However, Richman noted that sponsored brand campaigns with video elements show an average of 30% higher click-through rates.
“Beyond the white background”
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The trend towards more video ads on Amazon has allowed the company to provide a larger catalog of product pages and assets, train generative AI tools, and move technology rapidly over the past few years.
When the original image generator first launched 18 months ago, it was most useful for standalone products such as chairs and appliances, but not very useful for products that “we couldn't easily place on flat surfaces.”
For example, previous generations of tools had a hard time taking photos of their watches and making them look natural against the AI-generated background. But now, the watch can be placed more intuitively, like the wrist of a person that is photorealistic, similar to a human model.
Similarly, the new video generator Cana generates short animated scenes. This means that the same person can adjust the wrist watch, or the camera can zoom in on the clock as the figure drives the car.
When these scenes are cut together and overlaid with written copies produced separately by LLM, the final result is not different to professional (slightly common) video ads. Advertisers can also use the tools to modify copies, add and adjust logo placement, and edit the length and order of clips generated in AI.
“We're not trying to replicate a complete creative suite,” Richman said. “We want to have customers who are not professional marketers come and go and get in and get involved in Day work, but we want them to do so in a way that will boost their brand beyond the white background.”
Products that are shown to be not of actual size
Of course, those who accidentally purchase Dud or Dupe on Amazon will ask natural follow-up questions. What guardrails are needed to prevent these AI-generation tools from being used to promote fake items?
In response, Richman said that AI-generated ads go through the same moderation process as everything else on Amazon's site. (Unfortunately, as both the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post reported in 2019, Amazon's third-party sellers' automatic moderation often misses counterfeit and prohibited products.)
There are also other limitations to technology, at least for now. For example, this tool can generate short montage style clips featuring the same or similar human figures, but they are not very proficient in long form stories.
But Richman said he was excited that technology has already come in the last two years, pointing out that this is a real product launch and is far from a “fantasy prototype” that some AI companies rely on marketing pushes.
“This is like a real practical application of generator AI that is alive today and ready to scale,” Richman said.
