Podcast transcript
Introduction
Hi, and welcome to another live episode of Marketplace Masters brought to you by MerchantSpring, the leading marketplace analytics platform for Amazon agencies and vendors. Marketplace Masters strives to go deeper into the challenges that vendors and agencies face to lift e-commerce and marketplace performance, privately practical actions and insights.
Paul Sonneveld
I am your host, Paul Sonneveld, and today we're going to explore how video content impacts performance in the world of Amazon. To help us do this, I've invited Justin Wilhite to join us and share his expertise and perspectives. Let me introduce him to you. Justin is the owner of Consumer Quest, which specializes in helping businesses increase their Amazon sales through engaging and shoppable video content.
They create user-tailored, user-generated content to highlight product features, thereby increasing rankings, sales and conversion. He's a seasoned video content creator with over seven years of experience, and he specializes in communicating with consumers through various video formats, including live streams, short content, and product reviews. So I think that means for me, no pressure in terms of producing this show. Today. I definitely feel like, the least experienced here, but, great to have you on today's episode, Justin.
Justin Willhite
I'm excited to be here.
Paul Sonneveld
We've done a number of topics in terms of content optimization, bullet points, titles, and images. We've done a lot in that space, but we've never really touched on this particular topic, video. And maybe it's really good just to start with what is video on Amazon? I always think of it, you know, it's just the unboxing video right at the bottom of the image carousel, but I suspect there's a lot more to it. So, maybe paint a picture for us.
Justin Willhite
Yeah. So, video is, you know, and we've been seeing it lately, especially over the last couple of years, Amazon's been putting a ton of emphasis on video in particular, but the video shows up in a lot of different places. You know, you've got, obviously, the video you're referring to is the video that's in the carousel. Typically, that is a produced style video and like a cool 3D rendering of an earbuds or headphones or a brand created, shorts tutorial video. It's something that's designed to kind of hook people, right? Which is the one that's upfront.
Now what we're seeing is we're seeing this new with the A-plus content that whole concept. Now we're starting to see videos show up kind of in the middle of your Amazon listings. And then we have the area that I kind of specialize and focus on is the videos for this product section, which is towards the bottom kind of just in that review area of your listings. And that's where you're going to find videos of this product. And then you're also going to find videos for related products in that area as well. And so those are the three types of places that you find it most commonly.
Amazon also has their Amazon live product. And then they also have a new product that they just recently launched, which is called the Amazon Inspire Feed, which is that vertical format, TikTok style, short clips. And so basically when you look at it, when you take all of that video real estate that they're putting on their site, it's just a really good indication of the emphasis that Amazon is putting on video. And I mean, As we know, social media, TikTok and Instagram and YouTube, and it's constantly growing. It's trending up, and so the shopping platforms are obviously on board and Amazon, in my opinion, is one of the ones that's absolutely leading the way with video.
Paul Sonneveld
So if you had to guess, I mean, if you think about the real estate on Amazon's on a product page, let's take a product page. What percentage nowadays would you say, is taken up by video? And I think it probably varies by category, and page but
Justin Willhite
It does. And, well, that's the interesting thing about video as well is because it video itself. When you think about real estate, you can put so much more messaging into video than you can images and texts. And so that's, I think where they're getting most of their value from this and that from that perspective is, I mean, realistically on a real estate value, when you look at the carousel of images, right, you've got six images and one of them is a video. So you've got a really small percentage there. The video bar is relegated to just a slim little bar, but it's a carousel, so there's a lot of videos crammed in this one little segment.
And then when you look in the A-plus content, you'll see there's one strip that's in the middle as well. So on a real estate basis, it's small. It's definitely grown, right? So in comparison to what it was three years ago. There's much more real estate, but what you can fit in a video is infinitely more than you can almost put on an entire listing page when it comes to information. And so I think that's where it's a, a very compact space, but it packs a huge amount of information.
Paul Sonneveld
Right, right. Yeah. So talk to us a little bit more about the different formats and the role that they can play for a seller, for a brand owner or even for a vendor.
Justin Willhite
Yeah, absolutely. We'll kind of start with the top, the image carousel, right? So that's a place obviously where that's going to be one of the first videos that is going to be introduced to your potential customer, right? And so that is going to be the one that's designed to really hook people, right? That's where you'll see those like I said, the 3D rendering of a speaker exploding into all of its parts and 360 and all these cool effects and water splashing on it because it's waterproof. And those are the things that you want to kind of say, okay, here's a quick highlight reel. And look how cool this speaker is, right? That's going to draw people in. So that's kind of your hook.
Then you're going to get down. Now if you have a listing that has the A-plus content, from what I've seen across Amazon, it's a very small subset of listing pages that have the A-plus content, but it's growing. That is another space in there where now you're trying to get them excited about the product once again. So you've hooked them, they're going down the page, and they're getting more excited about the product. Then they're going to end up towards the bottom of the page. And this is where you get into the videos for this product and videos for related products.
And in my opinion, that content in there is really where you can start to build, a brand's trust, right? So, Up until that point, everything that the potential shopper the person shopping for this product has seen is designed to make them buy this product. Right? It's like, here's this cool image and here's this cool text and look at all these things you can do, buy this thing, this is what you want, this is what you need.
But then you get down to the bar for where there's more social and peer group validation here. And this is where this is not a video that's going to be heavy on sales. I'm not going to be throwing at you saying these are the best products. This is the best earbuds. These are the best, this is the best toilet paper you can buy. This is going to be very informational. This is what you get in the box. This is what it looks like. Look, it comes with a manual, and all these extra accessories. It's very instructional. It's designed to kind of build again that brand trust. So now they think they want it, this is going to help them decide if they're actually going to buy it. And that's kind of what that bar is designed to do.
Paul Sonneveld
And just to clarify, that is all user-generated content?
Justin Willhite
Typically, yes. Now you will still see in most cases, you'll see the video that the brand created at the very top. Also, down here in that video bar. Sometimes depending on which videos are performing the best. If it's a very popular product and there's a lot of videos, the brand's videos will get pushed off the carousel or pushed really far down just because they want to show the most impactful content up front in this bar.
And that's one of the things about this space as well. It's the only place where there's competitiveness in content. So whatever content is providing the most value, and in my opinion, probably likely converting the most sales is going to get the most visibility in that bar. So it's a very algorithm-driven bar as opposed to the video up in the carousel. You select it as the brand and it just lives there.
Paul Sonneveld
Yeah. Yeah. I'd love to go a little bit deeper into that, but maybe let's just go into a slightly different, topic here, which is at the end of the day, this is all nice, but we're about, we care about sales and ideally the reimbursements from Amazon into our bank account right?
Justin Willhite
Right.
Paul Sonneveld
So we're talking about conversion and all of that. How do you think about driving conversion for a brand? I know you've touched on it, various things, but maybe just talk us through an example in terms of what would you consider to a best in class for feel free to pick a particular category, might be different strategies there. How do you leverage video to specifically increase conversion?
Justin Willhite
Yeah, definitely. And so, I mean, I think there's a lot involved when you're talking about video, both on-platform and off-platform, to be honest. So I also specialize in influencer marketing. That's one of the jobs that I do for one of the largest corporations on the planet, actually.
And what you find is that there's a lot involved in conversion. So obviously you've got to get people to your listing page if you're even going to, if you even get a chance at converting them, they have to be on your listing page.
Once they're there, this is where you have, you need to have all of the information for them to make the decision before they leave or either go seek out another complimentary product, a similar product, or a competitor. You have to have as much information for them as possible. And so what Amazon has done, if you look at the different types of video, Amazon understands this. They get it, they understand the concept that yes, a really flashy, high-end, heavily produced video is important.
Again, it's that flashing, it's the lure that catches the eye and brings them in. It's not the one, it's not typically the video that's going to actually cause them to decide to purchase. There's a reason why unboxing channels, unboxing TikTok channels, all these reviewers, these influencers on off-platform channels, there's a reason why they have so many followers is because every time someone's shopping for a product, they're going to read all the information.
Now they're kind of pretty sure this is what they're looking for, but then they go to TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, to these influencers, to these unboxers. This is where they're going to get their social validation. This is where they're going to hear a different point of view. Somebody that's going to walk them through the product, really make sure that's what I want. Then what you're hoping as a brand is you're hoping that they're going to come back to that page and buy yours. Amazon understands this, and so what they've done is if you look at the different types of video spots and real estate that they've put on these pages, they're allowing you access to be able to give the information that they would normally need to go find elsewhere, but you can have it on your listing on Amazon.
And so that's what drives conversion. That is having all of the information that they need right there in front of them to make the decision to purchase. That's what drives your conversion up. A lack of information will have people jumping to different places, going to different products, and going back to the search results to find, to see if there's another one that looks better to them. So, having your listing as dialled in as possible is how you're going to affect conversion rates.
Paul Sonneveld
And, sorry, just feel like putting you on one particular point. So clearly Amazon has an objective here not to lose the traffic to other sites. Because who knows if consumers will come back? Hey, there might be another link on some other social media sites to buy the product.
Justin Willhite
Exactly.
Paul Sonneveld
But that's social trust. What is Amazon doing specifically to build that social trust, right? Because this is the reason why people go elsewhere. So, it's got to be authentic. What is Amazon doing in that space? And this is probably a topic in itself, but just tell, and share a little bit in terms of what are they doing in that space, in and around their influencer program.
Justin Willhite
So they're encouraging people like me who also make content on those other platforms to make content for their platform. So what they've done is they've gone out and basically said, Hey, just so you know, instead of just making content over there, you can also make it here. And what's interesting is as I mentioned, I've got years of experience in YouTube and doing unboxings and reviews for Mega brands, right?
And what I find is because the conversion rates on these videos is so much higher, ridiculously higher on Amazon than it is off-platform, I've almost completely left the off-platform video production side of things. To exclusively make content on Amazon because it just makes sense for everybody, right? The brands are happier, I'm happier. It just kind of works really well. And that's kind of what they've done is they've said, okay, if you're making content over there, you'll see it. Especially if you look in their new Amazon Inspire Feed, there's a lot of influencers that are very big on TikTok and Instagram that are over here now doing content specifically on Amazon. And that's just Amazon. Just they see it, they know where to find these people and they bring them in.
Paul Sonneveld
Yeah. Wow. It's a whole new ecosystem being built there.
Justin Willhite
Absolutely.
Paul Sonneveld
There's all sorts of follow-up questions, but let me not go there because we can maybe do another episode just on that.
Justin Willhite
Yeah.
Paul Sonneveld
So we've spoken about using video for conversion. What about some other objectives here, like defending your listing or what else can you use video for?
Justin Willhite
Absolutely. So, what I've found so far is spending so much time focusing on video on Amazon, is that there is a significant lack in understanding of how video actually operates on Amazon. Right. And that's partially because to be able to affect videos of this product section, you either need to be the brand. You need to work with an influencer like me, or you need to hope that your other shoppers, the people who have purchased your product, end up making a video, right? That's the only type of video that shows up down there. But there's so much more to it.
So first of all, one of the big ones in my opinion, is at this point on Amazon, if you're selling on Amazon, you should probably already know this, but if you've got a product on Amazon, there's probably 15,20,25 other people or brands selling something either very similar or identical with a different label on it. So the competitive space that Amazon has become is harder and harder to compete in. And so working with a bunch of agencies, what I've learned is that they're looking for all the little ways that they can tweak a listing. Whether it be keywords or titles or descriptions to kind of get the button up these listings as much as possible.
Make them as useful as possible, as informational as possible, and try and find different ways to keep your competitors off your page. And what a lot of people don't understand and what this slide is showing here specifically, is that video bar down below, which is the videos for this product.
There's also a segment if you don't have roughly five or more videos, what's going to happen is you're going to have this other carousel creep in, which is called videos for related products, and I circled that in red right there. That is a space where any brand, any product, any video that's on another listing that is related to yours can show up. So for example, in that specific image that I have right there, the two videos for their videos for this product are the brand, those are about that specific ASIN. They are on that page and they're dialed, they're tied directly to the product that you're shopping for, that first video right next to it is a completely different product from a different brand, which is a competitor, right?
And so this is where you get into some of the advanced strategies when it comes to video. Because if someone's shopping this product and they've gotten down this far to the video section and as I just talked about how important video is. If for some reason they click that third video and they watch it and they're convinced that that's the product that they want, you just lost a customer.
And so one of the strategies here is, as I mentioned right here, defending your listing by making sure that there are at the very least, five videos for that specific ASIN down in that bar. That makes sure that videos for related product bar almost never even make it onto your listing page. Just kind of one of those ways that you can just make sure that if people filter through here, there's nothing there.
Now, interestingly, if you have no video done, you can have an entire bar of videos for related products, which is just, I mean, that's a field day on your listing for your, for your competitors to be on there. So, definitely defending your listing. Is one thing that you can do using this bar down there for sure.
Paul Sonneveld
So really this is to me, this sounds like just trying to push them off your page, essentially. Just make sure, to push them off. Of course, at some point, they're going to be on page three of the carousel. But they're not visible. They're not there.
Justin Willhite
I don't have the data behind it, but I would imagine that the data on how many people actually click that little, tiny grey arrow off to the right over there. Is probably very minimal. And again, this comes back to having a good video. If the first video is informative, shows them everything, walks them through the product, they see everything that's in the box, that might just, that's more than likely going to be enough for them to say, yep, that's the one that I want. And they're off to the races. They don't even need to go down into those other videos. And so, that's why having compelling content is also so important.
Paul Sonneveld
Great. So conversion, defending your ASIN.
Justin Willhite
Yep.
Paul Sonneveld
I think earlier when you and I were chatting before the show, you were talking about acquiring new customers as well.
Justin Willhite
Correct.
Paul Sonneveld
Tell us a little bit more for how does that work?
Justin Willhite
Yeah. Yeah. So if I think the next slide, which looks strangely familiar to this one. Except the title is the exact same thing,
Paul Sonneveld
Same differences, right?
Justin Willhite
Yeah, exactly right. This is perfect. And this is by design too, because this is the exact same listing. Now, the thing that you kind of have to consider when you're looking at this is how I explained that that third video is a video for related product. Now, one, obviously, as for the people watching this, you want to defend, you want to have five videos that are of your product right, to defend off from these competitive products.
But you also have to kind of step back a little bit and think at the same time when you're considering the fact that that competitive product is showing up on this listing because there's only two videos, right? How many of the other listings out there are in the same scenario, right? Let's say on their page, for example, let's just take these headphones.
If you were selling a pair of headphones and I create a video for you, we link it to your ASIN. Amazon then understands that this video is related to this ASIN, which is a pair of earbuds or a pair of headphones. Now, what that tells Amazon is that that video is then related to every other pair of headphones that are currently on Amazon. So when we create a video for your product, it could potentially show up as a related product video on any pair of headphones anywhere on Amazon.
So just like theirs is showing up on your page, yours can show up on anybody else's page. So, what happens is then that just gives you a percentage of a possibility that while somebody's shopping for another pair of headphones, they could click on your video, be interested in your product, and end up coming over and purchasing yours instead.
So it's a defensive and offensive strategy. So the more video you have, I mean, there's really multiple benefits that go along with that. And so that's one of those things. Just, and I'll mention this on the side note, we also have on top of that, just that concept. There is a much more advanced strategy when it comes to seeking out customers on products that's a little bit more strategic and much more effective. But that's a whole other topic. But it's really, really interesting. And so there's this
Paul Sonneveld
You got me very curious now, care to give it a go in 30 seconds?
Justin Willhite
Give it a go in 30 seconds. Yes. Okay. Let's give it a go in 30 seconds. We can do that. So one of the things that we do, one of the videos that I really love to make and I have found very, very successful is the concept of complimentary product videos. So, for example, let's take a water bottle, right? Let's say your product that you sell as the client, you know, as this person here, you sell a water bottle and we're trying to find more people to buy your water bottle.
So we're going to profile that customer, and we're going to say, okay, this person that we want to target with this specific video is someone that goes to the gym, right? What we would do is we'd find two additional complimentary products that go along with your water bottle. So we say a water bottle, let's say a sweat towel, and we'll say like a water additive that you would put in, after you work out like an electrolyte powder, right?
So we'd, we'd consider all three of those products. Now I create a video where I talk about three of my favourite products for the gym. We talk about your water bottle, the sweat towel, and the water additive. Amazon allows me to link that one video to all three of those product pages. Now, when you consider this, anybody that's shopping for a sweat towel because they're going to the gym has then watched that video to learn more about sweat towels.
The very first product that they're going to be introduced to is your water bottle, and right below the video bar is the link directly to the water bottle that they're seeing. Right? The same thing goes with that water additive. Now we are in three different feeds of customers, right? People who weren't even shopping for a water bottle at the time are shopping for two other very related products, and now are seeing your water bottle and potentially going to convert into a customer that was never even, was never even looking for your product in the first place.
Now we're going to zoom out one more time, right? And we consider that the video is linked to a water bottle, a sweat towel, and a water additive. Amazon says, great. This video is related to every water bottle, every sweat towel and every water additive on Amazon. Now we take that concept of showing up as a compliment, you know, as a video for related products. The same thing goes it can show up on water bottles, sweat towels and water additives across Amazon. So you've taken the virality potential of that video and multiplied it by some percentage and sometimes I don't do math. But it's a huge expansion in potential customer volume that we're never even searching for your product in the first place at that moment.
Paul Sonneveld
What a great kind of cross-selling, cross-promoting, cross-pollinating strategy.
Justin Willhite
Exactly.
Paul Sonneveld
Yeah. It just highlights for me the idea of like really thinking about what you're trying to do. Probably doing a bit of research around what your competitors are doing, but also complimentary products trying to sort of draw a little bit of a space of what does that landscape look like that you're trying to sort of, work in from a consumer point of view and then developing the right strategy around that. So thank you for responding to that call and really explaining that. Because that was a super, super interesting, example there, Justin.
Justin Willhite
Yeah, it's a really cool strategy and we've seen it. It's when you watch the data metrics on the backend, those videos can really have a ton of traction. It's really, really cool.
Paul Sonneveld
Yeah. Wow. Fantastic. Yeah. Now here, like we all, you know, I think everyone watching, yay, video, sexy. It's great, we love it. But what about costs, right? We know that producing video is definitely more expensive than creating images. How do we make sure that video isn't just a big money pit? I don't know what you charge, but I imagine it's, it's quite easily a couple thousand dollars. That's a lot of cash for a lot of sellers. Right? Sorry, if you were saying, actually I only charge less and more than
Justin Willhite
Yeah. I won't go into exact details on charge, the cost, but we're not that expensive, which is good.
Paul Sonneveld
Okay. Good.
Justin Willhite
Definitely not there. But, no, you definitely hit it on the head because video and the way that we do it is and I can't speak for any other video production agency out there, but obviously Yeah. I mean, you, you know how expensive video is, right? And video especially with highly produced, you know, all of the gear doing the 3D renderings. I mean, those can get very, very expensive.
What we do and the type of video that we do is much more organic, and it has to look and feel more organic. It can't be overproduced. We don't do a lot of background music. We're not doing little things coming onto the screen. We're not doing a lot of crazy slide shots and pan shots. It's much more about the information and the product as the main focus of the video. We do use very high-quality cameras and microphones and all that kind of stuff, but it has a specific feel and a look. And that's by design.
The goal is to make it look a specific way, which drives that conversion. Now, when you're looking at these types of videos, for example, one of the nice things about this type of video and the way that we do it, is that when we create a video about your product, and it's put on your Amazon listing page, it basically lives in perpetuity, right? It just lives on the page. It's not something like PPC Ads or other pay mechanisms. You know, there's all those things that you can spend money on, and the only way to continue them and keep them moving forward is to continue paying, feeding the machine, right?
This is a marketing and sales asset that's focused on conversion and doing all the things that we just talked about. But it lives on your page. You don't have to continue to pay into it on Amazon. It's just uploaded and it's just posted there, and it just lives there. And it works day and night, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and you don't have to pay anything any additional.
So when you look at it from that perspective, it's a great value from that perspective. If you're doing the defensive strategy, if you're paying attention to that, you're helping keep one more spot for your competitors to show up off of your page, which doesn't cost you anything additionally. And then with us, we actually bundle up the video with the asset and we actually deliver that to you, and we give you the ability to use that anywhere that you would like.
So you actually, not only do you get a video posted on Amazon and other social platforms, but you also get an asset that you then can use on social media, on your website. You can post it, you can use it wherever you'd like. You can then turn it around, repurpose it and use it for Amazon video Ads, right? You can do all sorts of things with it. So as opposed to another mechanism of something.
And this actually is very interesting too, when you consider the fact that if you have somebody if you pay an influencer or somebody to post on TikTok or Instagram or YouTube, right? We all know that the viewership of that video has a shelf life, right? Yes. It lives on Amazon, TikTok, and in Instagram, and on YouTube forever, right? But the algorithms determine how popular a video is, right?
On Amazon, that doesn't really come into play. There's no viewership. What do you call that? Die off, right? It's just, it's people come to your listing, there's the video. So, however, your product is doing, however, your listing is doing, the more traffic you're driving, the better the video can help you produce. But it itself is not going to lose visibility like it will on other platforms. So there's a lot of value in this type of video beyond just the fact that a video has been created.
Paul Sonneveld
Yeah, I think I've got one more exhibit here from you. I think its some great stats, in terms of what that looks like, you know?
Justin Willhite
Yeah.
Paul Sonneveld
Unlimited ROI, really compelling headline.
Justin Willhite
Clearly very compelling headline. Yes. And it's not unreasonable to consider the fact that once like I said because the video lives in perpetuity and it's not driven by an algorithm to determine whether people see it or not. That's what I'm talking about.
When you talk about unlimited ROI on the conversion rates, on the potential of those, obviously of those sales, the fact that it's going to be showing up as a related product video across Amazon, that's what you have to consider is the fact that this video just lives there and just does what video does on Amazon. And so potentially over the course of time, you know, you're just looking at, it's an unlimited, endless amount of return for a one-time asset that we make.
Paul Sonneveld
Yeah, that's such an interesting insight. You're not always trying to push it to the top of the feed or repost or comment or just to keep it kind of from dying, end up in the TikTok basement. Yeah, that's good. Of course, that doesn't mean you have to maintain your overall page ranking and put effort and energy into that.
Justin Willhite
Yeah.
Paul Sonneveld
Yeah, to your point on the page, it's there forever in perpetuity.
Justin Willhite
Just waiting, waiting to convert more sales and give your customers more information.
Paul Sonneveld
Exactly. Yeah. Cool. Look, that is super awesome. Thank you so much for all those great tips, and insights and just lifting the lid on video. Clearly, there's a lot more out there than just unboxing videos and it's not just about, hey, providing a little bit more information so more people convert cause they have more of their questions answered. Great to see that you can use videos, for, you know, different objectives, different strategies, not just conversion, defending, acquiring new customers. So thank you for taking us through those examples and giving us a little bit of that know-how that resides within you, Justin.
Justin Willhite
Absolutely.
Paul Sonneveld
Really great. For any viewers that are interested in exploring your services or getting in touch or maybe some advice, how can they reach you? What's the best way?
Justin Willhite
Absolutely. Yeah. If you go to consumerquest.online, that is our website. You, there's a contact us form you can put in there. Or subsequently, you can just contact me at JDubb, jdubb@consumerquests.online. That'll get directly to me. But, if that's too difficult to remember. Just head to the website, throw it in the contact form, and it gets right to us, and we'll be right in touch.
Paul Sonneveld
We'll make sure to add it in the show notes as well.
Justin Willhite
Yeah.
Paul Sonneveld
Awesome. Great. Well, thank you so much for being on the show, Justin. Thank you for your generosity. Until we,
Justin Willhite
Absolutely.
Paul Sonneveld
Until the next episode. Thank you.
Justin Willhite
Yeah, sounds good.
Paul Sonneveld
All right everyone. That was it for today's episode, in terms of Marketplace Masters. I hope you found that useful and picked up some really practical tips on how you can grow your brand or your clients' brands through the use of video on Amazon. Thank you so much for watching and see you next time. Goodbye.
