Learn, create, transform: A guide to help your brand stand out from the crowd

Did you guess Option 1?

This USP works because it clearly states what the brand sells, highlights the unique benefits, and differentiates itself from other brands. When creating your own USP, always remember to focus on what your customers value, and use confident, memorable language.

Create logos to help customers identify you, connect to your brand, and drive engagement

A clear, fresh logo placed in your creative assets can help drive brand awareness and brand loyalty. Memorable logos are often seen at the forefront of the message. Remember this tip when building new assets.

Include your logo when using these HAQM Ads products:

• Sponsored Brands
• Sponsored Display (Optional)
• Brand Stores
• Posts (Optional)

Do:

• Fill all available space
• Use a font that’s easy to read
• Apply your logo to a white background

Don't:

• Upload a product or lifestyle image as your logo
• Complicate the logo by using it as an extension of a headline, or adding additional text
• Add elements to the logo that may cause confusion or add clutter
• Merge separate logos together

Provide imagery that helps highlight core aspects of your brand across your marketing

Lifestyle imagery shows products in real-life situations, portraying the art of the “every day.”

These images help shoppers understand your product features and functionalities, and can be a good way to drive conversion and increase sales.

Top tip:

We recommend using branded imagery in your ads, even when it’s optional, as this can help you highlight your products in action and serve as a reflection of your brand, helping drive engagement with shoppers.

Do:

• Use the highest image resolution possible
• Use images that paint your brand and products in a positive light
• Use creatives that show your brand is inclusive

Don't:

• Use default product images, or a product shown on a solid or transparent background
• Add additional text to the imagery
• Include crowded or poorly cropped imagery

Include imagery when using these HAQM Ads products:

• Sponsored Brands
• Sponsored Display (Optional)
• Brand Stores (Optional)
• Posts

Use enhanced imagery to help improve the visual presence of your ad campaigns

Sponsored Brands campaigns (Desktop)

Sponsored Brands campaigns (Mobile)

Sponsored Display campaigns (Desktop)

Sponsored Display campaigns (Mobile)

Creative tips for promotions and key events

Do:

• Align your savings campaign start and end dates to reflect the duration of the offer
• Set up your campaigns in advance of the event, and set them to end within 24 hours after the event has ended
• Modify your ad copy for evergreen campaigns by removing promotional messaging that no longer applies
• Advertise your active HAQM deals only

Don’t:

• Overpromise with language like “Huge savings” or “Gigantic discounts”
• Reference specific pricing promotions in your campaign, like “Save 50% on [Product]” or “$20 off [Product]"

Deliver the message with impactful brand copy

Your campaign messaging is just as important as your visual assets. Written content needs to highlight your brand’s story and connect with shoppers’ needs.

Include brand copy that helps drive brand awareness:

• Make the tone of the message match the tone of your brand
• Showcase your brand attributes
• Emphasize your USP

Examples:

• “Providing athletes with natural, organic food since 1965”
• “Treats to keep your dog happy and healthy”
• “Bring new vibes to your home with exclusive art”

Create brand copy that can help drive consideration and conversion:

• Emphasize your product’s primary benefits
• Use words that are easy for everyone to understand
• Encourage audiences to take an action
• Align your messages to shopper needs

Examples:

• “Discover our yoga workout sets for women”
• “Enjoy new levels of photo quality with our latest camera, built with state-of-the-art optical technology”

When writing for consideration and conversion:

Do:

• Proofread your text to ensure you have used the local language for each region where you are advertising, used sentence case, and avoided spelling and grammar errors
• Review recommendations that may show up in the HAQM Ads campaign builder to help you craft your messages and review grammar

Don't:

• Reference awards or survey results more than 18 months old
• Compare your brand with competitors
• Refer to HAQM services, events, or HAQM-branded words
• Insert repeated exclamation points or special characters

Tell your story with video

Video is one of the best ways to deliver ideas, stories, and inspirations straight to your audience on multiple devices. Impactful, concise video content can intrigue audiences, making them want to know more about what you have to offer.

Video can help you connect with shoppers at different stages of their journey:

Growing brand awareness

This is a traditional form of video marketing to gain exposure for your brand.

• Focus on building an emotional connection with engaging visuals
• Make sure your logo appears at the beginning and end of your video

Increasing consideration

At the consideration stage, shoppers are considering products from multiple brands.

• Demonstrate how your product can be used
• Focus on key features that set your product apart
• Use effective imagery to help shoppers imagine the product fitting with their lifestyle

Driving sales

At this stage, you need to tell an effective story that helps shoppers make a purchase decision.

• Highlight your best-selling products in action
• Create video content with customer testimonials

Developing loyalty

Use captivating video content to help keep shoppers engaged with your brand.

• Highlight new products
• Share different uses and updates for existing products

Where are videos used?

• Sponsored Brands (Video ad format)
• Sponsored Display (Video ad format)
• Brand Stores (Optional)

Build video ads

Create Sponsored Brands video and Sponsored Display video campaigns to engage shoppers with your brand and products. Remember to focus your video on the advertised product, and showcase your brand name and logo too. Videos can be between six and 45 seconds.

Bring your Brand Store to life with different video formats:

This video plays in a loop, doesn’t have audio, and requires no action from customers to begin playing. It’s best to use background videos to enhance brand awareness. These videos are typically for short, clear messages.

Example for brand awareness

Ad format: Brand Store spotlight

• Add a clear, fresh brand logo
• Use concise, informative titles to guide shoppers

3. Add a catchy, articulate copy that highlights product benefits for shoppers
4. Upload high-quality lifestyle imagery that effectively represents each category

Example for consideration and conversion

Ad format: Brand Store product collection

• Brand logo
• Use of high-quality image, or video, to give clarity to shoppers

3. Effective copy that fits the style of the brand and connects with shoppers
4. High-quality product images to encourage shoppers to engage

Use video ads to help you drive awareness and consideration

How branded creatives can work together

• Highlight key product attributes and other information to pique shopper interest
• Include your brand logo within your video to maintain consistency
• Support the effectiveness of your video by featuring high-quality product imagery alongside it

Example for awareness within a Brand Store

How video can help build awareness

• Lifestyle imagery to elevate visual effectiveness and build connections
• High-quality logo resolution
• Well-defined copy that presents the brand story and vision
• Engaging product imagery that can help drive conversion

5. Brand logo, coupled with USP to help drive awareness
6. Clear titles in place for each Brand Store category
7. Effective brand copy that highlights key product information for shoppers, like manufacturing processes, sustainability statements, and quality

Make sure your video content passes moderation reviews

Do:

• Use the shoppers’ local language, with clear concise text
• Ensure text is visible and on screen long enough for it to be read
• Include captions to reach shoppers without sound

Don't:

• Use flashy elements
• Include fade-ins from solid colors or black
• Use blurry, unclear, low-quality, or low-resolution video assets
• Add illegible text, or interfere with template layouts
• Mention deals, discounts, or other savings promotions
• Provide incorrect or confusing information for the customer

How to use the HAQM Ads partner directory

• Find creative service providers: Select the “Creative and brand experience services” category to find partners to help with imagery and video creation or editing, Brand Store creation and web design, and audio ads.
• Connect with providers globally: Filter by country, language, or office location to narrow down your search.
• Be mindful of budget: Filter your search to find providers within your budget. There is no cost to use the partner directory, and payment is directly managed with the provider, agency, or consultant.
• Review the details: Analyze the service-level agreements, included features, and add-ons (extras you can add at a cost) before connecting with providers through their websites.
• Discover other services: You can filter by “certification type” to find providers specialized in what matters most to you, from media planning and buying to retail support, analytics and insights, and many more.

Once you engage with a partner, follow our best practices for working together:

• Share a clear vision for your creative.
• Provide key details about your brand, like your mission, vision, values, and your existing brand guidelines, so your partner uses your official typefaces, branded colors, and logos.
• Create a concise yet detailed brief on how this creative will feed into your overall marketing strategy or campaign.
• Respond promptly to your selected service provider to ensure delivery timelines are met.

Get high-quality translated branded content, quickly

Leave video, caption, and headline translations to the HAQM Ads creative teams, so you can focus on what matters most: growing your brand.

With HAQM translation services, you can get professional, high-quality, and affordable translations for your brand content curated by our team of language specialists and delivered in about 10 days from the time of booking. This can help you launch campaigns that include ad copy and scale up your Store and videos across multiple countries.

• Get your branded copy translated: Use the HAQM Ads localization services to translate your product detail pages, headlines for Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display ads, or your Store’s content into multiple languages.
• Scale up your video creatives: Get started with HAQM Ads localization services to translate your video creatives for Sponsored Brands video format campaigns into multiple languages.

This feature is available to vendors and sellers in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, the U.K., and India.

Access HAQM translation services:

• Visit the advertising console, click on the “Creative Tools” tab, and select “Translations.”
• Select which service you’re looking for.
• Give your project a name, note the type of content, and include all text to be translated.
• Choose the languages you need, and detail anything you don’t want translated (like your brand’s name).
• Submit your request. You’ll receive the translated content in about 10 days.

When submitting your content for translation, remember to:

• Ensure that any submitted content intended for use meets the ad policy requirements.
• Access the translation services through your account in the advertising console.

When selecting a creative or translation service, choose options that align with your goals

Keep your creative advertising assets together in one place

Creative assets is the home for branded assets within the advertising console, where you can store, organize, and reuse media across HAQM Ads and shopping pages.

Leverage free, high-quality stock images and videos

In collaboration with Shutterstock, you can access over 390 million high-quality licensed images and videos directly from the advertising console. These assets are free to use across your Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display campaigns, and within your Brand Store.

How to access Shutterstock assets:

• Plan in advance: Visit the creative assets application within the advertising console. Navigate to “Get professional images,” and enter the relevant keyword. Choose and save your preferred assets to your creative assets library so they’re ready for you to use when creating or updating assets.
• Add assets as you go: Alternatively, when building or refreshing your Brand Store and Sponsored Brands or Sponsored Display campaigns, you can search assets on Shutterstock directly from the Brand Stores and campaign builder. When adding a new image to your Brand Store or ad campaigns, click “Choose from creative assets” and select “Stock assets” (in the second tab). From there, you’ll be able to find the licensed assets you need.

Tip: Use Shutterstock assets across your Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display campaigns, adding them to your creatives as “custom images.” For your Brand Store, you can use them as image tiles across your subpages, or on the above-the-fold section (in the headers).

When searching for the right assets in Shutterstock, use words that describe:

• Your brand mission and values, such as images that are eco-friendly, handmade, or affordable.
• Your product characteristics, like images relating to leather or anti-adherent.
• The audience you want to reach. For example, images with dogs could help gain visibility for pet supplies.
• Seasonality and high-traffic events, like Christmas, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, spring shopping, summer, and more.

Take your insights to the next level with HAQM Attribution

HAQM Ads helps drive consideration across multiple touchpoints, but non-HAQM channels also play key roles in the shopping journey. With HAQM Attribution, you can learn how these non-HAQM touchpoints impact product discovery and consideration on HAQM. Using these advertising analytics and insights, you can optimize and plan your digital strategy based on what you know resonates with your customers and drives value for your brand on HAQM.

To learn more about HAQM Attribution and how to get started, read our guide.

Tips to measure creative assets against your business goals

Enhance your product detail page with A+ Content to help make your products even more compelling to shoppers. Available to vendors as well as sellers enrolled in HAQM Brand Registry, A+ Content lets you highlight your brand story and distinguish your product features with enhanced images, text placements, and stories.