Amazon brought ads to Prime so it could fill them with shoppable links

In September 2023, Amazon announced that it would begin showing ads on Prime Video in 2024. Amazon’s SVOD service was one of the last major players in its industry without an ad tier, so the decision to add one — and charge users to go ad-free — did not sit well with some longtime customers. Amazon’s announcement of an increased ad load for 2025 didn’t help matters (at least among viewers).

A year later, we’re starting to see why Amazon was so eager to develop such a contentious product. Early ads on Prime Video have delivered promising returns, and the format is forging more connections between Amazon’s content library and its vast retail empire.

The arrival of interactive Prime Video ads only makes those connections more clear. Duracell, an advertiser on Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football package, has employed Amazon’s shoppable carousels in some of its 30-second spots.

Viewers can add batteries to their Amazon carts directly from the ads, and some Duracell customers have taken the brand up on that offer. According to Adweek, interactive Duracell ads have catalyzed a 2.5% lift in brand recall and a 1.8% lift in consideration. Amazon also noted that those spots drove an 86% increase in “add-to-cart” rate.

The value of these ads can be traced to the introduction of the Prime tier way back in 2005. Amazon launched a paid subscription to make shopping more convenient and encourage customers to spend more time

(and dollars) perusing its listings. The early 2010s decision to add premium video content to Prime boosted the tier’s numbers, which in turn promoted Amazon’s retail services for millions of new subscribers.

Now that Prime Video has ads, the link between Amazon’s retail business and its entertainment arm is complete. Brands like Duracell are funneling viewers directly to their products with no middleman.

And here’s the rub: Even though the YouTubes and TikToks of the world are keen to make shoppable videos happen in the United States, their connections to retail aren’t as strong as Amazon’s. TikTok is better set up for that sort of product thanks to TikTok Shop, but it still has to convince its community that its retail platform is worth their time, money, and effort. And Amazon might have more of a chance to capitalize on TikTok’s ecommerce push than the app itself.

With brands allocating $1.8 billion to their Amazon budgets, the platform’s ad infrastructure has plenty of room for growth. Duracell is one of the first buyers to see the benefits of Amazon’s interactive ads, but that approach still has battery life to spare.