For many years, the Amazon marketing playbook was simple: crush it on Sponsored Products, own the keyword, and keep ACoS low. Video and Streaming TV (STV) ads were viewed as the expensive, high-risk domain of billion-dollar CPG companies.
News updates over the past week confirm that this era is officially over. Amazon is dismantling the two biggest barriers to entry for Streaming TV—cost and creative production—making a dedicated video strategy non-negotiable for all sellers going into 2026.
Here is how recent updates turn the “top of the funnel” into essential territory for every brand.
The News: Creative Production is No Longer an Obstacle
The biggest blocker for mid-market brands running STV ads was the cost and time of video production. A major talking point from Amazon Ads executives last week centered on the expansion of Generative AI Video tools.
The pitch is simple: you no longer need a production studio. With these new tools, a brand can take its existing high-quality product images and, using simple text prompts, generate compelling 15-second streaming TV ads in minutes.
- Impact: A task that once cost thousands of dollars and took weeks of lead time can now be accomplished by an account coordinator in an hour, significantly reducing the “barrier of entry” for high-quality, full-screen, brand-building advertisements.
The Opportunity: The Data Is Catching Up
Beyond just making the video, Amazon is also giving advertisers more insight into its performance.
The same news cycle highlighted the continued integration of Prime Video/Fire TV viewing data into tools like Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC). This means you can now:
- Target with Intent: Use viewing patterns (e.g., people watching specific food channels or sports) to refine your STV audience far better than generic demographics.
- Measure Influence: Instead of asking, “Did the TV ad get a click?” you can use AMC to see if a viewer who was exposed to your STV ad was more likely to search for your brand or convert a week later.
This solves the long-standing problem of STV: measurement. You can now prove the influence your top-of-funnel brand campaigns have on your bottom-of-the-funnel search performance.
The Agency Mandate: No More “Search Only” Budgets
If your agency or brand is still allocating 90% of its budget to Sponsored Products, you are now strategically behind.
The data is clear: shoppers are spending more time consuming content on Prime Video, Freevee, and Fire TV. By making video cheap and measurable, Amazon is sending a strong signal: your brand needs to be where the eyeballs are.
- Action Step 1: Repurpose the Budget. Take 5-10% of your current search budget and assign it to high-impact STV campaigns. Because the video creation is now nearly free, that budget goes directly toward impression delivery.
- Action Step 2: Use Data to Connect the Dots. Focus on proving the STV value proposition. Show the client that when STV is running, their branded Sponsored Products searches increase by 15%. This shifts the conversation from low ACoS to overall TACoS (Total Advertising Cost of Sale).
The future of Amazon advertising is a full-funnel strategy—and the door to the top of that funnel has just been thrown wide open.
