Are app-based video ads the next big thing?

Many of the innovations and new technologies we talk about as app developers or app development agency business owners focus on the actual apps themselves. Functionality which pushes the envelope in terms of the user experience or things that power an app and make it totally unique tend to grab the headlines and bulk of attention.

Creations such as the US-based ShakeAlertLA, which is the first ever public earthquake early warning app which uses the most cutting-edge of mobile technology and smart home apps , which can be used to do everything from see the content of your fridge to turn the lights on when you’re not home with a swipe, are quite rightly regarded as huge innovations. This can mean though that in the race to create the next big thing to wow users, opportunities surrounding the app industry infrastructure to unnoticed or missed. Not so when it comes to advertising – thanks to interesting new tests from Amazon.

The global retailer is said to have taken an interesting new idea and put it in beta testing; that of putting video adverts within its apps. Embedding ads in apps is nothing new of course but, Amazon has taken this concept further with the addition of video.

The world’s second trillion dollar company (behind Apple) is not new to advertising – it has a growing revenue stream from a variety of ad products. It has long since allowed brands and manufacturers to place ads on its marketplace search results and product listings. This is the first time however that it has attempted to insert video ads into its app.

First reported by Bloomberg, Amazon is thought to have rolled out in-app video ad testing a number of months ago for apps running on iOS devices. The video ads are said to appear in search results, suggesting that Amazon app users on iOS could be experiencing a format and structure similar to that of Google’s search results – though the search engine doesn’t place video ads on those pages.

The iOS test seems to have gone well as insiders say that this process will be replicated for Amazon’s Android apps in the next few months.

While most details of the testing have been kept under wraps, it has emerged that in-app video ads are likely to be a premium ad product with reports suggesting that a minimum £26,500 budget is required for advertisers to be able to access this format. Ad campaigns run for two months and cost 3p per view.