Amazon's Prime Day video advice: product in 2 seconds, sound off

Amazon Ads' Prime Day strategy guide tells advertisers to open with the product in the first two seconds, design video for sound-off viewing, and use text overlays and captions. Both pieces of advice are things you can test on a finished file. Sume's video captions endpoint adds the text, and video frames pulls the frame at two seconds so you can look at what a viewer sees.

The advice as Amazon states it

The guide also says Amazon's free Video Generator makes 6 to 15 second videos and that video can be added to Sponsored Products without extra budget. That is Amazon's tool; this post is about checking your own clip.

Run the two checks

For the opening, request frames at 0 and 2 seconds with video frames. If the product is not in the 2-second frame, trim the intro with video trim so the clip starts later.

For sound-off, add a short line on screen. The video captions endpoint takes authored cues and a style such as punch, and a silent clip works since authored cues skip speech-to-text. At $0.20 per job for up to 60 seconds, one job per variant is the unit to budget.

• Trim dead lead-in time before the product appears.
• Keep each on-screen line short enough to read in one second.
• Compare captioned and clean versions before choosing.

Limits

The two-second advice is Amazon's guidance, not a rule that is enforced by a file check. Sume cannot see how your ad performs, and a trimmed clip must still meet Amazon's length minimum for the ad type you use. Read the ad type's spec page before you export.