Amazon’s New Generative AI: Creating Ads with a Single Click

At Amazon Accelerate 2024, Carbon6's Vanessa Hung interviewed Tor Steiner, head of the U.S. Amazon Ads AI team, about Amazon’s recent advancements in AI-powered advertising. 

These announcements, plus the latest updates from Amazon Unboxed, highlight how generative AI is transforming Amazon Ads.

Generative AI in Amazon Advertising: Reshaping Creative Production

Generative AI is making ad creation more accessible than ever for sellers. Amazon’s new one-click ad generator allows sellers to generate high-quality ad visuals directly from product detail pages, simplifying Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Products ads creation.

“This tool makes creative as simple as possible, especially for smaller teams that may lack design resources,” explains Steiner. “Sellers can now create a ready-to-launch ad asset with just a few clicks.” 

Learn more about one-click ad generation in the full interview:

Key Features of Amazon’s One-Click Ad Generation

Amazon’s generative AI tools include several core features that Steiner highlighted:

• Image Generation: Sellers can create ad-ready images from existing product detail pages or simple prompts, reducing the need for professional photoshoots.
• Video Generation: Steiner announced that video generation is now available. Sellers can animate still images, build multi-screen ads, and even summarize long-form content into shorter ad formats (for example: trimming a 40-second product explainer into a six-second ad). . 

Steiner emphasized that these features are designed to help sellers reach customers more effectively. “With AI,” he said, “we’re giving brands the tools to customize their campaigns easily, without big production costs.”

Performance Improvements with Generative AI

Sellers using Amazon’s generative AI tools have launched 20% more campaigns and seen a 4% increase in sales. This improvement stems from the ability to create high-quality assets quickly, allowing brands to run more campaigns with targeted, seasonal, and audience-specific creatives.

Steiner highlighted Whirlpool, which used Amazon’s generative AI to refresh its holiday-themed creatives efficiently. By leveraging the AI tool, Whirlpool was able to quickly update their campaigns to align with seasonal promotions, demonstrating the tool’s scalability across both small and large brands.

Real-World Use Cases for AI Tools

Amazon’s AI-powered ad tools have unlocked new possibilities for brands of all sizes:

• Seasonal and Targeted Campaigns: The one-click image generator and video capabilities allow brands to rapidly update creatives for holiday and seasonal promotions, helping them stay relevant during high-traffic periods.
• Audience-Specific Ads: Steiner noted that sellers can target specific demographics or interests with creative variations. For example, a seller of running shoes could create ads featuring cityscapes for urban runners or trails for outdoor enthusiasts.

Steiner elaborated on the tool’s adaptability, saying, “This technology is built to accommodate a wide range of ad needs. By removing creative as a barrier, sellers can now run more targeted campaigns than ever before.”

Looking Ahead: The Evolution of Generative AI in Advertising

Reflecting on the past 18 months, Steiner shared how Amazon’s generative AI models have advanced rapidly.

 “When we first launched image generation, the results were functional but limited. Now, we’re generating ad-quality images indistinguishable from professional photography.”

Steiner envisions a future where sellers can create rich media campaigns, including Prime Video ads, as easily as they set up Sponsored Products ads today. He expects video capabilities to evolve similarly, with tools likely to become more powerful in the next 18 months.