Welcome to a special series on “How To Unlock Amazon Onsite Shoppable Videos” where we take a peak at other influencer’s journeys and experiences.
In this series, we will get an inside look at an influencer’s process from getting approved for the Influencer Program to their experience when submitting the three shoppable videos to earn Amazon on-site commissions.
Feel free to check out helpful information for unlocking shoppable videos by reading more at > Amazon Influencer Video Content Guidelines & Suggestions
Let’s jump right into Flora and how she was denied and then approved to unlock the Amazon Influencer Program to earn on-site commissions.
Flora’s Journey on Unlocking Shoppable Videos
JANUARY 2023 – Accepted into the Influencer Program
I was accepted into the Influencer Program after my 4th attempt applying! The social used was my TikTok account, all 4 times! At that time- I had over 5k followers and over a million views. However, I only had a 1-5% engagement rate on my 10 most recent videos when applying. It wasn’t until I got my “engagement rate percent” of my TikTok videos significantly up (5%-30%) that I was accepted!
FEBRUARY 2023 – 1st attempt DENIED at “unlocking” my onsite shoppable videos!
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- Videos Uploaded: x3 videos
- Video Duration: 28 sec, 19 sec, 28 sec
- Video Orientation: All vertical
- Content-Type: showing the products “in action”
- Shot Style: Mostly showing my hands but some clips featured me full body/face with the products
- Text Overlays: Used at the beginning and to describe some pros of the product, no spelling errors
- Talking: No voice-over, no speaking
- Sound: Used the same song for all three: I pulled from the Library of Congress, a song from 1917 that has entered the public domain. Any song prior to 1927 is in the public domain as of this year.
- Editing: Edited all clips in Capcut. Export 1080p, 30fps. Extension .MOV
- Thumbnails: Uploaded 3 horizontal “YouTube-style thumbnails”, the image of the product cut out from one of my frames, plain background, text giving a different why to click on each. Created in Canva.
- Captions: gave a different “why” to click on each.
- Uploaded: 2/12
- Processed: 2/12
- In Review: 2/12
- Published to Storefront: 2/13
- Onsite Denial: 2/17
- Deleted all three videos 2/17
MARCH-MAY 2023 –
I was so defeated and down about being denied, I didn’t gain the confidence to try attempt #2 for several months!
I wanted to research a lot more before trying again. I searched on TikTok, “Amazon unlocked onsite shoppable videos”. Then went to those influencers’ storefronts, scrolled all the way to their bottom three videos and watched those. As those three videos were what got them unlocked!
JUNE 2023 – 2nd attempt at “unlocking” my onsite shoppable videos
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- (Things I changed from my 1st attempt are italicized!)
- Videos Uploaded: x3 videos
- Video Duration: 1:26, 1:33, 1:57 (made duration much longer!)
- Video Orientation: All vertical
- Content Type: showing the products “in action”
- Shot Style: Mostly showing my hands but some clips featured me full body/face with the products
- Text Overlays: No text overlays!
- Talking: All 3 used voiceovers, that I created using my Blue Yeti Mic.
- Sound: No music, just my voiceovers.
- Editing: Edited all clips in Capcut. Export 1080p, 30fps. Extension .MP4
- Thumbnails: Uploaded 3 horizontal “YouTube-style thumbnails”, the image of the product cut out from one of my frames, plain background, text giving a different why to click on each. Created in Canva. Only used 3-4 words max in thumbnails. Used color from the product as border accent color.
- Captions: gave a different “why” to click on each.
- Uploaded: 6/11
- Processed: 6/11
- In Review: 6/11
- Published to Storefront: 6/12
- Onsite Approval/Unlocked: 6/14
- Uploaded and unlocked within 3 days!
Unlocking Onsite Shoppable Videos – Flora’s Takeaways
Attempt #1 Denial Takeaways: I think what did me in most were: text overlays, a song (no talking), and my poorly made thumbnails. Possibly my file extension.
Attempt #2 Approved Takeaways: I think the changes that helped most were: longer videos, voiceovers (talking, no music), better thumbnails.
The Horizontal vs Vertical Debate: I see emphasis being put on the orientation type. What I don’t see people piecing together is the most simple explanation: Youtubers have the practice and experience of creating horizontal videos and Tiktokers have the practice and experience of creating vertical videos.
When Youtubers and Tiktokers come to Amazon they have a choice to create EITHER orientation. However, they won’t necessarily excel at creating the other orientation, at a first go. I’m a Tiktoker and I stuck with the orientation that I excel at creating: vertical.
I don’t believe creating vertical had anything to do with my 1st attempt denial or 2nd attempt approval. I DO believe most YouTubers excel better at talking videos, demo videos, etc.
Therefore if they are choosing the orientation that they excel in creating and already excel at talking videos, then that’s why we’re seeing quicker unlocking attempt rates for those influencers. It’s not one orientation being better than the other- but simply WHAT the influencer excels at creating.
Flora’s Advice For Approval
I know we only get 3 attempts at unlocking our onsite. If you’re feeling down about being denied after your 1st attempt- just know that if I turned it around to an approval my 2nd go, then the same is possible for your next go!
- Read all guidelines
- Review the following pages/guides on Amazon called: “Amazon influencer video content guidelines“, “Amazon’s community guidelines” and “video best practices for influencers”. Thoroughly look at EVERY SINGLE guideline in these three pages! Including what words and phrases are not allowed. You may be surprised at what’s not allowed. I know that I was!
- Narrow the potential criteria risks!
- We have the option to upload a minimum of THREE videos and a maximum of up to TEN videos for unlocking. But if you do all TEN, that’s upping the potential times to violate some rule by SEVEN more times/videos. Remember, they won’t tell you specifically WHY you will be denied, just that you are denied. It’s up to US to figure it out what we might’ve done wrong and that’s easier to do with only 3 videos. Also, we have to delete all our videos before doing a 2nd attempt. It’s illogical to create 10 videos for each attempt, totaling a possible 30 videos, just to have to delete them all and start over for the next attempt. 3 is more logical, in my opinion.
- Streamline the attempts:
- We have the option to create 3 widely varying videos OR we could streamline the 3 videos within each attempt. Streamlining helped me narrow down what I might’ve done wrong and know better what to change for my 2nd attempt! Ex: pick a duration for the 1st attempt: long or short keep all 3 videos close to the same time duration. Ex: pick a style of talking for your 1st attempt: voiceover or talking to camera-but keep all 3 videos in the same style. Ex: pick a thumbnail option for the 1st attempt: letting Amazon automatically choose your thumbnail or creating your own thumbnail but keep all 3 videos in the same style. Etc, etc, etc. So if denied, you can create a short list of what you think you did right and what you might’ve done wrong. You’ll know better what to possibly change for your 2nd attempt.
Please share in the comment section below about your approval experience for the Amazon Influencer Program.
- What did you think about Flora’s experience?
- Do you relate to this approval process or have something similar happen to you?
~~ And as always friends, take care, be kind to yourself and others and always keep learning to be better and do better.
Related Amazon Influencer Program Articles
Make Passive Income with Amazon Influencer Program [On-Site Commissions] – Video Reviews
