What Is Amazon Moments?

With every product under the sun available online through hundreds of ecommerce sites, Amazon realized that in order to increase engagement between shoppers and their vendors, they’d need to sweeten the pot. 

So in 2019, ecommerce giant Amazon released a loyalty initiative service, Amazon Moments. 

According to Amazon, Moments uses a “cost-per-action” (CPA) model, allowing developers to increase user actions by rewarding users with physical or digital items when they complete a certain action. These rewards could look like $10 Amazon gift cards, electronics, toys, clothing, and more. All products are sold and fulfilled by Amazon.¹

In this guide, we’ll break down everything you need to know about this new program and how it can benefit your business in the long run. Read on. 

Amazon Moments: Everything You Need to Know 

From news sites to streaming services to games, major brands are utilizing Amazon Moments to capture the attention of old and new consumers, rewarding loyal customers with both physical and digital gifts. 

Below, we’ll look at 

• How Amazon Moments works
• Who can use it
• How much it costs
• Why it can increase ROI for your company. 

How it Works 

Amazon Moments is a service that is simple, affordable, and extremely customizable. Brands can choose which actions they want to reward within their app. They then choose which rewards they want to send to their loyal users. 

Amazon offers the example of a fitness app choosing a high-value action like a user completing 30 workouts before they receive a reward, knowing that, based on data, after 30 workouts most users continue to use the app.² 

This loyalty initiative is all about garnering long-term ROI without spending a large sum of company spend. 

As head of Amazon Moments, Amir Kabarra said when the service was first launched:²

“Amazon is reinventing the way companies approach marketing by letting them turn

engagement campaigns into rewarding moments that drive long-term value.” 

Movements offers a simple, intuitive packaging rewards program that operates through a self-service console. This allows marketers to set up campaigns without the worry of reward sourcing, management, or fulfillment.  

When investing in Amazon Moments for your business, you’ll start by creating a Moments “campaign;” you’ll conduct all Moments business in your Moments Console. 

The major steps of your Moments campaign include:¹

• Set the action (aka Moment) that you want to drive. This can be anything from watching a video to subscribing to a channel
  
• Select the rewards that will be offered to the consumer
  
• Users will then engage and complete the action
  
• Amazon fulfills the reward sourcing

When choosing which Moment you want to drive, think about prioritizing the metrics most important to your business goals, whether that’s increasing retention or increasing participation in an event. 

Consider the following goals when testing your campaign strategy:¹

• Retarget lapsed customers with ads/notifications/emails that highlight a reward for re-engagement.
• Encourage users to upgrade from a free trial to a basic subscription by offering a reward equal to or greater in value than the cost of a one month subscription. 
• Increase engagement within your app by rewarding customers who conquer difficult levels or limited time events. 

The Moments application programming interface is compatible with Android and Fire OS apps, iOS apps, and websites. 

Who Can Use It?

All Amazon developers are eligible to use Moments across all countries except for South Africa, Albania, Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Switzerland. 

As far as customers, all users must have an Amazon account in order to redeem their prizes. 

How Much Does it Cost?

Amazon Moments is an ideal tool for brands of all sizes as it’s easily scalable—you’re only paying for completed actions, and you can choose a CPA price as low as $3 to begin with. 

Other monetary considerations include:

• Allowing for taxes – Amazon recommends setting a CPA that includes tax
  
• Limit – Your total monthly budget limit is $5,000 USD per campaign; $15,000 USD per Moments account
  
• Shipping – Customers may have to pay for Amazon direct shipping depending on whether they’re Prime members and what the cost of the reward is 

What Kind of Rewards Can You Offer?

The rewards your company chooses for Amazon Moments are totally up to you. For example, in 2019 Amazon Moments user The Washington Post offered Echo Dots to people who subscribed to the paper.³

The only caveat is that all prizes will be items already stocked by Amazon (which still leaves you with, well, millions of options). 

When choosing your rewards, Amazon says that based on data gathered since inception, customers typically prefer:

• An actual reward rather than a discount
• Electronics, toys, and Amazon credit
• A free physical item 

Why Use it? 

Now that you better understand how Amazon Moments functions, you may be wondering, What is the impetus to invest in this service? How is Moments different from other loyalty programs? Why not just use an in-house loyalty program?

According to LoyaltyOne’s Big Picture Study:⁷ 

The global loyalty industry is estimated to be worth $74 billion, of which $42 billion is loyalty programs, providers, and platforms. The study also finds that companies invest upward of 2% of their sales in reward initiatives.

Another plus of Moments is that brands don’t need to handle fulfillment of gifts themselves. Amazon, the veritable king of fulfilling shipments quickly, handles everything. 

Amazon Moments Success Stories 

Major brands that have found success with Amazon Moments include TikTok, Bravo, Discover, Sago Mini, and Disney. According to Amazon, Disney said net revenue increased “nearly sevenfold” after offering players of the Disney Heroes Battle Mode game $5 in Amazon credits for reaching level 15.⁴ 

Need more convincing? Let’s delve into stats from two of the following Amazon Moments users.

Sprint Success Story

In 2019, Sprint was the official wireless sponsor of the 2019 Concacaf Gold Cup soccer tournament.¹ During their five week Amazon Moments campaign, Sprint wanted to create a Futbol Mode Rewards platform (Futbolmode.com) where users could complete challenges to earn real-life rewards. 

During this period, Sprint was able to increase engagement three times over with Amazon Moments. Let’s look at the details of their campaign.

To participate in this 2019 Sprint campaign, customers downloaded the Futbol Mode Rewards Wallet Pass where they could view and complete challenges during each of the five stages of the actual tournament, from pre-cup to Final. 

During each stage, users were able to accumulate Amazon credits which could then be spent in the Sprint Futbol Mode Rewards store on Amazon.

Challenges drove user engagement by having users:

• Refer friends to the reward program
• Upload videos and photos of themselves engaging with Sprint content 
• Post videos predicting the winner of a Gold Cup match for set dollar values of Amazon credits

In their case study, Sprint found that the final challenge generated the highest participation rate—74% of those who registered completed the action and claimed their reward. 

This end-of-campaign high-user participation rate strengthens the argument that Amazon Moments can provide positive ROI in the long run, even if the run is only a five week campaign. 

Discovery GO 

It probably goes without saying that Shark Week is Discovery Channel’s most popular summer TV series.¹  

In 2019, Discovery partnered with Amazon Moments with the goal to make that year’s lineup the most viewed in its 30 year history. They aimed to engage users with both Amazon devices and the Discovery GO app.

After their Amazon Moments campaign, Discovery saw a:

• 73% increase in activations
• 83% increase in hours watched per customer
• 40% increase in active customers
• 68% increase in hours watched post campaign (ahem, long-term ROI!).

Let’s delve into their campaign strategy. 

For this campaign, Discovery GO used Amazon’s Stream it Forward cause-marketing campaign, rewarding customers in the form of a charitable donation when they streamed content during certain programming windows. 

The first 1,000 registered customers who streamed at least 10 hours on Discovery GO received a $25 credit and for every hour a customer spent in the app, $1 was donated to charitable organization Oceana, which focuses on the preservation of marine life. 

Not only did Discovery Go significantly increase their user engagement, they were also able to raise $75,000 for Oceana. 

This is a fantastic example of a savvy brand that made the most of its Amazon Moments campaign by tapping into what is most important to the company and its users. 

Discovery knew that many of its Shark Week viewers would naturally be motivated to donate to a cause like Oceana, as their interest in the Discovery Channel and Shark Week shows they already have an established interest in preserving marine life. 

Make the Most of Your Amazon Account with Power Digital Marketing 

Major brands have been using Amazon’s loyalty program, Amazon Moments, to their advantage since 2019. 

This service allows developers to bring back lapsed users, retain active users, and reward top consumers by offering customers physical rewards and digital prizes based on their in-app activity. 

Interested in learning more about how to make the most of your current Amazon account? Power Digital Marketing has an entire Amazon Marketing Management team at your disposal.⁵ We’re here to elevate your business through the latest Amazon offerings including Amazon FBA and Prime wardrobe. With PDM, you’ll receive an analysis of your business without ever having to sign a contract. PDM will be able to assess if Amazon Moments, for instance, is a smart investment, and if so how you should craft your campaign. We’re also here to discuss Amazon seller mistakes to avoid to ensure your success with Amazon!

Sources:

1. Amazon. Amazon Moments.  https://developer.amazon.com/moments 
2. Amazon. Appstore Blogs: Announcing Amazon Moments.  https://developer.amazon.com/blogs/appstore/post/38c732f8-69e0-4bb7-beb8-c7332203155f/announcing-amazon-moments-reward-customers-globally-with-digital-and-physical-products-delivered-by-amazon 
3. Tech Crunch. Amazon Moments Lets Developers Reward Customers with Actual Gifts, Not Just Virtual Ones. ​​https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/14/amazon-moments-lets-developers-reward-customers-with-actual-gifts-not-just-virtual-ones/ 
4. Forbes. Amazon’s New Loyalty Program: 5 Ways Amazon Moments Will Change How You Shop. https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanpearson/2019/02/21/amazons-new-loyalty-program-5-reasons-amazon-moments-will-change-how-you-shop/?sh=5d8e37b673ac 
5. Power Digital Marketing. Amazon Marketing Management. https://powerdigitalmarketing.com/services/amazon-marketing/