At $750000 a Throw, Amazon's NFL Black Friday Ads Are a Smart Play

For all the agita over the lower-than-expected turnout for the NFL’s first-ever Black Friday game in 2023, Amazon Prime Video had already sold off the last commercial unit in this year’s production four months ago. Advertisers were quick to gobble up the streamer’s available inventory, paying as much as three-quarters-of-a-million-dollars for each 30-second in-game spot, and if the seasonal ratings trends are anything to go by, the investment will have been well worth the expense.

While last year’s inaugural outing failed to meet Amazon’s audience projections—the Dolphins’ 34-13 rout of the Jets scared up 9.61 million viewers, or around 2.2 million viewers shy of the streamer’s 2023 Thursday Night Football average—that didn’t seem to discourage marketers from committing to the sequel. Little wonder; Friday afternoon’s game features the NFL’s most-watched team in the Kansas City Chiefs, which have averaged 24.2 million viewers over the course of eight national TV windows.

If the presence of the reigning Super Bowl champs (and, presumably, the world’s most famous football fan) isn’t sufficient to help Amazon build on last season’s deliveries, the year-over-year boost in the Thursday Night Football numbers suggests that the Black Friday ad buys are money well spent. Per Nielsen, the Thursday night package is averaging 13.3 million viewers per game through last week’s snowy Steelers-Browns scuffle, which marks an 8% improvement versus the analogous stretch in 2023. Since Amazon kicked off its third season of TNF on Sept. 12, the streamer is attracting about 1 million more fans per game than it did a year ago.

Besides Amazon’s highly desirable e-commerce functionality—according to EDO data, last year’s Black Friday viewers were 78% more likely to search for brands or products advertised during the game than viewers of ads on competitive NFL Thanksgiving broadcasts—the streamer draws a much greener audience than the league’s TV partners. To date, the median age of the TNF audience is 48.4 years, which is seven years younger than the NFL’s linear-TV average (55.4), and nearly 15 years south of the broadcast primetime average (63).

Per media buyers, Amazon’s Black Friday rates ranged between $650,000 and $750,000 a throw, as marketers with greater in-season commitments paid less for a shot at advertising on the biggest shopping day of the year than did their less-profligate counterparts. During the spring upfront bazaar, advertisers agreed to pay an average rate of around $565,000 for each 30-second unit they picked up across the TNF schedule, making the package the third-most expensive buy on the primetime market. Only Sunday Night Football ($1 million-plus) and Monday Night Football ($665,000) required a greater outlay during the preseason sell-off.

As much as Friday’s matchup might look like a bust on paper, the 2-9 Las Vegas Raiders may very well hold their own against the 10-1 Chiefs. With an average margin of victory of 6.1 points per game, Kansas City hasn’t exactly been putting the screws to its opponents this year; in its most recent meeting with Vegas on Oct. 27, Patrick Mahomes nearly scuttled the Chiefs’ chances when he threw an interception from inside his own end zone late in the third quarter. KC hung on for a 27-20 win over a Gardner Minshew-led squad that had entered the game with three straight losses under its belt.

Also working to Amazon’s advantage is Friday afternoon’s relatively uncluttered linear-TV slate. But for a smattering of college football games of rather limited interest—CBS will counter with 3-8 Stanford at 6-5 San Jose State, while ABC trots out an Egg Bowl rivalry pitting 2-9 Mississippi State against an 8-3 Ole Miss squad that likely fumbled its shot at a College Football Playoff berth—Amazon’s Black Friday outing won’t face much in the way of competition. For advertisers, the combination of a wide-open field, the big-reach Chiefs and Amazon’s interactive ad tech should go a long way toward maximizing the returns on their investments.