Mastering PLV: How to Scale Dynamic Product Videos (Episode 3)

Welcome to The Catalog Cult, where we dive into the latest trends and strategies in catalog advertising for e-commerce brands. In this episode, host Dan Pantelo, CEO & Founder @ Marpipe, explores Product-Level Video (PLV)—a groundbreaking innovation that’s transforming catalog ads by replacing static images with dynamic, engaging videos for every product SKU. If your brand runs Dynamic Product Ad (DPA) campaigns, this is the ultimate guide to scaling with video-first strategies.

Key Highlights:

1. What is Product-Level Video (PLV)?

For years, catalog ads relied on static images. Now, with PLV, brands can leverage dynamic video for catalog ads, driving higher engagement and better performance across placements like Meta Reels, Stories, and TikTok. PLV builds on the strong optimization of Dynamic Product Ads (DPA) by introducing motion and richer visuals.

2. Why PLV is a Game-Changer for E-commerce

• Higher Engagement: Videos naturally capture attention better than static images, leading to better ad performance.
• Increased Placements: PLV unlocks access to high-performing formats like Reels and Stories, where video dominates.
• Reduced Returns: According to Shopify, PLV reduces return rates by up to 25% by giving customers more realistic product visuals.

3. Overcoming the PLV Challenge

The biggest hurdle? Creating a video for every SKU in your catalog. Tools like Marpipe solve this problem by enabling brands to automatically generate customized videos for their entire product catalog, saving time and resources.

4. Creative Tips for PLV Success

• Keep It Simple: Simple slideshow-style videos that focus on product details perform best.
• Optimize for Vertical Formats: Platforms like Meta and TikTok demand full-screen vertical videos.
• Brand Consistency: Ensure your videos include consistent branding for better recall.

Why PLV is Critical for Q4 Success

PLV offers e-commerce brands the ability to:

• Drive higher engagement and conversions through video catalog ads.
• Optimize for platforms where video content dominates, like Meta and TikTok.
• Enhance margins by reducing costly return rates.

If you’re ready to level up your catalog advertising with PLV, subscribe to The Catalog Cult newsletter for actionable tips, insights, and strategies. Sign up here: https://www.marpipe.com/newsletter-sign-up-page.

This holiday season, don’t let your catalog ads fall behind. Embrace the power of video, reduce returns, and maximize performance with PLV. Tune in now to learn more!

Transcript

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For the first time. Now, you can actually run video, as a creative placement in catalog ads, so catalog ads used to be completely only static images, but the boring static images for catalog ads worked really well because of the delivery system, Catalog ads deliver way better than your typical static image or video that you would upload separately because you're teaching the algorithm all about like your SKU information. Welcome to The Catalog Cult where we unlock the secrets of dynamic ad strategies and the world of catalog advertising. I'm Dan Pantello, and today we're diving into product level video or PLV, a game changing shift in catalog ads if your business runs DPA campaigns, and you're wondering how to scale with video first strategies, this episode will give you everything you need to know to stay ahead there. Today, I'm going to break down how PLV works, why it's critical for any brand marketer and how you can implement it at scale. Plus I'm going to give you some exclusive insight into Marpipes, new PLV features that make scaling video for thousands of SKUs, easy, efficient, cost effective and fun if you want to maximize the impact of your catalog ads, you're in the right place. Let's get into it. Assuming you already know how like dynamic product ads, catalog ads work PLV really just builds on that foundation. For the first time, now, you can actually run video, as a creative placement in catalog ads, so catalog ads used to be completely only static images, but the boring static images for catalog ads worked really well because of the delivery system, catalog ads deliver way better than your typical static image or video that you would upload separately because you're teaching the algorithm all about like your SKU information. Now you're able to run video for catalog ads, which is a new capability that the ad platforms like Meta and a bunch of others have invested a lot into making this possible? Why are they investing in making this new format available? Because it works really well when you use video in catalog ads, it's much more engaging and effective that's kind of like a duh sort of thing. Why isn't everyone doing it right now? Well, there's a big problem. The problem is. You need to have a video for every SKU in your product catalog in order to take advantage of this placement. And that's what you need in order to power this format. Before we get into how to solve that problem, though, I think it's important that we highlight several things about PLV that really stand out. So PLV is like DPA. Dynamic product ads on overdrive we're keeping the same optimization structure that makes DPA so successful today, even with boring creative and we're replacing that boring creative with dynamic video. So that's really exciting, It's a new capability, you should be taking advantage of it. Each product Should have its own custom video, you know, some brands already think about that and are already making custom videos for every product that they have. You've been on a product page before where you see a bunch of images of the product and then. A little video of it. Maybe it's a lifestyle video. Maybe it's like that, a model wearing that video, walking around the city or something. you've seen that before brands who are doing that are now reaping the benefits of having that foresight to make a video for every SKU because now they can really easily activate a PLV. But every product should have its own custom video. If you're not doing that you're behind. Marpipe can help with that. One of the big highlights is that video now enables you to reach, more placements, more effectively. So essentially like now that you're able to run video DPA on placements, like reels stories and the explore page you need to think through how that video fits into all those different placements and dimensions. It works across all the key placements, which is amazing and allows you to like, be more native in more video native placements. You need to think through the implications and the dimensions of that when you're making video, you can't just be making like one square video. You need to think through vertical, you need to think through landscape, all those different things. Also really important to highlight is when you're running PLV, you have a video for every product SKU and that should be in your PDPs, your product pages every PDP should have a video. Some brands already have that. if you have that already, it should be in your feed and you should be able to seamlessly activate PLV. If you're now for the first time, just now making videos for every SKU those should be on the PDPs too. They reduce hesitation, they drive conversions. So you should have those up there too. PLV product level video is really simply just how you have an image for every SKU in your product catalog. Imagine you have a video for every SKU in your product catalog being able to use those videos for every SKU in your catalog ads, right? That's what PLV is. We're bringing video to catalog ads. This is a new capability and brands are just starting to figure out how well it works for them product level video is not bringing UGC into your feed, right? That would be the wrong way to go about it. But, for me to convince you on why you should do PLV. You don't need to take it from me, you can actually just take it from Meta and you can take it from a bunch of brands who have been testing it. So you just look at the data of all these people who have been already experimenting with this in the early days and some of the beta results that are coming out of it. PLV gives you one. It gives you access to reels and stories and allows you to take full advantage of that format, which is a higher performing placement. So if you want to appear better where performance is higher. You're going to want to run PLV. and that's where traditional ads struggle. When I say traditional, I mean, traditional catalog ads, like the regular static images. And so if you want ROI, you want ROAS reels is the answer reels optimized, PLV campaigns Meta has come out with studies from brands like on running show lower CPAs. Higher conversion rates and overall better ad performance. Obviously like videos get prioritized and algos they're more engaging, they're more thumb stopping. So the algos is going to give you more wind at your sail naturally as you're running PLV rather than just like static placements and meta reports in their early studies a lot of this is really new. I want to see a lot more data come out about this, but Meta is reporting up to a 48% increase in conversions, and lower CPCs, from campaigns that use, product level video. Lifestyle brands it seems tend to benefit most. There was like this really compelling case study about PLV that meta put out with on running, and pretty much they ran this like immersive native video content that really resonated with audiences, drove engagement and then most interestingly, PLV is correlated with a reduction in returns according to Shopify, when you're running product level video and you have video on your product pages that reduces return rates by up to 25% because it provides customers with more of like a realistic detailed product view. And that's correlated to much lower return rates, so this is big for any like e commerce. obviously like return rate kills your margin PLV helps you with your return rate, so I thought that piece was really interesting. And so if that doesn't convince you if all of that, that I just said, doesn't convince you to try PLV, then nothing will, and you shouldn't. I mean, one of the things that I found also like most compelling about this take performance to the side. Yes. You get access to better performing placements. yes. They work better. They have higher conversion rates. PLV is great for your media buyer. Your media buyer is going to love PLV. The CFO is going to love it too. In tons of AB tests, including the product level video in your catalog ads and on your product pages. Actually reduces return rates, right? And so we're actually getting into the nuts and bolts of what makes your margin tick as an e commerce business or as a retailer. Return rates like kill you, especially during holiday season. People hate returns. Because providing customers with a realistic, detailed view of the product in video form. Gives them more realistic expectations. And so this reduces return rate. When you set expectations, better PLV helps you get there. So if none of those, doesn't convince you, if the good performance doesn't convince you, if reducing your return rate, isn't interesting to you, then I'll never be able to convince you to try PLV. But assuming you're a marketer who wants to see an increased conversion rate and wants to, Oh, it's a better ad performance. You should obviously try it. All right. We'll talk about the problem. Let's talk about what's the big problem, right? We covered what is PLV? Why is it good and why should you try it? But what we have not covered is the big problem. There's a big problem in the room. It's in the room with us right now. It's scary. The thing is a lot of brands, haven't tried PLV yet, because honestly, the sad fact is that in order to run product level video catalog ads, you need to have a video for every SKU in your product catalog. And if you have tens of thousands of products, chances are you don't have a video for every SKU. Almost all brands do not have a video for every SKU in their product catalog. This seems like a really daunting challenge, it's Q4, everyone's busy. You've got thousands of products. How are you possibly going to go make a video for every SKU in your product catalog? This is where something like Marpipe comes in. We solved that problem. How pretty much using Marpipe, you can plug in your feed automatically generate nice videos for every single SKU in your product catalog. You can design them custom to your brand. You have complete creative control. You're able to render it in minutes and then you can go out and test it in the real world. you can always make tons more and test them until you find what really hits and clicks with your audience. And so we're just automating the ability. Imagine you're able to snap your fingers and make a video for every SKU in your product catalog. That's what Marpipe does. We just rolled this feature out and we're seeing some amazing stats come out with the early adoption. Right now, it's a templated system, and these templates are a game changer for brands you can use prebuilt templates, but you can also create your own custom templates, which is what most people do. And so brands are coming in and designing a video template and then running every SKU through that template, rendering it out, being able to see, you can really quickly QA, what all these videos would look like without actually reviewing thousands of videos one by one because of our preview functionality. And essentially you're able to go and then make these videos and test them in Meta or anywhere where you can run PLV. When it comes to designing PLV Let's say you're like, hey Dan, I know what PLV is. I'm sold that I should try it. it's time to go use Marpipe to create one. I'm going to give you a few quick tips. That's going to make your PLV pop and look really good and perform well. Number one is keep it quick. Literally the less is more when it comes to PLV, you should not think about this, like how you normally think about video, It should not be fancy. You shouldn't have like crazy animation and cinematography going on. Like simple, like slideshow style stuff where there's a hook within the first two seconds, where you can like really stop the thumb scroll just product information about that SKU in really like a simple slideshow format. Is what we've seen work the best. We've seen that, like the fancier you try to get with the video DPA, the less it works, leave the fancy video for just regular video ads. simple slideshow style stuff that just kind of goes over that specific product information where it's like the product name, if it's on sale, a strikethrough, all the stuff you would normally include in your regular catalog ads, you can just include in your PLV and benefit from that motion and just like hook them. Within that first two seconds. So keep it quick. Keep it simple. is tip number one. Like don't try to, don't try to get super fancy with it. Number two is vertical video is non negotiable folks. Reels and stories demand full screen, vertical content you should be designing for that. And then, branding obviously matters, right? So like, if I was a CMO and I found out that I'm spending all this money running all this DPA, all these impressions for just regular product images that are unbranded. And I could just be including my branding in that for free for, at no extra cost. Like, I'm wasting all these impressions and I'm losing all that brand lift. I would otherwise get by not having my branding in my catalog ads. And so obviously in video, that's even more important. You want to make sure that logo, that branding, those branding elements, like the color schemes that you want to include that all factor into your brand recall. You want to make sure that you're visible throughout the course of the entire video. And so that's going to be an important piece. Make sure that you check off the vertical box and make sure that you have your branding like throughout the video From there on you can just let automation do the heavy lifting, so as we know catalog ads work really well because the algo is just gonna read over all the information about your SKUs and deliver it really well, but now we're benefiting from motion. And so make good templates test them then lean back and chill because as we know, one of the great things about DPA is that it doesn't hit creative fatigue, when we find what works, scale it, kick back and, hang out. You don't really need to do much, much else from there as far as what platforms are going to be able to run PLV on today, this is mostly a strategy that's focused on Meta and TikToK. We do have some really exciting partnerships that we're working on with some major social platforms. Moral of the story is that today you can run PLV on Meta and TikTok, but in the very near future, there's going to be many more places where you can run it. So you should be testing it on those main platforms first. But then once you do that and other platforms come out with really, enticing PLV offers, you'll be really well positioned to take advantage of those. If you're already off to a running start with platforms like Meta and TicTok, All right. So that's PLV. Catalog ads aren't always simple. There's always more to learn, and it's not as easy as we make it sound here. So if you have questions, if you need help, don't hesitate to reach out. A lot of marketers don't deal with catalog ads every day. But my team here at Marpipe deals with catalog ads all day, every day. That's literally all we do. We're really into it. So don't be a stranger, reach out to Marpipe. If you need advice, you don't need to be a customer to reach us out and ask for advice just go to marpipe.com or hit me on LinkedIn or Twitter. And don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter. There's over 10, 000 marketers. Some really big CMOs, major brands all on our newsletter, the catalog cult we're trying to have a lot of fun with something that's not traditionally really fun. I think we're doing a pretty good job at it. We're going to give you tips, best practices. you'll find the link in the show notes. So thanks for listening and until next time, keep testing, keep optimizing and keep winning with catalog ads.