How do I know if a product is even worth making a video for?

Why a great video can still get zero views, and how to check before you film.

*This article contains affiliate links. I may receive compensation if you purchase through them at no charge to you.

A: I see some version of this question almost every week. You find a product you love, you’re excited to film, you post it... and then nothing. Zero views. Zero clicks. You start wondering what you did wrong, why the algorithm hates you, or if this is even worth it.

Here’s the truth I wish someone had told me when I started: it’s not you. Well, it is, but not for the reason you think. It’s because you don’t understand how this all really works.

Let me explain, because once this clicks it changes how you decide what to spend your time filming.

Most Amazon product pages have a video section near the top, right under the images. Not all, but a good majority. That’s the top carousel, and it’s prime real estate. The very first video there is almost always the brand’s own (sometimes there’s more than one). Underneath that sit five more spots. Those five are the influencer spots, and if a shopper clicks one and buys, whoever made that video earns the commission. A lot of shoppers never scroll past this. They watch, they buy, they’re gone.

Scroll further down and you’ll find a second video section, the bottom carousel. That one holds ten more spots. Still commission eligible if someone clicks and buys, just not quite as prime as the top five. There are some products that only have a bottom carousel.

So there are fifteen spots total, five up top, ten down below on most popular products. Which isn’t a lot when a popular product might already have hundreds of creators competing for those spots. You could make a beautiful video for a product that already has 300 videos ahead of you in line, and you’d never know it, because Amazon doesn’t show you that number anywhere on the page.

That’s exactly why I don’t pick a product to film until I’ve checked the competition first. I open a tool like Viral Vue (code: Welcome10 for 10% off with my affiliate link) or Oink (code “Barb” for 10% off) and look the product up before I ever hit record. I want to see how many videos are already stacked up for that spot, and how long those videos tend to run. High number, long videos? My odds of cracking that carousel are slim, no matter how good my video is. Low number? That’s a product worth my time.

I’m not saying skip a product just because it has competition. I’m saying know what you’re walking into before you spend twenty minutes filming, editing, and uploading something that was never going to push a top video out of the carousel.

My rule of thumb: check first, film second.

I walk through exactly what the top and bottom carousels look like, and how I read the competition tool, in the video above. Watch it before you pick your next product, it might save you a video’s worth of time.

Happy money making! Barb

Action:

• If you want to keep learning this stuff alongside people figuring it out in real time too, come find us in the Storefront Launch Facebook group. That’s where I actually answer questions like this one, live.

• Do a trial month of OINK and Viral Vue and see how much it helps you. I promise either one will level up your game immensely. If you want my opinion? OINK is easier to learn for beginners.