Open to brand-registered sellers on Amazon, sponsored brand ads boost visibility and drive sales.
By showcasing the brand logo, a custom headline, and a selection of products, sponsored ads are more prominent and flexible than standard pay-per-click (PPC) ads, allowing brands to direct customers to product pages or their Amazon storefront.
This article will explore:
- The 3 Main Formats of Brand Ads on Amazon
- How to Set up Amazon Sponsored Brands
- Tips for Optimizing Your Sponsored Brands Campaign
- Sponsored Brands Ads vs. Sponsored Products Ads
- Are Sponsored Brands Ads Worth It?
Sponsored Brands Ad Formats: Exclusive to Brand-Registered Sellers
Sponsored brand ads offer a variety of ad formats to cater to different advertising needs and goals – whether you want to drive visitors to your storefront or to specific products. Let’s take a closer look at each format:
Store Spotlight Ads – Promote Your Amazon Storefront
Advertising Goal: To drive visitors to product category sub-pages in your Amazon storefront.
Store spotlight ads are designed to direct traffic to your Amazon storefront. Rather than driving customers to a specific product page, store spotlight ads drive them to either your main storefront homepage or a category sub-page – creating opportunities for cross-selling and upselling.
To run these ads, your storefront must have at least four unique pages, each with one or more unique products (one main page and three category sub-pages).
You’ll find store spotlight ads in the “Brands related to your search” section of the search results page, like this:
Video Ads – Promote a Single Product
Advertising Goal: Drive visitors to a single product detail page.
Video ads feature a single product with an auto-play video and can be found on both the search results for relevant keywords and product detail pages.
Videos autoplay without sound and should be short – ideally between 15-30 seconds but Amazon does alow 6-45 seconds – to capture attention instantly and drive clicks. Product demonstration often works best to visually communicate the benefits.
What’s important to note is that Sponsored Brands video ad campaigns won’t compete against your other Sponsored Brands ads, or any other PPC ad campaigns you’re running. The bidding process for video ads works entirely independently.
This is an added bonus to launching a video ads campaign. In fact, according to Amazon, brands who launch a Sponsored Brands video campaign report a 4% growth in the Return on Advertising Spend (ROAS) per month. You can see from the example below of a video ad taken from an Amazon search for “dog beds” why that might be.
It’s engaging, eye-catching, and immediately demonstrated in the video why this bed is the best option.
Product Collection Ads – Promote Multiple Products
Product collection ads allow you to feature up to three products and are positioned at the top of the search results. Shoppers clicking on the ad are taken directly to the individual product detail pages or a custom landing page that features all three products.
Amazon highly recommends using a custom image in your ads, rather than only a brand logo and headline. Campaigns that use a custom image in Sponsored Brands ads on mobile see a 2.2x higher click-through rate versus campaigns that use only a brand logo and headline, with no products.
How to Set up Amazon Sponsored Brands
Step 1: Define Your Goals
It’s important to understand what you’re hoping to get out of any ad campaign. So, ensure you have clear goals and expectations set out before you start creating your Sponsored Brands campaign.
Step 2: Access Campaign Manager
Log into your Amazon Seller Central account and navigate to the “Advertising” tab. Select “Campaign Manager” from the dropdown to start creating your new ad campaign.
Step 3: Choose Your Campaign Type
Within the Campaign Manager, click on the “Create campaign” button, where you’ll be presented with different options. Select “Sponsored Brands”.
Step 4: Configure Your Campaign Settings
- Name your campaign in the “Campaign name” field to help you identify it later (this is only visible to you).
- Set the start and end dates for your campaign to control its duration.
- Determine a daily budget.
Note: your daily budget is the amount you’re willing to spend per day over the course of a calendar month. On some days your budget will be exceeded but over the course of the month will be averaged out.
Step 5: Select an Ad Format
This is where you select one of the three ad formats we compared earlier: product collection, store spotlight, or video. Your choice will dictate the next steps and customization options.
Step 6: Choose Your Products
Product Collection Ads
For product collection ads, select at least one product from your catalog that you want to feature and the landing page that your creative will drive to. This can be your store, a simple landing page, or a custom landing page.
Store Spotlight Ads
You’ll be asked to select the Store you want to spotlight. Remember, it must have a minimum of three sub-pages to be eligible.
This is where you’ll also create a custom headline, select a brand logo, and add custom images for each of the sub-pages.
Video Ads
Select the product for your video to link to and then proceed to upload your video.
Step 7: Set up Your Creative
Choose your brand name and logo that’ll feature in your ad, create a headline, and upload your custom images.
Don’t forget to confirm the order you want your products to appear in your ad if you’re showcasing multiple products.
Step 8: Set Targeting Options
Sponsored Brands ads have two targeting options and you can only select one of these options per campaign: keyword targeting or product targeting.
Keyword targeting works in much the same way as the standard PPC ads you’re used to in which you can specify the search terms you want your ads to appear for.
Product targeting operates slightly differently in that you can select categories or specific products to target with your ads. You can then refine product targeting further by brand, price, and review rating.
Once you’ve selected an option, you can adjust your maximum bid and add any negative keywords to prevent your ads from showing for particular searches or products.
Step 7: Review and Launch
Finally, review all the information and settings you’ve entered for your campaign. Then submit your ad for Amazon’s review, which usually takes up to 72 hours.
Tips for Optimizing Your Sponsored Brands Campaign
Running a successful Sponsored Brands campaign requires more than just setting it up. Here are some tips to help you optimize your campaign and maximize your ROAS.
Tip 1: Leverage Automated Bidding
This allows Amazon to adjust your bids based on the likelihood of conversion so your bids are optimized for different placements, potentially lowering costs for less competitive ad spots.
Essentially, automated bidding can help maximize your ROAS by focusing on placements that offer the best performance.
Tip 2: Refine Your Keyword Strategy
Regularly review and update your keywords based on performance metrics like click-through rate and conversion rate. Use negative keywords to exclude irrelevant traffic and reduce wasted ad spend.
Tip 3: Enhance Ad Creatives
Iteration and testing are the best ways to optimize your ad creatives. Test different headlines, images, and videos (if relevant) and create the best combination of assets based on the data you collect over time.
Tip 4: Monitor Performance Metrics
Advertising campaigns should always be supported by data. Here are some of the key metrics you should be monitoring and optimizing for to ensure you’re maximizing the value of your campaigns:
- Click-through rate
- Conversion rate
- Campaign ROAS
- New-to-brand metrics (how many sales come from new customers)
Tip 5: Optimize Landing Pages
Ensure that the landing pages your ads direct to are optimized for conversion, with clear product information and compelling calls to action.
Just as you would test your ad creative, testing different types of landing pages is also highly beneficial to understanding where your customers convert best.
Sponsored Brands vs. Sponsored Products: Which Campaign Type to Choose
| Feature | Sponsored Brands | Sponsored Products |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Increase brand awareness and drive traffic to Store or product pages | Drive direct sales and improve individual product visibility by driving traffic to a product page |
| Visibility | Primarily appear in search results, with some formats also appearing on product detail pages | Can appear within search results and on product detail pages |
| Design Flexibility | Video, customizable headlines, logos, and custom images | Ad creative relies on standard product images and titles |
| Targeting | Keyword targeting with added options for product or brand targeting | Primarily keyword targeting, with some product targeting |
| Cost | Typically higher cost-per-click due to premium placements | Typically lower cost-per-click |
| Eligibility | Only available to Professional selling accounts with Amazon Brand Registry | Available to sellers with a Professional selling plan |
Are Sponsored Brands Ads Worth It?
In general, the ROAS for Sponsored Brands ads is higher than standard PPC campaigns. However, creating assets like custom video comes at a greater cost.
Successful advertising is all about testing and iteration so as a Brand Registered Amazon seller, testing out Sponsored Brands ads could be a smart move for your Amazon business.
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