Exclusively for brand-registered sellers on Amazon, sponsored brand ads are a powerful tool to enhance your visibility and boost sales.
These ads highlight your brand logo, feature a custom headline, and display a selection of your products, making them more eye-catching than traditional pay-per-click (PPC) ads. With added flexibility, sponsored brand ads let you guide customers to specific product pages or your Amazon storefront.
We’re going to look at:
- 3 Main Types of Sponsored Brand Ad Formats
- Your Guide to Amazon Sponsored Brands Setup
- 5 Tips to Optimize Your Sponsored Brands Campaigns
- Sponsored Brands or Sponsored Products: Which is Right for You?
- Are Sponsored Brands Ads a Good Idea?
3 Main Types of Sponsored Brand Ad Formats
Whatever your advertising goals, sponsored brand ads have a format to help you achieve them. Whether it’s driving traffic to your storefront or highlighting specific products, we’ll explore the options available.
1. Store Spotlight Ads
Goal: Drive traffic to product category sub-pages
Store spotlight ads offer a unique way to promote your Amazon storefront. They drive traffic to either your main homepage or specific product category sub-pages, giving you the chance to cross-sell and upsell, unlike ads that direct customers to single product pages.
To get started with these ads, your storefront needs at least four unique pages, each with its own unique products. These pages include your homepage and three category sub-pages.
2. Video Ads
Goal: Drive traffic to a single product detail page
These video ads are all about one product—they play automatically and you can find them on search results pages (when you search for related keywords) and also on product detail pages.
For effective video ads, keep them short (15-30 seconds is best, max 45 seconds), auto-play (no sound), and focused on visually demonstrating your product’s benefits. This helps capture attention quickly and drive clicks.
Don’t worry about your video ads competing with your other campaigns. Sponsored Brands video ads have their own independent bidding process, so they won’t affect your other Sponsored Brands or PPC ads.
Turns out, adding Sponsored Brands video ads can really pay off. Advertisers who added video campaigns after they were already running Sponsored Brands saw some big improvements, like a 28% boost in impressions, clicks going up 33%, CTR improving by 2%, and ROAS growing by 4% each month.
That’s another great reason to try video ads. They can boost your return on ad spend (ROAS). Amazon says brands see a 4% monthly increase in ROAS.
3. Product Collection Ads
Goal: Showcase multiple products at the top of search results
Want to show off a few of your products right where customers are looking? Product collection ads let you feature up to three items at the very top of Amazon search results. Shoppers can then click through to learn more about each product or see them all together on a special landing page.
If you’re running Sponsored Brands ads, make sure you’re using a custom image of the product – not a brand logo and headline only. It really makes a difference—Amazon’s seen a 2.2x higher click-through rate for ads on mobile with product images.
Your Guide to Amazon Sponsored Brands Setup
Step 1: Figure Out Goals and Expectations
It’s important to establish clear goals and expectations before you begin the process of creating your Sponsored Brands campaign.
Step 2: Open Campaign Manager
Log in to your Seller Central account. Under the “Advertising” tab, select “Campaign Manager” to get started.
Step 3: Pick Your Campaign Type
In Campaign Manager, click “Create campaign.” Then, choose “Sponsored Brands” from the list.
Step 4: Set Up Your Campaign Details
Give your campaign a name so you can find it easily later (only visible to you). Then, choose when you want your campaign to start and end. Finally, decide how much you want to spend each day.
Note: Your daily budget reflects how much you’re willing to spend on average each day of the month. Don’t be surprised if some days are a little higher—it’s designed to even out over the entire month.
Step 5: Time to Choose Your Ad Format
Here’s where you pick which ad format you want: product collection, store spotlight, or video. Your choice here will determine your customisation options and what happens next.
Step 6: Select Products
- For Product Collection Ads: Select at least one product from your catalog and choose where you want customers to go (your store, a simple landing page, or a custom landing page).
- For Store Spotlight Ads: Choose the store you want to highlight (make sure it has at least three sub-pages). Then, write a catchy headline, add your brand logo, and upload some nice pictures for each of your sub-pages.
- For Video Ads: Pick the product you want your video to link to, and then upload your video.
Step 7: Design Your Ad
Choose your brand name and logo, write a catchy headline, and upload your images. If you have more than one product, make sure they’re in the right order.
Step 8: Target Your Ads
You can target your Sponsored Brands ads using keywords or products—choose one for each campaign.
- For Keyword Targeting
This is similar to the PPC ads you’re already familiar with. You get to choose the keywords that make your ads show up.
- For Product Targeting
Choose categories or specific products to show your ads to. You can also narrow it down by brand, price, and how good the product reviews are.
Now that you’ve chosen your targeting, you can set your maximum bid and add any negative keywords to prevent your ads from showing for the wrong searches or products.
Step 9: Final Check and Launch
Take one last look at all your campaign settings. Then, submit your ad. Amazon will review it, which can take up to 72 hours.
5 Tips to Optimize Your Sponsored Brands Campaigns
- Optimize Bids Automatically: Automated bidding takes the stress out of managing your bids. Amazon’s system figures out the best bids for you, which can save you money and improve your ad performance. It focuses on showing your ads where they’re most likely to lead to sales.
- Keep Your Keywords Fresh: Check your keywords regularly to see how they’re performing (look at click-through and conversion rates). Use negative keywords to stop your ads from showing for searches that aren’t relevant.
- Test Your Ad Creatives: Experiment with different headlines, images, and videos to find the combination that gets the most clicks.
- Track Your Campaign’s Success: Pay attention to important metrics like click-through rate, conversion rate, ROAS, and new-to-brand sales (sales from new customers) to see how your campaigns are doing and make them even better.
- Check Your Landing Pages: Make sure your landing pages have clear product info and strong calls to action to get people to buy.
Just like trying out different ad creatives, it’s also a good idea to test different landing pages to see which ones get the most people to buy.
Sponsored Brands or Sponsored Products: Which is Right for You?
| Feature | Sponsored Brands | Sponsored Products |
| Goal | Get more people to know your brand and visit your store or product pages. | Send shoppers straight to your product pages to boost sales and make your products easier to find. |
| Visibility | Mostly on search results, some on product pages. | Visible in search results and product details. |
| Design Flexibility | Video, customizable headlines, logos, and custom images | Ads feature standard product images and titles. |
| Targeting | Keyword targeting with optional product and brand targeting. | Mostly keyword targeting and some product targeting. |
| Cost | Premium placement means higher higher cost-per-click. | Usually cheaper per click. |
| Eligibility | Must be a Brand Registered Professional seller. | Needs a Professional selling plan |
Are Sponsored Brands Ads a Good Idea?
While Sponsored Brands ads typically have a better ROAS, the cost of creating custom video assets can be higher.
If you’re a Brand Registered seller on Amazon, trying out Sponsored Brands ads could be a good way to boost your business.
Driving traffic and sales is key, but so is protecting yourself.
YAS’s Pay-As-You-Sell coverage scales automatically with your sales, offering peace of mind against a range of potential liabilities, so you can focus on your advertising and maximize your results.