Sponsored Brands Amazon: 2026 Guide & Best Practices

Amazon is a crowded marketplace. Standing out requires more than just a great product, it demands a smart advertising strategy. Enter Sponsored Brands Amazon ads, a powerful tool designed to put your brand, not just your products, front and center.

If you’ve ever seen a prominent banner ad at the very top of your Amazon search results featuring a brand’s logo, a custom headline, and a few of their products, you’ve seen Sponsored Brands in action. They’re a fantastic way to increase visibility, drive brand discovery, and tell your story directly to shoppers.

This guide will walk you through everything you need to know, from the different ad formats and targeting options to measuring your success.

What Are Sponsored Brands Amazon Ads? An Overview

Sponsored Brands are customizable pay per click banner ads on Amazon. They feature your brand logo, a unique headline you create, and a collection of your products. Originally known as Headline Search Ads, their main job is to help shoppers discover your brand and product line as they search.

When a customer clicks on your ad, they aren’t sent to a standard product page crowded with competitors. Instead, they land on a dedicated space like your Amazon Brand Store or a custom landing page showcasing only your products. This creates a focused, immersive brand experience. It’s no wonder that as of 2024, about 38% of third party sellers use them to grow their business on the platform.

Where Do These Ads Show Up?

The biggest advantage of Sponsored Brands Amazon ads is their prime real estate. You’ll most commonly find them in highly visible locations:

Top of Search: The most coveted spot is the banner that appears directly above the search results, capturing immediate attention.
Within Search Results: Ads can also appear alongside or in the middle of search results, especially on mobile devices.
Bottom of Search: Amazon often shows a few Sponsored Brands ads just before the “next page” button.
Product Detail Pages: These banners can also appear on the product pages of similar or competing items, offering a chance to win over customers at the point of decision.

These ads are designed to work seamlessly across both desktop and mobile, ensuring your brand message reaches shoppers wherever they are.

Exploring the Sponsored Brands Ad Formats

Amazon offers three main creative formats for your campaigns, each suited to different goals.

1. Product Collection

This is the classic format. It allows you to feature your brand logo, a headline, a custom image, and a collection of your products. The custom image is a great opportunity to use a lifestyle photo that shows your products in use or a branded graphic that tells your story.

When a shopper clicks, you can send them to your Brand Store or a custom landing page featuring the advertised products. This format is perfect for driving general brand awareness and encouraging shoppers to browse your product line.

2. Store Spotlight

If you have a well developed Amazon Brand Store, the Store Spotlight format is for you. This ad format lets you drive traffic directly to different “aisles” or sub pages of your Store. The ad can feature up to three of your Store’s sub pages, each with its own image and title.

To use this, your Brand Store must have at least three sub pages, each with products on it. It’s an excellent way to showcase the breadth of your catalog and build brand loyalty by encouraging deeper exploration of your storefront.

3. Sponsored Brands Video

Video is one of the most engaging formats available. Sponsored Brands Video ads feature a short video (between 6 and 45 seconds) that autoplays without sound as shoppers scroll through search results. These videos are incredibly eye catching and are perfect for demonstrating a product’s features and benefits.

Unlike other formats, a video ad promotes a single product, and a click takes the shopper directly to that product’s detail page. A huge benefit is that video ads run in their own separate auction, meaning you can run them alongside your banner ads without them competing against each other for the same keywords. Brands that adopt video often see impressive results, HP, for example, saw a 142% year over year increase in clicks after adding Sponsored Brands Video to their strategy.

Getting Started: Costs, Eligibility, and Setup

Ready to launch your first campaign? Here’s what you need to know.

How Much Do Sponsored Brands Amazon Ads Cost?

Sponsored Brands Amazon ads operate on a pay per click (PPC) model, so you only pay when a shopper clicks your ad. There is no minimum ad spend required. You control your costs by setting a daily budget for your campaign and a bid for your targets. Amazon recommends a budget of at least $10 per day to ensure your ads run consistently.

Your cost per click (CPC) can range from a few cents to several dollars, depending entirely on how competitive your chosen keywords or product targets are.

Eligibility Requirements

Not everyone can run these ads. The main requirement is that you must be a seller enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry. This ensures that the ads are being run by the actual brand owners. Additionally, your products must be in categories eligible for advertising, for example, adult products and used items are not allowed. You also need to have a Professional seller account in good standing.

How to Set Up a Campaign

Setting up a Sponsored Brands Amazon campaign is done through the Amazon Advertising Console.

Create Campaign: Select “Sponsored Brands” as your campaign type.
Set Your Budget: Give your campaign a name, set the start and end dates, and define your daily budget.
Choose Ad Format: Pick between Product Collection, Store Spotlight, or Video.
Select Your Landing Page: Decide where clicks will go, either your Brand Store or a custom product page. For video ads, this is automatically set to the product’s detail page.
Define Your Targeting: Choose either Keyword Targeting or Product Targeting for the campaign. You can (and should) also add negative targets to prevent wasted ad spend.
Build Your Creative: Upload your brand logo, write a compelling headline, and select the products or store pages to feature.
Submit for Review: Amazon will review your ad for compliance, which typically takes up to 72 hours.

Prefer a quick expert review before you launch? “Request a Free Brand Audit” to get a prioritized scorecard and 90‑day action plan. Many brands partner with expert agencies to ensure their campaigns are built for profitability from day one. See our “Amazon management and PPC services” for end‑to‑end setup and optimization.

Mastering Your Targeting Strategy

The success of your campaign hinges on getting your ad in front of the right people.

Keyword Targeting

With keyword targeting, your ads appear when a shopper’s search query matches the keywords you’re bidding on. Amazon offers three match types:

Broad Match: Provides the widest reach, showing your ad for searches that include your keywords in any order, along with close variations.
Phrase Match: Your ad shows when a user searches for your exact keyword phrase in the correct order, but with other words before or after it.
Exact Match: Offers the most precise targeting, showing your ad only when the search query is an exact match to your keyword.

A good strategy is to use a mix of all three types. Be sure to include both generic category terms (like “wireless headphones”) and your own branded terms to defend against competitors. For a proven framework, see our “intent‑based Amazon campaign structure.”

Product Targeting

Instead of keywords, you can target specific products or categories.

Category Targeting: This lets you show your ads on product detail pages within a certain category. You can even refine this by brand, price point, or star rating to narrow your audience. It’s a great tactic for building awareness among shoppers browsing your niche.
Individual Product (ASIN) Targeting: This is a more direct approach where you choose specific competitor or complementary product ASINs. Your ad can then appear on those product pages, giving you a chance to conquest traffic or cross sell related items.

Negative Targeting

Just as important as choosing what to target is choosing what not to target. Negative targeting lets you specify keywords or products where you don’t want your ad to appear. For example, if you sell premium coffee, you might add “cheap” and “free” as negative keywords to avoid clicks from shoppers who are unlikely to convert. Regularly refining your negative targets is a best practice that saves money and improves your return on ad spend.

Creating Ads That Convert

A great targeting strategy gets your ad seen, but great creative gets it clicked.

Ad Creative Optimization

This involves perfecting the visual and written elements of your ad.

Headline and Call to Action (CTA): Your headline is your hook. Make it concise, benefit oriented, and clear. A strong headline like “Premium Organic Coffee, Roasted Fresh Daily” is much more effective than a generic one. End with a clear call to action like “Shop Now” or “Explore Our Collection” to guide the shopper’s next step.
Logo and Imagery: Your brand logo must be clear and meet Amazon’s guidelines. For Product Collection ads, use a high quality, eye catching custom image. A lifestyle photo that shows your product in the real world can significantly boost engagement and brand recognition. Need help producing compliant images, headlines, and A+ content? Our “content and A+ creative services” can handle copy and visuals that meet Amazon’s specs.
Landing Page Selection: The page a shopper lands on after a click is crucial. For broader brand discovery, sending traffic to your Amazon Brand Store is a great choice. For a more focused goal, like promoting a specific sale, a custom landing page showing only those items might convert better. For Sponsored Brands Amazon video ads, the choice is made for you, clicks always lead to the product’s detail page.

Video Creative Best Practices

For video ads, remember these key tips:

Hook them fast: You need to grab attention in the first two seconds, so show your product immediately.
Design for sound off: Use on screen text and clear visuals to tell your story, since videos autoplay on mute.
Keep it short: Aim for 15 to 30 seconds. The goal is to create curiosity, not to share every detail.
Show, don’t just tell: Demonstrate your product in action to help shoppers visualize themselves using it.

And remember to follow Amazon’s technical video ad specifications (like a 16:9 aspect ratio and a file size 500MB or less) to avoid your ad being rejected.

Creative A/B Testing

Don’t just set your creative and forget it. The best advertisers constantly test different elements. You can run two identical campaigns with a single change, for instance, testing one headline against another, to see which performs better. Test your images, headlines, and even the products you feature to continually optimize your ad performance.

Measuring and Optimizing for Success

You can’t improve what you don’t measure. Here’s how to track your campaign performance.

Accessing Your Campaign Metrics and Reports

Amazon provides all the data you need in the Advertising Console.

Campaign Dashboard: This gives you an at a glance view of key metrics like impressions, clicks, spend, and sales for each campaign. You can customize the columns to see the data that matters most to you.
Advertising Reports: For a deeper analysis, you can download detailed reports, like the Search Term Report, which shows the actual customer queries that triggered your ads.

Key Performance Metrics to Watch

Impressions and CTR (Click Through Rate): Impressions are the number of times your ad was shown. CTR is the percentage of impressions that resulted in a click. CTR is a great indicator of how relevant and appealing your ad creative is. While the median CTR for Sponsored Brands is around 0.38%, top performing ads can do much better.
ROAS (Return on Ad Spend): This metric shows how much revenue you generate for every dollar you spend on ads. It’s calculated as Sales ÷ Ad Spend. A ROAS of 5.0 means you’re earning $5 for every $1 spent. While a high ROAS is generally good, a campaign focused on acquiring new customers might have a lower ROAS, and that’s okay.
New to Brand Metrics: This is a powerful metric unique to Sponsored Brands. It tells you how many of your sales came from customers who have never purchased from your brand in the past 12 months. It’s the perfect way to measure how effective your ads are at growing your customer base, not just selling to existing fans.

Monitoring Keyword Performance and Adjusting Bids

Regularly check your reports to see how individual keywords are performing.

Pause underperformers: If a keyword is spending money but not generating sales, lower its bid or pause it.
Boost your winners: If a keyword is converting well at a profitable ACOS, consider increasing its bid to maximize impressions, especially for the top of search placement.
Find new opportunities: Use the Search Term Report to discover new, high converting customer search terms that you can add as keywords.

Winning the top of search placement is key for visibility. Capturing this placement can dramatically increase clicks and brand exposure. Learn “how the Rank & Ads Loop compounds organic rank gains” when you consistently win high‑intent placements.

The Power of a Combined Advertising Strategy

While Sponsored Brands Amazon ads are powerful on their own, they become even more effective when combined with other Amazon ad types like Sponsored Products and Sponsored Display. A multi faceted approach allows you to:

Reach shoppers at every stage: Use Sponsored Brands for top of funnel awareness, Sponsored Products for mid funnel consideration, and Sponsored Display for bottom of funnel retargeting.
Maximize visibility: By using multiple ad types, you ensure your brand is visible across the entire search results page and on product detail pages.
Improve overall performance: A unified strategy creates a synergistic effect, boosting your total conversion rate and ROAS.

Building and managing a holistic advertising strategy can be complex, but it’s the surest path to sustainable growth on Amazon. A full service partner can help you orchestrate these moving parts. Discover our “case studies” to see how unified Amazon + D2C programs drive real results.

Frequently Asked Questions about Sponsored Brands Amazon

1. What is a good starting budget for a Sponsored Brands campaign?
While there’s no minimum spend, Amazon recommends at least $10 per day to ensure your campaign has enough budget to gather data and serve ads throughout the day.

2. How long does it take for a Sponsored Brands ad to be approved?
After you submit your campaign, Amazon’s moderation team reviews it for compliance with their advertising policies. This review process typically takes up to 72 hours.

3. Can I run Sponsored Brands ads without an Amazon Brand Store?
Yes. While linking to a Brand Store is a best practice for a rich brand experience, you can also direct clicks to a simple, Amazon generated landing page that showcases a collection of your products.

4. What is a good ACOS or ROAS for Sponsored Brands?
This varies widely by category, competition, and campaign goal. A campaign targeting your own brand keywords might have a very low ACOS (under 15%), while a campaign focused on acquiring new customers with broad, generic keywords could have a higher ACOS (30% to 50%) that is still considered successful due to the value of those new customers.

5. Are Sponsored Brands Video ads more effective than other formats?
Video ads are highly engaging and can be extremely effective at capturing attention and demonstrating product benefits. Many brands see a significant lift in clicks and conversion when adding video to their strategy. The best approach is to test different formats to see what resonates most with your audience.

6. Do I have to bid on my own brand name?
It is a highly recommended best practice. Bidding on your own brand terms, known as a brand defense strategy, ensures you control the message at the top of the search results when a customer is specifically looking for you, preventing competitors from stealing that valuable traffic.

7. How often should I monitor my keyword performance?
You should review your campaign performance at least weekly. This allows you to make timely bid adjustments, add new negative keywords, and reallocate budget to your top performing targets to maintain efficiency and scale your results.