A Complete Guide for Marketers

Regardless of whether you’re an established Amazon seller or just getting started, staying up-to-date on the latest changes with Amazon Ads is the key to hitting those big sales goals you have set.

In this article, you’ll find a breakdown of the three most successful Amazon Ad types so you can decide which one will give you the biggest bang for your buck.

Read on to learn more about Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display Ads, with tips to make the most of them and instructions to set up each one.

3 Main Amazon Ad Types

With 142.5 million Amazon Prime subscribers in the United States alone, ecommerce marketers are flocking to the platform to get consumers’ eyes on their products.

However, with more users comes more competition. While SEO and listing optimization is key for organic search result growth, you need to be a bit more aggressive in order to get maximum exposure.

That’s where Amazon Ads come in. Admittingly, there is a lot behind Amazon advertising strategy.

When utilized correctly, they’re one of the best ways to gain traction for your business. Which type of ad you’ll need will depend on your product and what you’re trying to achieve.

There are three main Amazon ad types:

• Sponsored Products.
• Sponsored Brands.
• Sponsored Display.

All three of these types of ads are pay-per-click advertising, which means that each time a customer clicks on your ad, you pay a small fee.

Sponsored Products are the most popular of the Amazon ad types because it’s a quick and easy way to promote one singular product.

Anyone whose products fall within the allowable categories can take advantage of the Sponsored Products feature. No previous advertising experience is required.

Why Use Sponsored Products

Sponsored Products ads are the most flexible Amazon ad type.

Because you’re promoting one product, you don’t have to craft copy and create graphics for a large advertising campaign. The ad is the graphic you’ve already created for your listing.

These ads appear right where shoppers will notice them the most – on the first page of their search results. The word “sponsored” is also printed small, which means the customer may not even notice that it is a sponsored ad they’re clicking on.

The proof is in the results for this type of ad. Amazon claims that advertisers within the first year of launching a campaign saw an average weekly +54% lift in glance views and an average weekly +40% lift in units ordered.

Creating Your Sponsored Products Campaign

Creating your campaign is fairly straightforward and simple.

Starting in your Amazon Advertising dashboard, you’ll follow these four steps:

Since you are promoting a singular product, there is no copy to write or graphics to design. You can set this ad up using your product listing and start running it quickly.

Sponsored Brands are the second most utilized Amazon ad type. They are the large banner ads that you see at the top of your Amazon search results page.

The ad includes a brand’s logo, a personalized tagline, and multiple examples of your products that correspond with the selected keyword.

Sponsored Brands are available for sellers enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry, vendors, book vendors, and agencies.

By limiting who this type of ad is available to, you can rest assured that your brand will be protected and that only accurate listings will be published.

Why Use Sponsored Brands

Since these ads are usually the first thing a customer sees on their search results page, they are a great way to build brand awareness, connect shoppers to your products directly, and create a branded shopping experience.

You can control your ad spend by setting your budget and choosing how much to bid per click. You only pay a fee when customers click on your ad.

Since the ad is focused more generally on your brand, it also includes a link that will bring the customer to either a custom landing page or your Amazon Store.

Here, the customer will be able to browse your products – and only your products. You pick what is featured on this page and it is free from competitors’ advertisements and products.

Creating Your Sponsored Brands Campaign

To create your campaign, you’ll complete four steps within the Amazon Advertising dashboard.

Within your Campaign Manager, you’ll be able to:

• Set your budget and duration.
• Design your ad.
• Pick which keywords to target and how much you’ll bid for clicks.
• Submit your ad for review.

To ensure success with this type of ad, make sure that you are picking products to feature that will really appeal to shoppers using the keywords you’re targeting.

Sponsored Display ads are an advertising solution that will help you reach the right audience both on and off Amazon.

This Amazon ads type is more exclusive than Sponsored Products and is only available to those enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry, vendors, and agencies with clients who sell products on Amazon.

Sponsored Display on Fire TV is currently in beta testing. This type of Sponsored Display gives you the ability to promote your apps, movies, and TV shows through ads on Fire TV.

Even more exclusive than Sponsored Display on the Amazon website, this type of advertising is only available to Fire TV app developers, Prime Video Channels, Prime Video Direct publishers, and film distributors.

Why Use Sponsored Display

Sponsored Display Ads are more exclusive than other Amazon ads types, which means less competition for you.

These ads give you more exposure than any other type of Amazon ad, too. Your ad can be featured on the Amazon home page, on shopping results pages, on Twitch, as well as on third-party websites and apps.

Sponsored Display Ads are cost-controlled with retail-aware cost-per-click ads, meaning they only run when your products are in stock. And just like the other types of ads, you easily control your ad spend by setting your budget and bid per click.

Thanks to Amazon’s simple self-service campaign creation, you don’t need a ton of advertising and design experience to create an ad that will deliver results. If you would rather not have a hand in the creative process at all, you can use Amazon’s automatically generated creatives to get your ads up and running quickly.

Creating Your Sponsored Display Campaign

Creating this Amazon ad type is very similar to creating a Sponsored Product or Sponsored Brand ad – but with one main difference.

Sponsored Display Campaigns do not function by keyword. Instead, you select between two different targeting options: Product Targeting or Audiences.

Product Targeting is perfect if you’re looking to promote your product among audiences who are actively researching products or categories similar to yours.

These ads will appear solely on Amazon product detail pages and/or search results pages.

If you’re looking to engage new customers or reengage old leads, selecting Audiences will help you reach those relevant audiences on and off Amazon.

These ads appear on Amazon home pages, product detail pages, and/or search results pages, as well as on third-party websites and apps.

Once you select your target strategy, the remaining steps to ad creation are very similar to Sponsored Products:

• Set your bid and budget.
• Choose the products you want to promote or select the audiences you want to reach.
• Depending on your targeting strategy, your ad will automatically go live!

Tips for Succeeding with All Amazon Ads Types

While each type of ad has its differences, you can apply these tips as best practices across the board:

• Know (and stick to!) your ACoS. ACoS means Amazon Cost of Sale and is calculated as follows: (ACoS = ad spend / sales).
• Promote your products using the correct keywords and/or targeting strategy.
• Monitor your results – do more of what is working and less of what isn’t.
• Give it time! Like a lot of digital marketing, Amazon Ads are a marathon, not a sprint.
• Don’t be afraid to re-evaluate your strategy.

Although it may seem overwhelming to jump into the mega-platform that is Amazon, it is where the customers are. That makes it where you want to be, as well!

Start slow with your ad strategy, get your measurement and profitability right, and scale from there.

You will be happy you did.

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