Imagine customers searching for products on Amazon and being greeted by an immersive brand experience—free from competitor distractions, featuring only your carefully crafted brand story and product showcase. This is precisely what Amazon Sponsored Brands advertising delivers. Exclusively available to brand-registered sellers, this powerful marketing tool not only boosts brand awareness but also drives targeted traffic to your Amazon store or custom landing pages.
What Are Amazon Sponsored Brands Ads?
Amazon Sponsored Brands (formerly Amazon Headline Search Ads) appear as banner advertisements prominently displayed at the top of search results pages. These ads feature your brand logo, a compelling custom headline, and selected products. Since early 2020, Amazon has expanded the format to include video ads, enhancing their visual appeal.
The popularity of Sponsored Brands continues to grow. Current data shows 38% of third-party Amazon sellers utilize these ads, with 66% achieving lifetime sales exceeding $1 million through this channel. The format's share of Amazon's advertising revenue has doubled since 2018, demonstrating its strong marketing value.
The primary advantage of Sponsored Brands lies in their ability to create customized brand experiences. In Amazon's competitive marketplace where customers face overwhelming product choices and competitor ads, these ads effectively cut through the noise to focus attention on your brand.
Like Amazon Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands operate on a pay-per-click (PPC) model. Your ads appear when customers search for products related to your target keywords, with payment required only when users click. You maintain full control over keyword bids and daily budgets.
Amazon continuously enhances its advertising features and metrics to help sellers and brands run more profitable campaigns. Sponsored Brands include unique reporting tools like "New-to-Brand" metrics that distinguish sales from new versus existing customers—valuable insights for optimizing advertising strategies.
How Sponsored Brands Ads Work
Similar to Sponsored Products and Display ads, Sponsored Brands operate on a PPC model where sellers bid on keywords for ad placement opportunities. Sellers control individual keyword bids and campaign daily budgets.
Sponsored Brands offers three distinct ad formats:
1. Product Collection
This format displays up to three products from your selected landing page, directing traffic to either your Amazon Store or a dedicated product page. It's particularly effective for increasing visibility of products with low organic search rankings or Sponsored Products performance.
The product collection format creates a distraction-free shopping environment where customers can browse your offerings without competitor ads. All elements—from the brand logo to the "Shop [Brand]" call-to-action—lead to your exclusive product page.
2. Store Spotlight
Available exclusively to brand-registered sellers with an Amazon Store, this format drives traffic to your brand's dedicated e-commerce space within Amazon. Instead of featuring specific products, Store Spotlight promotes three product categories from your store through a single ad.
This format works exceptionally well for brands selling multiple products across various categories. Customers clicking any featured category land directly on the corresponding store page, where they can explore numerous products within that classification.
3. Video Ads
Sponsored Brands video ads provide significant competitive advantage through engaging visual content that stands out in search results. These auto-playing (muted) video spots appear prominently in search feeds, typically running 15-30 seconds.
Effective video ads should:
- Demonstrate product use within the first few seconds
- Focus exclusively on product features without filler content
- Include informative text or captions (since videos play silently)
- Create seamless loops to maintain viewer engagement
- Show the product immediately without introductory effects
Setting Up Sponsored Brands Campaigns
Launching Sponsored Brands requires minimal effort. Brand-registered sellers can create campaigns through Seller Central by navigating to Advertising > Campaign Manager > Create Campaign and selecting "Sponsored Brands."
The setup process involves:
- Naming your campaign and setting dates/daily budget
- Choosing between product collection, store spotlight, or video format
- Selecting products (minimum three for product collections)
- Customizing creative elements (headline, logo, product order)
- Selecting target keywords and setting bids
After submission, Amazon typically approves campaigns within 72 hours before activation.
Are Sponsored Brands Worth the Investment?
Sponsored Brands deliver exceptional value by curating branded shopping experiences that divert customers from competitor listings. Their prominent placement and engaging formats make them highly effective conversion tools.
Video ads prove particularly valuable given consumer behavior—79% of Amazon shoppers report being influenced by product visuals including photos and videos. Sponsored Brands also deliver among the highest return on ad spend (ROAS) of any Amazon PPC format, making them a cost-efficient advertising solution.
For brand-registered sellers, testing Sponsored Brands across different formats and creative approaches can yield significant benefits in brand visibility and sales performance.