Sponsored Products vs Sponsored Brands vs Sponsored Display

Sponsored Products promotes individual listings in search results and on product pages, and it's where most sellers should start. Sponsored Brands shows your logo, a headline, and several products or a video at the top of and within search results. Sponsored Display reaches shoppers on product pages and off Amazon, using product targeting and audiences such as people who viewed your listing.

All three are self-service and run from the same Amazon Ads console, but they do different jobs. Here's how they compare and how to decide where your budget goes.

Side-by-side comparison

Sponsored Products

Sponsored Products ads look almost like organic results, with a small 'Sponsored' label. They're keyword and product targeted, charged per click, and available to any professional seller whose listing is eligible and holds the Buy Box. For most accounts, Sponsored Products drives the majority of ad sales.

Use it for

• Driving sales on specific search terms.
• Discovering converting keywords with auto campaigns.
• Launching new products.
• Targeting competitor product pages with ASIN targeting.

If you're just starting, read Amazon PPC for beginners for a simple Sponsored Products setup.

Sponsored Brands

Sponsored Brands ads put your brand in front of shoppers with your logo and a custom headline. Formats include a product collection (several products), store spotlight (sending traffic to sections of your Amazon Store), and video. Clicks can land on your Store, a product page, or a custom landing page depending on format.

Use it for

• Owning prominent space on your branded searches.
• Introducing shoppers to more than one product at a time.
• Video ads that show the product in use within search results.
• Building brand recognition on broader category searches.

Sponsored Brands requires Brand Registry for sellers. Its reporting includes new-to-brand metrics, which show how many orders came from customers who hadn't bought from your brand in the previous 12 months.

Sponsored Display

Sponsored Display is Amazon's self-service display product. You can target products and categories (contextual targeting) or audiences, such as shoppers who viewed your listing but didn't buy, shoppers who bought from you before, or Amazon-defined interest and in-market segments. Ads can appear on Amazon and on third-party sites and apps.

Use it for

• Retargeting people who viewed your product and left.
• Showing up on competitor and complementary product pages.
• Reaching repeat buyers for consumables.
• Awareness campaigns optimized for reach on vCPM.

Sponsored Display results vary more by account than the other two. Start with a modest budget, a clear goal (for example, retarget detail page viewers in the last 30 days), and judge it on that goal.

Which ad type fits which goal

Setup requirements to check first

• A professional selling account. Individual sellers can't run Sponsored Ads.
• An eligible listing in a category that allows advertising. Some categories and product types are restricted.
• The featured offer (Buy Box). Sponsored Products and product-focused Sponsored Display ads generally only serve when your offer wins it.
• Brand Registry for Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display as a seller.
• For Sponsored Brands store spotlight, an Amazon Store with enough subpages to feature.

How to split budget by stage

There's no correct split, but here's a reasonable starting framework. Adjust based on your own results.

A worked example

A brand with three products and $3,000 a month in ad budget might run $2,250 (75%) on Sponsored Products, $500 (about 17%) on Sponsored Brands across branded searches and two core keywords, and $250 (about 8%) on Sponsored Display retargeting. After a month, compare each ad type's ACoS and new-to-brand share, then move money toward what's working. Use the PPC budget calculator to sanity-check totals.

Comparing results fairly

• Attribution windows differ. Sponsored Products seller reports use 7 days; Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display use 14 days. Longer windows credit more sales, so don't compare ACoS directly without keeping that in mind. More in the attribution window explained.
• Roles differ. Sponsored Brands and Display often reach shoppers earlier in their journey. Judge them partly on new-to-brand orders and on whether branded search grows over time.
• Halo sales differ. Each ad type can credit purchases of other products from your brand. Check advertised versus other-SKU sales.

Common mistakes

• Starting with Sponsored Display before Sponsored Products is profitable.
• Running Sponsored Brands with a generic headline that doesn't say why your product is different.
• Pointing Sponsored Brands at products with few reviews, which lowers click-through and conversion.
• Using the same target ACoS for all three ad types without considering their different roles.
• Running Sponsored Display retargeting with an audience window or budget so small it barely serves, then concluding it doesn't work.

Most of these come from adding ad types before the basics are in place. Get Sponsored Products profitable first, then add the others one at a time with a clear goal for each.

AdSpark works across Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display, and includes help writing Sponsored Brands headlines and creative. For a deeper look at how the auction places each ad, read how the Amazon ads auction works.

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