Amazon Sponsored Brand Ads, formerly called Headline Search Ads, are customizable Amazon ads that can feature a brand logo, headline, lifestyle image, video, or product collection.
Most standard Sponsored Brands campaigns use cost-per-click pricing, but Amazon may also offer vCPM or fixed upfront reserve share-of-voice pricing for certain campaign goals.
These ads help sellers, vendors, and brands increase visibility, promote product ranges, drive Brand Store traffic, explain product value, and support New-to-Brand growth across the shopper journey.
Quick Answer: What Are Amazon Sponsored Brand Ads?
Amazon Sponsored Brand Ads are customizable ads that promote a brand through a logo, headline, image, video, Store, or product collection. They can appear above, alongside, or within Amazon shopping results and on eligible product detail pages. Depending on the format, shoppers may click through to a Brand Store, a product collection, a custom landing page, or an individual product detail page.
Sponsored Brands help you:
- Build brand visibility
- Promote multiple products
- Drive traffic to your Amazon Storefront
- Use video to explain product value
- Reach shoppers in search and discovery moments
- Measure New-to-Brand performance
New-to-Brand metrics estimate purchases, sales, and detail-page activity from shoppers who have not purchased from or interacted with the advertised brand during Amazonโs applicable 12-month lookback period. Use them to assess whether Sponsored Brands campaigns are reaching first-time brand customers rather than only existing buyers.
Sponsored Brands work best when your listings, Storefront, creative, and product positioning are ready to support shoppers after the click.
How Sponsored Brands Work on Amazon
Sponsored Brands campaigns begin with a business goal, such as increasing page visits, improving brand visibility, or supporting an eligible share-of-voice objective. Advertisers then choose the format, destination, targeting, pricing method, bid, budget, and creative. Amazon uses these settings, along with relevance and placement eligibility, to determine when the ad may appear.
The basic setup flow is:
- Choose Sponsored Brands as the campaign type.
- Select the campaign goal or business objective.
- Choose the ad format.
- Select the Brand Store, product collection, landing page, or product detail page.
- Add the required logo, headline, image, products, or video.
- Choose the available targeting method.
- Set the bid, pricing method, schedule, and budget.
- Submit the campaign for review. Amazon states that ads are generally reviewed within 72 hours.
- Monitor performance and optimize using campaign, targeting, creative, and sales data.
Most Sponsored Brands campaigns use CPC pricing, where advertisers pay for clicks. However, some goals may use vCPM or fixed upfront reserve share-of-voice pricing.
Depending on the format, the click can send shoppers to an Amazon Store, a custom landing page, or a product detail page.
Sponsored Brands Ad Formats
Amazon Sponsored Brand ad specifications depend on the campaign format, placement, marketplace, and business goal. Advertisers should confirm the requirements in Campaign Manager before creating final assets, as Amazon may update available formats and specifications.
| Funnel stage | Useful metrics |
|---|---|
| Awareness | Reach, frequency, video completion, branded-search growth |
| Consideration | Detail-page views, Store visits, engagement, audience growth |
| Conversion | Sales, conversion rate, ACoS, ROAS |
| Growth quality | New-to-brand sales, repeat purchases, TACoS |
| Business impact | Incremental sales, contribution margin, total revenue impact |
Sponsored Brands Headline Specifications
Keep headlines clear, relevant, and aligned with the promoted products or Store page. Follow Campaign Manager character limits, use simple shopper-focused language, and avoid exaggerated claims or clutter. Ensure the headline matches the image and landing page, and preview it across devices to prevent cutoffs.
Brand Logo Specifications
Use a clean, recognizable brand logoโnot a product image. It should fit the square format, remain clear at small sizes, and avoid excessive text or clutter. Maintain strong contrast and follow Amazonโs creative policies.
Custom Image Specifications
Use high-quality images that add context (product use or lifestyle), not duplicates of product photos. Ensure visuals match the campaign message, remain clear when cropped, and avoid text overlays, pricing, or promotional elements. Follow Amazon guidelines and preview before submission.
Product Collection Requirements
Include at least three relevant, in-stock products that align with the headline and image. Choose items from the same category with strong listings and conversion potential. Avoid unrelated products.
Store Spotlight Requirements
Use a published Amazon Store with clear categories and consistent design. Ensure each linked product aligns with the ad message and performs well on both desktop and mobile.
Sponsored Brands Video
Sponsored Brands Video uses autoplay video to demonstrate a product, communicate a benefit, or introduce the brand while shoppers browse Amazon.
Product Detail Page campaigns connect shoppers to an individual listing, while Brand Store campaigns can send traffic directly to a selected Store page. Choose the destination before producing the video so the message, product, and call to action match the post-click experience.
Sponsored Brands Video Ads: Specs and Best Practices
Amazon Sponsored Brands and video ads should communicate one clear product or brand message quickly. Because the video begins without sound, the main benefit must be understandable through the visuals, product demonstration, and on-screen text.
| Video requirement | Amazon specification |
|---|---|
| Duration | 6โ45 seconds |
| Recommended duration | 20 seconds or less |
| Aspect ratio | 16:9 with square pixels |
| Dimensions | 1280 ร 720, 1920 ร 1080, or 3840 ร 2160 pixels |
| File size | 500 MB or less |
| File format | MP4 or MOV |
| Video codec | H.264 or H.265 |
| Video profile | Main or Baseline |
| Frame rate | 23.976, 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97, 29.98, or 30 fps |
| Video bitrate | At least 1 Mbps; 4 Mbps or higher recommended |
| Scan type | Progressive |
| Audio codec | PCM, AAC, or MP3 |
| Audio format | Stereo or mono |
| Audio bitrate | At least 96 kbps |
| Audio sample rate | At least 44.1 kHz |
| Marketplace Language | Must match the language of the target marketplace |
| Safe area | Keep important text away from the lower-right corner |
| Borders | Do not use letterboxing, pillarboxing, or black, colored, or blurred bars |
Sponsored Brands videos play automatically when 50% of their pixels are on-screen. They start muted by default.
Best practices:
- Show the product within the first few seconds
- Focus on one primary benefit
- Keep copy brief and easy to scan
- Use clear, high-resolution visuals
- Make on-screen text readable on mobile
- Add captions when spoken information is important
- Match the language to the target marketplace
- Show the product in a realistic use case
- Avoid relying only on voiceover
- Keep important content outside the lower-right safe area
- End with a clear reason to click
Treat Sponsored Brands Video as a focused shopping asset, not a long brand film. It should help shoppers understand the product and decide whether to learn more.
Who Can Use Amazon Sponsored Brand Ads?
Amazon Sponsored Brand Ads are available to eligible vendors, book vendors, KDP authors, agencies, and professional sellers enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry. Account requirements, products, formats, and features can vary by marketplace and advertiser type, so confirm access in the Amazon Ads console before planning the campaign.
Before launch, make sure these basics are ready:
| Requirement | Why It Matters |
|---|---|
| Brand eligibility | Required for access |
| Product and category eligibility | Adult, used, refurbished, and closed-category products are not eligible |
| Brand logo | Needed for ad creative |
| Strong listings | Helps paid traffic convert |
| Amazon Storefront | Supports Store Spotlight and brand discovery |
| Creative assets | Needed for headlines, images, and video |
| In-stock inventory | Prevents wasted clicks |
| Competitive pricing | Supports conversion |
| Strong reviews | Builds shopper trust |
Eligibility is only the starting point. The advertising account must remain active and in good standing, and the promoted products must meet Amazonโs applicable category, condition, inventory, shipping, and creative-policy requirements. Check the current marketplace rules before producing campaign assets, as product and format availability can change.
How to Set Up Sponsored Brand Ads on Amazon
To build a campaign, sign in to Amazon Ads, open Campaign Manager, select Create campaign, and choose Sponsored Brands.
Step 1: Open Campaign Manager
Open Campaign Manager, click Create campaign, and select Sponsored Brands from the available campaign types.
Step 2: Choose the Campaign Goal
Select the business objective available in your account. The chosen goal may affect pricing, targeting, bidding, reporting, and creative options.
Step 3: Enter Campaign Settings
Add the campaign name, portfolio, schedule, and budget. Use a naming structure that identifies the marketplace, format, product group, targeting method, and objective.
Step 4: Select the Ad Format
Choose Product Collection, Store Spotlight, or Video based on the shopper action you want to encourage.
Step 5: Select the Landing Page
Choose the destination shown under the Landing page. Depending on the format, this may be a Brand Store, Store subpage, product collection, custom landing page, or product detail page.
Step 6: Add the Creative
Upload or select the required logo, headline, custom image, products, or video. Use the preview to check cropping, text readability, product selection, and video safe areas.
Step 7: Choose Targeting
Choose keyword or product targeting based on the format and campaign setup available in your account. Targeting options vary by format and setup.
Step 8: Set Bids and Budget
Enter the applicable bid or pricing controls and choose a daily, lifetime, or other available budget option.
Step 9: Review and Submit
Review the creative, destination, targeting, bids, and budget, then select Submit for review. Amazon generally reviews Sponsored Brand ads within 72 hours.
Step 10: Monitor Performance
After approval, review delivery, search terms, targets, clicks, sales, New-to-Brand results, Store engagement, and creative performance.
Sponsored Brands Targeting Options
Sponsored Brands targeting controls who may see your ads. The main options include keyword targeting, product targeting, match types, and negative targeting.
| Targeting Option | How It Works | Best Use |
|---|---|---|
| Keyword targeting | Targets shopper search terms | Search visibility |
| Product targeting | Targets ASINs or categories | Competitor or category reach |
| Broad match | Wider keyword reach | Discovery |
| Phrase match | Balanced reach and control | Expansion |
| Exact match | Tightest relevance | Scaling proven terms |
| Negative targeting | Blocks weak traffic | Waste reduction |
Broad match offers the widest reach by allowing related keyword variations. Phrase match requires the selected phrase to appear in the same order, although other words may appear around it. Exact match provides the tightest control and primarily targets the selected term and close variants.
Negative keywords block selected search terms, while negative product targets can prevent delivery against irrelevant or consistently inefficient products and categories.
Bidding, Budgeting, and Placement Strategy
Sponsored Brands budgets should reflect the campaign goal, pricing method, product margin, traffic opportunity, and learning period.
A daily budget controls the average amount available per day across the campaign. A lifetime budget, where available, sets the total amount available for the selected campaign period. Some reserve share-of-voice campaigns may instead use a fixed upfront amount.
| Budget Situation | Suggested Approach | Why |
|---|---|---|
| New campaign | Start controlled | Collect data without overspending |
| Proven keyword | Increase bid gradually | Scale what already works |
| Strong Store traffic | Add more budget | Support brand discovery |
| Weak conversion | Fix destination first | Avoid wasted clicks |
| Video campaign | Watch CTR and ROAS | Creative quality matters |
Review campaign delivery regularly, but avoid making major decisions after only a few clicks. Allow roughly two weeks, or wait until the campaign has generated enough clicks, orders, and search-term data to reveal a meaningful pattern. Then assess CTR, CPC, Store visits, New-to-Brand, ROAS, ACoS, and TACoS against the campaign goal.
How to Optimize Amazon Sponsored Brand Ads
Optimizing Sponsored Brands means improving creative, targeting, landing destination, bids, and reporting. The goal is not just more clicks. The goal is better brand discovery, stronger consideration, and profitable sales.
Focus on:
- Test high-quality product, lifestyle, and AI-generated custom images.
- Improving headline clarity
- Test custom lifestyle images and Amazonโs available image-generation tools
- Test by sending traffic to relevant Store pages
- Improve keyword and search term reports
- Test negative targets
- Improve the adjusting bids every 1โ2 weeks
- Test video length and opening frame
- Improve the tracking on New-to-Brand and ROAS
Custom images should add useful context rather than act as decoration. Test product-in-use scenes, category-relevant environments, and brand-led visuals against simpler creative. Where available, Amazonโs image-generation tools can help create alternative branded backgrounds, but every output should still be reviewed for product accuracy, language, brand consistency, and policy compliance.
Creative is often the first place to improve. A weak headline or unclear video can reduce click-through rate.
The landing destination also matters. If the Store page is confusing or the product page is weak, more traffic may not create better results.
How to Measure Sponsored Brands Performance
Measure Sponsored Brands with both ad metrics and business metrics. This helps you understand whether campaigns are creating visibility, sales, or new customer growth.
| Metric | What It Measures | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Impressions | Visibility | Shows reach |
| CTR | Creative relevance | Shows click interest |
| CPC | Traffic cost | Controls spend efficiency |
| ROAS | Paid return | Measures revenue per ad dollar |
| ACoS | Campaign efficiency | Measures ad spend vs ad sales |
| TACoS | Total account efficiency | Shows paid impact on total sales |
| New-to-Brand | Customer acquisition | Shows new customer contribution |
| Store visits | Brand interest | Shows Store engagement |
New-to-Brand metrics estimate orders and sales from shoppers who have not purchased from the advertised brand during the previous 12 months. Use these metrics with acquisition cost, order value, repeat-purchase potential, and total sales to understand whether the campaign is attracting first-time brand customers.
Do not judge Sponsored Brands only by ACoS. These campaigns can also support Store engagement, brand discovery, and New-to-Brand growth.
Sponsored Brands vs Sponsored Products vs Sponsored Display
Sponsored Brands can support brand visibility, Store traffic, product discovery, product evaluation, branded-search presence, and New-to-Brand acquisition. Sponsored Products concentrate more directly on promoting individual product listings. Sponsored Display can extend reach through product, contextual, or audience-based campaigns.
| Comparison | Sponsored Products | Sponsored Brands | Sponsored Display |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary role | Product-level discovery and sales | Brand discovery, evaluation, Store traffic and acquisition | Audience reach, remarketing and product consideration |
| Common placements | Shopping results and product pages | Shopping results, product pages, Store-linked placements and other eligible locations | Amazon and eligible off-Amazon placements, depending on campaign |
| Creative | Listing image, title and product information; additional formats may be available | Logo, headline, lifestyle image, video, Store pages or product collection | Product-led or custom display creative |
| Destination | Product detail page | Brand Store, Store subpage, landing page, collection or product detail page | Product detail page, Store or other eligible destination |
| Targeting | Keywords, products or automatic targeting | Keywords, products, categories and goal-based options, depending on format | Products, contextual signals and audiences |
| Funnel role | Consideration and conversion | Awareness through acquisition and loyalty | Consideration, remarketing and re-engagement |
| Useful metrics | Sales, conversion rate, ACoS and ROAS | CTR, Store visits, New-to-Brand, sales, ACoS and ROAS | Reach, detail-page views, conversions and ROAS |
| Avoid when | The listing is weak, out of stock, or uncompetitive | The brand assets, Store, or post-click experience are not ready | Audience strategy and attribution are unclear |
Use Sponsored Products when the main goal is generating demand for a specific ASIN. Use Sponsored Brands when shoppers should explore the brand, compare a range, understand the product visually, or reach a richer landing experience. Use Sponsored Display when audience reach or re-engagement is central to the campaign.
Growing brands may use all three, but each campaign should have a distinct objective, budget, and success metric.
Common Sponsored Brands Mistakes to Avoid
Most Sponsored Brands mistakes occur when creative, targeting, and landing pages are misaligned.
Avoid these problems:
- Weak headline
- Poor product mix
- Weak Store pages
- Generic creative
- Submitting videos that fail Amazonโs technical requirements.
- Sending clicks to a Store page or listing that does not match the advertised promise.
- Combining unrelated products in one collection simply to increase catalog coverage
- No negative targeting
- Judging only by ACoS
- Ignoring New-to-Brand metrics
- Running campaigns before Store readiness
Submitting videos that fail Amazonโs technical requirements; look at what might be the causes for the rejections:
- Uploading a video with an unsupported file format, codec, frame rate, aspect ratio, or resolution.
- Submitting a video that is longer than 45 seconds or shorter than 6 seconds.
- Using letterboxing, pillarboxing, blurred borders, black bars, or colored bars.
- Placing important text or product details inside the lower-right control area.
- Using text, dialogue, or voiceover in a language that does not align with the target market.
- Relying on sound to convey the main product benefit, even though videos start muted.
- Using blurry, distorted, low-resolution, or unreadable creative.
- Including unsupported claims, pricing messages, reviews, ratings, discounts, or prohibited calls to action.
- Showing a product or benefit that does not match the advertised listing or landing destination.
- Failing to clearly show the promoted product so shoppers can understand the ad.
Sponsored Brands need more than budget. They need clear messaging, strong creative, clean targeting, and a good post-click experience.
When Should You Get Expert Help With Sponsored Brands?
Get expert help when Sponsored Brands campaigns are getting clicks but not enough sales, Store visits are not converting, video performance is weak, or reporting does not show what to fix.
Brands evaluating a Sponsored Brands management partner should look for direct experience with campaign goals, video creative, Store structure, targeting, product readiness, New-to-Brand reporting, and Amazon Ads moderation.
You may need help if:
- Sponsored Brands are spending but not scaling
- Video ads have low CTR
- Store traffic is not converting
- New-to-Brand metrics are unclear
- ACoS and TACoS tell different stories
- Targeting is too broad
- Creative testing is inconsistent
A strong partner should connect creative, targeting, landing destinations, retail readiness, bidding, and reporting rather than managing Sponsored Brands in isolation.
Conclusion: Use Sponsored Brands to Build Visibility and Brand Demand
Sponsored Brand Ads on Amazon help brands build visibility, promote product collections, drive Store traffic, and tell stronger product stories through video.
They work best when creative, targeting, bidding, Storefront quality, and reporting are connected. Use Product Collection for related products, Store Spotlight for Store navigation, and Sponsored Brands Video for fast visual explanation.
Then measure performance with CTR, CPC, ROAS, ACoS, TACoS, Store visits, and New-to-Brand metrics.
Sponsored Brands should not be treated solely as awareness ads. They should be part of a full-funnel Amazon growth system.
Book a 1:1 growth call with SalesDuo.
Amazon Sponsored Brand Ads FAQ
1. What are Amazon Sponsored Brand Ads?
Amazon Sponsored Brand Ads are customizable ads that can feature a brand logo, headline, image, video, Brand Store, or product collection. They help shoppers discover and evaluate a brand across eligible Amazon placements.
2. What were Sponsored Brands previously called?
Sponsored Brands were formerly known as Headline Search Ads. The current format supports more creative, placement, and destination options than the original headline-led ads.
3. What are the main types of Sponsored Brand ads?
The main formats are Product Collection, Store Spotlight, and Sponsored Brands Video. Creative and destination options may vary by campaign goal, marketplace, and account.
4. What are the specs for Amazon Sponsored Brands video ads?
Videos should be 6โ45 seconds long, use a 16:9 aspect ratio, and be submitted as an MP4 or MOV file of 500 MB or less. Accepted dimensions include 1280 ร 720, 1920 ร 1080, and 3840 ร 2160 pixels. Videos should use progressive scan, must not contain black bars, and should keep important text away from the lower-right sound control. They autoplay without sound when at least 50% of the video is visible.
5. Do Sponsored Brands require Brand Registry?
Professional sellers generally need to be enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry to access Sponsored Brands. Eligible vendors, book vendors, KDP authors, Amazon advertising agencies, and other approved advertiser types may also qualify. Availability, product eligibility, and campaign formats vary by marketplace and account, so confirm access in Amazon Ads Campaign Manager.
6. How much do Sponsored Brand ads cost?
Many Sponsored Brands campaigns use CPC pricing, where the advertiser pays when a shopper clicks the ad. Depending on the business goal and available campaign options, Amazon may also offer vCPM or fixed upfront reserve share-of-voice pricing. Advertisers can control the available bids and budgets through Campaign Manager. For broader budgeting benchmarks, see the Amazon PPC cost guide.
7. What is the difference between Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Products?
Neither format is universally better. Sponsored Products are generally better suited to promoting individual listings and driving product-level sales. Sponsored Brands are better suited to brand discovery, Store traffic, video storytelling, product collections, and New-to-Brand growth. Many advertisers use both formats with separate goals, budgets, and performance metrics.
About the Author
Siddhant Shaw, an Amazon Ads expert at SalesDuo, combines strategic thinking with a calm, hassle-free approach to drive ad performance. A keen observer, he maximizes results with minimal queries, ensuring efficiency and impact. Focused on continuous growth, he believes in mastering his craft while staying content and composed.
