Sponsored Products vs Sponsored Brands on Amazon

Sponsored Products vs Sponsored Brands is a question that arrives the day your brand is registered. Until then, a professional seller runs Sponsored Products. Once Brand Registry is approved, Sponsored Brands opens up and you have to decide whether money should move over, and how much.

This guide compares the two on the points that decide it: who can use each, how each is priced, what each is good at, and a simple way to split your budget by stage. Details below come from Amazon Ads' own product pages; check them again before you launch, because Amazon updates features often.

The short answer

• Sponsored Products advertises individual product listings. It is the workhorse for getting sales on specific items.
• Sponsored Brands advertises your brand with a video, an image or a collection of products. It is for being discovered as a brand, holding your branded searches and sending shoppers to your Brand Store.

Run Sponsored Products first. Add Sponsored Brands once you are in Brand Registry and have enough products and creative to make it worthwhile.

Sponsored Products: how it works

Who can use it. Amazon says Sponsored Products is available to "professional sellers, vendors, book vendors, Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) authors, and agencies," and products "must be in one or more eligible categories and be eligible for the Featured Offer." Check that eligibility on a listing before you blame the campaign for a lack of impressions.

Where it shows. Amazon says the ads may appear "at the top of, alongside, or within shopping results and on product pages," and also on select apps and websites beyond Amazon.

How it is priced. Cost per click, with "no monthly or upfront fees." You control what you spend through bids and budgets.

How it is targeted. You choose keywords to target yourself, or let Amazon's systems target relevant keywords automatically.

What it is good at. Driving sales on one item for a specific search. If someone searches "unscented beeswax candle 3 pack," a Sponsored Products ad for exactly that listing is the closest match you can buy.

Sponsored Brands: how it works

Who can use it. Amazon says Sponsored Brands is available for "vendors, book vendors, Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) authors, agencies, and professional sellers enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry." For third-party sellers, Brand Registry is the gate.

To enroll in Brand Registry, Amazon lists two basic requirements: a logo with your brand name "permanently affixed to your products or packaging," and "a pending or registered trademark" for your brand name or logo from a country with an Amazon store. That makes your packaging and product images part of your advertising eligibility.

Where it shows. Amazon describes "prominent placements like top of search and product pages," sending traffic to your Brand Store or to product detail pages.

How it is priced. Sponsored Brands supports three models: cost per click, cost per 1,000 viewable impressions (vCPM) "for growing brand impression share," and fixed upfront pricing through reserve share of voice "to secure the top-of-search placement for branded keywords." Amazon says there is no minimum spend for CPC or vCPM campaigns, while reserve share of voice requires a minimum spend commitment.

What it measures that Sponsored Products does not. Amazon's Sponsored Brands reporting includes how much you are "reaching customers who are new to your brand" and how campaigns drive visitors to your Amazon Store.

Sponsored Products vs Sponsored Brands, side by side

• Eligibility: Sponsored Products needs a professional account, an eligible category and Featured Offer eligibility. Sponsored Brands needs Brand Registry for sellers.
• What is advertised: individual listings versus your brand, shown as a video, an image or a collection.
• Pricing: cost per click versus CPC, vCPM or reserved placement.
• Best use: sales on specific items versus brand discovery, brand defense and Store traffic.
• Creative needed: your listing versus brand creative, a product selection, and ideally video and a Store.

Which to fund first: a stage-by-stage guide

Launching your first one to three products. Put the budget into Sponsored Products. Start with an automatic campaign to discover which search terms convert, then move the winners into manual campaigns where you control bids. Get the trademark application filed so Brand Registry is not the bottleneck later.

Growing a catalog of five or more products. Keep Sponsored Products as the core. Add a Sponsored Brands campaign on your own brand name, so you are competing for the top of your own branded search results. Add a second campaign on category terms with a product collection or video.

Established brand with a Store. Use Sponsored Brands video for discovery on category searches, review the new-to-brand reporting to see whether it is bringing in new customers, and keep Sponsored Products on the specific terms that convert best.

A practical way to decide the split: look at your search term report. Terms that mention a specific product type and size belong to Sponsored Products. Broad category terms and your brand name are where Sponsored Brands earns its place.

Here is that sort applied to a hypothetical candle brand called Northfield (the name and terms are made up):

• "unscented beeswax candle 3 pack": specific product and size. Sponsored Products, pointed at that exact listing.
• "beeswax candles": broad category. Sponsored Brands with a collection of three best sellers, plus Sponsored Products on the top seller.
• "northfield candles": your own brand. Sponsored Brands linking to the Store, so the shopper sees the whole range.
• "gift candles for mom": occasion search with no product in mind. Sponsored Brands video if you have one; otherwise skip it until you do.

Mistakes to avoid

• Running Sponsored Brands with one product. Its collection format is built to show a range. With one listing, Sponsored Products usually does the job.
• Sending traffic to a thin Store. If the ad links to a Store page, that page needs real content: clear categories, good images and the products the ad promised.
• Ignoring your own brand name. If you do not bid on it, someone else can.
• Judging Sponsored Brands on the same return as Sponsored Products. It does part of its work earlier, by introducing new shoppers. Use the new-to-brand numbers alongside sales.
• Weak creative. Sponsored Brands puts your logo, headline and images side by side with competitors. If the packaging and images are not ready, fix those first.

How Pinn.Media helps Amazon sellers

We build the pieces Amazon advertising depends on: packaging, listing images, A+ content and Store pages, then help set up the campaigns that send traffic to them. For an Amazon launch of a bamboo cotton bud brand we produced the packaging, photography and nine listing images. If you are deciding how to split your Amazon ad budget this season, book a discovery call and we will look at your search terms with you.