Sponsored Brands: 8 Ways To Create Stellar Amazon Ads

Updated
June 9, 2023

Creating and launching Sponsored Brands is like getting a playbook for success: follow the instructions, and you'll be well-prepared to ace the game. In this quick guide, Merch Jar explains Sponsored Brands ads, why you need them, and how you can create and manage your ad campaign to rock your product sales.

Let’s get started!

What Are Sponsored Brands?

Sponsored Brands are ads you can customize to showcase your custom headline, brand logo, and multiple products. Formerly known as Amazon Headline Search Ads, they’re the first thing you see on the Amazon shopping search results page. It’s now possible to create video ads that also appear in search results.

In addition, Sponsored Brands are PPC ads (paid when a user clicks the ads) that you can leverage to achieve the following goals:

  • Improving brand awareness
  • Increasing sales
  • Enhancing customer loyalty
  • Consideration

Here are two examples of Sponsored Brands.

Both ads appear below the top of the shopping results. But they can also show up within shopping results and product detail pages. As you can see, you’re usually presented with three similar products from a specific brand connected to the main keyword you search (i.e., ‘baby care’ or ‘wireless earbuds’).

Example of a traditional Sponsored Brands ad on Desktop

 

Want to rock your Amazon ad campaign goals? Merch Jar has got you covered. Our software automates tedious tasks such as creating, launching, and managing ad campaigns, so you can focus on more impactful activities. 

By automating these processes, you can save time and reduce the complexity of managing Amazon advertising campaigns. The best part? You can make more money and spend less time managing spreadsheets. Have a look at how it works!

Amazon Sponsored Brands vs. Amazon Sponsored Products

While Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Products can grow your Amazon business, there are some differences between the two. Here are a few of them.

Parameter

Amazon Sponsored Products

Amazon Sponsored Brands

Benefit

A more cost-effective PPC ad type than others

Ideal for brand awareness and attracting potential customers 

Automatic targeting

Available

Not available

Keyword targeting

Available

Available

Product targeting

Available for specific products only

Available

Ad placement

  • Top, middle, and bottom of the search page
  • After product information on the product details pages.
  • Top of the search, along with the search results, and below the search results.
  • Can show up on the product details page 

How to Create Sponsored Brands Campaigns

Now that you understand Sponsored Brands, it’s time to ace your ad campaign. Follow the 8 steps below to kickstart your process.

Step 1: Create a Campaign

Let’s be clear about one vital thing: Who can use Sponsored Brands? You must be a professional seller enrolled in the Amazon Brand Registry, including agencies, book vendors, and other vendors. 

Now that we have cleared the air let’s dive into the next step.

Click the "Advertising" tab, then click "Campaign Manager," and then click "Create campaign” in Seller Central.

Select "Sponsored Brands" under "Choose your campaign type.”

Step 2: Set Your Campaign Settings

For this step, you can set the following guidelines for your Amazon ads:

  • Campaign name: Give your ad campaign a name, so you can easily identify it. For example, if you create a Q4 campaign using keyword targeting to promote five smartphones2023, you could name your campaign ‘Q4_keyword_smartphones2023.’
  • Daily budget: Indicate the amount of money you’re willing to spend daily. For instance, Amazon recommends a daily minimum amount of $10 to ensure your budget keeps running throughout the day.
  • Duration: To generate enough traffic and help visitors discover your brand, it’s a great idea to put no end date. But you can stop the campaign at any time.
  • Brand: Select this option if you have several brands.

Step 3: Select an ad format

Ad formats are templates that allow you to customize your ads based on what you want to promote. Sponsored Brands ads offer you three options: product collection, Store spotlight, and video ad format. Consider the campaign’s goal and the type of products you are advertising as you select your ad format.

Product Collection Ads

Want to increase brand awareness and visibility? Use production collection to promote several products from your catalog in one ad. You can showcase a maximum of 50 qualifying products to enable potential buyers to view a range of products and your brand. 

Note that you’ll need to select a landing page, which can be your Store, a custom landing page, or a simple landing page. A Store landing page enables visitors to explore your product collection and brand.

Store Spotlight Ad Formats

If you want to target new potential customers to improve brand awareness, you can leverage Store spotlight ads. They also let you highlight your brand’s value proposition and unique story. Such ads have a brand logo, a tagline, and a customizable image. 

Also, you must choose a Store that you want to showcase, which will be linked from the customizable image. But your Store must have at least three pages to be eligible, and each sub-page must have a unique product.

Video Advertising Ads

Video ads can be between 6 and 45 seconds long and appear for select keywords that are product-related. When a customer clicks on the video, they’re redirected to the product detail page to learn more.

Step 4: Targeting Strategies

Sponsored Brands provides you with two ways to refine your Amazon ads: keyword targeting and product targeting. You can only utilize one targeting type per campaign. 

Keyword targeting helps you use keywords related to your product that can improve your clicks and conversions. Here are some tips to get it right:

  • Use a minimum of 25 keywords that include a mix of match types: exact, phrase, and broad. Utilize the first two if you want to drive specific traffic to your ads and broad match to target traffic from several angles. 
  • Include negative keywords or product brands to ensure your ads don’t show up on search results that don’t align with your goals.

Product targeting allows you to target entire categories or particular products. Category targeting is perfect for brand awareness, while product targeting is ideal for cross-selling and upselling strategies.

Step 5: Set bids

Ad bidding involves setting the maximum amount of money you’re willing to pay for each click on an ad. So Amazon ads offer two bidding settings: manual and automated. 

Manual bidding is handy if you want to be 100% in charge of how much you want to spend on a keyword. To win more impressions, you can increase your bids.

On the other hand, automated bidding enables Amazon to optimize your bids for new placements to improve conversion. It also gives a good return on investment by lowering your bids.

Also, knowing how to develop an Amazon-winning bidding strategy can make a lot of difference.

 Step 6: Add Negative Targeting

You have the option to use negative targeting for keyword targeting and product targeting. When you add negative targeting, you can stop your ads from appearing on shopping result pages that don’t meet your campaign objectives.

Source

Step 7: Wait for the Review

Once you have created your ad campaign, you should send it for review. Amazon can only publish your Sponsored Brands after approving the ads. The review takes up to 72 hours. So ensure you double-check all the advertising information before you hit send.

Step 8: Get Amazon Advertising Tools 

If you want the quickest and hassle-free way to create, manage, and optimize your Amazon ads, consider using Amazon advertising tools and PPC software like Merch Jar.

Ad software can help you identify the most relevant keywords for your products, optimize your ad spend, and track the performance of your campaigns.

With these top Amazon PPC tools, you can easily create and manage multiple advertising campaigns at once. Automation processes powered by AI and machine learning algorithms can make your advertising a breeze.

It’s Time To Take Your Sponsored Brands to The Next Level with Merch Jar

Sponsored Brands give you the freedom to customize your ads by using a headline, a brand logo, and multiple products. They are PPC ads and can appear in shopping search results and product detail pages.

You can fast-track and automate your ad campaigns by leveraging ad software. Merch Jar is a software that automates the tedious and repetitive tasks associated with advertising, so you can save time and energy. It also provides insights and analytics to help you make more informed decisions and allows you to quickly adjust campaigns as needed. Create a free account to try Merch Jar out today!