Getting Started With Amazon Ads: Ad Types

11/17/22

As technology becomes more advanced, it has been easier than ever before to shop online. If your client is selling products online, they need to be on Amazon. Over 70% of consumers in 2022 use Amazon for their online shopping over any other eCommerce site so now it’s more important than ever to establish your presence on Amazon to stay ahead of competitors.

The popularity of Amazon ads has exploded over the past few years, making it more challenging to stay competitive in this ever-changing market. This guide will get you started on Amazon by explaining the different ad types.

Let’s get started with defining ASINs or the Amazon Standard Identification Number. ASINs are the unique ID that Amazon gives a product when your product is added to Amazon’s catalog. When setting up your campaigns, make sure you have your list of ASINs ready that you want to add to the campaign.

Sponsored Products

The most common Amazon ad type is Sponsored Product ads

The most common Amazon ad type is Sponsored Product ads, which is easily accessible for Amazon sellers to promote your listings. You can create these in two ways: using automatic campaigns or manual campaigns.

Automated targeting is when you provide your ASINs to Amazon, and its system targets similar keywords and products to yours. Manual targeting allows you to choose the keyword search queries for your ASINs as well as their corresponding bids. This is very similar to manual CPC bidding on Google, where you set the amount for bids combined with automated bidding options.

The ads pull the information from your images and product title on your Amazon listing, so no ad copy is required. You just need to provide the ASINs and keywords in order for Amazon to create the ads based on your provided ASINs. Similar to Google, you can add negative keywords and negative products where you do not want your ads to show.

Sponsored Brands

There are three types of sponsored brand ads that appear at the top and bottom of the Amazon search results page: product collections, store spotlights, and sponsored brand videos. In order to use sponsored brands or display ads, your product needs to be in the Amazon Brand Registry, signaling to Amazon that you own the brand and that your brand name is protected. After your brand is registered you need to create a new storefront for your brand.

Product Collection

This ad type allows you to select up to 3 ASINs to showcase

This ad type allows you to select up to 3 ASINs to showcase and will link to a landing page of your choice. This could be your Amazon Store page or a custom landing page featuring the products you selected. The 3 ASINs you showcase will direct users to the specific product page.

Store Spotlight

This lets you advertise multiple store pages at once by grouping your products into categories and highlights your most popular products together

This lets you advertise multiple store pages at once by grouping your products into categories and highlights your most popular products together. These ads will show at the top of the shopping results when shoppers are already searching for products on Amazon. You can customize the headline, image, and label.

Sponsored Brand Videos

These ads feature only 1 product and take you to a specific product page or a store page featuring that product.

These ads feature only 1 product and take you to a specific product page or a store page featuring that product. For sponsored brand videos you just need to upload a video asset. A best practice is to have text or subtitles in the video since the video ads are on mute by default. Note: Sponsored Brand Video ads do NOT currently support ad groups.

All of these ads will let you target keywords, categories, and individual products. With sponsored brand ads you will need creative assets with specific dimension requirements. For the creative, you need an image of your logo, your brand name, and a headline. It is recommended to add a custom image to the ad to make your product more eye-catching.

Sponsored Display

Sponsored Display ads can appear on the Amazon home page, product detail pages, search result pages, and third-party websites
Sponsored Display ads can appear on the Amazon home page, product detail pages, search result pages, and third-party websites

Sponsored Display ads can appear on the Amazon home page, product detail pages, search result pages, and third-party websites. The targeting for sponsored display allows you to optimize for reach, page visits, and conversions. You can only target specific categories and audiences on sponsored display. When you are deciding on categories, choose the ones that are most similar to the product you are advertising in this campaign. The categories include competitor ASINs and search terms related to the category you choose. You can even add subcategories where you can target specific competitors and price ranges, as well as individual competitor ASINs in the same or a separate ad group.

Sponsored Display ads are the only campaigns on Amazon that let you add audience segments. However, you’re not able to customize your audience segments like you can on Google Ads, as the categories are predetermined
Sponsored Display ads are the only campaigns on Amazon that let you add audience segments. However, you’re not able to customize your audience segments like you can on Google Ads, as the categories are predetermined

Sponsored Display ads are the only campaigns on Amazon that let you add audience segments. However, you’re not able to customize your audience segments like you can on Google Ads, as the categories are predetermined. The audience types available include in-market, interests, lifestyle, life events, page views and purchases remarketing available to add in these campaigns.

Note: Keywords can’t be targeted for sponsored display, only individual products, categories, and audiences.

By combining these different ad types effectively, your company will stay ahead of the competition on Amazon. We hope this overview of ad types will help you get started on your Amazon journey!

Tim Reed - Granular Paid Media Specialist, headshot black and white

Tim Reed

Tim Reed is a Paid Media Specialist at Granular and specializes in Google and Amazon Advertising for our brand awareness and ecommerce clients. He holds a degree in Marketing with an emphasis on Digital Marketing. He provides support for client accounts on paid search marketing, social media marketing, and Amazon advertising. His hobbies include playing Nintendo games, going on long walks, and trying different foods.