Sponsored Brands adverts on Amazon enable customers to rediscover brands and products on Amazon and intensify the brand message on Amazon. In order to use and place this type of advert, certain requirements must be met. Sponsored Brands are available to professional sellers who are registered in the Amazon brand register, as well as retailers, booksellers and agencies. This blog post is for all those who have not yet created a Sponsored Brand and would like to know what Sponsored Brands actually are and what the basics are.
In preparation for adding Sponsored Brands, you should have a business registration, an Amazon Seller Central (ASC) account, a registered brand and an Amazon Store. In addition, Sponsored Brands ads are only available in Europe (DE / ES / FR / IT / NL / UK), North America (CA / MX / US), South America (BR), Middle East (KSA / UAE) and Asia-Pacific (AU I IN / JP). By following these step-by-step instructions, nothing should stand in the way of creating Sponsored Brands adverts.
What are sponsored brands?
Sponsored Brands are personalised ads on Amazon that redirect customers directly to a landing page or a store on Amazon and thus arouse customer interest in a brand. The adverts broadcast on Amazon are placed in highly visible positions, which not only raises awareness of the brand, but also ensures that it is taken into account. The customisable ads appear in Amazon’s shopping results and can increase awareness of the brand and product portfolio.
Sponsored Brands ads include the brand logo, a customised headline and up to three products, as shown in the ‘Example: Amazon Sponsored Brands ad’ diagram. These ads are displayed in multiple areas, including placement above search results and regardless of whether they are viewed on desktop or mobile devices. When an Amazon shopper clicks on the brand logo, they are redirected to a store or a simple landing page. Amazon merchants also have the option of directing shoppers to a customised landing page. When a shopper clicks on a product, they are taken to the product detail page.
These are cost-per-click adverts. A payment is therefore only due when an Amazon buyer clicks on a placed advert. The level of expenditure can also be controlled by setting the budget and a per-click bid.
Instructions for Sponsored Brands adverts
Creating a Sponsored Brands advert starts with logging into the Amazon FBA account and clicking on the ‘Advertising’ menu tab and ‘Manage campaign’. A new campaign is then created by clicking on ‘Create campaign’. Three campaign types are then available in the next step:
- Sponsored Products: This is a cost-per-click advertising solution that can be used to create adverts for products, which are then placed in highly visible positions on Amazon.
- Sponsored Brands: This is discussed in more detail in this article.
- Sponsored Displays: This can be used to reach relevant target groups who are browsing on and off Amazon.
Click on ‘Next’ under Sponsored Brands to display the form for creating the campaign.
Create a Sponsored Brands campaign
The first field contains the campaign name. This is only visible to you. A name is selected here that allows the campaign to be identified at a later date. This is followed by the advert period which, if no end date is selected, will run continuously. A longer period can provide better insights into the search term and keyword performance in order to further optimise the campaign. The budget is set in the next field. Here you have the option of setting a daily budget or a budget over the previously selected duration. Most campaigns with a budget over €15.00 are run throughout the day. You should therefore consider using the recommended budget to minimise the risk of running out of budget for the campaign. Finally, the brand for managing the campaign is defined.
Sponsored Brands - Select ad format
The advert formats are templates for creating an advert for corresponding products to be advertised. A distinction is made between the following formats:
- Product collection: Several products are advertised here with images that direct traffic to product detail pages. It is possible to create a new landing page or use the Amazon Store (including subpages). In addition, at least 2 products must be available on the landing page at all times, otherwise the campaign will be paused.
- Store Spotlight: Here the advert redirects to a store and its subpages. The landing page here is your own Amazon Store / Amazon Shop.
- Video: This can be used to reach relevant target groups who surf on and off Amazon.
In our case, the ‘Product collection’ option is selected as there is a store and at least 2 products. A decision must then be made as to which landing page should be referred to (homepage / product page / other subpages).
Sponsored Brands advertising material
The brand image, brand name, headline and three products to appear in the advert can now be selected for the advertising media. Up to 50 characters can be used for the headline. There is also an advert preview, which shows how and where the advert will appear once the campaign has started. In the ad preview, you can choose between ‘product detail page’ and ‘at the top of the search results’ and then display it for mobile or desktop.
Sponsored Brands Alignment
The next step is to define the orientation of the display.
Amazon requires you to choose between the following two options, which are explained in the following paragraph:
- Keyword targeting
- Product targeting
Sponsored Brands - Keyword targeting
Keyword targeting ensures that products appear in buyers’ searches. This strategy is used when the search terms that customers use to search for similar products are known. The keywords for which the advert is to be broadcast should be chosen carefully. In addition, the match types ‘broadly’, ‘word group’ and ‘exact match’ can be used to specifically set the search queries for which the advert is to be displayed.
- Broad: Includes all keywords in any order, including plurals, variants and related keywords.
- Phrase: Includes the exact group of words or sequence of keywords.
- Exact: Matches the keyword or sequence of keywords exactly.
Sponsored Brands – Negative Keywords
In the next step, there is the option of entering negative keywords that prevent adverts from being displayed if a buyer enters the search terms for the stored negative keywords. In this way, irrelevant searches can be excluded and advertising costs reduced.
Sponsored Brands - Product alignment
The product alignment ensures that only relevant products are displayed to the buyer, as categories, products, brands or features related to their own product are selected. It is possible to define categories or individual products that are similar to your own item or to select suggested orientations.
Sponsored Brands - Negative product targeting
With negative product targeting, brands and individual products can be excluded that prevent adverts from being displayed when a buyer enters the stored brands or products in the search. In this way, as with negative keywords, irrelevant searches can be excluded and advertising costs reduced.
Send for verification
Before the whole thing is sent to Amazon for review, the Sponsored Brands ad can also be saved as a draft if optimisations are still planned before completion. Otherwise, the ready-made Sponsored Brands campaign is sent to Amazon with a final click on ‘Send for review’. You then have to wait (max. 72 hours) until Amazon approves the campaign and the adverts are automatically activated.
Conclusion
Sponsored Brands are an excellent way to reach customers with high purchase intent on Amazon and they also promote brand and product awareness. With just a few clicks, you can create an immersive brand shopping experience by linking the Sponsored Brands campaign to the store to engage shoppers in an immersive environment centred around your brand. Costs are only incurred when the customer clicks on an advert. The level of expenditure and the costs per click can be determined flexibly and independently. Sponsored Brands therefore give professional retailers a clear advantage on Amazon, as the brand is displayed at the top in visible areas for specific search terms or product searches.
