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How to Get Started with Amazon Sponsored Brands PPC Ads – 2025 Guide

Want to really stand out on Amazon’s marketplace? Here’s how to use Sponsored Brand ads to carve out valuable eCommerce real estate.

 

  • November 6, 2025
  • /
  • CANOPY Management
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Last Updated: November 2025

Want to really stand out on Amazon’s marketplace? Here’s how to use Sponsored Brand ads to carve out valuable eCommerce real estate.

It’s no longer a question of “do Amazon ads work?”

Yes, they absolutely do work.

That’s why a primary focus of Canopy Management’s Amazon and Walmart marketing agency is helping sellers navigate the world of Amazon advertising.

Amazon pay per click advertising has quickly become one of the largest “levers” available to ecommerce sellers. For businesses looking to sell niche products on Amazon, it can be a challenging task to stand out in a sea of competition.

There’s a big learning curve.

This post – the second of a three-part series including Amazon Sponsored Products, and Sponsored Display – is designed to allow Amazon sellers to digest this crucial facet of ecommerce marketing in smaller, bite-sized chunks.

Why Brand Recognition Matters More Than Ever

Sponsored Brands ads build brand recognition by displaying your logo, headline, and multiple products at the top of search results—positioning your entire brand, not just individual products, in front of high-intent shoppers.

In today’s hyper-competitive Amazon ecosystem, brand recognition is your competitive moat. While individual product ads can drive immediate sales, Sponsored Brands ads are your primary tool for building the brand equity that creates long-term customer relationships and sustainable business growth.

Brand Recognition: With millions of sellers on Amazon, customers are overwhelmed with choices. Without strong brand recognition, your products become commoditized, leading to price wars and eroding profit margins. Sponsored Brands ads solve this by putting your brand front and center.

Customer Lifetime Value: Sponsored Brands ads don’t just drive one-time purchases—they create brand-loyal customers who return to buy from you repeatedly. Branded shoppers commonly have higher lifetime values and lower acquisition costs over time based on established customer behavior patterns.

Premium Positioning: Unlike product ads that compete primarily on price and features, Sponsored Brands allow you to communicate your unique value proposition, brand story, and quality differentiators. This positions your products as premium choices rather than commodity alternatives.

Cross-Product Discovery: When customers connect with your brand through Sponsored Brands ads, they’re more likely to explore your entire product catalog. This cross-selling effect can dramatically increase average order values and overall revenue per customer.

Ready to Start Growing Your Amazon Brand?

Canopy’s Partners Achieve an Average 84% Profit Increase!

Find out more

The Expanding Amazon Marketplace in 2025

Amazon now hosts millions of sellers worldwide (with hundreds of thousands actively selling), and hundreds of new sellers join daily. This creates both opportunity—more traffic per active seller in many categories—and competition requiring strategic brand differentiation.

At the same time, Amazon is doing everything in its power to make sure that brands (of all sizes) carefully align their brand with Amazon’s well-cultivated marketplace.

Amazon has a substantial share of the market, but they’re not satisfied with that. They’re constantly looking for ways to increase their footprint.

Key 2025 Market Position:

New Market Expansion: As of May 2025, Amazon Ireland (Amazon.ie) now supports Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Brand Stores, opening new opportunities in Western Europe.

That’s why it’s become increasingly important to find a way to set yourself apart.

Amazon Brand Registry: Your Essential First Step

Amazon Brand Registry is a free program that verifies your trademark ownership and unlocks Sponsored Brands advertising, custom Brand Stores, A+ Content, and enhanced brand protection tools. You must enroll before running any Sponsored Brands campaigns.

Establishing ways that brands can creatively establish their brand voice and unique value proposition is front-and-center for Amazon right now.

Amazon Brand Registry is a crucial starting point for sellers looking to level up their ecommerce business. Once you’ve done that, it’s time to take the next step and look at how a specific Amazon Sponsored Ad type can help you to carve out valuable real estate on Amazon’s marketplace.

For many Amazon sellers, their online business really starts to take off when they begin to implement Sponsored Brand Ads.

Brand Registry Benefits in 2025:

downtown city scene with a lot of very bright advertising lights

What Are Amazon Sponsored Brand Ads?

Amazon Sponsored Brand ads are cost-per-click advertisements that feature your brand logo, custom headline, and multiple products (minimum of one). Unlike Sponsored Products that promote individual listings, Sponsored Brands promote your entire brand and require Amazon Brand Registry enrollment.

Sponsored Brand ads appear at the top of search results and on product detail pages on both desktop and mobile, helping drive brand discovery among customers shopping for similar products. You can direct shoppers to your Amazon Store, a new landing page, or a custom URL.

We recently wrote about getting started with Amazon Sponsored Products ads. If you’re just beginning your Amazon advertising journey, that previous post is a perfect place to start. This post will take you through the next Amazon advertising campaign type: Amazon Sponsored Brand.

Much like a Sponsored Product Ad, a Sponsored Brand Ad is cost-per-click, and may target keywords, categories, and/or products.

What’s New in 2025:

The assets that Sponsored Brands allow you to create are customizable, may feature product and lifestyle images, as well as video.

Who Can Use Amazon Sponsored Brands?

Amazon Sponsored Brands are available for:

New in 2025: Authors in India, Mexico, Netherlands, and Japan can now run Sponsored Brands campaigns.

Important Note: Brand Registry enrollment is mandatory for most Sponsored Brands features, as it verifies your brand ownership and unlocks advanced advertising capabilities.

What Products Are NOT Eligible for Amazon Sponsored Brands

At this time, the following products cannot be advertised with Sponsored Brands:

For a full list of permitted and prohibited categories, review the creative acceptance policies for Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Products.

2025 Update: Amazon has improved its image compliance reporting system, providing more detailed guidance on why creatives might be rejected, helping sellers avoid listing suppression.

Ready to Start Growing Your Amazon Brand?

Canopy’s Partners Achieve an Average 84% Profit Increase!

Find out more

How Do New-to-Brand Metrics Help Acquire Customers?

New-to-Brand (NTB) audience targeting lets you boost bids specifically for shoppers who haven’t bought from your brand in the past 12 months, making customer acquisition more efficient and measurable. Advertisers who increased their bids by 100%+ for NTB audiences commonly see substantially more new customer orders—often double or more compared to those using conservative adjustments.

Revolutionary 2025 Feature: Amazon introduced New-to-Brand audience targeting for Sponsored Brands campaigns in May 2025, transforming how brands approach customer acquisition.

Why New-to-Brand Matters

Sponsored Brand ads drive brand discovery with shoppers and help you reach new customers. Because driving first-time purchases can often cost more than driving repeat purchases, you’ll want to know what percentage of sales are coming from these efforts.

ACoS or ROAS alone do not clearly measure the impact of Sponsored Brands in growing your brand audience.

How It Works

With new-to-brand metrics, Amazon sellers can:

Using new-to-brand metrics to supplement advertising cost of sales (ACoS) or return on ad spend (ROAS) will tell you whether or not your “discovery” campaigns are working.

Applying NTB in Campaign Setup

When setting up your acquisition campaign, apply percentage-based bid adjustments for New-to-Brand audiences. For example, increasing bids by 100% means you’ll pay up to double your base bid when targeting first-time customers.

This strategic investment in customer acquisition often pays off: brands using aggressive NTB bid adjustments typically see substantially higher new customer order rates compared to those using conservative or no adjustments.

Choose Product Collection for versatile multi-product promotion with lifestyle imagery, Store Spotlight to drive traffic to your custom Brand Store, or Sponsored Brands Video for high-engagement auto-playing content in search results. Video commonly shows higher engagement rates than static ads across most categories.

There are three different Amazon Sponsored Brands ad creative formats: Product Collection, Store Spotlight, and Sponsored Brands Video.

Image courtesy of Amazon

1. Product Collection

Amazon’s product collection format allows you to promote multiple products from a landing page or lifestyle images of your choice. This is where you can show (and tell) browsing Amazon customers your story with ads that feature rich custom images.

You can use custom images that represent your brand or lifestyle imagery to help prospective customers better understand your product. After selecting your product collection, next you’ll select a landing page and a minimum of one product to feature in your creative.

2025 Enhancement: Amazon now automatically displays promotional CTAs (call-to-action) with deals and messaging when you’re running promotions.

Canopy Pro Tip: 

For you KDP Authors out there, Sponsored Brands helps you put your personal brand front and center. Your ads’ landing page takes shoppers into a virtual bookstore and enables a browsing and decision-making experience with features like highlighted books, reviews, summary, and other metadata about the ASIN.

Image courtesy of Amazon

2. Store Spotlight

For an Amazon seller with brand registry, Amazon Stores allow merchants to set up an online storefront for their brands for free. By using custom layouts and pre-made templates, sellers can quickly create a website-within-a-website to spotlight your brand (and creativity).

Now that you’ve put the time into developing your brand Store, take it to the next level with Store Spotlight. Sponsored Brands now allow you to feature your Store to make it much easier for a satisfied customer to make buying from your brand a habit.

Requirements and Features:

New in 2025: Amazon has added AI-powered headline suggestions to Store Spotlight campaigns. These suggestions are generated based on your advertised products and follow Amazon’s ad policy guidelines, helping you build customized creatives more quickly while improving creative approval rates.

Image courtesy of Amazon

3. Amazon Sponsored Brand Video

Video is a scroll stopper—Amazon has rolled out Sponsored Brands video, a new ad format that displays auto-playing video in shopping results.

Video Ad Specifications:

Major 2025 Updates:

Important: Sponsored Brands video has its own ad placement and auction. This means running a Sponsored Brands video won’t compete against your other sponsored ads.

Canopy Pro Tip: 

Canopy Management’s Creative Services team just won (again) two gold AVA video awards for its work on our partners’ Amazon advertising campaigns. As a full-service Amazon Management Agency, Canopy has an extensive Amazon Creative Services department that includes full listing optimization, Amazon research and copy optimization, Amazon posts, as well as cutting edge photography and video.  If you’re looking for a head start, reach out to the Creative Services team to find out more!

Ready to Start Growing Your Amazon Brand?

Canopy’s Partners Achieve an Average 84% Profit Increase!

Find out more

Advanced Campaign Goals and Cost Controls

Amazon’s AI-powered campaign goals automatically adjust bids to help you meet specific objectives within your desired budget—choose from maximizing brand visibility, acquiring new customers, or driving Brand Store engagement based on your primary business objective.

Revolutionary 2025 Feature: Amazon introduced sophisticated campaign goals and AI-powered cost controls that represent a fundamental shift in how Sponsored Brands campaigns are managed.

Three Strategic Campaign Goals

1. Grow Brand Impression Share

2. Acquire New Customers

3. Drive Page Visits

Cost Control Features

Smart Bidding: Define your success metric for each goal in terms of a target cost. The system automatically adjusts bids to help you meet objectives at or below your target cost.

Budget Management: Set maximum costs over a 7-day rolling average, eliminating the need to calculate individual bids for each target.

Optimizing for Customer Acquisition

For brands focused on growing their customer base, the “Acquire New Customers” campaign goal combined with New-to-Brand bid adjustments creates a powerful acquisition engine.

In our work with brands managing substantial advertising budgets, we’ve observed that strategic customer acquisition campaigns—even when operating at higher ACoS—generate long-term value through repeat purchases that traditional ACoS calculations miss entirely.

The key: measuring customer lifetime value (LTV) alongside first-purchase ACoS to understand true acquisition economics.

AI-Powered Features for 2025

Amazon has integrated artificial intelligence throughout the Sponsored Brands experience, making campaign management more efficient while improving performance across the board.

Automated Optimization

Smart Bidding: AI adjusts bids based on performance data and campaign goals, automatically optimizing for your specified objectives.

Budget Sharing: Unspent campaign budgets automatically reallocate within portfolios, ensuring maximum utilization of your advertising spend.

Placement Optimization: Ads automatically appear in the most effective locations based on performance data and conversion likelihood.

Creative Intelligence

Headline Suggestions: AI generates policy-compliant headlines based on your products, reducing creative approval time and improving compliance rates.

Image Optimization: Automated suggestions for better-performing creative assets based on category benchmarks and engagement data.

Video Builder: Ready-to-use customizable templates for video creation, making professional video ads accessible to all advertisers.

Audience Intelligence

Enhanced Targeting: AI tools are increasingly used for listing optimization and targeting strategy development across seller operations.

Behavioral Analysis: AI identifies and targets high-value customer segments based on browsing and purchase behavior patterns.

Cross-Device Optimization: Campaigns automatically adjust for desktop, mobile, and tablet performance, ensuring optimal delivery across all devices.

How to Launch Your First Sponsored Brands Campaign

Getting started is streamlined in 2025. Here’s the step-by-step process:

Step 1: Campaign Setup

  1. Navigate to Amazon Advertising Console
  2. Select “Create Campaign” > “Sponsored Brands”
  3. Choose your campaign goal (Brand Impression Share, Acquire New Customers, or Drive Page Visits)
  4. Set campaign duration and daily budget

Step 2: Creative Development

  1. Select your ad format (Product Collection, Store Spotlight, or Video)
  2. Upload your brand logo and create headline
  3. Choose products to feature (minimum of one, maximum varies by format)
  4. Select landing page (Brand Store, product page, or custom URL)

Step 3: Targeting Strategy

Choose targeting method:

Apply bid adjustments for New-to-Brand audiences (if using customer acquisition goal)

Set keyword bids or use Amazon’s suggested bids

Step 4: Launch and Optimization

  1. Review all settings and creative assets
  2. Submit for review (typically approved within 72 hours)
  3. Monitor performance and adjust bids, budgets, and targeting as needed

New in 2025: Enhanced creative editing allows you to update video creatives in live campaigns without losing historical performance data.

Creative Optimization and Video Best Practices

Static Creative Best Practices

High-Quality Images: Use lifestyle imagery that tells your brand story and demonstrates product usage in context.

Clear Value Proposition: Highlight what makes your brand unique and why customers should choose you over competitors.

Promotional Messaging: Include valid offers visible on product detail pages to drive click-through and conversion.

Brand Consistency: Maintain consistent visual identity across all ads to build recognition and trust.

Video Creative Excellence

Technical Specifications:

Content Strategy:

2025 Video Features:

Performance Analytics: Detailed video engagement metrics available

How Canopy Management Can Help

Amazon has been at the forefront of the eCommerce world for over two decades, providing a platform for millions of businesses to sell their products. With the rise of eCommerce, Amazon has become the go-to destination for shoppers across the world, making it a valuable advertising platform for businesses looking to reach new customers.

Back in the early days of Amazon, Amazon PPC was just one way of launching a product. Now it’s almost impossible to find success without it. Yes, there are some that do, but they’re the exception, not the rule.

The 2025 Reality: With AI integration, enhanced targeting options, and increasingly sophisticated campaign goals, Amazon advertising has become more complex but also more powerful. Professional management is more valuable than ever.

That’s why experienced Amazon sellers reach out to the team at Canopy Management. Our expert Amazon Creative Services, PPC and DSP pros are a big part of why Canopy partners show an 84% average profit increase.

Want to be part of the Canopy Tribe? Find out more.

Canopy Management delivers end-to-end eCommerce growth, leading the industry in Amazon marketplace strategy while powering expansion through Shopify, Meta, and Google. Our full-funnel approach — from marketplace optimization to customer acquisition — has generated over $3.3 billion in partner revenue and made us the trusted growth engine for brands worldwide.

Our Comprehensive Services:

Thinking About Hiring an Amazon Management Agency?

Canopy’s Partners Achieve an Average 84% Profit Increase!

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Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the difference between Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Products?

Sponsored Products focus on individual product listings and are best for driving immediate sales. They don’t require Brand Registry and appear more subtly in search results.

Sponsored Brands promote your brand as a whole, featuring your logo, headline, and multiple products. They require Brand Registry, appear more prominently at the top of search results, and are better for building brand awareness and customer acquisition.

The key strategic difference: Sponsored Products optimize for individual product sales, while Sponsored Brands optimize for brand recognition and customer lifetime value.

Do I need Amazon Brand Registry to run Sponsored Brands?

Yes, Amazon Brand Registry is required for most Sponsored Brands features. Brand Registry verifies your brand ownership and unlocks advanced advertising capabilities, including Store creation, enhanced analytics, and all Sponsored Brands ad formats.

The enrollment process requires a registered trademark for your brand. Once enrolled, you gain access to tools that can significantly improve your Amazon business beyond just advertising.

How much should I budget for Sponsored Brands campaigns?

Start with 20-30% of your total advertising budget allocated to Sponsored Brands, with the remainder going to Sponsored Products.

New brands should focus more heavily on Sponsored Brands for customer acquisition, potentially allocating 40-50% of budget to brand campaigns. Established brands can balance between acquisition (Sponsored Brands) and conversion (Sponsored Products) based on business priorities.

Budget allocation should align with your growth stage and strategic objectives—acquisition-focused brands need more Sponsored Brands investment than brands optimizing existing customer bases.

What’s the difference between the three campaign goals?

Grow Brand Impression Share: Maximizes visibility and is measured by clicks and views. Best for launching new brands or entering new categories where awareness is the primary objective.

Acquire New Customers: Focuses on first-time buyers and uses New-to-Brand targeting. Best for growth-stage brands building their customer base with measurable acquisition metrics.

Drive Page Visits: Encourages Brand Store engagement and builds consideration. Best for brands with well-developed Stores looking to deepen customer engagement and cross-sell.

Choose based on your primary objective: awareness, acquisition, or engagement. Many successful brands run separate campaigns for each goal simultaneously.

How do New-to-Brand bid adjustments work?

New-to-Brand targeting allows you to increase bids specifically for shoppers who haven’t purchased from your brand in the past 12 months. You apply percentage-based bid increases (e.g., +50%, +100%, +150%) for this audience segment.

For example, if your base bid is $1.00 and you set a 100% NTB adjustment, you’ll bid up to $2.00 for first-time customers while maintaining $1.00 bids for existing customers.

Advertisers using higher bid adjustments (100%+) for NTB audiences typically see improved new customer acquisition rates, though at higher initial ACoS. The long-term value of these customers often justifies the acquisition investment.

Should I use automatic or manual targeting for Sponsored Brands?

For new brands: Start with automatic targeting to discover high-performing keywords, then gradually move to manual campaigns for better control as you gather performance data over 2-4 weeks.

For established brands: Use a mix of both, with automatic campaigns for discovery and manual campaigns for precise control over your most important keywords.

Many successful advertisers maintain both campaign types indefinitely—automatic for continuous keyword discovery and manual for optimization of proven performers.

How long should my Sponsored Brands videos be?

Optimal length: 15-30 seconds for maximum engagement

Amazon allows: 6-45 seconds

Best practice: Keep videos concise while effectively demonstrating your product’s key benefits and brand story. Attention spans are short, especially on mobile devices where most Amazon shopping occurs.

Front-load your most compelling content in the first 5 seconds to capture attention before viewers scroll past.

Can I edit my ads after they’re live?

2025 Update: Yes! You can now edit video creatives in live campaigns without losing historical performance data—a significant improvement over previous restrictions.

For static ads, you can modify headlines, images, and product selections, though changes require re-approval. Budget, bids, and targeting can be adjusted at any time without re-approval.

This flexibility allows for continuous optimization without sacrificing accumulated performance data and learning.

What’s the typical performance timeline for Sponsored Brands?

Week 1-2: Initial data collection and optimization as Amazon’s algorithm learns from early performance signals.

Week 3-4: Performance stabilization and meaningful insights emerge, allowing for confident optimization decisions.

Month 2-3: Full optimization potential and reliable performance trends become clear.

Allow at least 30-45 days for comprehensive campaign optimization before making major strategic changes. Patient optimization typically outperforms reactive adjustments based on limited data.

How do I measure Sponsored Brands success beyond ACoS?

Key metrics to track for comprehensive performance assessment:

New-to-Brand Orders: First-time customer acquisitions—the primary measure of brand growth

Brand Search Volume: Increases in branded keyword searches indicating growing brand awareness

Store Page Views: Traffic to your Brand Store and engagement with your full catalog

Video Engagement: View rates and click-through rates for video ads showing creative effectiveness

Impression Share: Your visibility compared to competitors in target categories

Customer Lifetime Value: Long-term value of customers acquired through brand campaigns

ACoS tells you campaign efficiency, but these metrics tell you if you’re actually building a sustainable brand.

Can Sponsored Brands help with organic rankings?

Yes. Sponsored Brands campaigns contribute to organic performance by:

Increasing overall sales velocity across your catalog, which is a primary ranking factor in Amazon’s algorithm.

Building brand awareness and recognition that drives direct navigation and branded search traffic.

Driving traffic to your Brand Store where customers discover your full product range and make additional purchases.

Improving branded search volume which creates a compounding effect as more customers specifically search for your brand.

Enhancing customer lifetime value through brand-loyal customers who return for repeat purchases.

The combination of paid brand advertising and improved organic performance creates a powerful growth flywheel for your Amazon business—brand advertising isn’t an expense, it’s an investment in long-term organic visibility.

What’s the biggest mistake brands make with Sponsored Brands?

Common mistakes include:

No clear campaign goal: Running campaigns without specific objectives makes optimization impossible and wastes budget.

Poor creative quality: Using low-resolution images or weak headlines undermines the premium positioning Sponsored Brands should provide.

Ignoring New-to-Brand metrics: Focusing only on ACoS instead of customer acquisition misses the entire point of brand advertising.

Inadequate budgets: Setting budgets too low to gather meaningful data prevents the algorithm from optimizing effectively.

No video content: Missing the engagement benefits of video advertising leaves performance on the table in a video-first marketplace.

Treating Sponsored Brands like Sponsored Products: Brand campaigns require different strategies, metrics, and patience than product campaigns.

The biggest strategic mistake: expecting immediate profitability from customer acquisition campaigns rather than measuring long-term customer value. Sponsored Brands is an investment in brand building, not just a sales driver.

Ready to Start Growing Your Amazon Brand? Canopy’s Partners Achieve an Average 84% Profit Increase!

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