Running Amazon ads without understanding all eight campaign types is like managing Google Ads while ignoring everything except search campaigns. You will get some results, but you will leave a lot of revenue on the table. Here is a plain-English breakdown of every ad format available on Amazon, what each one does, and how they fit together into a real acquisition system.
TL;DR: The 8 Amazon advertising campaign types
- Sponsored Products: keyword- and product-targeted ads in search results, lowest barrier to entry
- Sponsored Brands: headline ads with logo and three products at the top of search
- Sponsored Display: on-site and off-site retargeting using Amazon's own audience data
- Amazon DSP: programmatic display and video across Amazon and third-party publishers
- Video ads: autoplay video in search results and across Amazon streaming surfaces
- Stores and Posts: free brand presence tools that anchor paid traffic and appear in competitor listings
- Coupons and deals: promotional badges that raise click-through and conversion rates in search
- Choosing by funnel stage: the framework for deciding how much budget goes to each type
1. Sponsored Products campaigns
Sponsored Products are keyword- and product-targeted ads that appear in Amazon search results and on product detail pages, and they are the default starting point for most sellers because they capture direct purchase intent.
Sponsored Products work on a cost-per-click model. You bid on keywords or on specific competing ASINs (Amazon Standard Identification Numbers), and Amazon places your product listing inside organic search results or on competitor detail pages. Because the shopper is already searching for something to buy, the conversion intent is as high as it gets in paid media.
There are two targeting modes. Automatic targeting lets Amazon's algorithm choose which searches trigger your ad, useful for early-stage keyword discovery. Manual targeting gives you keyword-level control, which is where serious optimization happens: match types (broad, phrase, exact), negative keywords, and bid adjustments by placement all behave similarly to Google Search campaigns.
Sponsored Products are the right starting point for nearly every seller because they capture direct purchase intent with the most direct path to a sale. Build a clean manual campaign structure, mine the automatic campaign for search term data, and harvest winners into tightly themed manual ad groups.
Practical takeaway: start with automatic to discover terms, then migrate your converting search terms into manual campaigns where you can bid precisely and exclude waste.
2. Sponsored Brands campaigns
Sponsored Brands place a custom headline, brand logo, and up to three products at the very top of Amazon search results, giving the brand prime visual real estate at the moment of highest buyer intent.
Sponsored Brands require Brand Registry enrollment. The format runs above organic results, and the click can go to a product detail page, a custom landing page, or your Amazon Store. There are three creative variants: the classic product collection ad, a Store spotlight that deep-links into a Store subpage, and Sponsored Brands Video (covered separately in item 5).
The strategic value of Sponsored Brands is not just traffic. Because the ad occupies the top position on the search results page, it compresses the space available to competitors. On branded keyword searches, it defends your own name. On category searches, it signals legitimacy to shoppers who are still deciding which brand to consider.
Practical takeaway: run Sponsored Brands on your highest-volume category keywords and on your own brand name. The brand-defense bid is almost always worth it because the alternative is a competitor taking that slot.
3. Sponsored Display campaigns
Sponsored Display lets sellers retarget shoppers who viewed a product or a competitor's product, both on Amazon and across other sites. Targeting uses Amazon's own purchase and browsing signals rather than a third-party pixel, which makes the audience data unusually accurate.
Sponsored Display uses Amazon's own purchase and browsing data to retarget shoppers on and off Amazon without a third-party pixel, which makes the audience signals unusually precise.
There are two main targeting options. Views remarketing targets people who viewed your product detail page or a competitor's page in the last 30 days. Purchases remarketing targets people who already bought in your category, useful for consumables and subscriptions where repeat purchase is the goal. Amazon also offers audience-based targeting, which lets you reach shoppers with specific interest signals, similar in concept to in-market audiences in Google Ads.
On the creative side, Sponsored Display ads now support lifestyle images and custom headlines alongside the default product image and star rating. Better creative raises click-through rate. This is one of the most underdeveloped levers on Amazon: most sellers run the default image and wonder why Sponsored Display underperforms.
Practical takeaway: use views remarketing to recapture shoppers who visited your listing but did not buy, and test lifestyle images against the default to improve click-through rates.
4. Amazon DSP programmatic ads
Amazon DSP is the only Amazon advertising channel that reaches shoppers who have not yet performed a search on Amazon, making it the primary tool for upper-funnel brand awareness.
Amazon DSP (Demand-Side Platform) delivers programmatic display and video ads across Amazon-owned properties (Amazon.com, IMDb, Twitch, Fire TV) and third-party publisher sites in Amazon's network. The key distinction from Sponsored ads is audience source: DSP uses Amazon's full shopping, streaming, and browsing dataset to define audiences, and it reaches people wherever they are on the web, not just when they are searching on Amazon.
DSP has historically required a managed-service minimum spend commitment to access through Amazon directly, though self-serve options are available through Amazon Advertising partners. This makes it a tool for sellers who already have profitable Sponsored ads campaigns and want to build brand awareness at scale, not a starting point for sellers figuring out basic PPC fundamentals.
DSP reporting tracks new-to-brand purchases separately from repeat purchases, which gives a cleaner read on whether upper-funnel spend is actually growing the customer base or just retargeting existing buyers.
Practical takeaway: do not start with DSP. Build a profitable Sponsored Products foundation first, then layer DSP on top to expand reach to shoppers who have never found your listing organically.
5. Video ads on Amazon
Amazon offers two distinct video ad products: Sponsored Brands Video and Amazon Streaming TV ads via DSP.
Sponsored Brands Video autoplays without sound in search results, so the product's core benefit must be visible and legible in the first few seconds of the clip.
Sponsored Brands Video appears directly in search results, inline with organic listings. It autoplays without sound. That single fact drives everything about how to produce the video: subtitles or on-screen text are not optional, they are mandatory if you want the message to land. The format is capped at 45 seconds, but the first three seconds determine whether the shopper keeps watching or scrolls past. Lead with the product in use, not a logo card.
Amazon Streaming TV ads run as non-skippable video on Fire TV, IMDb TV, and third-party streaming services accessed through Amazon. These are bought through DSP, so the same minimum spend considerations apply. The targeting uses Amazon shopping data to reach streaming viewers who are likely buyers of your category, which is a genuinely differentiated capability compared to broad-reach TV.
Practical takeaway: for Sponsored Brands Video, design every frame as if the sound is off, because for most viewers it is. Lead with the product benefit, not a branded intro.
6. Stores and Posts for brand presence
Stores and Posts are not traditional ad campaigns. They are brand presence tools, and understanding them as such changes how you use them.
An Amazon Store is a free, multi-page brand destination hosted on Amazon.com. You build it with a drag-and-drop interface, and it gets its own Amazon URL. Sponsored Brands campaigns can send traffic directly to a Store or to specific Store subpages. This matters because sending a shopper to a Store page that shows your full catalog, with no competitor products or sponsored placements from rivals, is a fundamentally different (and often higher-converting) landing experience than a product detail page.
Amazon Posts are free social-style content units that can appear on competitor product detail pages, giving brand-registered sellers organic placements in competitor listings at no cost per impression.
Amazon Posts function like an Instagram feed inside Amazon. Brand-registered sellers publish lifestyle images with product tags. Those posts appear on your own product pages, on competitor product pages in the same category, and in a dedicated brand feed. Cost per impression: zero. The reach is organic. This is one of the most underused tools in Amazon's ad suite, partly because it sits in a different section of Seller Central from the main ad console.
Practical takeaway: build a Store before you scale Sponsored Brands spend, then use Posts weekly to generate organic brand impressions across competitor listings in your category.
7. Coupons and deals as promotional levers
Coupons, Lightning Deals, and Prime Exclusive Discounts are promotional formats that generate a visible badge on your product listing in search results. The badge, not the discount itself, is the real lever.
A coupon badge (the green "Save X%" callout) signals value to price-sensitive shoppers at a glance. A Lightning Deal badge adds urgency. A Prime Exclusive Discount badge is visible only to Prime members, which is a significant share of Amazon's most active buyers. Each badge raises the click-through rate of your product in organic and paid placements, which then feeds Amazon's relevance algorithm and can improve organic rank.
The mechanism works alongside Sponsored Products: if you are running a Sponsored Products campaign and a coupon badge appears on the same listing simultaneously, you get the paid traffic and a higher conversion rate from the badge. The effective cost per acquisition drops because you are spending the same amount on clicks but converting more of them.
There are real costs to account for: coupon redemption fees are charged per redemption (not per click), and Lightning Deals require a fee to submit. Both need to be modeled against your margin before you activate them, not treated as free traffic boosters.
Practical takeaway: run coupons alongside active Sponsored Products campaigns during key sales periods to increase both click-through rate and conversion rate simultaneously, then calculate the combined cost against your target cost per acquisition before committing.
8. Choosing campaign types by funnel stage
Every Amazon ad format maps to a distinct stage of the purchase funnel. Running only one type, regardless of which one, is the most common structural mistake sellers make.
Here is the practical mapping:
- Awareness (top of funnel): Amazon DSP display and Streaming TV ads reach shoppers who have not yet searched for your product. Budget here builds the pool of future buyers.
- Consideration (mid-funnel): Sponsored Brands headline ads intercept shoppers who are actively comparing options in your category. Posts and Stores give those shoppers a richer brand experience before they decide.
- Purchase intent (bottom of funnel): Sponsored Products on high-intent keywords and ASIN targeting are where most sellers spend most of their budget, correctly. This is where conversion rates are highest.
- Retention and retargeting: Sponsored Display (views remarketing and purchase remarketing) brings back shoppers who did not convert and captures repeat purchases from existing buyers.
The mistake is spending 100% of the budget at the bottom of the funnel and then wondering why new-to-brand customer acquisition has stalled. Sponsored Products can grow only as fast as the pool of shoppers who are already searching for your product. DSP and Sponsored Brands Video grow that pool.
A rational starting allocation for a seller building from a Sponsored Products foundation: get that profitable first, then introduce Sponsored Brands on category keywords, then test Sponsored Display for retargeting. DSP and Streaming TV become relevant when you have proven unit economics and want to scale reach beyond the existing search demand.
Matching each campaign type to the right funnel stage, rather than running Sponsored Products alone, is the structural decision that separates sellers who scale profitably from those who hit a growth ceiling.
Practical takeaway: audit your current Amazon ad mix. If 100% of your spend is in Sponsored Products, you are bidding only on existing demand. Add Sponsored Brands for mid-funnel and Sponsored Display for retargeting before expanding to DSP.
Running Amazon ads at scale requires the same discipline as any paid media channel: clean structure, honest attribution, and budget allocation that matches where buyers actually are in their decision process. The eight campaign types above are not independent options to pick from. They are a system, and they work best when they are deployed together with a clear funnel logic behind the spend.
If you are managing Google Ads, Meta, or a full ecommerce paid media stack alongside Amazon and want a system that tracks across all of it, see our paid media services and our analytics and tracking work. Or book a strategy call at /contact to walk through your current campaign mix.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands?
Sponsored Products are individual product ads that appear within search results and on product detail pages, triggered by keyword or ASIN targeting. Sponsored Brands are headline-format ads that appear at the very top of search results, feature a brand logo and up to three products, and require Amazon Brand Registry enrollment. Sponsored Products capture shoppers who are ready to buy a specific product. Sponsored Brands capture shoppers who are still deciding which brand to choose.
How much should I budget for Amazon ads?
There is no universal minimum, but a meaningful test requires enough spend to generate statistically useful data. A single Sponsored Products campaign on competitive keywords needs enough daily budget to capture volume across match types before you can make optimization decisions. Start with a budget you can sustain for at least 30 days without interruption, because Amazon's algorithm takes time to learn, and pausing campaigns resets that learning. The right number depends on your category's average cost per click and your target cost per acquisition, both of which vary widely by product type.
What is Amazon DSP?
Amazon DSP (Demand-Side Platform) is Amazon's programmatic advertising system that delivers display and video ads across Amazon-owned properties and third-party publisher sites. Unlike Sponsored ads, which only reach shoppers who are actively searching on Amazon, DSP reaches audiences based on Amazon's shopping, streaming, and browsing data wherever those audiences are online. It is primarily an upper-funnel tool for building brand awareness and reaching new-to-brand shoppers before they have entered the purchase search phase.
Do Amazon ads work for new sellers?
Sponsored Products can work for new sellers, but new sellers face a structural disadvantage: Amazon's algorithm factors review count and conversion history into ad relevance scores, which affects both ad placement quality and cost per click. A new listing with few reviews will typically see higher costs and lower conversion rates than an established listing with strong review velocity. New sellers benefit most from starting with exact-match keyword targeting on a small, focused set of high-intent terms, driving initial sales to build conversion history, and treating early ad spend partly as investment in organic rank rather than purely as a cost-per-acquisition exercise.
Can I run Amazon ads without Brand Registry?
Sponsored Products and Sponsored Display are available to sellers without Brand Registry. Sponsored Brands, Amazon Stores, Posts, and Sponsored Brands Video all require Brand Registry enrollment. Brand Registry is free but requires a registered trademark, which has its own application timeline and cost. If you are planning to build a serious brand presence on Amazon, starting the trademark process early is worth doing so you are not gated out of the brand-building ad formats when you need them.
What is the difference between Sponsored Display and Amazon DSP?
Both Sponsored Display and Amazon DSP can show ads on and off Amazon, but they are built for different scales and use cases. Sponsored Display is a self-serve product available directly in Seller Central, with simpler targeting options focused on product views, purchases, and interest categories. Amazon DSP is a full programmatic platform with more sophisticated audience segmentation, cross-device tracking, and access to a broader publisher network. DSP also supports video through Streaming TV. Sponsored Display is the right retargeting tool for most sellers; DSP is the right upper-funnel tool for sellers with proven unit economics who are ready to invest in brand awareness at scale.
Should I run automatic or manual Sponsored Products campaigns?
Both, and for different purposes. Automatic campaigns let Amazon's algorithm choose which search queries trigger your ads, which is the fastest way to discover what shoppers are actually searching for when they find your product. Manual campaigns let you bid precisely on specific keywords and ASINs, exclude unprofitable terms, and control placement-level bids. The standard approach is to run automatic campaigns for discovery, harvest converting search terms from the automatic campaign's search term report, and migrate those terms into manual campaigns with tighter targeting and bid control.
How do Amazon Coupons affect ad performance?
An Amazon Coupon generates a visible green badge on your product listing in search results. That badge raises click-through rate by signaling value before the shopper clicks, which means any Sponsored Products campaign running on the same listing benefits from higher traffic quality at the same cost per click. The net effect is a lower effective cost per acquisition for the period the coupon is active, assuming your margin can absorb the discount and the per-redemption coupon fee. Model the combined cost of the discount, the fee, and your ad spend against your target margin before running both simultaneously.