2026-06-10 · 7 min read
Amazon Sponsored Brands Campaign Setup Guide 2026
How to set up Sponsored Brands campaigns in 2026, including the underused video format, bid strategy, match types, and headline A/B testing.
What Are Sponsored Brands?
Sponsored Brands are banner-style ads that appear at the top of Amazon search results pages, above the organic listings and above Sponsored Products ads. Where a Sponsored Products ad looks like a standard product listing, a Sponsored Brands ad occupies a prominent header position with your brand logo, a custom headline, and up to three products displayed side by side. Shoppers see it before they scroll to any individual product.
The key practical difference from Sponsored Products is intent. A Sponsored Products click sends a shopper to a single product detail page. A Sponsored Brands click can send them to your Store, a custom landing page, or a product collection page. You control where they land, which means you can introduce your full catalog to a shopper who searched for one item.
To run Sponsored Brands campaigns, you must be enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry. Brand Registry requires a registered trademark in the relevant marketplace. If you are not enrolled, Sponsored Brands is not available to you regardless of your seller account standing.
The Three Sponsored Brands Ad Formats
Product Collection is the classic Sponsored Brands format. You select a brand logo, write a headline (up to 50 characters), and choose three products to feature. The ad links to your Amazon Store or to a custom landing page built within the Store builder. Product Collection works well for driving awareness across a range of related products, or for featuring your top three ASINs in a category where you want to dominate the search impression.
Store Spotlight features three sub-pages from your Amazon Store rather than three individual products. Each tile in the ad links to a different Store page, such as a category, a collection, or a seasonal shop. Store Spotlight is useful for brands with broad catalogs where a single product selection undersells the range. The requirement is that your Store must have at least three published sub-pages before this format is available.
Video is the most underused Sponsored Brands format, and in 2026 it is also the one that tends to deliver the strongest performance per dollar spent. The video ad appears in the middle of search results (not just the top) and auto-plays without sound when it enters the viewport. According to Amazon internal data shared with third-party agencies, Sponsored Brands video campaigns generate CPCs that are roughly 50 percent lower than Sponsored Products ads targeting the same keywords. Lower competition plus a larger ad footprint makes this format worth testing before any other Sponsored Brands format if you have the creative assets.
How to Set Up a Sponsored Brands Video Campaign
In Seller Central, go to Advertising, then Campaign Manager, then Create campaign, and select Sponsored Brands. Choose "Video" as the ad format. You will be prompted to upload a video file. Amazon's technical requirements: the video must be between 6 and 45 seconds long, in MP4 or MOV format, with a minimum resolution of 1280x720 pixels. Amazon recommends 16:9 aspect ratio. The file size limit is 500 MB.
The video plays without sound by default, so your first few seconds need to communicate product and brand visually without relying on audio. Add burned-in text or captions if your video includes spoken information. Shoppers who tap to unmute are already engaged, but you cannot count on that tap happening.
One restriction that catches sellers off guard: the video ad does not allow a white or near-white background. Amazon's policy requires visual contrast between the product and the background. A standard product photography white-background video will be rejected at moderation. Shoot your video against a lifestyle, gradient, or branded background. This is also a creative advantage: a lifestyle shot in motion stands out considerably more against the static product grid of search results than another white-background image would.
After uploading the video, you select one ASIN to feature and write a brand name display (shown below the video). The ad links directly to that ASIN's product detail page, not to a Store. Set your targeting to keywords or product targeting, set your bids, and submit. Moderation typically takes 24 to 72 hours for video ads.
Bid Strategy: vCPM vs CPC
Sponsored Brands offers two bid types. Cost-per-click (CPC) is the default and the most commonly used. You pay only when a shopper clicks your ad. For product collection and Store Spotlight formats, CPC bidding is straightforward: set a bid, monitor ACoS, and adjust.
vCPM (viewable cost per thousand impressions) is available for Sponsored Brands video campaigns. You pay based on impressions rather than clicks. vCPM makes sense when your goal is brand awareness and you want to maximize exposure at a controlled cost per thousand views. If your product category has high awareness but low click-through rates from video (common in commodity categories), vCPM can be more efficient than CPC because you are buying reach rather than paying a premium for the clicks you do get.
For most sellers starting with Sponsored Brands video, CPC is the safer default. It ties spend directly to traffic and makes ACoS easy to calculate. Test vCPM once you have baseline CPC performance data and can compare the cost per unit sold across both bid types.
Keyword Match Types for Sponsored Brands
Sponsored Brands supports broad, phrase, and exact match. The strategy differs from Sponsored Products because Sponsored Brands ads target brand awareness and catalog discovery, not just conversion on a single ASIN.
Broad match captures the widest set of related search terms. Use it for top-of-funnel awareness campaigns where you want maximum reach and are willing to accept some irrelevant traffic in exchange for discovery. Monitor the Search Term Report weekly and add irrelevant terms as negative keywords.
Exact match is the efficiency tier. Use it for your highest-converting keywords once you have identified them from broad and phrase match data. Exact match reduces wasted spend and gives you clean data on which specific terms drive sales when shoppers see your brand banner ad.
A common Sponsored Brands structure that works well: one campaign with broad match at a moderate bid for discovery, and a separate campaign with exact match on your proven top terms at a higher bid for efficiency. Run both simultaneously and let the broad match campaign feed keyword research into the exact match campaign over time.
Headline A/B Testing in Sponsored Brands
Amazon's native A/B testing for Sponsored Brands (called "Manage Your Experiments" in the advertising console) lets you test two headline variations against each other on the same campaign. You split traffic between the two headlines automatically and Amazon reports which version generates more clicks and conversions over the test period.
The minimum test duration is four weeks. Amazon recommends running tests for long enough to accumulate statistical significance, typically 500 or more clicks per variation. For low-traffic campaigns, this means tests can run for two to three months before the data is meaningful.
Headlines worth testing: benefit-led vs feature-led copy, question-format vs statement-format, brand-name-first vs category-first. One consistent finding across seller reports is that headlines referencing a specific customer benefit (e.g., "Ships Same Day" or "Fits All Standard Sizes") outperform generic brand slogans in click-through rate. The shopper is in purchase mode. Headlines that answer "why this brand" beat headlines that simply say the brand name.
Before running any Sponsored Brands campaign, run a full listing audit on the ASINs you plan to feature. A Sponsored Brands ad that drives traffic to a listing with image issues, missing bullet points, or poor reviews will spend budget without converting. Fix the listing first, then invest in the top-of-page impression.