Guide
A new advertiser’s guide to Sponsored Products success
Everything a new advertiser needs to know about Sponsored Products, from eligibility to launch.
Start using Amazon Ads to display your products and create campaigns.
If you have limited experience, get in touch to request services managed by Amazon Ads. Budget minimums apply.
Create cost-per-click ads to help customers find your products on Amazon.
If you’re a new advertiser and looking for a solution to reach more customers on Amazon, Sponsored Products is a great starting point. These ads allow you to promote individual product listings to shoppers while they’re browsing and discovering items to buy on Amazon. It only takes a few minutes to create your first Sponsored Products campaign, even if you haven’t advertised before.
Ready to get started? This guide will take you through the steps needed to launch a successful first Sponsored Products campaign with Amazon Ads.
Check eligibility requirements
To advertise, you must have an active professional seller or vendor account and have products in one or more of the eligible categories. At this time, we do not support adult products, used products, refurbished products, and products in closed categories.
Your products must also be eligible for the featured offer. The featured offer is the offer displayed on a product detail page with an Add to Cart or Buy Now button. A key feature of the Amazon website is that multiple sellers can offer the same product, so you may be one of many sellers who are considered for the featured offer placement.
For additional information on how to increase your chances of winning the featured offer, check our help page here.
Please note, products and features may not be available in all marketplaces.
Define your goals
Before you create your first campaign, it’s important to know what business goals you want to accomplish through advertising. Establishing your goals up front will help you choose which products to advertise, decide how to structure your campaigns, and better analyze performance.
Common goals include:
- Increased brand or product visibility.
- Generating traffic to product detail pages.
- Improved sales performance.
To determine your goals, ask yourself if you are trying to…
- Drive sales of a new product?
- Improve sales of low performing products or clear inventory?
- Generate traffic to your product detail pages?
- Increase brand visibility?
Determine what products to advertise
To meet your goals, you want to make sure you’re advertising the right products for your brand. When deciding what to advertise, take into account product pricing and availability to ensure your ad will display. Keep in mind that if your products aren’t presenting the featured offer or are out of stock, your ad will not display.
Additionally, make sure you’re winning the featured offer at the highest rate—ideally 90% or higher. If you are a seller, you can check your featured offer rate under the ‘Reports’ tab in Seller Central. Click on ‘Business Reports,’ and under the section labeled ‘By ASIN,’ click on ‘Detail Page Sales and Traffic by Child Item’. Here, you can sort by ‘featured offer percentage’ to find your best-performing ASINs.
It’s best to look for a high featured offer percentage paired with a high number of sessions to the product detail page. These are your most frequently viewed ASINs.
Follow these guidelines when deciding what products to advertise:
- Check if your products display the featured offer. The featured offer is an automated window that appears at the top right of a product detail page above the Buy Now button.
- Price products competitively. Shoppers may be more motivated to click on your ad and ultimately make a purchase if you offer affordable prices for your products.
- Make sure your products are in stock. Your products need to be in stock to be the featured offer and eligible for advertising.
- Pick products with positive customer reviews. Advertise products that have five or more customer reviews—with a rating of 3.5 stars or higher.
Audit your product detail pages
When shoppers click your ad, they’ll be taken to your product detail page. A product detail page with detailed, high-quality information can increase your chance of making a sale. Audit your product detail page to ensure it has:
- Informative, easy-to-read titles. We recommend making titles approximately 60 characters long. Being concise helps ensure that your title won’t be truncated in your Sponsored Product campaign’s creative, which helps provide shoppers with an accurate view of what your product is.
- High-quality images. When customers browse your product detail page, images can help capture their attention and educate them about what you offer. Include four or more images showing your product from different angles, highlighting important details and features, and demonstrating how it can be used.
- Relevant and useful product information. Include at least three bullet points to give customers a clear overview of your product’s key features, such as contents, uses, dimensions, operational considerations, age rating, skill level, and country of origin.
- Detailed product description. Write an engaging short narrative that captures your product’s benefits, uses, and value proposition in detail.
- Relevant search terms. Search terms help customers find your product on the Amazon store. It’s important to add words they might use when shopping for what they want to buy. Aim to include generic words that cover key features, materials, size, and use of your product.
Understand Sponsored Products
Sponsored Products ads allow you to promote individual product listings to shoppers while they’re browsing and discovering items to buy on Amazon. Your ads may be displayed at the top of, alongside, or within shopping results and on product pages, on desktop and mobile. The ads are then shown to shoppers based on relevant keywords or products.
This solution is recommended as a good starting point not only because it’s simple to launch, but also because you can control the total amount you want to spend. Sponsored Products campaigns have no monthly or upfront fees. You bid the maximum amount that you’re willing to pay when a shopper clicks an ad for your products. The more competitive your bid, the more likely your ad is to be displayed when it matches a customer’s shopping query. Understanding adjustments to your bids and budget is key to reaching more shoppers, which can help increase sales.
Create your first campaign
Ready to create your Sponsored Products campaign? If you’re a seller, go to the “Advertising” tab in Seller Central, select “Campaign Manager,” and click “Create campaign.” If you’re a vendor, go to the Amazon Ads console, select “Register,” and choose one of the vendor account options to login. Next, click “Create campaign” and choose Sponsored Products.
When creating your campaign, follow these steps to launch:
- Pick your products
Help create demand for new items or give your bestsellers an extra lift. Group similar items and make sure they’re priced competitively enough to present the featured offer. - Give your campaign a name
Keep it straightforward, so you can find it easily later. - Set the budget you want
Just $10 a day can help you get clicks and sales. - Choose your duration
We recommend running your campaign immediately to start generating traffic. To help boost sales on Amazon year-round, set your campaign with no end date. - Select your targeting type
Pick automatic targeting to target relevant keywords and products. - Choose your bid and launch
Select how much to spend per click, and you’re ready to launch your campaign.
If you need more help with your first campaign, visit Amazon Ads Academy where you can take free courses on Sponsored Products, bidding, keywords, and more.